Best practice/way to make Navigation !!! float:left , display: inline , or using <ul>

[2939195631902]

Whats the best practice/way to make Navigation? float:left , display: inline , using <ul>, or ...
And why?

[Izzmo]

There are many types of navigation (position anyway)..

What side is it going to be on, or is it going to be on the top? Is it going to be tab like or just rowed? If so, will there be images, or just CSS?

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Using an unordered list is a nice clean way to create your navigation. Through CSS you can make it align what ever way you want.

If you want a dynamic menu, you could check out CSS Play and see if there is one there you like. Note: He does require a donation to use on a commercial site.

[2939195631902]

So there is no "best" practice or way to make a menu bar. Then could you break it down and explain both advantages and disadvantages of using:
1. <ul>
2. <div> with display: inline
3. <div> with float: left;

[Gamblor]

I think that most places use a combination of div and ul. So you would want to create your layout. Then whatever box you want your navigation create a ul in that for navigation. Then you can customize your ul for just that navigation box. #nav ul li { } like so. Hopefully that makes sense.

[2939195631902]

It makes sense, and it has been the way i used to make navigation. However, as i recently started experiencing other ways to make navigation, i feel the simplest is using pure divs like such:

<div id="header_navigation">

<div class="navigation_names">
</div>
<div class="navigation_names">
</div>
<div class="navigation_names">
</div>

</div>

and set .navigation_names: display inline;

Is there any disadvantages at all with this way?

[Gamblor]

Looks like more typing.

<div id="header_navigation">

<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
</ul>

</div>

Much less code. I guess that might make your css bigger but you will probably have to apply the same things to the list as you would to the divs. Really its whatever you are most comfortable with. Ive gotten use to using lists because most menu tutorials and examples out there use lists.

[Capo64]

I use <dl> for my list because I have headers above each set of links. So I have:

<dl>
<dt>Header 1</dt>
<dd>Link 1</dd>
<dd>Link 2</dd>
<dd>Link 3</dd>
</dl>

Add some CSS and it comes out very nice. It works great for sidebar navigation.

[Gamblor]

Thats interesting. I never really thought about using dl. You could also achieve a similar thing if you do li:first-child and then add style to that for a heading. I dont think that first-child is fully supported in IE but I forget with all its crazy things that dont work correctly.

[Drayek]

Originally Posted by 2939195631902

So there is no "best" practice or way to make a menu bar. Then could you break it down and explain both advantages and disadvantages of using:
1. <ul>
2. <div> with display: inline
3. <div> with float: left;

For menus i'm using lists because, imho, it's more semantic than divs. A menu practically is nothing than list. I think, using divs for a list, semantically, isn't correct.
All list items has already the inline-block attribute, so you can manage paddings, etc.. without adding inline-block in css.