hi

i have just started customizing my first theme/contribution. (based on alternative_simple theme) which i caanot wait to share. i have a menu/nav bar but i would like to have dropdown menus.  this is what i have so far:

div id="page_container">
<div id="page_wrapper">

<div id="layout_header">
<div id="wrapper_header">
<!-- site name -->
    <div id="site_name"><h1><a href="<?php echo $vars['url']; ?>"><?php echo $vars['config']->sitename; ?></a></h1></div>
   
    <div id="menu">
        <div id="menu_inner">
        <a href="<?php echo $vars['url']; ?>pg/dashboard/" title="Dashboard"><span>DASHBOARD</span></a>

how do i add the dropdown to this? i have tried using code from other plugins but no joy.

oh and also, how would i include the standard messages icon next to the messages link so that next to "messages" i can have the messages icon change from white to red to inform of new messages?

can someone please advise?

thanks kindly