Doing it with style
A 'sliding doors' set of tabbed links with a drop line.
This one allows variable known widths (ems, pixels or percent) and has the facility to have a 'selected' tab with its drop line and 'selected' sub link.
Hovering over any other tab will drop that tabs line over the 'selected' line.
There is also an overrun area below the drop line such that if you accidentally move the mouse below the sub level links the menu will not instantly collapse.
If it weren't for IE5.5 and IE6 this menu would allow variable unknown top level links, but IE5.5 and IE6 will not play ball with z-index on list items. However if the widths are calculated in ems, as is this demo, then the menu will stay in shape with increases of font size. This menu has a fixed overall width so the menu will only accomodate a small increase before it wraps to another line.
This works in IE5.5 with hacks, IE6, IE7, Firefox and Opera. It should be ok in Safari.
15th January 2007
The comment by Mary got me thinking about this one. So I have updated it, and using a little PHP, you can now click on any of the menu links (top level or sub level) and the page will reload showing your choice as the new selected link.
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