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Menus

If your application provides multiple spelling-related commands, you may want to include a Spelling submenu. ASpellingsubmenutypicallycontainsCheckSpelling(Command-;)andCheckSpellingasYouTypecommands. If you include a Spelling submenu, the Spelling command is not followed by an ellipsis character.

Speech. Displays a submenu containing the Start Speaking and Stop Speaking commands. If your application displays text, you can provide the Speech menu item to allow users to listen to the text spoken aloud by the system.

Special Characters… Displays the Special Characters window, which allows users to input characters from any character set supported by Mac OS X into text entry fields. This menu item is automatically inserted at the bottom of the Edit menu.

The Format Menu

If your application provides functions for formatting text, you can include a Format menu as a top-level menu or as a submenu of the Edit menu. It may be appropriate to group some items that are in the Format menu into submenus, such as Font, Text, or Style.

Figure 13-18 A Format menu

Show Fonts (Command-T). The first item in the Format menu should be Show Fonts, which displays the Fonts window.

Show Colors (Command-Shift-C). Displays the Colors window.

Bold (Command-B). Boldfaces the selected text or toggles boldfaced text on and off. If used as a toggle, indicate when it is on by having a checkmark next to the command in the menu.

Italic (Command-I). Italicizes the selected text or toggles italic text on and off. If used as a toggle, indicate when it is on by having a checkmark next to the command in the menu.

Underline (Command-U). Underlines the selected text or toggles underlined text on and off. If used as a toggle, indicate when it is on by having a checkmark next to the command in the menu.

Bigger (Command–Shift–equal sign). Causes the selected item to increase in size in defined increments.

Smaller (Command-hyphen). Causes the selected item to decrease in size in defined increments.

Copy Style (Command-Option-C). Copies the style—font, color, and size for text—of the selected item. It may be appropriate to put this item in a Style submenu along with related items.

Paste Style (Command-Option-V). Applies the style of one object to the selected object.

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Align Left (Command-{). Left-aligns a selection.

Center (Command-|). Center-aligns a selection.

Justify. Evenly spaces a selection.

Align Right (Command-}). Right-aligns a selection.

Show Ruler. Displays a formatting ruler.

Copy Ruler (Command-Control-C). Copies formatting settings such as tabs and alignment for a selection to apply to a another selection and stores them on the Clipboard.

Paste Ruler (Command-Control-V). Applies formatting settings (that have been saved to the Clipboard) to the selected object.

The View Menu

The View menu provides commands that affect how users see a window’s content; it does not provide commands to select specific document windows to view or to manage a specific document window. Commands to organize, select, and manage windows are in the Window menu (described in “The Window Menu” (page 182)).

For example, the View menu in the Finder contains commands for displaying windows in column, icon, or list mode. Commands for showing, hiding, and customizing a toolbar belong in the View menu. Create a View menu for these commands even if your application doesn’t need to have other commands in the View menu. Show/Hide Toolbar should appear right above Customize Toolbar.

Avoid using the View menu to display panels (such as tool palettes); use the Window menu instead.

Figure 13-19 A View menu

Show/Hide Toolbar (Command-Option-T). Shows or hides a toolbar. The Show/Hide Toolbar command is provided so that people using full keyboard access can implement these functions with the keyboard. It should be a dynamic menu item that toggles based on the current visibility of the toolbar. If the toolbar is currently visible, the menu item says Hide Toolbar. If the toolbar is not visible, it says Show Toolbar.

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Customize Toolbar… Opens a window that allows the user to customize which items are present. Figure 13-20 shows the result of choosing this command in the Finder.

Figure 13-20 Finder toolbar customization window

Application-Specific Menus

You can add your own application-specific menus as appropriate. These menus should be between the View menu and the Window menu, as illustrated in Figure 13-21.

Figure 13-21 Application-specific menus in Safari

Application-specific menus

See “The Menu Bar and Its Menus” (page 171) for more information about how to arrange application-specific menus in the menu bar.

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The Window Menu

The Window menu contains commands for organizing and managing an application’s windows. The menu should list an application’s open document windows (including minimized windows) in the order in which they were opened, with the most recently opened document first. If a document contains unsaved changes, a bullet should appear next to its name.

OtherthanMinimizeandZoom(discussedbelow),theWindowmenudoesnotcontaincommandsthataffect the way a user views a window’s contents. The View menu (described in “The View Menu” (page 180)) contains all commands that adjust how a user views a window’s contents.

Figure 13-22 A Window menu

Mac OS X does not automatically add panels to the list in the Window menu and you should not list individual panels in this menu. You can, however, add a command to the Window menu to show or hide panels in your application. (For more information about panels, see “Panels” (page 222).)

The Minimize and Zoom commands are in the Window menu so that people using full keyboard access can implement these functions with the keyboard. Even if your application consists of only one window, include a Window menu for the Minimize and Zoom commands.

Window menu items should appear in this order: Minimize, Zoom, separator, application-specific window commands, separator, Bring All to Front (optional), separator, list of open documents. Note that the Close command should appear in the File menu, below the Open command (see “The File Menu” (page 175)).

Minimize (Command-M). Minimizes the active window to the Dock.

Minimize All (Command-Option-M). Minimizes all the windows of the active application to the Dock.

Zoom. Toggles between a predefined size appropriate to the window’s content and the window size the user has set. This command should not expand the window to the full screen size. See “Resizing and Zooming Windows” (page 215).

Bring All to Front. Brings forward all of an application’s open windows, maintaining their onscreen location, size, and layering order. This should happen whenever a user clicks the application icon in the Dock. See “Window Layering” (page 217).

You can make this command an Option-enabled toggle with Arrange in Front.

Arrange in Front. Brings forward all of the application’s windows in their current layering order and changes their location and size so they are neatly tiled.

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