I guess I didnt describe that very well - what you described I know how to do with out a prob

If you look at http://tuffsports.com/forum - I have drop down menus at the top of the page that lead to new forums that I am working on setting up

As you would see that is way to many forums to list on one page, and I like having them at easy access in the drop down menu.

What I want to be able to do is make it say "New" (my on.gif) next to forums that have a new post in them, and I want to be able to do this with in the actual menu.

What I dont know how to do is call up the script that checks the users cookie based on a specific forum id and then kick out the proper result for $onoff.