Cascading Option Menus

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Wed Feb 2 14:03:08 EST 2011


Peter Haworth wrote:

> The recent thread on mouseDoubleup and particularly Richard's thought
> on HIG have made me realise the UI choices I made weren't the best.
> I'm now thinking of using a cascading option menu.
>
> The menuPick dictionary entry says "If the menu item is part of
> a submenu, the menu item label is followed by a vertical bar (|)
> and the submenu's label."
> but what I'm seeing is just the actual submenu choice with tabs
> at the front of it.
>
> I don't think I can make this work since I could have the same
> submenu item listed under more than one main menu item.  What
> am I missing?

I hate to keep being the bearer of bad news, but submenus are only 
supported in LiveCode for pulldown and popup menu styles.

This is conformant with the OS X HIG (in Controls/Pop-Up Menus):

      Avoid adding a submenu to any item in a pop-up menu.
      Doing so hides choices too deeply and is physically
      difficult for users to use.

Since option controls are more commonly used for selections, putting the 
items into a pulldown menu with an appropriate label or a gear or some 
other relevant icon might be a good option to do what you need.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv





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