122 CHAPTER 4 WORKING WITH REALBASIC MENUS (Cool web site)

122 CHAPTER 4 WORKING WITH REALBASIC MENUS FOLLOW ACCEPTED DESIGN CONVENTIONS Today s computer users have become sophisticated and demanding, so it s critical that your applications measure up to their expectations. One expectation most users have is that their applications follow a predictable design pattern. This means, among other things, that an application s menu system presents its menus in the manner they expect. For example, menu headings should be labeled File, Edit, and Help, not Document, Modify, and Assistance. In addition, users expect to see certain features on certain menus. For example, the File menu should contain menu items for opening and closing files. Putting these menu items under a different menu can frustrate and confuse users. Also important is that your menus and menu items include shortcuts, where appropriate, and that you follow standards appropriate for naming your shortcuts as appropriate for each OS where your applications will run. For example, if your application provides users with the capability to select and copy data, then your users will expect to see a Copy menu item located under an Edit menu. In addition, Macintosh users will expect your application to provide a Command+C shortcut. Likewise, Windows and Linux users will expect to see a Ctrl+C shortcut. If you fail to provide a shortcut or you assign a different shortcut key, you run the risk of missing your users expectations. To help provide you with some guidance, Table 4-2 provides a listing of shortcut key definitions that represent common application-shortcut standards. Table 4-2. Recommended Reserved Operating System Shortcut Keys Menu Macintosh Windows Linux Command Description File z-N Ctrl+N Ctrl+N New Create a new file z-O Ctrl+O Ctrl+O Open Open an existing file z-W Ctrl+W Ctrl+W Close Close a file z-S Ctrl+S Ctrl+S Save Save a file z-P Ctrl+P Ctrl+P Print Print a file z-Q Ctrl+Q Ctrl+Q Quit Close the application Edit z-Z Ctrl+Z Ctrl+Z Undo Undo a previous operation or command z-X Ctrl+X Ctrl+X Cut Remove selected data; place on clipboard z-C Ctrl+C Ctrl+C Copy Copy selected data; place on clipboard z-V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Paste Copy data from clipboard to insertion point z-A Ctrl+A Ctrl+A Select All Select all data z-Period Esc Esc Terminate Terminate the current operation z-M Ctrl+M Ctrl+M Minimize Minimize the window
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