NAME
Menu Bar (Menu Type) — Reference
Description
A menu bar is a menu displayed across the top of the client
area of a window.
A menu-bar system is a spring-loaded system that consists
of a menu bar and any menus cascaded from it.
When to Use
- Required
Provide a menu bar if you provide any of the action
choices included in the File menu, other than Close or Exit.
- Required
Provide a menu bar if you provide any of the action
choices included in the View menu.
- Recommended
Provide a menu bar if you provide any of the action
choices included in the Help menu.
- Recommended
Provide a menu bar when a window will provide more
than six action choices.
Guidelines
- Required
Place only cascading choices in a menu bar.
- Required
A cascading choice in a menu bar leads to a pull-down
menu.
Menu-Bar Content
- Required
In conjunction with the Menu Guidelines reference
page, use Table 16 “Menu-Bar Choices”
to decide which choices to include in a menu bar and how to organize
them.
Table 16 Menu-Bar Choices
| | Mnemonic | Item | Keyboard
Function |
|---|
| Required | F | File | AltF |
| Recommended | S | Selected | AltS |
| Required | E | Edit | AltE |
| Optional | I | Insert | AltI |
| Required | V | View | AltV |
| Recommended | O | Options | AltO |
| Optional | o | Tools | AltO |
| Required | W | Window | AltW |
| Required | H | Help | AltH |
- Recommended
Add any application-specific menu-bar choices between
the last standard menu-bar choice that is provided and the Help
choice.
- Recommended
When a window has both a menu bar and push buttons,
all action choices available on push buttons should also be included
on a pull-down menu (or a menu cascaded from one) available in the
window.
Directional Navigation
- Required
In a menu bar, make ←
move the cursor to the choice to the left, wrapping at the left
edge within the menu bar.
- Required
In a menu bar, make →
move the cursor to the choice to the right, wrapping at the right
edge within the menu bar.
- Required
In a menu bar, make ↓
activate the cursored cascading choice, display the associated pull-down
menu, and move focus to it.
Navigation to and from the Menu Bar
- Required
When focus is in a control in a window and the user
presses F10 or Shift
Menu, navigate to the first item
in the menu bar.
- Required
If a window has a menu bar, but focus is in a different
spring-loaded system originating from the client area of that window,
then make pressing F10 or Shift
Menu deactivate the spring-loaded
system before navigating to the first item in the menu bar.
- Required
If the focus is in a menu-bar system, make pressing
F10 or Shift
Menu deactivate the system.
Placement and Layout
- Required
Place the menu bar at the top of the client area
of a window and extend it the width of the entire window.
- Required
Align menu-bar items horizontally and lay them out
left to right. For information on bidirectional and vertical language
support, see Chapter 11.
- Recommended
Allow a user to hide the menu bar if the functionality
it provides is available through other means (for example, push
buttons and pop-up menus).
Visual Guidelines
- Required
Do not display a graphic (in particular, a down-arrow
graphic) along with a cascading choice in a menu-bar item.
Essential Related Topics
For more information, see the Cascading (Choice Type),
Pull-Down
Menu (Menu Type), and Spring-Loaded (Control Type)
reference pages.
Supplemental Related Topics
For more information, see the Choice,
Edit (Menu), File
Menu, Help (Menu/Action Choice),
Options (Menu), Selected
Menu, and View
Menu reference pages.
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