[kde-guidelines] Styleguide: Menu bar

[Heiko Tietze]

Am Donnerstag, 19. September 2013, 19:48:40 schrieb Thomas Pfeiffer:
> > * Use standard items for categories: File, Edit, View, Insert, Format,
> > Tools, Settings, Window, Help.
> 
> I'm not sure if I understand this one correctly. Does it mean that these
> common categories should be labeled with these names? In that case, my
> wording suggestion would be:
> Use these names for common menu categories: File, Edit, View, Insert,
> Format, Tools, Settings, Window, Help.
It's a (slightly modified) bullet of the old article. I understand it as all 
menus should include those categories. If you double check some programs it's 
actually true, at least for the first four items.

> > * Do not make the menu bar hideable, users may not easily be able to make
> > the menu bar viewable again.
> 
> This point is open for discussion. I agree that menus should not be hidden
> by default and they must not be hidden in a way that they can only be re-
> displayed with a keyboard shortcut or context menu (like e.g. Amarok does
> it), even if instructions on how to show it again are given when users hide
> it. However, menu buttons like in Dolphin make it quite easy to re-show the
> menu: Click the button, check "Show Menu", done. I know you find even the
> menu button a bad idea, but I don't see a serious usability problem in this
> way.
Every application should include a main menu. Users should not be able to hide 
this menu bar. 

> > * Hide menu items that not apply at all.
> 
> What do you mean by "not apply at all" in contrast to "don't apply to the
> current context"? If a menu item does not make any sense in an application,
> it should not be hidden, but completely removed (I don't think that people
> would implement a menu item which just does nothing in the first place
> though, would they?)
Good question for the main menu. The idea is to hide the "spell checking", for 
instance, if written text is source code versus to disable it for text input 
when no dictionary is installed. But in terms of main menu all functions 
should be relevant. I remove this item.