I have been using Squirrelmail since the late 1990s and while it works and is dependable - the interface is still stuck in the 1990s. A year or so ago I looked at another webmail project: RoundCube Webmail but it was quire ready for primetime. The developers just released a new version which looks promising. If you are in need of a webmail solution - give it a shot.

There have been two great menu and navigation techniques I have used over the last few years:

1. Sliding Doors of CSS
2. Sons of Suckerfish (for drop down menus)

I have used both of these techniques on several web sites, but crazily not together…until a week ago when a client decided they wanted to move away from their antiquated menus that relied on hundreds of lines of javascript, HTML tables, and over 40 image files (for seven tabs). This technique works in IE 6, IE 7, Firefox, and Safari.

After I had put the code into place I thought it might be helpful for others to see exactly how it is done. These techniques give you a lot of flexibility with very lightweight code.

Code/Files Needed

1. Two tab images (left and right, with both an active and hover (highligted) option
2. Sub-menu arrow (not required)
3. Sons of Suckerfish javascript
4. CSS for both the drop downs and the sliding doors techniques
5. Menu list code (your menu items)

Two tab images
The sliding door technique is great because you do not need to make tab specific images, nor do you need to worry about the tab length - it is all taken care of by two images and some CSS. For … [more]

I have not spent a lot of time on the Adobe web site since the Adobe/Macromedia meld. I have to say - after just spending 10 minutes on the Adobe web site (buying Photoshop CS3), I am very disappointed with their layout and their implementation of the layout. There were numerous spots where the menus did not load for several seconds (longer than other web sites), text was cut off, and during page load - elements were just really ugly. Yes - this happens sometimes, but I expected a lot more from Adobe. On top of this, the font looks horrible and like something that would have been ok on Windows but not on a Mac and not from the type king Adobe. My Adobe experience was very disappointing.

An example of the cut off, ugly text in the store (look at “Sign In” and “Welcome”):