Review: ActionBars 1.2

That can be done by going into the directory where you store the program and selecting "ShartHere.html" or place an icon on your desktop linked to "BBLoader.htm" in that same directory.

That will start BarBuilder, a tool that runs in your browser. You can alter the menu until you get one you like, with reformatting and adjustments made automatically. Further, there is no guessing how the results will appear because a live preview exists either to the right (for vertical menus) or below (for horizontal menus).

All styles can be made vertical or horizontal, although some look better in one of those directions than the other. When you get the look you like, plug in the labels and links by typing them in the order you want, then hit the export button to get the HTML you need to paste into your pages. The program will also tell what files need to be put into the project directory.

Then, simply FTP all the files to have a working menu on your site.

With each of the menus you end up with a 5-state button bar: Normal, MouseOver, Pressed, Selected, SelectedOver - and notice that I did not mention creating any graphics. Those are made automatically.

There are more than 500 pre-configured bar style variations, 350 fonts from more than 50 font families, and more than 100 sound effects. Beyond that, colors can all be changed to blend with any web site. The program has its own graphics engine inside so that what you see in the preview is what you get, down to the pixel on any browser, version 3.0 or newer. Recommnendations for the MacIntosh are to use Apple's MRJ 2.1 or newer. Standard firewalls are no problem, either.

Among the types of menus available are bars, tabs, lines and balls, buttons, arrows, indicators, and text effects. There are several others, including specialty designs, such as a post and wood signs for realty sites.

There is no pre-sizing the applet. That is determined by the choices you make, but to make it smaller, for example, lower the font size or the padding between buttons or around the menu.

While submenus are not built into the program, the program allows more than one menu on a page. Therefore, submenus can easily be made in a frames setting. Simply put the main menu in one frame, opening submenus in a frame elsewhere on the page.

Another nice feature is that the program generates editable code, so that if you wish to make a minor change later, it can be done in an HTML editor.

There are no specific hardware requirements to use the program, although its recommended that PC users have 133 MHz Pentium or greater with 64 MB of RAM, and that Macs have 200 MHz PowerPC or better, with 20-25 MB allocated to the browser.

While one license costs $49.95, the pricing scheme for multiple licenses is great for web builders, with no limit on time to add URLs to your list of licensed sites.

The bottom line is that if you want to spend more of your web building time on content and graphics, the ease and speed of making menus in ActionBars 1.2 can help make that possible.