Menu Tips
We at Co-Dependents Anonymous, Inc. (CoDA) have been working for some time to get our website to a point that people can find the information that they need. The first try was not successful! We have been trying to find the combination that works well with at least three groups of users: the newcomer, members and twelfth steppers. Each of these have a level of need and experience with the internet.
We've arranged the main menu into five parts: CoDA Home, Contact Us, Newcomer, Members, Twelfth Steppers & sitemap. The three middle selections will contain items applicable to each level. Newcomers need access to certain documents. Members need access to even more documents and twelve steppers may need access to all documents.
To make this flexibility possible, a menu has to be used. With menus, come grouping capabilities. With grouping capabilities come impressions of hiding documents. CoDA desires to make all documents in the public area of the website viewable to everybody with the lest amount of "guessing" where they are, but there is a need for grouping because of the many documents on our website.
As we look at the menu system and its workings, first lets look at the guidelines.
One main menu for most of the documents
Where certain documents are stored in their own folder, create a separate menu for them to keep down the long list.
When opening certain text documents, PDFs, HTMs and others open them in a new window so that they can be copied or printed without having to do special sections of text and/or print commands.
Always provide a link back to the home page. If menu is more than the first level down from the main menu, provide a link back to its own home and subsequent homes back to the main home page.
Always provide the English | Spanish | Chinese links on the pages that contain a menu.
Use of Menu
When a menu opens, it may look something like the one below:
The Menu heading is linked to this document and gives some tips for using the menu.
The menu groups items:
Menu groups are highlighted by a different color text.
The "+" indicates that there are submenu items. To see these menu items, just click on the item and it will expand. Click again and it will close.
When you see a "-", it indicates that the menu has already been expanded. Select the item you desire and it will open. If you click on the item with the "-" in front of it, that menu will close.
Sometimes you will see an item in smaller print with a "(N/A)" behind the text. This indicates a placeholder for a future item that is Not Available yet.
When you hover your mouse over any item it will turn red, letting you know that it is ready to take action, either to open/close or to open up the related document. Menu items will turn a pinkish red. Submenu items will turn a green color.
When you see a "~" after an item, it let's you know that this will open a submenu.
You can expand all menu groups or just the one that you are working in at the time.
For most people, the menu will "remember" its state when you close it and open it back up the next time with the same menu groups opened or closed as you left them.
Don't be afraid to click on an item! If you go somewhere you do not want to go, click on the back arrow on your browser and you are back. Or, you can expand CoDA Home and click on the exposed menu item of CoDA Home to go back to the main page of the site.