class Menu

Topic group Related topics Example

A menu item in a menubar or popup menu.

Syntax

[<oRef> =] new Menu(<parent>)

<oRef>

A variable or property—typically of <parent>—in which to store a reference to the newly created Menu object.

The parent object—a MenuBar, Popup, or another Menu object—that contains the Menu object.

Properties

The following tables list the properties, events, and methods of the Menu class.

Property	Default	Description
baseClassName	MENU	Identifies the object as an instance of the Menu class.
before		The next sibling menu object
checked	false	Whether to display a checkmark next to a menu item.
checkedBitmap		An image to represent the mark to appear next to the menu item if checked is true.
className	(MENU)	Identifies the object as an instance of a custom class. When no custom class exists, defaults to baseClassName
enabled	true	Determines if the menu can be selected.
helpFile		Help file name
helpId		Help index topic or context number for context-sensitive help
id	-1	Supplementary ID number for menu item
name		The name of the menu item.
parent		The menu item’s immediate container
separator	false	Whether the menu object is a separator instead of a selectable menu item.
shortCut		The key combination that fires the onClick event.
statusMessage		The message to display on the status bar when the menu item has focus.
text		The text of the menu item prompt.
uncheckedBitmap		An image to represent the mark to appear next to the menu item if checked is false.

Event	Parameters	Description
beforeRelease		before an object is released from memory.
onClick		After the menu item is chosen.
onHelp		When F1 is pressed—overrides context-sensitive help

Method	Parameters	Description
release( )		Explicitly removes the menu object from memory.

Description

Menu objects represent the individual menu items, or prompts, in a menu system. They can be attached to MenuBar objects, Popup objects, or other Menu objects so that:

When attached to a menubar, they are the top-level menu items, such as the standard File and Edit menus.

Menu items attached to a top-level menu item form the drop-down menu, such as the standard Cut and Paste menu items in the top-level Edit menu.

Menu items attached to a popup comprise the items in the popup.

Any other menu items that have menu items attached to them become cascading menus.

Unless a menu item has other menu items attached (making it a cascading menu), selecting the menu item fires its onClick event. Actions are assigned to each menu item by creating an onClick event handler for the menu object.

The actions for the standard Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste menu items and the Window menu are handled by assigning the menu items to the menubar’s editUndoMenu, editCutMenu, editCopyMenu, editPasteMenu, and windowMenu properties respectively.

Menu objects are also used as separators in a drop-down or popup menu by setting their separator property to true. In this case, the menu item serves no other purpose and cannot be a cascading menu or have an onClick event handler.

Creating accelerators and pick characters

There are two ways to let the user choose a menu item by using the keyboard (which may be used at the same time):

Assign a key combination to the menu item’s shortCut property. This is sometimes called an accelerator. For example, Ctrl+C is usually used for the Cut menu item. Pressing the accelerator chooses the menu item even if the menu item is not visible.

Specify a pick character in the text prompt of the menu item by preceding it with an ampersand (&). Pick characters work only when the menu item is visible. For top-level items in a menubar, you must press Alt and the pick character to activate the menu. Once the menu system is activated, pressing Alt in combination with the pick character is optional.

Note

Assigning F1 as the shortCut key for a menu item disables the built-in context-sensitive help based on the helpFile and helpId properties. The onClick for the menu item will be called instead. Therefore, if you have a menu item for Help it should not have F1 assigned as its shortCut key unless you want to handle help yourself.