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> Website: Design > menu operation

Menu Operation

The menus are presented as static tables but each menu can be visualized as a conventional single row menu where all drop down submenus are presented permanently and simultaneously.

Unlike conventional menus, each menu table can be fully navigated from just the top row of the table so that the menu frame can be kept to a minimum size and thereby leave the most space for the main frame. This is the default configuration and most of the time is probably the most useful.

Alternatively, enlarging the menu frame to display the full table, clearly gives an overview of many more options and permits navigation with half the number of clicks needed to get to the same menu option as are needed when using only the top row of the table. Expanding the menu frame is particularly useful at the beginning of a first visit to the site in order to give an overview of the site contents.

The menus load quickly because they are all part of a single document which is actually loaded only once as you begin your visit to the site. A consequence of having the menu tables as a single document is that said document forms a site map which can readily be searched for a particular element.

• Whether an item is in normal or italic text determines into which frame the associated subject matter will be loaded. If an item is in italics the page associated will be loaded into the left frame otherwise the page will be loaded into the main frame.
• The number of entries in the submenu of any entry appears in brackets after the entry. If this bracketed number is clicked the current menu is replaced by the said submenu and neither of the other frames[1] is changed.
• Where a menu item loads a page into the left frame and also possesses a submenu, the page can be loaded into the main frame instead of the left frame in a two step procedure. Firstly, the submenu is shown by clicking on the bracketed number. Secondly the page is loaded by clicking on the item close to the left of the submenu which has the same title as that which identified the submenu in the preceding menu.
• The submenu title just described is identified by a lighter backgroud in the submenu itself and in accordance with the first bullet point above is not shown in italics. It is also preceded by (s) which if clicked causes the page associated with the item title to be loaded into the left frame just as it would have been had the italic title in the higher level menu been clicked directly.
• In the conventional manner, clicking on a > character at the left end of a menu replaces the menu with a higher level menu. Retracing of some menu navigation can also be achieved by using the browsers "back" button or context menu entry.
• If the browser window is too narrow to display all of a menu the left or right ends of the menu can be show by clicking on the » or « symbols respectively.
• The menu item "Reload" which appears on the second row of the top-level menu should be used with caution as it reloads the whole frameset with its default proportions and this causes most browsers to lose the trace of any browsing that has been performed thus far.

More features and better context sensitivity could be provided by menus implemented thru scripts embedded or called from within the main webpages but in the pursuit of robustness, simplicity and standardization no scripts are used on this website. Nevertheless, we hope that you will find the menus quite convenient and powerful.

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