NAME
Option Menu (Menu Type) — Reference
Description
An option menu is a menu that contains only value choices
and cascading choices. It allows the user to choose a value from
a group of values that may be hierarchically organized.
An option menu button is a button that contains a cascading
choice for displaying an option menu and static text that displays
the last value chosen from the corresponding option menu or its
descendants.
Figure 45 “Option Menu
and Button”
illustrates an option menu and option menu button.
When to Use
- Required
Use an option menu to let the user choose a value
from a fixed group of possible values.
Guidelines
- Required
Place only cascading and value choices in an option
menu.
- Required
A cascading choice in an option menu leads to another
option menu.
- Required
All of the value choices in an option menu and its
cascaded descendants are mutually exclusive; the user can choose
only one at a time.
Keyboard Navigation
- Required
When focus is on an option menu button and the user
presses Select, Space,
or Ctrl Space,
display the associated option menu and move focus to it.
- Optional
When focus is on an option menu button, and the
user presses ↓ or Alt
↓, display the associated
option menu and move focus to it.
Side Effects
- Recommended
If the user makes a value choice in an option menu
that invokes an action as a side effect, limit the effect to changing
views rather than changing the underlying data being viewed.
Default Choice
- Required
If a value choice in an option menu corresponds
to the value shown in its base option menu button, make it the default
choice for that menu.
- Recommended
If a cascading choice in an option menu leads to
a menu or a descendant menu that contains the value shown in its
base option menu button, make the cascading choice the default choice
for the option menu it is in.
Size
- Required
Make the width of the static text area of an option
menu button the same as the width of the option menu displayed from
it.
Placement
- Recommended
When the user chooses an option menu button to display
an option menu, place the option menu so that the default choice
covers the last chosen value shown in the option menu button.
- Required
When the user chooses an option menu button to display
an option menu, the option menu must not cover the graphic that
indicates a cascading choice in the option menu button.
Visual Guidelines
- Required
Display the cascading choice in an option menu button
as a horizontal bar graphic.
- Required
Display the last value chosen in the option menu
or its cascaded descendants in the option menu button as static
text to the left of the bar graphic. For information on bidirectional
and vertical language support, see Chapter 11.
- Required
Do not place a graphic next to a value choice in
an option menu (for example, to indicate that it is the value that
was last chosen).
Essential Related Topics
For more information, see the Cascading (Choice Type),
Choice, Menu
(Control), and Value (Choice Type)
reference pages.
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