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Button Dividers
Button dividers are a great way to separate the links in a navigation bar. This helps eliminate the confusion of two links looking as if they belong to the same hyperlink. In this tutorial, we'll demonstrate how to create a very simple button dvider so as to eliminate this confusion and therefore make the navigation bar more intuitive and user-friendly.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
1. Open up a new document in Photoshop and create a new layer. Name this layer "Navbar".
2. Be sure that the size of the canvas is long in length, similar to a standard navigation bar.. (See below:)
3. Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, create a long rectangular selection for your navigation bar.
4. With the Paint Bucket tool, fill in the selected area with your choice of color.
5. Next, let's give the navigation bar a 3D effect to give it some extra pizzaz. To do this, right click the "Nav Bar" layer and click on "Blending Options..." from the drop down box.
6. When the Layer Style pop-up box appears, click on "Bevel and Emboss" feature. Feel free to adjust the settings of the Depth, Size, and Soften attributes to give your navigation bar the effect that you want. When you are satisified with the effect, click "OK" to make the changes.
7. Your navigation bar should now look like the following:
8. Select the Text tool and type the standard navigation links that you might find on a typical navigation bar.
9. Now here is where we add the Button Dividers. Begin by selecting the Rectangualr Marquee tool.
10. Create a new layer above all other layers and name it "Button Divider".
11. Zoom in closely between the "Home" and the "Contact" links. Then create a very thin verticle rectuangluar selection from the very top of the navigation bar to the bottom. Make sure the rectangular selection is exactly between the two link texts.
12. Now with the "Button Divider" still active, fill inthe selection with a dark color (to represent the shadow).
13. Now follow steps 11 and 12, except slightly move the rectangualr selection to the right. Use the paint pucket tool to fill in the selection with a lighter color (to represent the highlight).
14. Zoom back out and you will see the Button Divider in your navigation bar.
15. Now all you have to do is copy/paste the Button Divider layer and paste it inbetween each of the other text links as so:
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