Menu Bar

Creating a Menu Item and Group

The Menu Item/Group Definition dialogue is used to define the properties of a new item or group. It is invoked from the Menu Bar Definition dialogue by clicking the New Item or New Group toolbar buttons or by right clicking inside the Item list box and selecting New Item or New Group.

This dialogue is divided into the following tabbed panels: Details and Attributes.

Details

Item/Group

Item

Item name. A selection character prefixed by an & (ampersand) is mandatory in each item or group. When the menu is displayed, the selection character will be underlined, which identifies it as a hot key that, when pressed in conjunction with the Alt key, activates the selection. If the & (ampersand) is not already present, NOMADS inserts it before the first character.

Alt keys cannot be duplicated. If saving an item or group with an Alt key that is currently assigned to an existing item or group, a message will display, and a different Alt key must be selected.

As items are added, they are displayed in the Item list box in the Menu Bar Definition dialogue.

Function

Logic to be executed when the item is selected. Click the drop-down arrow for a list of selections:

Ignore	No logic to be performed. *(Default)*
Call	Call a program.
Link	Invoke another panel passing optional arguments.
Jumpto	Process a new panel, passing all variables.
Perform	Perform a program.
Execute	Execute a series of statements separated by semi-colons.
Merge-Jumpto	Process a new panel as a concurrent panel.
Help	Launch Help reference.
End	Terminate panel.
Click the Program Logic button beside the Perform or Call action to launch the default program editor, which is typically the IT - Integrated Toolkit. To make Ed+* the default program editor, change the setting for the %NOMADS'Program_Editor property to Ed+. (The ability to set Ed+ as the default program editor was added in PxPlus 2023.)

Item State

Initial state of the menu item at run time. Click the drop-down arrow for a list of selections:

Show Item	Displays the item name as listed.
Suppress Item	Removes the item from the menu bar.
Disable Item	Displays the item, but functionality is disabled.
For a Popup Menu attached to an input control, you can suppress or disable a menu item when that control has no value entered.

Include Line Separator

Check box to apply a separator line below menu item text.

(The Merge-Jumpto function was added in PxPlus 2019.)

Menu Override Options

Function

Override logic to be executed on menu build. Click the drop-down arrow for a list of selections:

Ignore	No logic to be performed. *(Default)*
Perform	Perform a program.
Execute	Execute a series of statements separated by semi-colons.
See Menu Override Variables.

Click the Program Logic button beside the Perform action to launch the default program editor, which is typically the *IT - Integrated Toolkit. To make Ed+ the default program editor, change the setting for the %NOMADS'Program_Editor property to Ed+.

(The ability to set Ed+ as the default program editor was added in PxPlus 2023.)

Attributes

Bitmaps

Normal	Assign a bitmap that will appear to the left of the text when the menu is drawn. Can be a Fixed value or string Expression. Click the Bitmap Library button to select a bitmap. If specifying an external image, see Note below.
Checked	Assign a bitmap that will appear to the left of the text when the menu is drawn. Can be a Fixed value or string Expression. Click the Bitmap Library button to select a bitmap. If specifying an external image, see Note below.

Bitmap/Image transparency options can also be applied to internal and external images:

	T	Use upper leftmost pixel color.
	G	Use Light Gray color RGB: 192,192,192.
	N	No transparency. (Allows override for "!" bitmaps, which always imply Light Gray transparency.)

Note:
If specifying an external image, set the background color of the image to use the Light Gray color RGB:192,192,192 with the G transparency option; otherwise, the background color will be visible.

(The ability to enter an expression for a bitmap was added in PxPlus 2019.)

Item Colors

(NOMADS Only)

Background / Text

Assign a background and/or text color for an individual menu item. See Menu Colors.

Click the drop-down arrow for a list of selections:

Menu Default	Use the color settings for the entire menu set in Menu Colors. See Menu Bar Definition.
System Default	Default colors for the session. Dependent on %NOMADS properties, Library Default settings, Themes and Visual Classes.
Specify Color	Click the Query button to access Color Selections. Setting a specific color on an individual menu item will override all other menu background and text color settings.

(The Color Selections Query button and dialog were added in PxPlus 2020.)

Menu Bar

Note: If specifying an external image, set the background color of the image to use the Light Gray color RGB:192,192,192 with the G transparency option; otherwise, the background color will be visible.

Note:
If specifying an external image, set the background color of the image to use the Light Gray color RGB:192,192,192 with the G transparency option; otherwise, the background color will be visible.