# Editing a Menu Item

A menu item can only be contained on a menu pane, and cannot contain other items. Your application program is only informed of selections of a menu item, not of a menu or menu bar. Double click or use the “Edit/Properties” option to change the attributes of a menu item:

Reference (Field) name, Id -- Any menu item can be accessed from inside an application by specifying its "Reference" or "Field" name and/or "Id". For SIMSCRIPT II.5 users, the field name is passed to the callback routine whenever a menu item is clicked on.

Label – The name identifying the menu item appearing within the container menu.

Mnemonic – A letter in the item’s label that can be can be typed from the keyboard (while holding down the <Alt> key) to activate the item. The mnemonic character will appear underscored in your application.

Accelerator key name – While running the application, you can use the keyboard to activate menu items instead of the mouse. Any menu item can have its own accelerator key. This attribute determines which key will be mapped to this menu item. To enable keys such as [a-z], [0-9], and other punctuation and symbols to activate the menu item, just type the key character directly. The naming convention for keys performing functions are defined below

1 escape – Names the <Esc> or escape key.

2 delete – Names the <Del> or delete key.

3 return – Names the <Enter> or return key.

4 backspace – Names the or the backspace key.

5 tab – Names the tab key.

6 f1, f2, ..., fn – Name the function keys “F1”, “F2”, ..., “Fn” at the top of the keyboard.

Use Alt, Use Ctrl, Use Shift – Specifies which key must modifier key must be held down in conjunction with the accelerator key described above.

Accelerator key label – This is the name appended to the menu item label used to describe how to invoke the keyboard accelerator. For example, the string “(Ctrl+C)” could describe an accelerator activated by holding down the <Ctrl> key and pressing “c”.

Status message – If the window containing this menu bar has a status bar, this help message will appear in the first status bar pane. The text will be displayed whenever this menu item is highlighted by the pointer (not necessarily activated).

Checked – Menu items can have an “off/on” state shown by a small check mark next to the label. The initial state is defined by the “Checked” attribute. Note that this state is NOT changed automatically when the item is clicked on, but must be updated by the application program.