Making a menu sing graphically

[brianj]

Drop-down menus can be customized to fit your needs perfectly. You can go way beyond what the default look and feel of a drop-down menu like udm4.

Here is an example of a nicely done customization:
www.botanicgardens.org

If you have any questions on how to customize your menu to fit your existing branding or maybe you want some plain ol' good graphic design advise... post it here... I've been doing graphic design professionally for over 12 years, I started with Photoshop 2 and I'll be moderating this section!

[am0463]

Well I currently am just trying to get the hang of photoshop, which I'm having troubles doing, and was wondering if you had any especially good tutorials I could try.

[brianj]

I don't know of any tutorials off the top of my head. Why don't you ask me some specific questions and I'd be happy to help out.

[kebtek]

Being a graphics noob, I'm often just struggling with the terminology. Bevel, shadows, something called belzier or something like that. Maybe just an overview of terminology would be good for people like me.

For example, I see lots of sites that use a "button" type of look and feel, but have no idea how to make decent buttons. Could that be done? And can you make a drop down menu as buttons?

[am0463]

I'll ask you a few questions next week, my computer crashed about 2 weeks ago, so I lost my photoshop program. That and my computer's c drive apparently has no room so I have to delete music and pictures. Anyways I'll get back to you soon.

[brianj]

Give this link a shot: http://www.graphicdesigndictionary.com It's not just for Photoshop, but it's looks to be pretty thorough.

What version of Photoshop are you using? I can give you some hints on creating a nice button.

And yes, you can do graphics for the drop-down menu buttons. But first, let me know what Photoshop version you are using and we'll go from there!

[am0463]

I will be using photoshop cs3, is that the version you are looking for or does it get more specific than that?

[brianj]

am0463, cs3 is perfect... I think I have a good idea. Find a button on the web you want to create... any button and I'll tell you how to make it... step by step. Just get me the URL.

[kebtek]

I can't seem to find an example online of what I'm looking for, but I've always wondered how to make a "bubble" looking button. I'll see if I can show you what I mean.

[brianj]

How about the 'Post Reply' button in this forum?? That is kindof 'bubble' like