3 recent articles show how to get interactive effects on menus, proving that you don't need Flash for this kind of simple interactivity.

• Dave Shea's tutorial in ALA shows how to create interactive menu hover effects using CSS sprites and the JQuery Javascript library. A sprite image is a single graphic with multiple states mapped on the graphic, a technique borrowed from game design, where game characters are shown in different states of action. Shea's tutorial extends the use of Bauman's sliding doors sprite method for navigation buttons by adding transitional effects on the graphics.
• ShopDev reverse-engineers the interactive menus used on Dragon Interactive and shows how to pull it off using JQuery.
• Bedrich Rios' demo and tutorial in NETTUTS shows how to create a Moo-tools inspired sidebar navigation menu.