Menu Conventions and Toolbar Conventions
All Windows compliant products use Menus and Toolbars. Menus contain a number of
options, logically organized and easily accessible by the user. Toolbars supplement the menus
by providing quick access to a number of frequently used options. Yet menus and the toolbars
takeup little space, they can be made contextual.
Menu Conventions
1) Keep Menu captions short and simple. On the Menu Bar use one word for a
title. More than one word can be confusing, as there are no separators.
2) Follow the windows conventions while naming and ordering the menu items on the menu
bar, and on the list of options and sub-options. Any deviation from the windows conventions
will result in confusion.
3) Keep the list of menu options short. A list can extend below the bottom, but avoid this if
you can. Try to break it up into child menus where possible. Again remember that too many
submenus is a bad design policy.
4) Use separators to logically group menu options.
5) Provide keyboard shortcuts where possible. Again, stick to windows conventions.
6) Use an intermediate dialog box where you can get user input and concurrence for
aparticular course of action.
Toolbar Conventions :
One Should keep in mind that a toolbar is a supplement to the Menu Bar. It offers
mouseshortcuts for frequently used functions.
1) You need the Toolbar control. If you do not have it on your Toolbox, do the following.
2) Place the mouse on the ToolBox and click the right mouse button.
3) From the pop-up menu choose components.
4) A window pops up displaying the controls that are available.
5) Click on Microsoft Windows Common Controls
6) Click on Wang image edit control. And Push the OK button and you well see some
newcontrols on your Toolbox.Now double click on the Toolbar control. A long flat button
will appear on the form belowthe Menu Bar. With the Toolbar in focus click the right-mouse-
button. Select properties from thepop-up menu.
There are three options:
General :
Using this options you can set the mouse pointer type, adjust the size of the buttons, and set
other parameters.
Buttons :
In this option, you can insert the buttons, set the control keys for the buttons, provide the
ToolTip text, etc. Observe that the Image parameter is grayed. Add the buttons that you want.
Supply the caption, the key to access the button, etc. The Key that you give here will be the
reference you will use when you want to send the toolbar events to menu items.
Picture :
View the picture of the icons selected.
Multiple document Interface:
The MDI was designed to simplify the exchange of information among documents, all under
the same roof. With a MDI application, you can maintain multiple windows, but not multiple
copies of the application. Data exchange is easier when you can view and compare many
documents simultaneously. The main form or MDI form is not duplicated, but it acts as a
container for allthe windows, and it is called the parent window. A MDI application must
have at least two forms, the parent form and one or more child forms.There can be many
child forms, but only one parent form. He parent form may not contain controls. While
the parent form is open in the design mode, though the icons in the toolbox are not
disabled, but you cannot place any control on the form. But you can place controls
in childforms.To create a MDI application follow these
steps:1.
Start a new project, and choose
Project>Add MDI
form
to add the form2.
Set the form’s caption to MDIwindow.
3.
Choose
Project>Add form
to add a regular form.4.
Make this form child by setting its MDIChild property true. To denote that this is a childform
set its caption to MDIChild.5.
Double-click your picture control in the tool box. It will appear as toolbar to your
MDIform.6.
Place three command buttons on this toolbar and change their names and captions
tonewchild, cascade and tile respectively.7.
The MDI window will look as in the below.8.
Enter the codes as shown in the below.9.
Save and run the project.10.
See how you can arrange the child windows in tiles or cascades. You can add any number of
child windows by clicking the new child button. A typical tile arrangement of child windows
is shown in the below and cascade arrangement of the child windows in the below
