The menu bar is a graphical control element that contains a drop-down menu.
The goal of the menu bar is to provide public housing for special menus-windows or applications that provide access to functions such as opening files, interacting with applications, or displaying help or manual documentation. The menu bar is usually present in a graphical user interface that displays documents and file representations in windows and windowing systems but the menus can also be used in command line interface programs such as text editors or file managers where drop-down menus are enabled with shortcuts or combination locks.
Video Menu bar
Implementations
Through the evolution of the user interface, the menu bar has been implemented in various ways by various user interfaces and application programs.
Macintosh
In the Macintosh operating system, the menu bar is the horizontal "bar" mounted at the top of the screen. In macOS, the left side contains the Apple menu, the Applications menu (the name will match the current application name) and the currently focused application menu (eg File, Edit, View, Window, Help). On the right side, it contains additional menus (eg system clock, volume control, and Quick user switch menu (if enabled) and Spotlight icons.These additional menus can be moved horizontally by clicking on the command and dragging left or right, if an icon dragged and dropped vertically it will disappear with a cloud of smoke, just like the icons on the dock. In the classic Mac OS (versions 7 to 9), the right side contains an app menu, allowing users to switch between open applications On Mac OS 8.5 and the menu can be dragged down, which will cause it to appear on the screen as a floating palette.
There is only one menu bar, so the application menu that is displayed is the application that is currently focused. Therefore, for example, if the System Preferences app is focused, the menu is in the menu bar, and if the user clicks on the Desktop that is part of the Finder app, the menu bar will display the Finder menu.
Apple's experiments in GUI design for the Lisa project initially used many menu bars anchored to the bottom of the window, but this quickly came down to support the current setting, as it proved to be slower to use (according to Fitts law). The separate menu ideas in every window or document are then implemented in Microsoft Windows and are the default representation in most Linux desktop environments.
Even before the advent of the Macintosh, the universal graphics menu bar appeared at Apple Lisa in 1983. It has been featured from all versions of the Classic Mac OS since the first Macintosh was released in 1984, and is still used today in macOS.
Microsoft Windows
The menu bar in Microsoft Windows is usually anchored to the top of the window under the title bar; therefore, there are many menu bars on the screen at one time. Menus in the menu bar can be accessed via shortcuts involving the Alt key and the mnemonic letters that appear underlined in the menu title. Additionally, pressing Alt or F10 brings focus to the first menu of the menu bar.
Linux and UNIX
KDE and GNOME allow users to enable and disable Mac and Windows style menus. KDE can use both of these types simultaneously.
The standard GNOME desktop uses the menu bar at the top of the screen, but this menu bar contains only the System Applications and menus and status information (such as the time of day); Individual programs have their own menu bar as well. Unity desktop framework shipped with Ubuntu Linux since version 11.04 using Macintosh-style menu bar; However, it's hidden unless a mouse pointer hovers over it, similar to the Commodore Amiga example below.
Other window managers and desktop environments use the same scheme, where programs have their own menus, but clicking one or more mouse buttons on the root window displays a menu containing, for example, a command to launch various applications or to exit.
The Window manager menu in Linux can usually be configured either by editing a text file, using a desktop-environment-specific Control Panel applet, or both.
Commodore Amiga
Amiga uses a menu-bar style similar to the Macintosh, with the exception that the machine-specific graphics chip allows each program to have its own "screen", with its own resolution and color settings, which can be dragged down to reveal other program screens. The title bar/menu will usually be at the top of the screen, and can be accessed by pressing the right mouse button, displaying the names of various menus. When the right menu button is not pressed, the menu bar/title will usually display the name of the program that has the screen, and some other information such as the amount of memory used. When accessing the menu with the right mouse button is pressed, one can select multiple menu entries by clicking the left mouse button, and when the right mouse button is released, all actions selected in the menu will be done in the selected order. This is known as multiselect.
The Workbench screen title bar will usually display the Workbench version and the amount of free RAM Chip and Fast RAM. The unusual feature of the Amiga menu system is that the Workbench screen will display the "Workbench" menu instead of the "File" or "Apple" menu, while the appropriate application will display the "Project" and "Tools" menu ( project and tools become, respectively, the Amiga term for what is in another system called file or document , and the program or app ).
Keyboard shortcuts can be accessed by pressing the "right Amiga" button along with normal alphanumeric buttons. (Some of the early keyboards have Commodore keys on the left of the spacebar instead of the "left-amiga" button.) The full and pitted designs, respectively, from left and right-the Amiga (or Commodore and Amiga) keys are similar to Apple's closed Apple and the open Apple II button.
NeXTstep
NeXTstep OS for NeXT engine will display "menu palette", by default in the top left of the screen. Clicking on an entry in the menu list will display a submenu of the commands in the menu. The content of the menu changes depending on whether the user is "in" Workspace Manager or app. Menus and sub-menus can be easily torn and moved around the screen as individual pallet windows.
Electric users will often turn off the always-on menu, letting it be displayed in the location of the mouse pointer when the right mouse button is pressed. The same implementation is used by GNUstep and customize the application, even if the application written for the host operating system or other toolkit will use the menu scheme that matches the OS or the toolkit.
Atari TOS
The KL operating system for Atari ST will display the menu bar at the top of the screen like Mac OS. Instead of 'pulling down' by holding down the mouse button, the menu will appear as soon as the pointer ends. This is done to get Apple patents in the pull-down menu.
RISC OS
In RISC OS, clicking the center button displays the menu list in the mouse pointer location. The implementation of the RISC OS menu is similar to another system context menu, except the menu that will not be closed if the right mouse button is used to select menu entries. This allows the user to implement or try some settings before closing the menu.
Maps Menu bar
Ease of use
Both in the Microsoft Windows operating system and Apple Macintosh, in other similar desktop environments and in some applications, common functions are given keyboard shortcuts (eg Control-C or Command-C copy the current selection).
Microsoft's style bar is physically located in the same window as the content associated with it. However, Bruce Tognazzini, a former employee of Apple Inc. and human-computer interaction professionals, claiming that the Mac OS menu bar can be accessed up to five times faster because of Fitts law: because the menu bar is located on the edge of the screen, effectively has unlimited heights - Mac users can only "throw" their mouse pointer to the top of the screen with a guarantee that it will never go beyond the menu bar and disappear.
This assumes that the desired menu is currently enabled, however. If another app has a "focus", the menu will belong to that app, requiring users to check and see which menu is active before "throwing" the mouse, and often taking the extra steps to focus the desired app before using the completely separate menu of the applications it controls. The effectiveness of this technique is also reduced on larger screens or with a low mouse acceleration curve, especially since the time it takes to travel back to the target in the window after using the menu. On systems with multiple views, the menu bar can be displayed on a single "main" screen, or on all connected screens. The classic Mac OS, and macOS versions prior to OS X Mavericks only display a single menu bar on the main screen; Mavericks add an option to display bars on all screens.
Some apps, e.g. Microsoft Office 2007, Internet Explorer 7 (by default), and Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox 4 on Windows and Linux, effectively eliminate the menu bar by hiding it until the button is pressed (usually the "alt" key). This app presents the option to users contextually, usually using hyperlinks to choose an action.
See also
- IBM Common User Access - a standard that defines some aspects of the menu layout commonly used by Windows and some of today's Linux desktop environments.
- Menu Button - where pop-up menus are under the button.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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