Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to place a link from my website to www.likno.com in order for my menu to work?

No, this is not required. AllWebMenus is CLEAN of any hidden links! This "strategy" is applied by most of our competitors for boosting their own page rank, which consequently makes yours drop (or can even get your website penalized)!

We use clean javascript, optimized for each browser separately, which does not affect negatively your website ranking.

I have a v1.x, v2.x, v3.x version of AllWebMenus. How do I upgrade my installation to take advantage of the new features, the improved script and the different menu generation process of version 4.x?

The following instructions involve upgrades from v1.x versions to v4.x. They are not required for upgrades from v2.0 or v3.x to v4.x.

1. Download the latest distribution and install it over the older one.

2. Open your *.awm file (eg: menu.awm) and compile it as menu.js (note: the name is an example, you can use any other name you like at the Compile Properties).

3. Link the compiled menu.js file to your web pages only if your menu-linking code is of older version. See new format at the "HTML menu-linking section" help item.

4. Upload the following elements to your web site:

- the menu.js file

- the awmdata directory

- all web pages processed in step 3 and therefore contain a link to the compiled menu (which should be a few lines of code).

Note that the old awmData or awmdata-menu folders found at v1.x or v3.x respectively are now replaced by the awmdata folder.

Also the awmmenupath.gif file is now obsolete (v4.2+ only).

Important note on the "Link" property for .awm files created with version 1.2 or earlier:

The older versions created a menu entity (i.e. the awmData subdirectory) in every directory where the pages were located. Therefore, there was no actual difference between "document-relative" links and "menu-relative" links in the URL property (eg: "../info.html")

The new version creates a single compiled menu for all pages, regardless of where these pages are located inside the site's directory structure. Therefore, all relative links are now related to the directory where the compiled menu is located. In that manner, the old "../info.html" value may not link to the proper page now and it may have to be changed to "info.html" (or whatever needed).

Obviously, you will not need to do any changes if you have been using absolute paths inside the URL property (eg: http://www.likno.com).

See more info on the <Link> property here

My menu works fine when viewed locally but does not appear when viewed on the server. What have I done wrong?

You have forgotten to upload the associated awmdata directory (and its contents) along with the compiled menu or you have uploaded them in the wrong directory.

Click here to read more about this procedure

How can I optimize my menu design to get the best possible menu-building speed?

Click here to read important notes on the Performance Optimization

Can I use HTML tags inside the Items and Titles?

Yes, you can use any HTML tag you like inside the <Item Text>, <Header Text> or <Footer Text> properties. This is very useful when you want to break the text into several lines. As the menu in our web site shows, the "Frequently Asked Questions" item is broken into three lines by assigning the value "Frequently Asked Questions" to the Item Name property.

Can a menu item link to a paragraph within a web page?

Yes, just enter http://www.my-domain.com/info.html#anchor in the <Link> property of the items and the menu can be used to navigate inside the info.html web page.

Can I associate one of the menu Items (eg. CONTACT US) with my email program such as Microsoft Outlook?

You can add "mailto:login@domain.com" to the URL property of your Menu Item:

I have two different menus for different html pages. How do I properly use the different compiled menus and their associated awmdata directories?

Let's assume the following file structure:

c:\mysite\pageA.html

c:\mysite\pageB.html

c:\mysite\pageC.html

c:\mysite\pageD.html

(the  c:\mysite directory is the root of the site)

and the following designed menus:

menu1.awm   (to be used by pageA and pageB)

menu2.awm   (to be used by pageC and pageD)

1. We compile menu1.awm into the menu1.js file.

This action creates the following elements into the c:\mysite\ folder:

-the menu1.js file

-the awmdata directory which contains the javascript libraries and all images used by menu1 (if any)

2. We compile menu2.awm into the menu2.js file.

This action creates the following elements into the c:\mysite\ folder:

-the menu2.js file

-the awmdata directory which contains the javascript libraries and all images used by menu2 (if any)

(be careful not to use same image names in both menus, as the one image will be copied above the other one inside the awmdata folder).

3. We link the menu1.js file to pageA and pageB

4. We link the menu2.js file to pageC and pageD

5. We upload the following elements to the root of our web site:

-the menu1.js file

-the menu2.js file

-the awmdata directory

-the pageA.html file

-the pageB.html file

-the pageC.html file

-the pageD.html file

6. This completes the process for all menus and pages.

Note: The awmmenupath.gif file is now obsolete (v4.2+ only).