Drop Down Menu

Question

Is it possible to create a drop-down menu in InDesign using in5? I've tried several times using buttons and multi-state objects, but I can't get it to function properly.

Answer 1

If you don't need the menu items to have actions attached, then you can simply use a combo box (which in5 will support in the output as an HTML drop-down menu).

If you need menu items with actions, then I would suggest

1. Create a 2-state Multi-State Object ("open" and "closed")
2. Put buttons with actions inside the "open" state
3. In addition to having their own unique action, each button should also have a go to state "closed" action for the parent MSO.
4. Put a button on top of the MSO that covers the "closed" state and give it an action of go to next state, that way it will toggle the menu to the other of the 2 states.

Examples

• Creating a Toggle to Show/Hide Items (video demo using only Buttons)
• If you are a Lynda.com subscriber and you have access to the exercise files, the navigation menu in my Creating HTML Layouts with InDesign course works as I described above with Buttons nested in an MSO (and has nested animation).