Use lists for navigation

While the technique of slicing up a graphic with a range of states and presenting the results in a table was all the rage a while back, its time has passed. Consider changing your table-based navigation to a CSS-based one that uses unordered lists for navigation items and CSS background graphics for the imagery and different states.

CSS-based navigation can handle horizontal or vertical menus. Add a little JavaScript and you can incorporate multiple dropdown levels. There are a lot of examples on the web, but if you'd rather not hand-code them, there are tools that output web standard code as well, like WebAssist's CSS Menu Writer.

As with overall layouts, CSS-based navigation designs are more lightweight, maneuverable and accessible than their table-based counterparts. Make the change—you'll be glad you did.

For more information on using unordered lists to create navigation, see:

• Taming Lists by Mark Newhouse
• Sliding Doors of CSS by Douglas Bowman
• CSS Sprites: Image Slicing's Kiss of Death by Dave Shea