Creating a Navigation Bar BackBar

The Button & NavBar Tool lets you create multi-button navigation bars
for web pages. You can also create a BackBar, which is a design that appears behind the buttons. Exporting the buttons also exports the BackBar.

To create a BackBar:

You can create the BackBar either when you create the buttons or separately. Use the method you prefer.

Creating the BackBar when you create the buttons:

(This is our recommended way of creating a BackBar.)

1. Create the BackBar object(s) in the regular way.

2. The BackBar is created from the rear-most object. If you want to use several objects in the BackBar design, you must group
them - see Grouping objects. If necessary, move the BackBar object or group behind the button design - see Moving objects backwards and forwards.

3. Select the BackBar object or group and the button design - see Selecting navigation bar objects.

4. Open the NavBar Properties dialog box by clicking New on the NavBar Tool Infobar
. (General information on this dialog box.)

5. In this dialog box select Make BackBar from backmost object.

6. Click Create. This creates the buttons and stretches the BackBar object or group to match the size of the navigation bar.

The BackBar object or group moves to a special layer called BackBar and has the name BackBarN (where N is a number). You can see this name in the Name Gallery.

Creating the BackBar separately:

You can also create the BackBar after creating the navigation bar.

1. Create the BackBar object(s) in the regular way (see Note). Using this method you do not need to group the object(s) or move them to the back.

2. Select the BackBar object(s) - see Selecting navigation bar objects.

3. Open the NavBar Properties dialog box by clicking Bar properties on the NavBar Tool Infobar
. (General information on this dialog box.)

4. Click Create BackBar. The BackBar object(s) move to a special layer called BackBar and have the name BackBarN (where N is a number). You can see this name in the Name Gallery.

Notes:

To get the positioning correct, it is usually easier to create your BackBar behind the navigation bar buttons. (Otherwise the BackBar is in front of the buttons and obscures them.) The buttons are in special layers
called MouseOff, MouseOver, MouseDown, and Selected, which are usually behind the layer you are using. You therefore need to create a new layer and move it behind the special layers.

If the BackBar is the same width as the buttons (vertical bars) or same height (horizontal bars), you could create just the ends of the BackBar which are the areas the viewer sees). We do not recommend this because of possible anti-aliasing
effects between buttons. We recommend creating a BackBar that runs the full length/height of the bar.

Movie—click below (not working in this version)

Creating Navigation Bars

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