Designing Menus and Toolbars

Menus and toolbars provide a structured and accessible route for users to leverage the commands and tools contained in your applications. Proper planning and design of menus and toolbars will make sure the key functionality of your applications is exposed, and users will not become frustrated as they try to use your applications. For information about customizing Visual FoxPro toolbars, see Customizing the Visual FoxPro Environment.

Users often browse menus before looking elsewhere for information about your application. If your menus are well designed, users can organize their understanding of the application by developing a mental model based on the menu organization and content alone. With the Visual FoxPro Menu designer, you can create menus that enhance the quality of your applications.

Each part of a Visual FoxPro application can have its own menu system or set of menus. The following topics describe how to create a menu system. For details about adding menus to an application, see Compiling an Application.

In This Section

• Menu System Creation
  Describes the Menu designer, where you create the menus, submenus, and menu options.

• Creating Menus, Shortcut Menus, Menu Items, and Submenus
  Discusses how to create menus, shortcut menus, menu items, and submenus to navigate and access features in your application.

• How to: Add Cleanup Code to a Menu System
  Describes how to customize menu systems by adding cleanup code to it.

• How to: Add Setup Code to a Menu System
  Explains how to customize a menu system by adding setup code to it.

• How to: Assign Access Keys and Keyboard Shortcuts
  Explains how to assign access keys and keyboard shortcuts to your menus for better functionality.

• How to: Control Menus at Run Time
  Describes how to control menus during run time.

• How to: Enable and Disable Menu Items
  Explains how to enable or disable a menu or menu item based on a logical condition.

• How to: Include Menus in an Application
  Explains how to include a menu system in your application.

• How to: Perform Tasks with Commands
  Explains how to perform at task by assigning a command to a menu or menu item.

• How to: Perform Tasks with Procedures
  Describes how to assign a procedure to a menu or menu item.

• Creating Custom Toolbars
  Discusses how to add custom toolbars to simplify or speed up tasks in your application.

• How to: Test and Debug a Menu System
  Explains how to preview a menu system as you design it, or test and debug it after generating the menu program.

• How to: Customize a Menu System
  Explains that after creating a basic menu system, you can customize it. For example, you can create status bar messages, define menu locations, or define default procedures.

Related Sections

• Creating the User Interface
  Provides links to topics on using Visual FoxPro forms, classes, controls, menus, and toolbars, to build interfaces that help users gain access to the full potential of your programs.

• Creating Forms
  Provides a links to topics on how to design forms in Visual FoxPro.

• Working with Forms
  Provides link to topics that explain how to work with forms you can run, hide, or alter forms in different ways.

• Using Controls
  Provides link to topics that explain how to use controls to manage the interactions between users and your application. Visual FoxPro offers a variety of controls to enhance your application interface.