Nena,

Thanks for the reply.  I am still a little confused here.  I have read the skinning paper 5 times and still don't understand why the .MainMenu_MenuItem affects the sub nav underneath the root.  I simply want to put a background image behind the root nav.  When  I do that, it affects the sub nav as well.

This is where I want to put the background image:

.MainMenu_MenuItem {
 border-left: #cad5ea 0px solid;
 border-bottom: #cad5ea 1px solid;
 border-top: #cad5ea 1px solid;
 border-right: #cad5ea 0px solid;
 cursor: pointer;
 cursor: hand;
 color: #fff;
 font-size: 9pt;
 font-weight: bold;
 font-style: normal;
 background-color: Transparent;
 font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica;
 height: 31px;
 background: url(bgnav.gif);
}

This class seems to affect the sub nav, but the above one does also:

.MainMenu_SubMenu {
 background-color: #ccc; 
 z-index: 1000;
 cursor: pointer;
 cursor: hand;
 filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color='#696969', Direction=135, Strength=3);
}

I am at a loss here.  I know that it has to be possible.  I have tried surrounding the menu with a div, but the div stretches to 100%.  I don't want the background image on anything but the nav buttons.

Thanks for looking.