Why does Vertical Menu conceal items in design view?

Question

I have a problem with a vertical menu that is placed in my page's left column.  When workign in desing view, the vertical menu's sub menu components remain open and this conceals the things that I want to work on that are placed behind the sub-menu items.  Any ideas how I can "collapse" the menu when workginin design view? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello Beth,  to follow is the CSS for my menu bar (vertical).  I see that the left: -10000em; is in there correctly.  Notice anything out of line?  Thanks for your input!!!
Rod
@charset "UTF-8";
/* SpryMenuBarVertical.css - version 0.6 - Spry Pre-Release 1.6.1 */
/* Copyright (c) 2006. Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. */
LAYOUT INFORMATION: describes box model, positioning, z-order
/* The outermost container of the Menu Bar, a fixed width box with no margin or padding */
ul.MenuBarVertical
/* 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 same fixed width as parent */
ul.MenuBarVertical li
/* Submenus should appear slightly overlapping to the right (95%) and up (-5%) with a higher z-index, but they are initially off the left side of the screen (-1000em) */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to 0 so it comes onto the screen */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
/* Menu item containers are same fixed width as parent */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul li
DESIGN INFORMATION: describes color scheme, borders, fonts
/* Outermost menu container has borders on all sides */
ul.MenuBarVertical
/* Submenu containers have borders on all sides */
ul.MenuBarVertical ul
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;
     border-top-color: #EEE;
     border-right-color: #EEE;
     border-bottom-color: #EEE;
     border-left-color: #EEE;
/* Menu items are a light gray block with padding and no text decoration */
ul.MenuBarVertical a
/* Menu items that have mouse over or focus have a blue background and white text */
ul.MenuBarVertical a:hover, ul.MenuBarVertical a:focus
     background-color: #F00;
     color: #FFF;
     font-size: 12px;
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus are set to MenuBarItemHover with a blue background and white text */
ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemHover, ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover, ul.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
     background-color: #F00;
     color: #FFF;
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;
SUBMENU INDICATION: styles if there is a submenu under a given menu item
/* 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.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenu
     background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRight.gif);
     background-repeat: no-repeat;
     background-position: 95% 50%;
     font-size: 12px;
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;
/* 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.MenuBarVertical a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover
     background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRightHover.gif);
     background-repeat: no-repeat;
     background-position: 95% 50%;
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;
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.MenuBarVertical iframe
/* 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.MenuBarVertical li.MenuBarItemIE
     display: inline;
     f\loat: left;
     background: #FFF;
     width: 160px;
     border-top-style: none;
     border-right-style: none;
     border-bottom-style: none;
     border-left-style: none;