The menu editor is an interactive tool for creating menu systems. When the menu editor first appears, it has two windows: the control window, and the display window:
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You create menus by typing the text for the menu entry into the field called "Label" in the control window. The text will appear in the demonstration window on the currently selected item, which is indicated with a light blue background. Think of the light blue background as your cursor, which you can move by using the arrow keys.
If you pressed the right arrow, for example, you'd move one menu item to the right, and be ready to start editing there:
Enter the string '&Edit' in the Label field, press return, and type &Undo. The demonstration window should now look this:
Now, move the cursor over the solid black bar on the right side of the demonstration menu. This bar is where the alignment of the menus will switch to the left or the right. The mouse cursor turns into an arrow that faces left and right. Press and hold the select button on the mouse (usually the button under your index finger). Now you should be able to move the black bar left and right.
When you drop it, (let the button up), the items that are completely to the right of the line will become packed on the right-hand side. Move the bar over the 'Edit' menubutton, and let go of the button.
The 'Help' menu should move to the right, and it should look like this:
What happens when you fall off the end of a menu? Let's try it. Press the Return or Enter key once, you'll get a blank menu item. Press it again, and the blank menu item goes away, and the cursor goes back up to the Edit menu item.
The menu editor has the notion of a spare item on the bottom of all menus, and a spare menu button to the right of all the existing menu buttons.
Let's make a cascade menu. Move the cursor to the FooBar menu, and then press the down arrow once to get a blank menu entry. Type 'Cascade1', and then press the Tab key. Did you notice that themenu item turned into a cascade menu item, and a cascaded menu item was created for you?Also, you'll notice that more entries are black on the control window now. As you change the type of the menus, these items will highlight or disable as appropriate for each type of menu item.
Here's what a cascade should look like:
We're going to add a few new wrinkles, and make some fancier menus. We're going to make the menu we're working on quite a bit fancier.
First, press the left arrow to move back to the original menu. 'Cascade1' should be highlighted. Press Return, and enter the name 'Command'. Press Return, and Enter the name 'Checkbutton'. Press Return, and use the mouse to select the 'Separator' Menu Type in the control window. The menu item should turn into a menu separator. Press Return, and enter 'Radiobutton 1'. Press Return, and enter 'Radiobutton 2'. Press Return, and enter 'Radiobutton 3'.
Let's move back up to the 'Checkbutton'. Use the mouse to click in the 'Shortcut' field in the control window. Hold the Control key, and press the 'c' key. The symbol "<-c>" should appear in the shortcut field. If you press a cursor movement key at this point, the focus will go back to the Label field. Then, the cursor movement keys will move the cursor again.
Alternatively, you can click with the mouse on the menu item that you want to change. Click on the Checkbutton item, and then click on the Checkbutton Menu Type in the control window. Click on each of the Radiobutton menu items, and click on the Radiobutton Menu Type for each one. Add Alt-1 for Radiobutton 1, Alt-2 for Radiobutton 2, and Alt-3 for Radiobutton 3.
Finally, let's add the variables for the menu items. Click on the Checkbutton menu item, then click in the Variable field on the control window, and type in the variable name 'checkButton'.
Click on each of the Radiobuttons, and for each, put the name 'selectedButton' in the Variable field, and put the value of the radio button in the value field for each menu item.
It should look like this:
