where can i find the page file created via admin panel?

Hi – While you are working this out, forget about the dynamic PHP part.

start with a single link, hard-wired to be active

<ul id="nav">
<li id="archives" class="active"><a href="https://localhost/wordpress/?page_id=2">archives</a></li>

`

I added just two lines of CSS – turned off your stylesheet and just worked with these two lines of CSS. I saw them displaying as intended on my setup, so I know they are correct

ul#nav li.active { background-color: red; }
ul#nav li.active a { color: yellow; }

Use my code exactly the way I listed it here.

When I added your CSS in, I didn’t see a thing. Looking onto it, you have text indents and negative margins causing the display to move out of visible range. Your CSS is not handling the active state correctly.

The next step is set up CSS for the active state.

ul#nav li.active { text-indent: 0;  margin: 0; )
ul#nav li.active a { text-indent: 0;  margin: 0; )

use that for starters – until you see the display on screen. Then adjust the margins to where you want the display appearing.

Work with that one simple UL/LI code block until everything displays just as you want it. Then add in the hover state, step by step. Make one small change at a time.

Only add in the dynamic PHP stuff after you get the static code styling working correctly. Debug one step at a time, from the most basic.

CSS dropdown menu systems are very difficult to code correctly. I generally suggest starting with a theme that already has working drop down menus, and modifying it. You are in too deep for that, but next time consider that.

hi again, you said dropdown menu but i didn’t want a drop down menu. i was actually trying to do something similar to the one on pearsonified.com. the menu is jumping up a little bit when you mouse over, and gets white after you go to that page. actually with my codes my first link gets activated which is the home one. but the rest does not turn into the active state when i go to that sections.

i think the problem may be the pages. as i do not change any codes in them as basically they are automatically created.

I dont suppose you could change the last four lines of my css code,as the problem is they dont get activated.
and you can already see the positioning. so no need to change them. What i need is just someone to change my last 4 lines of the css code and as the positioning is already there i want all the buttons go -60 when they are activated.

Also I’m using one header.php for all pages too. so i dont understand how i can give active state for all 4 sections. when i give active state to all in header.php, they are all activated.