Motif and Common Desktop Environment: Style Guide Reference Migration Version

Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

Selected Menu

Reference

Description

A Selected menu is a cascading choice that appears as a menu-bar item. It provides access to choices that apply to the selected objects in the current view.

When to Use

Optional

Provide a Selected menu when the window contains objects that may be selected.

Guidelines

Required

In conjunction with the Menu Guidelines reference page, use Table 24 to decide which choices to include in the Selected menu and how to organize them.

Table 24. Selected Menu Choices

	Mnemonic	Menu Choice	Keyboard Function
Recommended	S	Properties	Ctrl I
Required	N	New	Ctrl N
Required	O	Open	Ctrl O
Recommended		Copy To ...
Recommended		Move To ...
Optional	E	Clear to Trash	Delete (if no Delete to Trash)
Required	D	Delete to Trash	Delete
Optional		Print ..

Required

Use CtrlN and Ctrl O for the New and Open entries on the Selected menu only if your application does not have a state or contents that needs to be named and persistently stored.

Required

If your application manages and displays only one type of object that the user can select, replace the Selected label with one naming the type of object.

Required

Include type-specific choices at the bottom of the Selected menu that apply to the types of objects selected. Add and remove type-specific choices (rather than making those choices unavailable) as the selection changes.

Recommended

If there are a large number of type-specific choices, add type-specific cascaded menus as necessary.

Required

Print out the contents of each of the selected objects when the user chooses the Print choice on the Selected menu.

Recommended

Provide the Properties choice in the Edit menu if you do not provide a Selected menu.

Essential Related Topics

For more information, see the Edit Menu, Menu Bar (Menu Type), Menu Guidelines, New (Action Choice), Object, and Open (Choice) reference pages.