Re: Menu customization

["Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn" <xkahn cybersites com>]

On Tue, 4 Aug 1998, John R Sheets wrote:

> Martin Wahlen wrote:
> > 
> > Should the menu structure be "theamable"? What I am asking is should it be
> > possible to delete/change menu items at runtime? What do you guys think.
> 
> That's a very cool, dangerous feature.  I like it.  However, the
> only way I think this'll work is if GNOME keeps track of the
> original default menu at all times.  You'd have to be able to
> click an option and instantly get the original menu back. 
> This'll save people who--ooops!--deleted the "Font" menu last
> week and need it back for just one operation.  It'll also help
> people working on other's desktops, if they can instantly return
> to a "sane" menu configuration.
> 
> To expand this concept, what does everyone think about a
> configurable "User" menu that will follow the user around through
> all GNOME apps?  Maybe something highly customizable, like a Tool
> menu.  They could build it with some global GNOME utility (which
> would also enable/disable it).  Each app should also be able to
> turn it on/off on a case-by-case basis.  I'm envisioning
> something like the AmigaDOS Tools menu that floated through the
> list a while back.
> 
> A step further would be to allow specific menu items to be
> locally added to the User menus, items that wouldn't show up in
> other applications.  This would mean that the User menu would
> have to be configurable from a global scope (probably the Panel),
> as well as from a local scope (from the app's foot menu).
> 
> The User menu would allow users to run common command line
> operations from a menu.  For example, if the user had a special
> directory for his text documents, he could create a global
> "User->Open Documents Folder" item that brings up mc pointing at
> that directory.  In a word processor, the user could add a local
> entry, "User->Open as HTML", which would open up a given file
> (the current file?) in, say, Navigator.  You could edit the raw
> HTML in the editor and pull it up in a separate viewer to
> cross-check it.  I'm sure there are many other, better, examples
> out there.

	How many of you knew that MS Word supports that feature?  Hmm?
Ever go looking?  It does.  I deleted the Help menu once...  They actually
have a nice way of dealing with it.  Here's how it works:

	The application has to have a list of ALL AVAILBLE functions.
Something like the list of functions in Emacs.  You can drag the items in
this list anywhere.  If you drag them to a menubar, it makes an icon.  If
you drag it to a menu, it makes a menu item.

	To make the list of functions smaller, they have put all the
functions in categories for you.  As long as you think like an MS
programmer, you can find what you want.  :^)

	It's okay.  I wasn't particularly impressed with this feature...


						-Ben

------------------------------------ |\      _,,,--,,_  ,) ----------
Benjamin Kahn                        /,`.-'`'   -,  ;-;;'
(212) 924 - 2220                    |,4-  ) )-,_ ) /\
ben@cybersites.com --------------- '---''(_/--' (_/-' ---------------
          Meet Linux: Forrest Gump as an operating system.