A menu bar is the top level within a menu heirarchy. Menu bars are frequently associated with a window and are displayed near the top just below the title bar. On some platforms, most notably the Macintosh, there is but one menu bar at the top of the screen. For the audio look and feel, the relevant menu bar is taken to be the one associated with the currently active window.
There are only a few things a user can do with a menu bar. One is to move keyboard focus to it from wherever they are within the user interface. This ability to warp directly to the menu bar is cued by a rising-then-falling "wee-woo" sound that is meant to convey that they have left one part of the user interface and immediately moved to the menu bar. Since this sound is distinct, it also conveys that the type of component moved to, namely "menu bar".
Once there, the user can explore the menu bar's menus. This incremental navigation is conveyed via the typical navigation audio cue.
Menu bars are somewhat inert objects in the sense that one cannot really do more than navigate to and within them. As such, there is no activation auditory feedback over and above navigation.
With respect to reporting where one is within the menu bar, the audio look and feel treats the entire menu system as a tree. When the "where-am-I?" key press is made, the user interface lists the path to the current item in the system. Thus, if just at the menu bar, then the report is "menu bar". If further down, for example, at the "cut" menu item of the "edit" menu, the report is "menu bar, edit, cut".
The audio look and feel does not support activation feedback over and above the navigation feed back.
First letter navigation is implemented for menu bars. In this case, the search is confined to the menu bar when it has focus. Pressing a key will invoke the search; if a menu on the menu bar matches, the feedback is the same as if the user navigated to that menu via the navigation keys. Finally, if no menu matches, a generic error sound is played.
There is no additional information for the menu bar alone.
It is assumed that there is no tool tip associated with a menu bar, so there is no feedback for this keystroke.
A menu is one of the items within the menu bar, although it need not be. Whether a menu is embedded in a menu bar, or somehow stands alone, the auditory feed back for its navigation and manipulation are the same.
Once a user has navigated to the menu bar, it is unlikely that they will "forget" where they are. Thus moving about the menus thereon does not require a special sound effect to indicate that they have moved to another menu. Thus, the audio feedback for navigation is short and restricted to a sound that indicates navigation, a disabled sound when the menu is disabled, and the name of the menu. The menu role and state is considered superfluous and not provided either in speech or non-speech audio when navigating. However, activation of a menu is the act of opening it, and here more information is provided. Opening a menu is present visually by "popping it up" or "pulling it down" and revealing all of its menu items.
This lists the path through the entire menu system that leads to the currently selected menu. If the menu is attached to a menu bar, the feedback begins with "menu bar", and ends with the name of the menu.
First letter navigation is implemented for menus. In this case, the search is confined to the selected menu. Pressing a key will invoke the search; if a menu item within the menu matches, the feedback is the same as if the user navigated to that menu item via the navigation keys. If no menu matches, a generic error sound is played.
*If there is neither a hot key nor a shortcut key, the general error is sounded.
If there is a tooltip associated with the menu, it is spoken; otherwise the feedback is the speech "no tool tip".
Menu items come in four flavours. A straight vanilla menu item is the most common and represents a command that the user can select from the current menu. The three specialized menu items are a check box menu item, a radio button menu item and a menu item that calls up another menu (a hierarchical menu item). The audio feed back sequences are similar for all types of menu items, with small changes to audio and speech to indicate their differences. As such, these sequences are documented here with special comments to distinguish among the four kinds of menu item.
This lists the path through the entire menu system that leads to the current menu item.
First letter navigation is implemented for menu items. How the search proceeds depends on the type of menu item. If the menu item is hiearchical, and the sub-menu is open, then the search is confined to the menu items of the sub-menu. Otherwise, the search is confined to the menu item's parent menu. In effect, the search is confined to the deepest open sub-menu. Pressing a key will invoke the search; if a menu item within the menu matches, the feedback is the same as if the user navigated to that menu item via the navigation keys. If no menu item matches, a generic error sound is played.
*If there is neither a hot key nor a shortcut key, the general error is sounded.
If there is a tooltip associated with the menu item, it is spoken; otherwise the feedback is the speech "no tool tip".
If the user wishes to "exit" the menu bar, or, indeed, the entire menu system, they can do so at any time. Keyboard focus will revert to where it was before they warped to the menu bar and started navigating among its menus and their menu items. In this case, a special audio feedback sequence is given to indicate the exiting of the menu system:
Table of Contents
End of file
Last updated 10 Jun 99