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.

Windows 10 Pull down menus

Since the 2018 — 04 Cumulative update I have been having problems with the pull down menus.

The pull down or pull up menu’s are not aligned with window as they should be. See below image.

All the pull downs are offset to the left of where they should be.

How can I remedy this?

Replies (2) 

Hi. I am a fellow community member here to help you if I can.

These updates have brought many bugs. Until Microsoft rols out patches to address known issues I would suggest you to Rollback Windows
In order to rid yourself of these issues and return to your previous stable build it is recommended that you RollBack to your previous version of Windows. To do this please follow these steps

Open Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery > under Go back to my previous version of Windows 10, click Get started.

Press Control + Alt + Delete
Click Sign out

At the Sign In screen, hold down the shift key on your keyboard while clicking the Power button on the screen
Continue to hold down the shift key while clicking Restart
Continue to hold down the shift key until the Advanced Recovery Options menu appears

Click Advanced options

Click Go back to the previous version of Windows

This information was obtained from the following official Microsoft Help document
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/.

And from the following thread

NOTE: when using recovery options be sure to watch for and select options to «keep your personal files and folders» that way you will preserve your important data

I hope this helps. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance

Using the Window Pull-Down Menu

Managing the Windows

Keep in mind that each environment is a separate window, and multiple windows can be created for the FEA Editor and Results environment. As with other Windows applications that support multiple windows, each one can be positioned within the user interface.

Use the «New» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to open a new window with the same contents as the previously active window.

Use the «Close» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to close the active window. You can also click on the X at the top right hand corner of the active window.

Use the «Cascade» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to cascade the windows.

Use the «Tile Vertically» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to tile the windows vertically.

Use the «Tile Horizontally» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to tile the windows horizontally.

Use the «Next» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to activate the next window in the order that the windows were created.

Use the «Previous» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to activate the previous window in the order that the windows were created.

Use the «Windows» command in the WINDOWS pull-down menu to manage the open windows. This will open the «Windows» window. Select the window that you want to be active and the press the «Activate» button. You can also click on the title bar of the window that you wish to make active.

At the bottom of the WINDOWS pull-down menu is a list of the current windows. Selecting one will bring it to the front.

Pull-down menu vs.drop-down menu

coconut86

New Member

Copyright

Senior Member

You not only need to listen to him, you need to thank him for setting you straight.

When you have a set expression that everyone in the world understands, you don’t go looking for alternatives just because you find it boring, or you don’t want to repeat it. The goal here is effective communication. Use drop-down menus and never mention this again.

Besides, pull-down menus make me think of Venetian blinds and you don’t want to do that, either.

Edit: Now that I have that out of my system, let’s see what the Microsoft Press Computer User’s Dictionary says:

Drop-down menu: A menu that drops from the menu bar when requested and remains open without further action until the user closes it or chooses a menu item.
Pull-down menu: A menu that is pulled down from the menu bar and that remains available as long as the user holds it open.

That takes four readings for me, but I believe that the menus most people see on their computer programs are drop-down menus (I just checked a few of my programs — you can move the cursor away from the menu after it drops down and it remains visible). I can almost guarantee that people will not be able to describe the difference between these two. so I think it’s back to the top of my advice column, which is already conveniently dropped down and readily available.

Pull-down menu

In computing and telecommunications, a menu is a list of options or commands presented to the user of a computer or communications system. A menu may either be a system’s entire user interface, or only part of a more complex one.

Contents

Navigation [ ]

A user chooses an option from a menu by using an input device. Some input methods require linear navigation: the user must move a cursor or otherwise pass from one menu item to another until reaching the selection. On a computer terminal, a reverse video bar may serve as the cursor.

Touch user interfaces and menus that accept codes to select menu options without navigation are two examples of non-linear interfaces.

Some of the input devices used in menu interfaces are touchscreens, keyboards, mice, remote controls, and microphones. In a voice-activated system, such as interactive voice response, a microphone sends a recording of the user’s voice to a speech recognition system, which translates it to a command.

Types of menus [ ]

A computer using a command line interface may present a list of relevant commands with assigned short-cuts (digits, numbers or characters) on the screen. Entering the appropriate short-cut selects a menu item. A more sophisticated solution offers navigation using the cursor keys or the mouse (even in two dimensions; then the menu items appear or disappear similarly to the menus common in GUIs). The current selection is highlighted and can be activated by pressing the enter key.

A computer using a graphical user interface presents menus with a combination of text and symbols to represent choices. By clicking on one of the symbols or text, the operator is selecting the instruction that the symbol represents. A context menu is a menu in which the choices presented to the operator are automatically modified according to the current context in which the operator is working.

A common use of menus is to provide convenient access to various operations such as saving or opening a file, quitting a program, or manipulating data. Most widget toolkits provide some form of pull-down or pop-up menu. Pull-down menus are the type commonly used in menu bars (usually near the top of a window or screen), which are most often used for performing actions, whereas pop-up (or «fly-out») menus are more likely to be used for setting a value, and might appear anywhere in a window.

According to traditional human interface guidelines, menu names were always supposed to be verbs, such as «file», «» and so on. [1] This has been largely ignored in subsequent user interface developments. A single-word verb however is sometimes unclear, and so as to allow for multiple word menu names, the idea of a vertical menu was invented, as seen in NeXTSTEP.

Menus are now also seen in consumer electronics, starting with TV sets and VCRs that gained on-screen displays in the early 1990s, and extending into computer monitors and DVD players. Menus allow the control of settings like tint, brightness, contrast, bass and treble, and other functions such as channel memory and closed captioning. Other electronics with text-only displays can also have menus, anything from business telephone systems with digital telephones, to weather radios that can be set to respond only to specific weather warnings in a specific area. Other more recent electronics in the 2000s also have menus, such as digital media players.

Submenus [ ]

Menus are sometimes hierarchically organized, allowing navigation through different levels of the menu structure. Selecting a menu entry with an arrow will expand it, showing a second menu (the submenu) with options related to the selected entry.

Usability of submenus has been criticized as difficult, because of the narrow height that must be crossed by the pointer. The steering law predicts that this movement will be slow, and any error in touching the boundaries of the parent menu entry will hide the submenu. Some techniques proposed to alleviate these errors are keeping the submenu open while moving the pointer in diagonal, and using mega menus designed to enhance scannability and categorization of its contents. [2] [3]

Usage of attached ellipses [ ]

In computer menu functions or buttons, an appended ellipsis («…») means that upon selection, another dialog will follow, where the user can or must make a choice. [4] If the ellipse is missing, the function will be executed upon selection.

• «Save»: the file will be overwritten without further input.
• «Save as . «: in the following dialog, the user can, for example, select another location or file name or other file format.