Navigation Problem - Better Solution?

Hi guys,

I have a problem with navigation on my webpage. I use images for normal state of button and hover/active state. When I hover my button on page (when its online) there is a blank hole but when I hover it again right image shows up (like it waits for loading).

Can you please tell me how to fix that because its all okay on localhost but on online server is something wrong.
Also if you have better way to create navigation could you please tell me?

(X)HTML:


<div id="header">
    <a href="index.html"><img src="images/logo.png" /></a>
    <ul id="navigation">
        <li><a href="index.html" class="homeActive"></a></li>
        <li><a href="about.html" class="about"></a></li>
        <li><a href="score.html" class="score"></a></li>
        <li><a href="gallery.html" class="gallery"></a></li>
        <li><a href="contact.html" class="contact"></a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

CSS:


#navigation {
	float:right;
	list-style:none;
	margin:20px 20px 0 0;
}

#navigation li {
	float:left;
	margin-left:10px;
}

.home, .about, .score, .gallery, .contact, .homeActive, .aboutActive, .scoreActive, .galleryActive, .contactActive {
	width:80px;
	height:20px;
	display:block;
}

.home { background:url(images/home.png); }
.homeActive, .home:hover { background:url(images/homeActive.png); }
.about { background:url(images/about.png); }
.aboutActive, .about:hover { background:url(images/aboutActive.png); }
.score { background:url(images/score.png); }
.scoreActive, .score:hover { background:url(images/scoreActive.png); }
.gallery { background:url(images/gallery.png); }
.galleryActive, .gallery:hover { background:url(images/galleryActive.png); }
.contact { background:url(images/contact.png); }
.contactActive, .contact:hover { background:url(images/contactActive.png); }

Thanks!

Hello, thats happening because the browser takes a sec to load the new image. To get rid of that you’ll need to either use a sprites navigation, or preload the images. I’ve never seen how successful or not preloading is. Here is a sprites way… http://www.visibilityinherit.com/code/sprites.php

Thanks man thats helps a lot!