Menu Loads properly, but operates slowly

Poster: ScottN
Dated: Tuesday July 5 2005 - 18:24:56 BST

Example: http://www.complexprocess.com/milonic/m ... /test.html

My implementation of the menu is lagging when users move the mouse over the different items. This is particularly evident under Main 2 > Header 1. In the example, it's not that bad, but my actual implementation is much worse in the lag department. It seems the lag is proportional to the total amount of menu text. I have determined the following things:

-It lags in IE 6.0 (I've tested on multiple machines)
-It does not lag in Firefox
-If I turn off the background image, the lag goes away. However, the image is only 1kb and the menu loads quickly, so it's not a download problem.
-If I set the offbgcolor to a color instead of transparent, the lag goes away. (but this changes the look)

It seems that the combination of a transparent menu item background and a menu background image causes IE to lag.

Again, in the actual menu (which I can't show for work-related reasons) the effect is much worse, but it still shows in this example if you move the mouse across the main items quickly or along the items in the Main 2 > Header 1 menu

Anyone have any idea what's happening.

Poster: Ruth
Dated: Wednesday July 6 2005 - 5:33:13 BST

I posted to get someone to look at this. I'm getting the same thing in IE5.5. I'm not sure about this, but I think you need to get rid of that period you have in the paths for the images. I don't know that that will do anything but, I know I've seen a number of posts about not putting in periods like that, just beginning it with / [But, paths are my downfall ]
Ruth

Poster: Andy
Dated: Wednesday July 6 2005 - 12:00:24 BST

Hi,

The problem is the image.

The is very small and this means that it's having to be redrawn many times, thus slowing the browser down due to increased CPU usage.

What I suggest is make the menubgimage larger so that it's not redrawn as many times. Although the image will be larger in size the menu will work better.

Hope this helps,
Andy

Poster: ScottN
Dated: Wednesday July 6 2005 - 15:32:35 BST

Thanks Andy, that did it. I'm so used to following conventional wisdom (use the smallest graphic possible to save bandwidth) that I didn't think of that.