How to make a CSS horizontal navigation menu?

Question

I need to make a css navigation according to the following style:

DESIRED LOOK

Below are the designs that I have done:-

1)Exhibit A - made using sprites

Note: Ignore the arrangement of the menu items

Pros: works well and has the desired look

Cons: if there is a need to add another menu item, another image must be manually made for that particular menu item. ie. not extensible

2)Exhibit B

Pros: very extensible. If another menu item must be added, new extra images need not be made. Only the menu name need to be typed in the html code.

Cons: the hover effect is not the same as the desired look.

My Requirement

Is to use Exhibit B , along with the hover effect from Exhibit A , but without having to add extra images when a menu item is created(this is what happens in Exhibit A , although it has the desired hover effect).

My approach:

1. Start working with Exhibit B
2. For the hover effect in the case of a single menu item use 3 images

a)left most edge

b)repeating slice of the middle area

c)right most edge

Is this correct ?

Is this possible ?

Is there a better way? A link to a tute would be fine.

Thanks

---

1] css code for Exhibit A

@charset "UTF-8";
* {
margin:0;
padding:0;
list-style: none;
}

ul {
list-style: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

img {
    border: none;
}

.clear {
clear:both;
}

.nav-container {
width: 960px;
}
#navMenu{
display: inline;
margin: 0;
padding: 0px;
position: relative;
z-index: 5;
}
#navMenu li{
float: left;
display: inline;
}

#navMenu li.navRepeat{
float: left;
display: inline;
background-image:url("../images/navigation_repeat.gif");
width:425px;
height:40px;
}

#navMenu li.navRepeatEnd{
float: right;
display: inline;
background-image:url("../images/navigation_repeat_end.gif");
width:1px;
height:40px;
}

a.navReservations{
display:block;
float:left;
width:89px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/reservations.gif")
}

a.navReservations:hover{
background: url("../images/reservations.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navRentals{
display:block;
float:left;
width:62px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/rentals.gif")
}

a .navReservations {
float: left;
display: inline;
height: 100px;
width: 400px;
}

a.navRentals:hover{
background: url("../images/rentals.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navTariffs{
display:block;
float:left;
width:59px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/tariffs.gif")
}

a.navTariffs:hover{
background: url("../images/tariffs.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navFleet{
display:block;
float:left;
width:64px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/fleet.gif")
}

a.navFleet:hover{
background: url("../images/fleet.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navTools{
display:block;
float:left;
width:56px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/tools.gif")
}

a.navTools:hover{
background: url("../images/tools.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navReports{
display:block;
float:left;
width:71px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/reports.gif")
}

a.navReports:hover{
background: url("../images/reports.gif") 0 40px;
}

a.navSystem-Management{
display:block;
float:left;
width:133px;
height:40px;
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background: url("../images/system_management.gif")
}

a.navSystem-Management:hover{
    background: url("../images/system_management.gif") 0 40px;
}

2] css code for Exhibit B

#navigation {
width: 959px;
height: 36px;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-image: url(images/navigation-bg.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: left top;
border: 1px solid #CCC;
} 
#navigation ul {
list-style: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
} 
#navigation ul li {
display: inline;
margin: 0px;
} 
#navigation ul li a {
height:27px;
display: block;
float: left;
color: #000;
text-decoration: none;
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: bold;
background-image: url(images/navigation-separator.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: right center;
padding-top: 6px;
padding-right: 15px;
padding-left: 15px;
vertical-align: 10%;
padding-bottom: 4px;
} 

#navigation ul li a:hover {
color:#FFF;
background-image: url(images/navigation-hover.gif);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
background-position: left top;
}

#navigation ul li#active a {
color:#363636;
background: url(images/navigation-hover.png) repeat-x left top;
}

Answer 1

Well you technically only need two sprites, a wide left + body of the tab and a right side. By wide, I mean, 400px or some arbitrarily wide size that you don't anticipate hitting. You're trading a kb for easy of use. You can accomplish this by having markup like:

<ul class="list">
    <li><a href="#">Text</a></li>
</ul>

with css like:

ul.list
{
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
}
ul.list li 
{
    float: left;
    background: url(leftpluswide.png) top left no-repeat;
}
ul.list li a
{
    background: url(right.png) top right no-repeat;
}

The only caveat is that since the right.png will be overlapping the background on the li, you'll need to make sure that it doesn't have any transparency.

Also for completeness sake, you might need to apply a height to the li and the a (which will potentially require a display:inline-block or a line-height to take it) to make everything line up well.