Menu Bars and Menus

A menu is arranged in a hierarchy. At the top level of the hierarchy is the menu bar; menus drop down from the menu bar, and at the lower levels are submenus. A menu bar is sometimes called a top-level menu, and the menus and submenus are also known as pop-up menus.

A menu item can either carry out a command or open a submenu. An item that carries out a command is called a command item or a command.

An item on the menu bar almost always opens a menu. Menu bars rarely contain command items. A menu opened from the menu bar drops down from the menu bar and is sometimes called a drop-down menu. When a drop-down menu is displayed, it is attached to the menu bar. A menu item on the menu bar that opens a drop-down menu is also called a menu name.

The menu names on a menu bar represent the main categories of commands that an application provides. Selecting a menu name from the menu bar typically opens a menu whose menu items correspond to the commands in a given category. For example, a menu bar might contain a File menu name that, when selected by the user, activates a menu with menu items such as New, Open, and Save.

Only an overlapped or pop-up window can contain a menu bar; a child window cannot contain one. If the window has a title bar, Windows positions the menu bar just below it. A menu bar is always visible. A submenu is not visible, however, until the user selects a menu item that activates it. For more information about overlapped and pop-up windows, see General Window Styles.

Each menu must have an owner window. Windows sends messages to a menu's owner window when the user selects the menu or chooses an item from the menu. These messages are described in Messages Used with Menus.

Software for developers

Delphi Components
.Net Components
Software for Android Developers

More information resources

MegaDetailed.Net
Unix Manual Pages
Delphi Examples

Databases for Amazon shops developers

Amazon Categories Database
Browse Nodes Database