[ Sorry, LONG email ... and more easily read with a monospaced font ... ]
I need to use (Drupal 7) a menu where, for the most part, the only menu items that are associated with links are the "leaf items".
Say I have a "Family" menu.
When completely collapsed, it looks like this (the "-->" I've appended below indicates that the corresponding menu item *is* associated with a link):
Family -->
Clicking on "Family" expands the menu to this (as well as changing the page content to "family info"):
V Family --> > Parents Siblings Pets
Finally, clicking on "Parents" produces this:
V Family --> V Parents Father --> Mother --> Siblings Pets
Hopefully the above makes sense!
So, if the user clicks on "Family", "Father", or "Mother", the content will change corresponding to the linked page. OTOH, clicking on "Parents", "Siblings", or "Pets", causes *no* change in the content, but does expand/contract the menu where necessary.
This seems like a very common need. I searched the Internet (maybe not enough!), but didn't find a simple, completely working solution.
The "Menu item container" project looked promising, but it appears to be available only for D6.
Is the "Special menu items" module the "way to go"? I installed it. But when I click on a non-linked menu item (e.g., "Parents" above), the sub-menu doesn't expand ... the text is there, but is inactive.
Your comments/suggestions are appreciated!