Use jump menus to create links to documents, emails, graphics, or to any file type that can be opened in a browser.
About jump menus
A jump menu is a pop‑up menu in a document, visible to your site visitors, listing links to documents or files. You can create links to documents in your website, links to documents on other websites, e‑mail links, links to graphics, or links to any file type that can be opened in a browser.
Each option in a jump menu is associated with a URL. When users choose an option, they are redirected (“jump”) to the associated URL. Jump menus are inserted within the Jump Menu form object.
A jump menu can contain three components:
(Optional) A menu selection prompt, such as a category description for the menu items, or instructions, such as “Choose one”.
(Required) A list of linked menu items: a user selects an option and a linked document or file opens.
(Optional) A Go button.
Insert a jump menu
-
Open a document, and then place the insertion point in the Document window.
-
Do one of the following:
Select Insert > Form > Jump Menu.
In the Forms category of the Insert panel, click the Jump Menu button.
-
Complete the Insert Jump menu dialog box and click OK. Here is a partial list of options:
Plus and Minus buttons
Click Plus to insert an item; click Plus again to add another one. To delete an item, select it and click Minus.
Arrow buttons
Select an item and click the arrows to move it up or down in the list.
Text
Type the name of an unnamed item. If your menu includes a selection prompt (such as “Choose one”), type it here as the first menu item (if so, you must also choose the Select First Item After URL Change option at the bottom).
When Selected Go To URL
Browse to the target file or type its path.
Open URLs In
Specify whether to open the file in the same window or in a frame. If the frame you want to target doesn’t appear in the menu, close the Insert Jump Menu dialog box and name the frame.
Insert Go Button After Menu
Select to insert a Go button rather than a menu selection prompt.
Select First Item After URL Change
Select if you inserted a menu selection prompt (“Choose one”) as the first menu item.
Edit jump menu items
You can change the order of items in the menu or the file an item links to, and you can add, delete, or rename an item.
To change the location in which a linked file opens, or to add or change a menu selection prompt, you must apply the Jump Menu behavior from the Behaviors panel.
-
Open the Property inspector (Window > Properties) if it isn’t already open.
-
In the Document window’s Design view, click the jump menu object to select it.
-
In the Property inspector, click the List Values button.
-
Use the List Values dialog box to make your changes to the menu items, and then click OK.
Troubleshooting jump menus
After a user selects a jump menu item, there is no way to reselect that menu item if the user navigates back to that page, or if the Open URL In box specifies a frame. There are two ways to work around this problem:
Use a menu selection prompt, such as a category, or a user instruction, such as “Choose one”. The menu selection prompt is reselected automatically after each menu selection.
Use a Go button, which allows a user to revisit the currently chosen link. When you use a Go button with a jump menu, the Go button becomes the only mechanism that “jumps” the user to the URL associated with the selection in the menu. Selecting a menu item in the jump menu no longer re-directs the user automatically to another page or frame.
Select only one of these options per jump menu, in the Insert Jump Menu dialog box, because they apply to an entire jump menu.