Hi Craig,

SNIP
>
>If you follow the guidelines, then the only thing we've been talking about that should be a problem (for others...not me) is the fact that the menu doesn't stay popped down. However, I think the way this works is correct. In Windows, you should be able to process events in what ever order the user does them. How do we know if the user wants to make another selection from the menu they were just on? The user should drive the software, not the software drive the user. Keeping the menu down, results in the user being driven.

Funny how two different people can see something in exactly opposite ways...

When the system standard is to 'disappear' the menu (or popup), it seems to me that it is driving me, not me it! It is forcing me to click again on the menu again (and possibly a bar or two) if I happen to want another action/option that is on that same menu/popup. To me this is a highly arrogant presumption!

Take, for example, the simple and very standard "File" menu, and let's use Word97 as the basis. Here's a menu where one might think that there is really no way that any user might want to do two things in a row there.

Ex#1: What if I want to open 2 or 3 of the 'last-opened' docs appearing at the bottom of the list. I have to repeat actions 2 or 3 times.

Ex#2: What if I have 3 or 4 documents open and I want to close 2 or 3 of them. I have to repeat the same action 2 or 3 times.

So, you see, even with a menu that could be assumed to be very much a single-use thing, there are occasions where multiple uses are sensible.
Now what is wrong with just leaving the menu "exposed"? I could then drive its disappearance by clicking anywhere ELSE on the window for the app. That way *I* am in control, not the system! While computers excel at repetitive actions, people do not. They get downright frustrated by such crappy requirements.

The issue of 'property popups' has already been described at length and I see from a prior reply that you feel that this is poor design too.

In summary, when a menu disappears against my will and intentions which is always the case in Windows, then it is the software that is driving me (crazy too) and not me driving the software. Can we agree on that?

Cheers,

Jim N