First, let me say that I am not a big fan of non-standards based Web page design. The reason there are standards out there is to make things easier for developers and browser manufacturers. But many of you tried my Standards Based DHTML Menus and found them annoying because they don't work in Internet Explorer (which claims to be a fully-compliant XHTML standards browser, but isn't).
I considered writing a new article on how to use JavaScript to build DHTML menus that work in IE, but the reality is that I hate writing JavaScript. And, I also found that there are a lot of people who've already written DHTML menu scripts that you can simply take and use on your site. So, rather than re-inventing the wheel, let me introduce you to some of your options if you want to create cross-browser DHTML menus on your site.
Netscape DevEdge Hybrid CSS-JS DHTML Menu
I like this menu system the best because it is free, and the site teaches you how it was done. So you can implement it like I did on my sample page by just copying and pasting the scripts and CSS, or you can read through the whole thing to better understand how it's done.
Even though there are other scripts available with more built-in features, I like that DevEdge is trying to teach people how to do it. Their code is clean and easy to read, unlike many of the other JS/CSS scripts I looked at for this article. Plus it's free.
HierMenus
One of the best-known menu creation sites on the Web is probably HierMenusCentral, which has been creating dynamic HTML menus for several years now. This script supports nearly every browser and OS combination imaginable, and is very flexible to support your needs across many different sites.
The only drawback that I could find to this product is that it is a licensed product - but nowhere on the site could I find a price. It is very reasonable to expect to pay for a software product as extensive and configurable as this one, but without having a sense of how much you're going to pay, I can't give it my highest rating.
HV Menu
This menu is much easier to install than the Netscape menu - and it's free, unlike HierMenus. You simply need to copy the code exactly as it's written on the site - giving them credit. I especially like that this menu allows for sub-menus or child-menus. This can result in an insane level of branches, but if that's what your site needs - then this is the script you should use.
Other Scripts
There are many scripts out there for creating DHTML Menus - I've collected a few and ranked them in my Top DHTML Menu Scripts page. If none of the three above are what you need, then look here.
