Are you a great web designer? Do you yearn to create the coolest graphical user
interfaces on the planet? Do you ever look at some sites' navigational bars, scratch your
head, and wonder how they achieved their special effects? I'll let you in on a little
secret. Come a little closer to your screen [Steve looks to the left and right, and then
leans in a little closer]. They use Immedia's ActionBars!
Listen, I'm a big believer in content before design, but providing your content
is sound, there's nothing wrong with adding a coolness factor to it with neat graphics.
The problem is if you don't have the right tools, your end result may not look or work the
same way in all browsers. Cross-platform design is an on-going challenge as browsers
continue to evolve. And then you have to address which technique or tool you will use to
build the bar.
If your browser supports Java, here is an example of an ActionBar (if your browser does
not support Java, get with the program soldier).
Pretty cool, right? Take a guess how long it took me to design it? Nope. About 30
seconds to pick the style, add the URLs, and then export, cut and paste the Java code into
FrontPage 98. Oh, yes. It also took me another 10 seconds to upload a few Java files to my
web server. So I lied, it took me 45 seconds to do this.
Not only do I defy you to achieve the same results in so short a time, but I defy you
to create as flexible a navigational bar as this one with another technology or package.
ActionBar is unique in many ways. First, it works with more
browsers than even the most basic JavaScript. Second, it is one of the only Java products
to work correctly on Mac browsers. Third, and most importantly, it is very easy
to create bars, and lastly, it is extremely fast to create to them.
ActionBars is compatible with Netscape and Internet Explorer browser
back to versions 3.01. Talk about being all-inclusive. Buttons can work in five states and
can include sounds. ActionBars do not use image files for graphics; they are all built
on-the-fly within the ActionBar engine. This means two things to the web developer: speed
and no security issues with firewalls.
ActionBars may use Java, but its interface hides it from you entirely.
You build your bars simply by picking options from tabbed screens and drop down menus.
Real-time previews appear on screen within your browser. When you are ready to publish it
to your web page, you merely export the HTML code and import it into your HTML editor.
After transferring a few files to your web server, the bar works like magic. And it looks
great.
We also found Immedia to be very responsive to our questions. So you
know that when you buy ActionBars, you are not
only getting a great product but great support, too.
