Page: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Citadel-Frames.html
CSS: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Citadel-Frames.css
javascript: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Mouseover-Frames.js & http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Menu.js

On the above page, I have the main menu on the left side. Clicking on any item in the main menu unhides the appropriate submenu on the right side. So far, so good (except in Opera). However, there's currently no way for visitors to tell which item out of the main menu they clicked on. And worse, once they click on an item from one of the submenus, they're taken to a new page which starts over with just the main menu displayed.

To improve the navigation, I'd like to do the following:

1) Once a user has clicked on an item from the main menu, I would like it to stay 'selected' (that is, showing the onmouseover version of the graphic) until another item on the main menu is clicked. I would also like to alter the pointer for that item to a standard arrow rather than the hand indicating a link.

2a) Once a user has clicked on an item from the currently active sub menu, which will load the index page of the chosen section, I would like that currently active sub menu to start off unhidden as the new page loads.

2b) As with the selected item from the main menu, I would like the selected item from the currently active sub menu to stay 'selected' (that is, showing the onmouseover version of the graphic) until another item on the main menu or the currently active sub menu is clicked. I would also like to alter the pointer for that item to a standard arrow rather than the hand indicating a link.

I have no idea if any of this is possible, however. 2a I could perhaps see solving with some sort of window.onload function that checks which section of the site a page belongs to (each submenu item corresponds to a folder), to determine if it should start out with a submenu loaded or not? I am not sure how I would go about checking that, however.

You will need to use some code to detect the pagename/folder using document.location or document.location.pathname and act on the return values.

Simple stuff server side but a bit more complex client-side

Would using PHP be a better option than using javascript?

absolutely

Thanks.

Would you suggest using just php, letting it take over the hide/unhide part too, or combining it with javascript?

it depends really, If the top level of your navigation is purely cosmetic and only there to open the menu, then do that client side. When a link is clicked then take over server side. To keep the menu collapse client side it's simply a matter of writing a variable value into the javascript. that way you can keep the cript external and set the values in the page

Sounds complex, at least to my novice ears.

I'll post and ask for some advice in the php forum, though, to see if I can get started at least.