Xtreem Software Review

My Experience

I found Xtreeme Html menu studio to be a feature rich piece a software that will alow you to create an endless amount of color designs and schemes. Decide on your own main color theme or individually pick a color for the main menu, submenus, borders, fonts, mouse over, mouse out etc. You can even have each main tab along with it’s submenus, each one with a different color to allow you to color code your main navigation or submenu topics. Other programs I’ve tried do not have this feature. A nice touch depending on the type of site you have.

You can also add a number of visual effects including roll-over, shadow effect, glow effect, partial transparency, fading and floating menu bar to name just a few. I really like the floating preview box which allowed you to place it anywhere on the screen and instantly see your changes.

Although not what I would consider a major feature, I particularly liked the ability to add sound to the hover and mouse overs. A very soft click or swish added a nice professional touch to the menu. Many of the other menu software didn’t have this feature. See the full features list below.

Now if your not the creative type Html Menu Studio gives you hundreds of beautifully designed templates to work with. I scrolled through most of the template designs and was impressed with not only how professional they looked but also the wide variety of choices you had to pick from. And if that’s not enough you can purchase their scheme designer which allows you to get even more creative with your menus. A single license purchase allows you to put menus on as many sites as you’d like.

Although DHTML Menu Studio has many features, trying to figure out how to use them all can be a bit overwhelming. The program does not have a normal indexed tutorial like you find in most programs under the help tab on the menu bar and I had to jump around quite a bit to find what I was looking for.

In Menu Studio most of the menu creation takes place within their options box under the graphical appearance tab. It was actually easier to just jump in head first and figure things out for myself and reference their tutorial if I needed to. As I started building my menu I noticed problems right away when I looked at my menu in the preview box. Some of the submenu tabs were blank and the program had added some tabs that I didn’t want. I spent the next five days trying to find a fix for the problem by going to tech support which only comes by way of a forum. Forums can be a great tool when it comes to software problems and at times can be better than the submit a ticket method, but in this case the results were disappointing. The forum help was almost nonexistent and at one point I could not get anyone to respond at all. I noticed that for almost all the questions that were posted on the forum, I only saw at the most 2 responses with many being zero. That tells me that the forum is not very active.

I had other problems also when using the premade menu templates. When downloading them to my site the bitmap graphics would be out of place and different parts of the menu would be shifted to one side or the other. Like I said earlier, the menu templates were beautiful but they didn’t do me any good since I couldn’t get them to work. And I wasn’t about to spend another 5 days waiting for an answer that would never come.

Weak Points

- Support was almost nonexistent

- Inactive Forum Support

- The software has quite a few bugs and quirks that need to be worked around

- Poorly organized interface

- Not very user friendly

Strong Points

- Lots of good features

- Ability to add sound to mouse over events

Conclusion

Although Html Menu Studio has many great features and design choices I found the program itself to be very problematic. That being said, I know there are many sites out there using this software with much success and someone who is a little more technical savvy may find this program to be a great menu building tool. The lack of technical support and the poorly structured tutorial may leave some people with their heads spinning. For someone wanting a user friendly program to quickly get a menu up and running with no headaches this is not the program for you. I did eventually work through some of the bugs to get a functional menu up and running. So for those that are able and willing to work through a few of the bugs Xtreeme can produce some very beautiful and professional looking drop down menus. The website claims that their menu builder was the first product of its kind on the market with over 9 years of experience. Having read that claim I was hoping for a more user friendly and problem free piece of software.

Software Features

Click on tabs to compare features

  • All Web
  • SoThink
  • Ultra Menu
  • Xtreem

All Web Menu Maker

$59.95
Features

  • cross-browser compatibilityDHTML Menu Studio menus will work with all popuplar browsers: Internet Explorer 6+, Netscape 6+, Opera 7+, Mozilla 1+, Safari, Firefox on all popular platforms: Windows, Unix, MacOS.

  • no need to spend tons of money on your menus You can create as many DHTML menus, for as many web sites as you like, when you purchase a single license of the program

  • XHTML 1.1 compatible code The output code generated by the program is compatible with the XHTML 1.1 standard.

  • integration with FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Adobe GoLive and NetObjects Fusion The program also comes in form of plugins for FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and GoLive (the stand-alone version of DMS also comes with a NetObjects Fusion plugin). This makes inserting menus into websites created with these applications as easy as it gets, making DHTML Menu Studio a perfect solution for beginners.

  • dynamic creation of menus with server-side script code (pro version only) Now you can insert items into the menu dynamically, from a server-side script such as ASP, PHP or ColdFusion. This is very useful if you want the menu to reflect a structure stored in a database or enable/disable items based on user's permissions. (pro only)

  • very small size of the generated JavaScript code The program creates different JavaScript files for different browsers, so that with any single browser only the necessary code will be loaded. The JavaScript code is highly optimized using an internal optimizer to further increase loading time. On top of this, the program generates only as much code as necessary -- all the functionality not selected in the options (e.g. certain effects) will not result in unnecessary code being generated. The size of the output code is usually around 12KB (depending on the selected features and target browser the size is guaranteed to be between 8KB and 21KB)

  • use cool bitmap backgrounds and even rare fonts You can use image-based backgrounds for the menu (also with roll-over effect), coming up with amazing results (the program comes with tons of such bitmap schemes created by professional artists). Since the top level menu bar items can be created in form of images, you can choose the coolest fonts and be sure that your visitors will see them the same way. You can even choose to anti-alias the top-level menu texts for an even nicer result.

  • cool javascript effects You can apply a number of visual effects to the menu (such as partial transparency, fading, roll-over, shadow, glow effect, or keeping the menu on top of the browser page at all times).

  • hundreds of predefined menu schemes come with the program Even though you can easily create your own designs, why not choose from tons of existing designs (most are bitmap-based schemes designed by professional artists) which you can also customize any way you want.

  • XML import/export The menu structure can be imported/exported in XML format.

  • search-engine friendly code There's an option that you can switch on in order to make your menus search engine friendly. In such case the whole structure (all links) can be found by search engines such as Google.

  • frameset integration Menus can be easily integrated into your existing frame-based or frameless site design. It's up to you to decide in which frame / window the menu item links will open and in which frame the popups will appear.

  • great performance with large menus Menus are built on demand so the loading time is kept as short as possible. Also, the output script is compressed to ensure fast loading time. If image-based menus are created, the images are pre-loaded to ensure smooth roll-over effects. On top of this, the user can scroll between popup menu items if a popup menu with lots of itemsdoesn't fit on the screen.

  • adding multiple menus to a single webpage You can easily include any number of horizontal / vertical DHTML drop down menus into a single web page or multiple web pages.

  • synchronization with current URL You can now have the menu track the currently visited page (it's highlighted in the menu) -- this works also for frame-based configurations.

  • integration with existing website created with any program The program can optionally create PHP / ASP / SSI / JSP / FrontPage / ColdFusion includes or use a DreamWeaver template so you can easily embed the menu into an existing website (on one or multiple pages) -- even if your web site is frame-based, you can visually click on the frames where specific menu parts will be displayed. The built-in assistant will help you go through this process.

  • customize the DHTML menu to the smallest detail Tons of options presented in a clearly categorized tree view can be used to choose every possible aspect of the menu, from with the graphical appearance and effects, to integration method with existing website and desired functionality.

  • integrated FTP upload You can have the program upload the output files automatically to an FTP server or to a local / network disk.

  • color matching You can easily match the menu colors with the color scheme of your website. If using image-based menus, you can modify the image coloring (e.g. changing a reddish scheme into a bluish one) by changing the hue/saturation/luminance settings. If not using image-based menus, you can also choose different colors for different popups creating a very nice visual effect.

  • informative and clear user interface At every moment you can preview and test the menu by using the preview window. The menu structure is also built in a visual way, just as the final menu will look.

SoThink DHTML Menu 8

$65.00
Features

  • cross-browser compatibilityDHTML Menu Studio menus will work with all popuplar browsers: Internet Explorer 6+, Netscape 6+, Opera 7+, Mozilla 1+, Safari, Firefox on all popular platforms: Windows, Unix, MacOS.

  • no need to spend tons of money on your menus You can create as many DHTML menus, for as many web sites as you like, when you purchase a single license of the program

  • XHTML 1.1 compatible code The output code generated by the program is compatible with the XHTML 1.1 standard.

  • integration with FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Adobe GoLive and NetObjects Fusion The program also comes in form of plugins for FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and GoLive (the stand-alone version of DMS also comes with a NetObjects Fusion plugin). This makes inserting menus into websites created with these applications as easy as it gets, making DHTML Menu Studio a perfect solution for beginners.

  • dynamic creation of menus with server-side script code (pro version only) Now you can insert items into the menu dynamically, from a server-side script such as ASP, PHP or ColdFusion. This is very useful if you want the menu to reflect a structure stored in a database or enable/disable items based on user's permissions. (pro only)

  • very small size of the generated JavaScript code The program creates different JavaScript files for different browsers, so that with any single browser only the necessary code will be loaded. The JavaScript code is highly optimized using an internal optimizer to further increase loading time. On top of this, the program generates only as much code as necessary -- all the functionality not selected in the options (e.g. certain effects) will not result in unnecessary code being generated. The size of the output code is usually around 12KB (depending on the selected features and target browser the size is guaranteed to be between 8KB and 21KB)

  • use cool bitmap backgrounds and even rare fonts You can use image-based backgrounds for the menu (also with roll-over effect), coming up with amazing results (the program comes with tons of such bitmap schemes created by professional artists). Since the top level menu bar items can be created in form of images, you can choose the coolest fonts and be sure that your visitors will see them the same way. You can even choose to anti-alias the top-level menu texts for an even nicer result.

  • cool javascript effects You can apply a number of visual effects to the menu (such as partial transparency, fading, roll-over, shadow, glow effect, or keeping the menu on top of the browser page at all times).

  • hundreds of predefined menu schemes come with the program Even though you can easily create your own designs, why not choose from tons of existing designs (most are bitmap-based schemes designed by professional artists) which you can also customize any way you want.

  • XML import/export The menu structure can be imported/exported in XML format.

  • search-engine friendly code There's an option that you can switch on in order to make your menus search engine friendly. In such case the whole structure (all links) can be found by search engines such as Google.

  • frameset integration Menus can be easily integrated into your existing frame-based or frameless site design. It's up to you to decide in which frame / window the menu item links will open and in which frame the popups will appear.

  • great performance with large menus Menus are built on demand so the loading time is kept as short as possible. Also, the output script is compressed to ensure fast loading time. If image-based menus are created, the images are pre-loaded to ensure smooth roll-over effects. On top of this, the user can scroll between popup menu items if a popup menu with lots of itemsdoesn't fit on the screen.

  • adding multiple menus to a single webpage You can easily include any number of horizontal / vertical DHTML drop down menus into a single web page or multiple web pages.

  • synchronization with current URL You can now have the menu track the currently visited page (it's highlighted in the menu) -- this works also for frame-based configurations.

  • integration with existing website created with any program The program can optionally create PHP / ASP / SSI / JSP / FrontPage / ColdFusion includes or use a DreamWeaver template so you can easily embed the menu into an existing website (on one or multiple pages) -- even if your web site is frame-based, you can visually click on the frames where specific menu parts will be displayed. The built-in assistant will help you go through this process.

  • customize the DHTML menu to the smallest detail Tons of options presented in a clearly categorized tree view can be used to choose every possible aspect of the menu, from with the graphical appearance and effects, to integration method with existing website and desired functionality.

  • integrated FTP upload You can have the program upload the output files automatically to an FTP server or to a local / network disk.

  • color matching You can easily match the menu colors with the color scheme of your website. If using image-based menus, you can modify the image coloring (e.g. changing a reddish scheme into a bluish one) by changing the hue/saturation/luminance settings. If not using image-based menus, you can also choose different colors for different popups creating a very nice visual effect.

  • informative and clear user interface At every moment you can preview and test the menu by using the preview window. The menu structure is also built in a visual way, just as the final menu will look.

Ultra Menu Maker

$39.95
Features

  • cross-browser compatibilityDHTML Menu Studio menus will work with all popuplar browsers: Internet Explorer 6+, Netscape 6+, Opera 7+, Mozilla 1+, Safari, Firefox on all popular platforms: Windows, Unix, MacOS.

  • no need to spend tons of money on your menus You can create as many DHTML menus, for as many web sites as you like, when you purchase a single license of the program

  • XHTML 1.1 compatible code The output code generated by the program is compatible with the XHTML 1.1 standard.

  • integration with FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Adobe GoLive and NetObjects Fusion The program also comes in form of plugins for FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and GoLive (the stand-alone version of DMS also comes with a NetObjects Fusion plugin). This makes inserting menus into websites created with these applications as easy as it gets, making DHTML Menu Studio a perfect solution for beginners.

  • dynamic creation of menus with server-side script code (pro version only) Now you can insert items into the menu dynamically, from a server-side script such as ASP, PHP or ColdFusion. This is very useful if you want the menu to reflect a structure stored in a database or enable/disable items based on user's permissions. (pro only)

  • very small size of the generated JavaScript code The program creates different JavaScript files for different browsers, so that with any single browser only the necessary code will be loaded. The JavaScript code is highly optimized using an internal optimizer to further increase loading time. On top of this, the program generates only as much code as necessary -- all the functionality not selected in the options (e.g. certain effects) will not result in unnecessary code being generated. The size of the output code is usually around 12KB (depending on the selected features and target browser the size is guaranteed to be between 8KB and 21KB)

  • use cool bitmap backgrounds and even rare fonts You can use image-based backgrounds for the menu (also with roll-over effect), coming up with amazing results (the program comes with tons of such bitmap schemes created by professional artists). Since the top level menu bar items can be created in form of images, you can choose the coolest fonts and be sure that your visitors will see them the same way. You can even choose to anti-alias the top-level menu texts for an even nicer result.

  • cool javascript effects You can apply a number of visual effects to the menu (such as partial transparency, fading, roll-over, shadow, glow effect, or keeping the menu on top of the browser page at all times).

  • hundreds of predefined menu schemes come with the program Even though you can easily create your own designs, why not choose from tons of existing designs (most are bitmap-based schemes designed by professional artists) which you can also customize any way you want.

  • XML import/export The menu structure can be imported/exported in XML format.

  • search-engine friendly code There's an option that you can switch on in order to make your menus search engine friendly. In such case the whole structure (all links) can be found by search engines such as Google.

  • frameset integration Menus can be easily integrated into your existing frame-based or frameless site design. It's up to you to decide in which frame / window the menu item links will open and in which frame the popups will appear.

  • great performance with large menus Menus are built on demand so the loading time is kept as short as possible. Also, the output script is compressed to ensure fast loading time. If image-based menus are created, the images are pre-loaded to ensure smooth roll-over effects. On top of this, the user can scroll between popup menu items if a popup menu with lots of itemsdoesn't fit on the screen.

  • adding multiple menus to a single webpage You can easily include any number of horizontal / vertical DHTML drop down menus into a single web page or multiple web pages.

  • synchronization with current URL You can now have the menu track the currently visited page (it's highlighted in the menu) -- this works also for frame-based configurations.

  • integration with existing website created with any program The program can optionally create PHP / ASP / SSI / JSP / FrontPage / ColdFusion includes or use a DreamWeaver template so you can easily embed the menu into an existing website (on one or multiple pages) -- even if your web site is frame-based, you can visually click on the frames where specific menu parts will be displayed. The built-in assistant will help you go through this process.

  • customize the DHTML menu to the smallest detail Tons of options presented in a clearly categorized tree view can be used to choose every possible aspect of the menu, from with the graphical appearance and effects, to integration method with existing website and desired functionality.

  • integrated FTP upload You can have the program upload the output files automatically to an FTP server or to a local / network disk.

  • color matching You can easily match the menu colors with the color scheme of your website. If using image-based menus, you can modify the image coloring (e.g. changing a reddish scheme into a bluish one) by changing the hue/saturation/luminance settings. If not using image-based menus, you can also choose different colors for different popups creating a very nice visual effect.

  • informative and clear user interface At every moment you can preview and test the menu by using the preview window. The menu structure is also built in a visual way, just as the final menu will look.

Xtreem DHTML Menu Studio

$49.99
Features

  • cross-browser compatibilityDHTML Menu Studio menus will work with all popuplar browsers: Internet Explorer 6+, Netscape 6+, Opera 7+, Mozilla 1+, Safari, Firefox on all popular platforms: Windows, Unix, MacOS.

  • no need to spend tons of money on your menus You can create as many DHTML menus, for as many web sites as you like, when you purchase a single license of the program

  • XHTML 1.1 compatible code The output code generated by the program is compatible with the XHTML 1.1 standard.

  • integration with FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Adobe GoLive and NetObjects Fusion The program also comes in form of plugins for FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and GoLive (the stand-alone version of DMS also comes with a NetObjects Fusion plugin). This makes inserting menus into websites created with these applications as easy as it gets, making DHTML Menu Studio a perfect solution for beginners.

  • dynamic creation of menus with server-side script code (pro version only) Now you can insert items into the menu dynamically, from a server-side script such as ASP, PHP or ColdFusion. This is very useful if you want the menu to reflect a structure stored in a database or enable/disable items based on user's permissions. (pro only)

  • very small size of the generated JavaScript code The program creates different JavaScript files for different browsers, so that with any single browser only the necessary code will be loaded. The JavaScript code is highly optimized using an internal optimizer to further increase loading time. On top of this, the program generates only as much code as necessary -- all the functionality not selected in the options (e.g. certain effects) will not result in unnecessary code being generated. The size of the output code is usually around 12KB (depending on the selected features and target browser the size is guaranteed to be between 8KB and 21KB)

  • use cool bitmap backgrounds and even rare fonts You can use image-based backgrounds for the menu (also with roll-over effect), coming up with amazing results (the program comes with tons of such bitmap schemes created by professional artists). Since the top level menu bar items can be created in form of images, you can choose the coolest fonts and be sure that your visitors will see them the same way. You can even choose to anti-alias the top-level menu texts for an even nicer result.

  • cool javascript effects You can apply a number of visual effects to the menu (such as partial transparency, fading, roll-over, shadow, glow effect, or keeping the menu on top of the browser page at all times).

  • hundreds of predefined menu schemes come with the program Even though you can easily create your own designs, why not choose from tons of existing designs (most are bitmap-based schemes designed by professional artists) which you can also customize any way you want.

  • XML import/export The menu structure can be imported/exported in XML format.

  • search-engine friendly code There's an option that you can switch on in order to make your menus search engine friendly. In such case the whole structure (all links) can be found by search engines such as Google.

  • frameset integration Menus can be easily integrated into your existing frame-based or frameless site design. It's up to you to decide in which frame / window the menu item links will open and in which frame the popups will appear.

  • great performance with large menus Menus are built on demand so the loading time is kept as short as possible. Also, the output script is compressed to ensure fast loading time. If image-based menus are created, the images are pre-loaded to ensure smooth roll-over effects. On top of this, the user can scroll between popup menu items if a popup menu with lots of itemsdoesn't fit on the screen.

  • adding multiple menus to a single webpage You can easily include any number of horizontal / vertical DHTML drop down menus into a single web page or multiple web pages.

  • synchronization with current URL You can now have the menu track the currently visited page (it's highlighted in the menu) -- this works also for frame-based configurations.

  • integration with existing website created with any program The program can optionally create PHP / ASP / SSI / JSP / FrontPage / ColdFusion includes or use a DreamWeaver template so you can easily embed the menu into an existing website (on one or multiple pages) -- even if your web site is frame-based, you can visually click on the frames where specific menu parts will be displayed. The built-in assistant will help you go through this process.

  • customize the DHTML menu to the smallest detail Tons of options presented in a clearly categorized tree view can be used to choose every possible aspect of the menu, from with the graphical appearance and effects, to integration method with existing website and desired functionality.

  • integrated FTP upload You can have the program upload the output files automatically to an FTP server or to a local / network disk.

  • color matching You can easily match the menu colors with the color scheme of your website. If using image-based menus, you can modify the image coloring (e.g. changing a reddish scheme into a bluish one) by changing the hue/saturation/luminance settings. If not using image-based menus, you can also choose different colors for different popups creating a very nice visual effect.

  • informative and clear user interface At every moment you can preview and test the menu by using the preview window. The menu structure is also built in a visual way, just as the final menu will look.