Making a nav bar look better

[jenniferann]

I am looking to make my site look better, I used the easy customizer
for my simple nav bar, found here: www.jenniferann.smugmug.com
but I would like to have a fancier one, maybe a graduated bar (kind of
like a steel looking bar) with the text on top of it. Is there a simple way
to do this? Also I would like a different background other than the plain
black, I am thinking of something with a very slight pattern. If I make
both of these how do I get them to work. Remember you are speaking
to some one who knows NOTHING about html. Oh, I am a power user and
I see so many sites that look so much more customized than I am getting,
I am just getting frustrated that I cannot get mine to look the way I want.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Jenn

[jenniferann]

Anyone? I really do not need to know how to design (make) the
nav bar - I can do that in illustrator or photoshop, but I do not know
what size to make it and how to make it work.
Help please.....:scratch

[jfriend]

Anyone? I really do not need to know how to design (make) the
nav bar - I can do that in illustrator or photoshop, but I do not know
what size to make it and how to make it work.
Help please.....:scratch A simple navbar can be constructed via this tutorial (http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1932803). There are many more navbar styles on the web (you can find thousands via Google). Here's one site (http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/) that has a lot to choose from. When you look at how these work, you will notice that most are not make in illustrator or photoshop, but are text with CSS and maybe some graphics for a background.