GMS Menu Entries
Every GMS menu includes one or more menu entries. A menu entry is a rectangular cell that can contain an entry label, an icon, and/or an accelerator label, as shown in the following figure:
Components of a Menu Entry
Each menu entry contains one or more of these components:
Types of Menu Entries
The three types of menu entries are:
Selecting and Choosing Menu Entries
To use GMS menus, you use the mouse to select and choose menu entries. When you select a menu entry, you press the mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the menu entry or move the mouse pointer over it with the mouse button already pressed. GMS indicates a selected entry by changing its color.
After you select a menu entry, you can choose it by raising the mouse button with the mouse pointer still over it. You can also choose a menu entry by clicking the mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the menu choice.
Enabled and Disabled Menu Entries
A menu entry can be enabled or disabled. For example, you might want to disable a menu entry if it does not apply to the current situation, such as no object selected for a rotate menu entry. An enabled menu entry is fully functional.
A disabled menu entry appears but is not selectable and cannot perform its task. If you select a disabled cascading menu entry, it does not display its cascade menu. If you choose a disabled leaf entry, it does not execute its callback procedure.
Adding a Check to a Leaf Entry
You can set any leaf entry in a transient menu to be checked or unchecked. A checked menu entry has a check mark to the left of its entry label; an unchecked menu entry has none. You can use check to indicate anything that is useful, such as the toggling of a state. You can inform the user that a particular state is selected, such as a particular user mode, as this figure shows:
Associating Help with a Menu Entry
You can associate a Help label with any menu entry. A Help label provides information about the entry that can help the user to understand what it does. When GMS is configured to display Help information, and a menu entry has a Help label, GMS displays the Help label in a Help bar whenever the menu entry is selected. The Help bar appears at the bottom of the G2 window, and is visible only when it is needed.
Copyright © 1997 Gensym Corporation, Inc.
