What Is A Dropdown Menu?

Date First Published: 7th September 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Design

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 4/10

Learn more about what a dropdown menu is in this article.

In web design, a dropdown menu, also known as a dropdown list, is a prebuilt user interface element that offers a list of options that remains hidden until the user hovers over or clicks on the button or text. They are commonly used for web navigation to provide users with more links to pages than a navigation bar can fit on it. For example, a website could have an article category called 'Computer Systems' and when hovered over, the dropdown menu may also display several subcategories. After hovering over the subcategories, the dropdown menu may display some recent articles that can be accessed by clicking on the anchor text. These types of dropdown menus often appear on the top navigation bar, but they can be added to almost any area of a website.

In HTML, dropdown menus can also be used to display a list of choices, all of which contain values. These choices will display when the user clicks on the dropdown box. Search engines, such as Google, use a dropdown list of search suggestions, based on popular searches in the user’s area. This is a multiselect dropdown list and the user can only select one option.

Other Types Of Dropdown Menus

A dropdown menu is not only used in web design. It can also be used for other graphical user interfaces, such as software programs. The Windows operating system uses dropdown menus when allowing users to select a choice. An example of this is when clicking on one of the options in the menu bar, such as ‘File’. After clicking, a list of options will ‘drop down’ below the menu, such as ‘Open’, ‘Save’, ‘Save as’, ‘Print’, and more.