Menus

Fixed menus provide access to all the actions possible on the document. It is important that all possible actions be available! If an action should not be executed (e. g. Cut when nothing is selected) then you should disable the entry in the menu.

This style-guide defines what the layout of the menubar should look like. Your application does not have to provide all the menu-options mentioned in this style guide. However, if your application does provide a menu-option, its meaning and location should match the meaning and location given here.

You may add additional menu entries (referred to as "application-specific" entries) where you see fit. If, however, this style guide specifies a location for application-specific entries, your application should only add additional entries at that location.

The menus should be placed in the following order, leaving out menus which your application does not need:

Notice that every item in a menu that first opens a dialog requiring additional information must be labelled with a trailing ellipsis (...) (e.g. Save As..., Open...). There's no space between the menu item and the "...". A simple confirmation dialog is not considered a dialog that requires additional information.

Please use separators in the same way as in the examples.

Do not put anything other than menus and menu-options in the menus or the menu-bar.

Don't put status information in the menubar. Use a statusbar for that!

Menu items should not be added or removed during runtime. Disable or enable them instead. An exception to this is the case where an application has a list of items placed in the menu, such as a list of bookmarks or a list of recently-visited web-pages. Such a list requires the addition and removal of items to keep it up-to-date.

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