Menus:Types
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Drop-down Menus
A drop-down menu appears when the user clicks on a title in the menubar, focusses the title and presses Return, or presses the accelerator key for this menu title.
<todo> provide an image with labelled components </todo>
Guidelines
- Only place items on a menu that relate to that menu's title.
- Organize menu items according to the guidelines (see section Designing Menus), and if possible in consistency with the standard menus (see section Standard Menus).
- Provide accelerator keys for every item in the menu (see section Keyboard Accelerators).
- Do not add or remove menu items while the application is running, disable them instead.
- In component-based applications, entire menus may be added or removed from the menubar at runtime.
Related
Designing Menus
Standard Menus
Keyboard Accelerators
Submenus
A submenu appears when the user focuses its title, which is a menu item in a higher-level menu. It is marked as a title by a small arrow symbol beside its label. In submenus, related commands or settings are grouped in order to shorten the higher-level menu.
<todo> provide an image with labelled components </todo>
Guidelines
- Use submenus sparingly, and avoid more than one sublevel.
- Provide accelerator keys for every item in the submenu (see section Keyboard Accelerators).
- Organize items in a submenu according to the guidelines (see section Designing Menus).
Rationale
Deep menu hierarchies should be avoided as they are hard to memorize, and physically difficult to navigate.
Related
Designing Menus
Keyboard Accelerators
Contextual Menus
Contextual menus provide easy access to frequently used commands associated with an interface object. They offer only items that are applicable or relevant to the object or region at the location of the focus or the pointer. The appearance of contextual menus is similar to that of drop-down menus, including the display of accelerator keys and keyboard shortcuts, but they do not have a menu title.
A contextual menu appears when the user right-clicks an object, or focusses the object and presses Shift+F10.
<todo> provide an image with labelled components </todo>
Guidelines
- Provide a contextual menu for every object, selectable part, and text input target such as entry fields.
- Every item which is displayed in the contextual menu must also be provided in the menu.
- Provide accelerator keys for every item in the contextual menu (see section Keyboard Accelerators).
- Avoid more than ten items in a contextual menu, and avoid submenus.
- Organize items in a contextual menu in the expected frequency-of-use order, considering the guidelines for grouping items (see section Grouping Items in Menus). If existent, provide the double-click action for the object on the first position.
Rationale
To maximize their efficieny, contextual menus need to be as simple as possible. All relevant commands and settings must be transparent and identifiable at first glance. Therefore, the number must not exceed a certain limit, and submenus are not advizable.
Related
Designing Menus
Keyboard Accelerators
