Nice Menus: Basic Info for Newbies

If this instruction: "# Configure the Nice Menus block(s) at Administer -> Site building -> Blocks (admin/build/block), setting the source menu and menu style, etc." leaves you wondering what exactly the cetera are in the etc., then this may be helpful.

0) As instructed above, install and enable the Nice Menu module, then set the number of nice menus you want.

1) Create a Menu in the usual way. The entries in it should have children. (Not much point in using Nice menus for very simple menus)

For example, you create a menu called ANIMALS. You add 3 menu items: Fish, Mammals, and Reptiles. Then, you add "children" entries, such as piranha and goldfish under Fish, cat and dog under Mammals, and snake and terrapin under Reptiles. Finally, add a few grandchildren: rattler and coral under snake. It will have an outline format like this:

ANIMALS
- Fish
-- piranha
-- goldfish
- Mammals
-- cat
-- dog
- Reptiles
-- snake
--- rattler
--- coral
-- terrapin

2) Go to admin/build/block and select CONFIGURE for one of your Nice Menus.

3) You can give it a Block title, if you wish. This will show up on your site. If you do not want a block title to display, type <NONE> (include the less than and greater than symbols) in the title box.

4) You can change the name Nice Menu 1 to something more useful to you, such as ANIMALS

5) Select SOURCE MENU from a list of the menus you have already created.

6) Pick the MENU STYLE. If you put your menus in the sidebars, pick RIGHT or LEFT, depending on which sidebar you're going to use. If you want your Nice Menu at the top of the page, a DOWN menu is probably most useful. Your main entries (Fish, Mammal, Reptiles) will show up horizontally, while your specific animals will appear in the drop-down sections. If you have "grandchildren" entries, they will appear when the mouse hovers over their parent.

7) Set User Visibility, Role access and page limitations, as usual.

8) Save the Block

9) Back at admin/build/block, find your Nice Menu (or whatever you've named it) in the list of DISABLED menus and pick a region for it (Header, Footer, Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar). Pick a priority for it.

10) Click on SAVE BLOCKS

You should see your Nice Menu with the very nice Drop-Down menus on your site.