Want to add a different skin type - combo of topnav and side

[doc_guy]

I’m hitting a wall, and am hoping some of you can help me think through it. I want to create a target that is a combination of side nav and top nav.


The way I want it to work is that I have a top nav that uses a smaller version of a menu; you would use it to pick something like product. It might need two menu levels, but I’d be satisfied right now with just one.

Then the side nav uses the sidenav output that Flare generates. This is superior to the menu proxy in that the sidenav menu lets you (1) see the entire menu structure and (2) Lets you collapse menus.

The menu proxy CAN show the entire menu, but as far as I can tell, it won’t let you collapse the structure at all, so you’re always stuck with the FULL menu open (and doesn’t scroll the menu to keep your current position in the menu in view), OR if you use the default proxy settings, it will show you the current topic with its parent topic and sibling topics and child topics. (These are configurable, but I can’t figure out why you would not show these?)

So I want the default side nav menu because it gives me the context of the whole document. (This has been a customer complaint with our menu proxy; customers feel lost because they can’t see the topic in context of the whole “book”.) But I want to stick another menu at the top using Flare’s default TopNav settings. I could load a jquery to insert a menu at the top of the page, but it’s not ideal for a couple of reasons (different links would be needed for different targets; not everyone on my team is confident editing jquery files, maintenance difficulties, single-sourcing difficulties, etc.)

Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to be clear about what I’m trying to do so maybe somebody can help me think through my options. Thanks.

[Psider]

I wonder if this method to add links to the header would work with a menu proxy?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30865

While it uses scripting, the script itself shouldn't need to be updated.

<div id="header-links">
[menu proxy goes here]
</div>

[jimgilliam]

MadCap really needs to catch up to the "new world" with allowing the accordion menu to be positioned anywhere the author wants it. Or at least give instructions about how to use the menu proxy as an accordion. It's like they want to keep things "secret" but still call themselves "open architecture" and it's not.... or at least it isn't very helpful when you want to do something like that.