How to Build a Drop Down Menu in Adobe InDesign

An expandable menu is a great way to collapse content that is only needed some of the time. Hiding the navigation helps the user focus on the content.

This sample article from the InDesign UX Design Patterns guide details the steps to creating a drop-down menu.

How to Build an Expandable Menu

1. On a Master page, create an MSO with an “empty” state (see the Modal Dialog in the full guide for details on this step).
2. Build the menu background and buttons inside the “active” state of the MSO.
3. Add Go to Page (or Next/Back, if you prefer) actions to each button. You may also want to add a Go to (empty) State
4. Add an action to trigger the hiding and showing of the menu. If you have a single “toggle menu” button and a two-state MSO, you can use Go to Next State
5. Apply the Master page to the pages where you want the menu to appear.

* Yes, a button can have multiple actions. 🙂

The Extra Mile

You can also create a sequenced animation within the menu state of the MSO to visually “build” the menu onto the screen.

Compatibility

in5, FXL ePub, PO.

Interactive PDF cannot be used because it does not support MSOs.

Tip: If you absolutely have to create a PDF-compatible version, you can use hide and show buttons.

The Magic Way to Create a Menu

The Menu Builder Wizard that comes with in5 makes this entire process very easy (it even adds the button actions). Check it out in the video below.