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If you have a Style menu, you may display menu items in the actual style so users can see what effect the menu item will have. Don’t use text styles in menus other than a Style menu.

Toggled Menu Items

A toggled menu item changes between two states each time a user chooses it. There are three types of toggled menu items:

■A set of two menu items that are opposite states; for example, Grid On and Grid Off. The state currently in effect has a checkmark next to it. If you have room in your menu, it’s a good idea to display both items (rather than changing the name depending on its state) so that there’s less chance of confusion about each item’s effect.

■One menu item whose name changes to reflect the current state; for example, Show Ruler and Hide Ruler. Use this type if your menu doesn’t have room to show both states.

Use two verbs that express opposite actions. Make sure the command name is completely unambiguous. For example, Turn Grid On and Turn Grid Off is unambiguous. Choosing the command Use Grid, however, could turn the grid on (it describes what happens as a result of choosing the command) or off (it describes the current state).

■A menu item that has a checkmark next to it when it is in effect; for example, a style attribute such as Bold. Don’t use this kind of toggled item to indicate the presence or absence of a feature such as a grid or ruler. It’s unclear whether the checkmark means that the feature is in effect or whether choosing the command turns the feature on.

Figure 13-9 shows correct and incorrect toggled menu items.

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Figure 13-9 Avoid ambiguous toggled menu items

Unambiguous command

Choosing Use Grid could result in either of two actions.

Grouping Items in Menus

Logically grouping menu items is the most important aspect of arranging your menus. Grouping items in a menu makes it easier to quickly locate commands for related tasks.

In general, place the most frequently used items at the top of the menu, but create groups of related items rather than arranging them strictly by frequency of use. For example, although the Find Next or the Find Again command may be used infrequently, it should appear right below the Find command. In a menu that contains both actions and attributes, don’t put actions and attributes in the same group.

If your application allows the creation of smart data groups or containers, such as a smart folder in the Finder, group all commands related to the smart group in the same menu. In other words, commands for creating, modifying, and destroying a smart group should all be in the same menu.

Group interdependent attributes. They can be in a mutually exclusive attribute group (the user can select only one item, such as font size) or an accumulating attribute group (the user can select multiple items, such as Bold and Italic).

If a menu repeats a term more than twice, consider dedicating a menu or hierarchical menu to the term instead. For example, if you need commands like Show Info, Show Colors, Show Layers, Show Toolbox, and so on, you could create a Show menu or a submenu off of a Show item.

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How many separators to use is partly an aesthetic decision and partly a usability decision. Figure 13-10 shows a menu that depicts the right balance of grouping, contrasted with two menus showing insufficient grouping and too much grouping. Use this picture as a visual guide when trying to decide how many separators to use in your menus.

Figure 13-10 Grouping items in menus

Appropriate grouping

Too many groups

Not enough groups

Hierarchical Menus (Submenus)

You can use hierarchical menus to offer additional menu item choices without taking up more space in the menu bar. When the user points to a menu item with a submenu indicator, a submenu appears. Submenus have all the features of menus, including keyboard shortcuts, status markers (such as checkmarks), and so on.

Because submenus add complexity to the interface and are physically more difficult to use, you should use them only when you have more menus than fit in the menu bar or for closely related commands. Use only one level of submenus. If a submenu contains more than five items, consider giving it its own menu.

When you use submenus, include them in a menu with a logical relationship to the choices they contain; the submenu title should clearly represent the choices it contains. Hierarchical menus work best for providing submenus of attributes (rather than actions).

Always use a hierarchical menu instead of indenting menu items. Indentation does not express the interrelationships among menu items as clearly as a submenu does. You can, however, use indentation when displaying custom information (such as status information) in your application’s Dock menu. See Figure 13-25 (page 186) for an example of an application Dock menu. Figure 13-11 shows an example of a hierarchical menu.

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2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.