While I was coding the Notepad theme, I've learned some new CSS3 features and now I would like to share it with you. View the demo to see a Mac-like multi-level dropdown menu that I've created using border-radius, box-shadow, and text-shadow. It renders perfect on Firefox, Safari and Chrome. The dropdown also works on non-CSS3 compitable browsers such as IE7+, but the rounded corners and shadow will not be rendered.

View Demo CSS3 Dropdown

Preview

The image below shows how the menu will look if CSS3 is not supported.

menu preview

One Gradient Image is Used

A white-transparent image is used to achieve the gradient effect. Because the new CSS3 gradient feature is not supported by all browsers yet, it is safer to use a gradient background image.

gradient image

The instensitiy of the gradient can be changed by shifting the background image up or down. Also, the gradient color can be easily adjusted by changing the background color.

gradient image

CSS Code

I'm not going to explain the CSS line by line. The images below explain the key points on how this dropdown is coded.

menu css

css code

Update Apr 13 2010: Pure CSS Dropdown (No Image Used)

The following demo used CSS gradient and IE gradient filter instead of the gradient image. It works for Webkit browsers, Firefox 3.6+, and IE.

pure css