Posted by Andy Dingley on 06/22/06 10:12

James Hutton wrote:

> I've just completed a small site (DW 8.02), and on one of the pages is a
> jump menu with about 75 links on it.

As general web design, there's a significant problem with that page in
that it's entirely dependent on JavaScript. This really isn't a good
idea, not just because of AOL.

I strongly suggest that you re-write it. A simple list is bulky, but
much more accessible to some users.

Ideally I'd suggest that you write the page as two <div>s. The upper
one contains the <select>s you have at present. The lower one is
simple lists, as <dl> or <ul>

In CSS, make the top <div> (with the <select>s) display:none; If it's
not going to work, there's no sense in taunting the poor users with it.
Make the lower <div> (lists) normally visible.

In some JavaScript on the page onload event, turn on the display of the
top <div> and turn off the display of the lower <div>. This will only
happen for users who are running JavaScript, so everyone gets the
appropriate sort of interface. You might even leave the lists visible
-- JavaScript users can always scroll down to look at them, they're not
actually harmful.

Leave the print CSS for the big list so that it always prints, even if
normally hidden (by JavaScript). This gives a much more useful page
when printed.

When making big lists of external links, it's also my practice to
duplicate the URL onto the page and to have it printed (by CSS), not
usually displayed on screen. This makes hard-copy paper records of the
page far more useful in the future.

As to the AOL problem, then you've used the JavaScript evil() function
-- sorry, eval().
You never need this -- once in a blue moon, it's that rare. It also
causes no end of trouble with browsers, particularly if one is being at
all security conscious. Just avoid it entirely, you certainly don't
need it here. Write some simple JavaScript navigation code.


PS - You've no CSS background-color set either

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