The program has a special feature which is called Navigation Bars (NavBars for short). It enables you to insert bars that have buttons into your web pages. The buttons can be graphic or text (or characters). The main purpose of NavBars is links that connect buttons with other parts of your web site. NavBars can be Horizontal or Vertical. They make it very easy for a viewer to navigate, and the program places them automatically in your web site. NavBars can be placed on any page of the site. You can also put them in Headers or Footers of your pages. If you place a NavBar in a Header or a Footer of a page, the program will automatically replicate it and place on all pages of your web site.
To create and insert a NavBar, click on the Navigation Bar icon . You can also
select Insert > Navigation Bar. The NavBar Properties dialog box
will open up.
If the Type tab is not open, click on the Type tab to select it. Check the To Other Pages radio button in the Navigation section. This will create NavBars where links from each NavBar button go to other pages of your site.
In the Style section, check the Home and first level pages. This will insert NavBars on the pages. The NavBars will have enough buttons to include links to the Home page (from each page) and to every page of the first level. First level web pages are all the pages directly below (or children to) the Home page in your Logical Layout.
The program enables you to insert NavBars that can be alphanumeric text or graphic Images. Text NavBars are a simple type. They will have names of your web pages as text only. Each name is a link to a corresponding page. The Image type NavBars are more interesting. Each NavBar button can be an image or a picture. Check the Image checkbox to insert graphic Navbars into your web pages. The program includes a library of NavBars that has hundreds of graphic images specially made for NavBars. In case you did not install this library during installation, the program provides you with a few NavBar images to work with.
In the Orientation section, check the Horizontal check box. You can set NavBars to appear Horizontally or Vertically on your web pages.
Click on the Baseline checkbox in the Alignment section. This will align the NavBar base line with that of a text next to it.
Click on the Style folder tab.
Here you can set more detailed attributes for your NavBar buttons.
Groups of web pages listed in the window on the right have checkboxes. Use this window to assign different settings
to each group of web pages. For example, all First level web pages can have a certain font and color. Or you can select all
groups in the list and apply your settings globally to all of them. If you wish
so, you can create NavBars that will be consistent on all pages. Make sure checkboxes for all the web page groups listed are checked.
To make it interesting, assign a different color or image to the button that links to the home page. To do this, use the Shift key and click on every group name in the list to select all groups except the one that says Home Page button.
Click on the Font button. In the Font dialog box, choose a font style, size and color for your font. The font will be used for a text of a button label. These labels will be placed on each button of the NavBar. You can choose from any of the fonts installed on your PC. For example, choose Times Roman, click on Bold, and select size 10.
Click on the rectangular button next to the Image. You can choose from many button images. If you have installed the image library during your installation, you should have many groups of pre-designed colorful buttons to choose from.
Click on Wide Rectangular Buttons from the pull down menu. Select one of the buttons you like. These buttons will be placed one next to another in your NavBar. If you had selected a Vertical NavBar, these buttons would have been placed vertically one above another. Each button will be a link to another page. Click OK.
The buttons with text labels will be placed in the sample window of the dialog box. If you do not like the text size, click on the Font button and change the font size. Remember, some of your link names can be longer than one word. They are the names of the web pages you set in your Logical Layout. Be careful not to make these labels too big.
The program places a text label right in the center of each button. You can change position of labels with respect to each button. In the Font section of the dialog box, the two pull down menus give you options to position a button label text on or around buttons.
Now click on the Home Page button group in the list to select it. Make sure that the check box is also checked. Select only this group from the list.
Click on the Font button and select Arial for this button. Click on the Image button and choose another image for the Home page button.
The Spacing option enables you to move buttons closer to each other or push them farther apart. Enter zero for spacing if you want the buttons to have no space in between.
Click OK. The NavBar you created will be placed in your web page.
You can insert NavBars in a Header or a Footer of your web pages. When you insert a NavBar in a Header or a Footer, it will be inserted into all pages of your web site.
If you want to insert a NavBar in a Header or a Footer, you must ensure that the preferences settings are set
properly. If the settings of the program preferences are not set to insert Headers/Footers by default,
you must manually insert a header or a footer in your page. To do this, place your mouse
on a page you want to insert a header or a footer in and click on the Insert Footer icon .
The Header/Footer dialog box opens up. Change the settings to insert a
Header or a Footer, and click OK.
A Header or a Footer containing a NavBar is placed on the page. You can always double click on a NavBar
to change its design.
To give more style to a NavBar, you may add more items to it. These could be other graphic images such as logos, pictures, animated GIFs, or other objects. You can place them at the front or at the end of your NavBar. Simply create or import an image and insert it in a Footer or a Header where your NavBar is.
Here are some examples of NavBars you can create:
Now that you have inserted NavBars throughout your web site, you can see the program has inserted links into the pages. Click on the Site Manager tab at the bottom of the window. Click on the Navigate Layout tab. Make sure the Refresh button on the Navigate Layout Toolbar is depressed. The program displays the graphical picture of your entire site. This is a bird's eye view. You can zoom in and zoom out the picture to see certain parts of the site in more detail. As you can see, the arrows between pages indicate links between them. These are the links of the NavBars you inserted.