Du Vien Trang is a Freelance Web Designer / Developer based in Scotland. This is his portfolio, blog and his digital playground.

Drupal has a lot of functions in the admin panel and at times can get quite tiresome having to click thru page after page to get to the features you want, unless you know the shortcut by typing in the URL.

Super Nav to the rescue...

Super Nav is not a replacement of the admin menu but a better and faster way to get to the administrative features you want. Once you install Super Nav, it appears as a sidebar on the left in a frame. It uses AJAX to speed things up and has a built in search to find exactly what you want.

I've only played with it for a bit, not long and so far seems pretty stable. I've enjoyed it and does seem to make things easier to administer your site though it takes time to get used to it when you have already got used to the odd ways of administering a site without a separation of frontend and backend.

Here is a list of features you'll find:

Benefits of Super Nav's Drupal Productivity Tool

• Separates site administration from the theme! It even pulls out the local tasks from the page and drops them into the nav (totally optional, by the way). This means you don't need to accommodate for administrative menus in your template, saving you endless headaches! And we're just getting started...
• The navigation is framed, so your state in the navigation is saved every time you visit a page. No more having to fish around for the link you just clicked!
• Search your navigation! That's right, search your navigation with a simple, ajax-sexy tool. Great if you know what you want but don't want to dig around.
• Search your nodes! That's right, find the node you want by typing a few letters and pressing enter. Searches are live, so you don't have to wait for the search cron to run. You can also specify types to search in.
• Installation is really, really easy, and there are no module dependencies. Just install, and you'll see the Super Nav right away!
• Bookmarks! Simple bookmarks help you keep track of your most used pages. You set the title, the ordering, and if you don't like them, just click the delete button!
• Your navigation state is saved! If you have something expanded in the main nav when you log out, it will be just that way the next time you log in.
• Supernav uses frames, but without the frame pain. The title in your browser refreshes for each page you visit. Refresh the right frame with a click, or add it's URL to your clipboard.
• Only load the full navigation once! No need to do it on every page, saving you loading time and server resources.
• Perfect for non-expert users! Have clients that like your work but hate using Drupal? The biggest reason is probably that it's too hard to get around. Just slap on some Super Nav and they'll be able to find what they need. You can even set up some pre-added bookmarks so they have a head start and you don't have to spend as much time hand-holding.
• Brand-able! We added a groovy graphic at the top of Super Nav, but you can have whatever you want up there to brand it for your company or client. Just add your code in the Supernav settings page. You can even edit the help text. No one will ever know you didn't build it!
• Style based icons and background, so you can give it your own look and feel.

Yeah! pretty full on list, give it a try... :)

This module was released by Implied By Design.

Video demo: Super Nav in action
Download: Super Nav