How to make HTML partially cover applet?

[mitch]

We have a page that combines HTML with a Java applet.
The applet has a big rectangle in the middle of the page.
Above the applet we have some dropdown menus that are
in HTML (and JavaScript and CSS). We would like to make it
so the dropdowns can temporarily be visible on top of the
applet, and it doesn't seem to work. The applet seems to
completely own its rectangle, and nothing with CSS or
Z ordering seems to work to draw temporarily on top of the
applet.

Does anybody have ideas for how to do this? We tried one
trick with an IFrame that seems to work in IE but not in Firefox
or Safari. Thanks.

 

[Martin Honnen]

Does anybody have ideas for how to do this? We tried one
trick with an IFrame that seems to work in IE but not in Firefox
or Safari.

You should be able to hide the applet completely (e.g. setting
appletElement.style.visibility = 'hidden') while your menu is visible. I
don't think there is a way to have the applet content drawn below normal
HTML element contents.