The
Menu Editor is a tool which can be used for creating a menu visually. Menu
is represented here as a tree structure of menu items and menu folders.
We decided to use tree structure, because this visual representation is
natural for menus and allows you to control and maintain your menu easier.
During your work in the Menu Editor, you can watch your menu growing in
the Form Editor window.
The Menu Editor contains:
Menu editor can be invoked only using the Component Inspector when inspecting form's component Menubar. To invoke the menu editor, follow these steps:
So far, so good. Now we are in the Menu Editor(ME). Working with the ME should be natural and intuitive. Whole process of the work with the ME can be separated into several actions:
Moving across the tree
Only one menu item or folder can be selected at a time, you can
move with this selection by pressing up/down arrow keys or by clicking
the mouse on the name of specified item. When pressing arrows, area will
be scrolled automatically if necessary.
Opening / closing the folders
User can open (pull down) or close (pull up) menu folder by using
proper menu command, by pressing the "Space" key or by clicking
the mouse on the icon before the name of the folder.
Note: When you invoke the ME for the first time, you will see that it already has small "empty" menu. In fact, this is the smallest possible menu which you can maintain with the Menu Editor. Th Menu Editor must not be blank.
When you want to insert some menu folder or item, there are actually two possible ways.
In either case, the Menu editor will switch into edit mode and allow you to type the name of your new folder or item. When you are finished, press the Enter key to commit changes or Esc key to abandom them. See the below picture to find out how edit mode looks like.
Note: New folder or item is always placed after currently selected one and then selected.
Note: When you insert a separator, there's no need to edit it. That's why the Menu Editor will not switch into edit mode when inserting separator.
Note: The next item to deleted will be selected. Use this feature with care, because it has no confirmation. When you try to remove folder, all submenu will be deleted.
You will probably immediately notice that content of the Component Inspector
changes as you 're working with the ME. From the Component Inspector's
point of view, the Menu Editor is just another inspectable (beside the
Form Editor). Component inspector shows you all menu components in the
selection choice (important notice - menu items are components too!) and
you can work with them as usual. The Component Inspector and the Menu Editor
share and modify the same data. When you change something in the Menu Editor,
the Component Inspector is notified and changes are immediatelly visible.
Going backwards, when you make changes in the Component inspector, changes
will affect the Menu Editor immediatelly.
Note: the CI will inspect content of the ME util you activate
another inspectable (such as the Form Editor). Similarly, when you activate
the ME again, the CI will forget the content of the Form editor and
show content of the ME again.
The Menu Editor also can set a menu which is builded into target frame,
more specifically to the Form Editor frame window. Using this feature you
can watch exactly how your menu will look like. The Menu Editor is connected
with the Form Editor and every change you make in the Menu Editor is refrected
in the Form Editor frame's menu.
But there's one drawback: The form can have multiple menus attached. Which
one is currently active we can see from the value of form's property "Menu".
Value of this property is a name of the menu which is visible on the form
at the time.
Note: You can see a menu you are building with the ME on the
form only and only if form's active menu equals your menu that you are
building.
It is quite legal to build menu which is not showed on the form. If you don't want to know, how your menu looks like in its final form, simply set form's "Menu" property to "<no menu>" value and you're done. You can work with the Menu Editor as before and the Form Editor frame will not be affected by changes.
User action | What does it mean |
Up/Down key arrow pressed | Moves the selection one entry up/down |
Home/End keys pressed | Moves the selection to the first/last visible entry of the menu tree |
Mouse clicked on the entry name | Clicked entry is selected |
Command menu Edit/Edit or Enter key pressed | Starts editing of selected entry (switches into edit mode). When already in edit mode, commits changes and switches back to view mode. |
Command menu Edit/Escape or Esc key pressed | Escapes edit mode and abandon changes. Works only in edit mode (does nothing when in view mode) |
Commnad menu Edit/Toggle pull or Space key pressed or icon beside item's name clicked | Opens folder if it has been closed, closes folder if it has been opened. Does nothing if entry hasn't been the folder. |
Command menu Creation/New menu or shortcut Ctrl+F pressed | New menu folder is inserted after currently selected entry if possible |
Command menu Creation/New item or shortcut Ctrl+I pressed | New menu item is inserted after currently selected entry if possible |
Command menu Creation/New separator or shortcut Ctrl+S pressed | New menu separator is inserted after currently selected entry if possible |
The Menu editor tool has some restrictions and limitations. Let's explain them.