Drop-down menu

In a computer GUI, a drop-down menu is a menu that offers a list of options. The title of the menu, or the currently-selected item in the list, is always displayed. When the visible item is clicked, other items from the list «drop-down» in to view, and the user can choose from those options.

For example, many programs have a «File» drop-down menu at the top-left of their screen. Clicking the «File» text generates a new menu with additional options.

Drop-down menus in HTML

A drop-down menu is a clean method of showing a large list of choices since only one choice is displayed initially until the user activates the drop-down box. To add a drop-down menu to a web page, you would use a

In this example, we have also assigned a value to each of these options. These values can be passed to any server-side script for information to be logged or for actions to occur based on the values.

Example of the above code

Nothing happens when selecting a choice using the above drop-down menu. If you want to submit data using a drop-down menu, you can use our customer service form.

Drop-down menus in a program window

Drop-down menus are used in all types of software. For example, in the Windows operating system, the list of possible display themes (shown below) is a drop-down menu.

How to select a drop-down menu using the keyboard

To select a drop-down menu using the keyboard, press Tab until the drop-down menu is selected. Once selected, you can use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the available options. For example, press Tab now until the following drop-down menu is selected and then use your down arrow key to scroll through the list. Once you’re done selecting an option, press Tab again to move to the next item or press Enter .

You can also press the first letter of an option. For example, in the above drop-down menu, «Last» is the last item in the drop-down menu. If you press the » L » key on your keyboard once the drop-down menu is selected it would immediately scroll down to that option. This tip is helpful for large drop-down menus with several options (e.g., selecting a state or country).

What key do I press to close a drop-down menu?

You can press the Esc key to close the drop-down menu.

What happens when you click an item in a drop-down menu?

When an item in a drop-down menu is clicked, it becomes the selected option. For example, if you’re filling out a form containing a drop-down menu with a list of countries, and you choose «United States,» that becomes your selection. When you submit the form, «United States» will be the country you chose.

What icon do you click to activate a drop-down menu?

If a drop-down menu only has one option available (as seen below), you’d click the down arrow icon next to the first option.

Today, most programs also allow you to click anywhere in the drop-down menu to see the list of available options.

Should I use «drop-down menu» or «dropdown menu» in writing?

When writing documentation or describing a drop-down menu, use «drop-down menu» unless you’re describing a function, option, or command with no hyphen.

How to create a drop down menu in WinForms and C#

I am new to using Visual Studio/WinForms/C#

I am trying to create a simple drop down menu where each item can have a value and a label.

This is what I would do in HTML if I was creating a web app. But how can I do this with C# and WinForms?

I tried ComboBox but it seems I am not allowed to add a value and a label and the user can still type anything they want.

I tried a ListBox but that did not allow me to use value and label as well.

5 Answers 5

If you want a value and a caption (label), create an appropriate class

In the ComboBox you then set the DisplayMember property to Text and the ValueMember property to ID .

The DropDownStyle of the ComboBox determines its behavior. DropDownStyle.DropDown enables the user to type in text. With DropDownStyle.DropDownList the user can only select items from the list.

You can fill the ComboBox like this:

The DataSource can be any kind of enumerable.

You can retrieve the selected ID like this

Note that you can add any type of item to the ComboBox. If you don’t specify the DisplayMember and ValueMember properties, the ComboBox uses the ToString method of the object to determine the text displayed and you can retrieve the selected item (not selected value) through the SelectedItem property.

If you add objects of this type .

. to the ComboBox, you can retrieve the selected item like this

The ComboBox will display the first and last names of the persons.

How to get rid of drop down menu entries in windows 10 mail app

There are incorrect email addresses that appear when I type a letter in the «To» box in windows 10 Mail app. I had an old girl friend who’s email keeps coming up when I press the letter «J» I want to delete the entries in that drop down box. I have deleted her from my peoples list but her email still comes up in the windows mail app. If I delete my outlook account then add it again will that work. If so, how do delete my outlook mail account as it does not let me delete the Outlook account thru settings. It will let me delete anything else but not the outlook mail account.

Replies (10) 

Thank you for posting in Microsoft community.

We understand your concern and will certainly assist you to solve it.

Once you delete the contact from people app, you need to sign out and sign in to the user account. So please select the contact in the people app and delete it. After this you have to sign out of your account and again sign in. After doing this, please open the mail app and check if the issue persists.

Please let us know if the issue got resolved or you need any further assistance.

1 person found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for your response. I tried what you suggested and the email entry is still in the drop down list.

Even when I go to outlook and type in the first letter of her email address it appears in the drop-down list. The same with windows 10 mail app. as soon as I hit the letter «J» her email address is visible. For example when I open my email to send and email and type the letter J into the «To» Box there is is a list of names and hers is there to, I don’t want to see it there.

1 person found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for keeping us updated on this query. We will assist you in resolving your issue.

Run the apps troubleshooter included within Windows OS manually by following the steps below and check if the issue persist.

In many cases, the Windows Store will automatically notify you if there’s a problem with an app and try to fix the problem. If you continue experiencing problems with an app, this tool can automatically identify and fix some problems with apps and the Store.

1. Type troubleshooting in the search box next to Start icon and select the top most search result.
2. Click on View All from the left hand screen panel.
3. Select Windows Store apps , c lick on Advanced option and check Apply repairs automatically option.
4. Follow the on screen instructions.

Get back to us if you face any further issues, we will be happy to assist.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

I did find a way to get rid of the entries from Windows 10 app. But I can nor get rid of the entries from outlook mail. When in outlook mail and I, say type the letter s in the «to» box for email I get all the email address I typed in the last year; I don’t want that. How Do I get rid of the drop down menu history.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

I did find a way to get rid of the entries.. I deleted my Outlook account and used my live email account. That worked.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

I did find a way to get rid of the entries from Windows 10 app.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

What I did to get rid of the unwanted drop down entries in Windows mail ap was to as follows:

1) Go to settings, that is Start then settings.

2) Sign in with local account instead.

3)Insert current password.

4) Then follow the requests using same log in password, eg. Username, Password, re-enter Password then password hint. I just used my previous password.

5) Then sign out and finish.

6) Then log in again

7) Then go to accounts in your Windows 10 email app. Delete the email account that has the undesirable drop down info, in my case it was Outlook. Then re-enter your normal email account, in my case it is *** Email address is removed for privacy *** from the list, when adding email accounts but not outlook. If you re-enter outlook your contacts will be gone.

8)Then the drop down lists are gone from the mail app. But they still exist on Your Outlook email account.

Well that worked for me. I still have the offending drop down list if I log into Outlook thru my browser. I no longer have them on my standard email app, in my case it is my *** Email address is removed for privacy *** in my mail app.

I have not checked if I input new emails address if the same thing happens in my live account.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Okay, so you applied brute force rather than anything that I missed in the App itself.

And I also take it that you meant: 1) Go to Settings, Accounts

I noticed that the Setup screen said: You’ll sign in with a local account from now on.

I also noticed that you can set up the local account without using any password. Only username is ‘required’.

Together that is a little too sketchy for me and because of that I backed off.

So given your instructions I take it that from your new Local account you can delete the default Microsoft Mail account named «Outlook». The one that belongs to your Microsoft Windows Login account that (by default) cannot be deleted when logged in with your Microsoft Windows Login account. The one that Microsoft uses to get in touch with you and keeps track of your Store purchases. Would that be correct?

There is a reason for the Microsoft email account not to be removable and messing with it may have unforeseen repercussions. I don’t know whether Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com et al store the Sent Mail on the Server and not in the Mail app itself. If not deleted when the account is deleted, Sent mail may become inaccessible on other types of accounts.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Yes that would be correct because I can’t make purchases anyway thru Microsoft; I tried but something prevents me from doing so. Also, I like to control what shows up on my computer and what I can and cannot control. Drop down lists that can’t be deleted, lack this control so if I compromise windows 10 so be it. I’ll just use a pin and purchase thru Google Play. So now the drop down list is gone, I don’t use Outlook anymore, anyway, so why complicate things and get frustrated with things Windows 10 prevents me from deleting, namely old email address from drop down lists. You would think this would be easy to do; to delete these old entries. I liked windows 8 better. Windows 10 is more for commerce, making money for Microsoft. I like Google Play better anyway.

Another thing I hate is when you phone for support and these foreigners from India who work for Microsoft try to scam you out of money to fix a computer that is not broken and want you to install files on your computer that create more revenue for them. Further when you tell them about a problem they want your credit card number and would charge $250.00 dollars to try and fix the computer by taking control of your computer. This one guy installed these antispyware programs which I did not want and «Speed up my Computer» program and ran a diagnostic then claiming my computer was infected Then came the credit card request; Microsoft Scammers.

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

Windows.Forms button with drop-down menu

I’m developing simple C# application using Windows.Forms on .NET. I need some button that will show a drop-down menu with subcategories — much like ToolStripMenu, but the button, you know. I searched for it and could not found any variants.

My question is: is there any way to do this, maybe some secret button property that allows attach menu to it?

Any help will be appreciated.

10 Answers 10

You can show the ContextMenuStrip on the click event:

To make your own determination whether to show the menu above or below the button, you can try using this code, which measures the menu and determines whether or not it would be partially offscreen:

Button have down arrow right side of it and you can set menu of it from designer:

Expanding @Jaex answer a little bit to allow for a separator line, conditional drawing of the arrow if nothing is configured and a separate click event for the main button body and the menu arrow.

It should be noted that for better alignment you can set the button.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;

Here is my slight improvement

The simplest option would be to use the ToolStripDropDownButton in an undocked ToolStrip that only shows the single button. Then you can add sub-items to it, etc. To do this: — drag a Toolstrip onto your control/form — use the layout helper to add a DropDownButton — set GripStyle to Hidden — set Dock to None

The result is a standalone toolbar-style button that supports the drop-down behavior that you described.

easy was we can do it. this may help 🙂

Show context menu below button when it’s clicked.

Jaex’s MenuButton class above was perfect for me. I did add the logic below into the OnMouseDown so that the context menu would only show up if I clicked on the arrow. The normal click event would get triggered if I clicked in the larger portion. Allowed for a «Default» click action.

Thought this might be useful to someone. Thanks Jaex

So it certainly exists, however you may not be looking for a paid third-party control.

I was fiddling with this issue as well and found an extremely simple solution (albeit a little dirty-hacky): place a ComboBox under the Button , such that it shows the dropdown arrow right next to the button.

Then use SelectedIndexChanged of the ComboBox to change the Button behaviour, or do what you want it to do immediately.

So I have come up with a custom control that is based on a toolstrip and thus fully customizable with text and images, having its own click event for each button/action. And it can be designed in the winform editor. There are a few minor layout issues like the alignment of the dropdown items, but nothing really serious. The button will make a once clicked drop item the main item, this can be changed in the OnActions_DropDownItemClicked() method