DHTML Menus

The acronym DHTML stands for dynamic hypertext markup language. More importantly though, DHTML refers to a fairly new method of varying the way the same web page is displayed to different people. By building their websites in DHTML, developers can design a more animated site and one that returns certain results based on set criteria such as the time of day, previous pages viewed or the geographic location of the visitors.

Although DHTML is a relatively new language, there are already several products available to website designers, which can assist them in easily inserting DHTML menus in their web pages. A large number of these products don't even require the user to know DHTML. They typically employ a collapsible or expandable list of options that allow the developer to drag and drop menu items into their websites.

Even though the DHTML menu builders are easy to use, they provide professional looking results. Therefore, they can be used by developers when designing a site that gets a lot of exposure, such as a company's website. DHTML is supported by both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, as long as the user has versions four and above installed on their computers.

Older Browsers

The fact that DHTML is not supported by some of the older web browsers is probably the only problem developers have with it. Especially when you consider that a site that is designed in DHTML will also need to be designed in HTML, just so users with older browsers will be able to view it. Since most developers don't want to maintain two versions of the same site, many of them tend to shy away from building their sites with DHTML.