How to add different background image for submenu items???

Question

Hi all,
I'm pretty new to web design and CSS in particular. Here's my problem...
I've got a Spry horizontal menu bar (untouched as yet), and I want to have a different background image for my submenu items than that of my menu items. From searching the internet I think that I need to apply a class to the submenu item (please correct me if I am wrong).
How would I go about doing this and how would I assign the class to just the submenu items?
Also ideally I want to have my first and last menu items to have rounded corners on one side (therefore making a rounded edge menu bar), is it possible to have a different background image for individual menu items? If so, how?
Really appreciate any help!

Answer 1

Thanks for the link! I've managed to sort the background issue, and it seems to be working fine!
Just one little issue left to tackle...
I want my text to be centered in my top menu items BUT aligned left in my drop down menu items. I have managed this but the text hugs the left hand side. I've tried adding a little margin to the left but that doesn't seem to affect anything???
Here's my CSS... Any ideas which class I should be targeting or why adding the margin isn't working would save my tearing the rest of my hair out! thanks! (screenshot attached).
@charset "UTF-8";
/* SpryMenuBarHorizontal.css - Revision: Spry Preview Release 1.4 */
/* Copyright (c) 2006. Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. */
LAYOUT INFORMATION: describes box model, positioning, z-order
/* The outermost container of the Menu Bar, an auto width box with no margin or padding */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    list-style-type: none;
    cursor: default;
    width: auto;
/* Set the active Menu Bar with this class, currently setting z-index to accomodate IE rendering bug: http://therealcrisp.xs4all.nl/meuk/IE-zindexbug.html */
ul.MenuBarActive
    z-index: 1000;
/* Menu item containers, position children relative to this container and are a fixed width */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li
    margin: 0;
    list-style-type: none;
    position: relative;
    text-align: left;
    cursor: pointer;
    width: 120px;
    float: left;
    height: 24px;
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-right: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-left: 0;
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    background-color: #333333;
    background-image: url(../images/navbar_bg.jpg);
    border-right-width: 1px;
    border-left-width: 1px;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-left-style: solid;
    border-right-color: #000000;
    border-left-color: #666666;
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li li
    list-style-type: none;
    position: relative;
    text-align: left;
    cursor: pointer;
    width: auto;
    float: left;
    height: 24px;
    background-color: #333333;
    background-image: none;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    left: -1px;
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li li a
    list-style-type: none;
    position: relative;
    text-align: left;
    cursor: pointer;
    float: left;
    height: 24px;
    background-image: none;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: normal;
    border: 0px 0 0;
    width: 120px;
    font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
/* Submenus should appear below their parent (top: 0) with a higher z-index, but they are initially off the left side of the screen (-1000em) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul
    margin: 0;
    list-style-type: none;
    font-size: 100%;
    z-index: 1020;
    cursor: default;
    width: 120px;
    position: absolute;
    left: -1000em;
    height: 24px;
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-right: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    padding-left: 0;
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to auto so it comes onto the screen below its parent menu item */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    left: auto;
/* Submenus should appear slightly overlapping to the right (95%) and up (-5%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul ul
    position: absolute;
    height: 24px;
    width: 120px;
    margin-top: -5%;
    margin-right: 0;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    margin-left: 95%;
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to 0 so it comes onto the screen */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    left: auto;
    top: 0;
/* Menu items are a light gray block with padding and no text decoration */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li a
    display: block;
    cursor: pointer;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-style: normal;
    text-transform: capitalize;
    text-align: center;
    white-space: normal;
    padding: 0px;
    height: 24px;
    font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    line-height: 20px;
    margin: 0px;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus are set to MenuBarItemHover with a blue background and white text */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li a.MenuBarItemHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    background-color: #000000;
    background-image: url(../images/navbar_bg_hover.jpg);
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    line-height: 22px;
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li li a.MenuBarItemHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    background-color: #000000;
    background-image: none;
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    width: 120px;
    font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #FFFFFF;
/* Menu items that have a submenu have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenu and are set to use a background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenu
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
    background-color: #333333;
    background-image: url(../images/navbar_bg.jpg);
/* Menu items that are open with submenus have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenuHover and are set to use a "hover" background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
    background-color: #000000;
    background-image: url(../images/navbar_bg_hover.jpg);
BROWSER HACKS: the hacks below should not be changed unless you are an expert
/* HACK FOR IE: to make sure the sub menus show above form controls, we underlay each submenu with an iframe */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal iframe
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 1010;
/* HACK FOR IE: to stabilize appearance of menu items; the slash in float is to keep IE 5.0 from parsing */
@media screen, projection
    ul.MenuBarHorizontal li.MenuBarItemIE
    display: inline;
    f\loat: left;