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Motif and CDE 2.1 Style Guide Reference

View Menu

Reference

Description

A View menu is a pull-down menu that is displayed when a user activates the View choice. The View choice is a cascading choice that appears as a menu-bar item. It provides access to menu items that allow a user to choose how data is presented, how much information is presented, in what order it is presented, and other choices related to the presentation within a view.

When to Use

Required
Provide a View choice on the menu bar of a window when more than one view is available for the information displayed in the window.

Recommended
Provide a View choice on the menu bar of a window when operations are supported that change the presentation within a view.

Guidelines

Required

In conjunction with the Menu Guidelines reference page, use Table 29 to decide which choices to include in a pop-up menu associated with a selectable element and how to organize them.

Table 29. View Menu Choices


 Mnemonic Menu Choice
Recommended C Change View
Recommended N New Window
Optional S Sort
Optional I Include
Optional F Find

Required
If you provide additional application-specific choices in the View menu, group them with other related choices.

Required
When the user selects choices in the View menu, do not change the underlying data, only the view of that data.

Recommended
Provide choices in the View menu that display dialogs through which expert users can set default properties of views, including the default view or views of a newly opened window.

Optional
Include in the View menu a list of choices, either separated from other choices or in one or more cascaded menus, through which the user can toggle on and off the display of the following:

  1. Various areas of the window, including palette areas

  2. The menu bar, but only if all menu-bar functionality is available from pop-up menus

  3. Another window of the application, but only if the application allows at most one window of that type to be displayed

  4. A window dependent upon the current window, but only if the application allows at most one window of that type dependent upon the current window to be displayed

    5. Optional
    Include in the View menu, either as its final set of choices (separated from other choices) or in a cascaded menu, a list of choices that identifies windows used by the application. When the user chooses one of these windows, surface it and, if an explicit focus policy is in effect, give it focus.

    Recommended
    If the window includes a paned box to which the user can add and remove views, include a choice in the View menu (or a submenu) that provides access to these functions.

    Essential Related Topics

    For more information, see the Menu Bar (Menu Type), Menu Guidelines, and View reference pages.

    Supplemental Related Topics

    For more information, see the Edit (Menu), File Menu, and Options (Menu) reference pages.

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