Controls: Menus

Abstract

There are a number of user interface features that characterise most windows programs, and the three most commonly used are menus, toolbars and dialog boxes. In this chapter we look at drop down menus. The following concepts are covered:

• Resources — menus:

  • Menu names.

  • Menu types.

  • Menu ID.

  • Menu resource file.

  • Menus and the message map.

  • Short cut keys — accelerators.

• Message boxes.

• Left and right mouse button presses.

• Repainting the client window.

• Programming resources versus using the resource editors.

‘Winnie-the-Pooh read the two notices very carefully, first from left to right, and afterwards, in case he had missed some of it, from right to left.’

A. A. Milne, Winne-the-Pooh.