Flato, Gillian wrote: > Does anyone know what to call the type of menu where you > click on the plus sign and then the plus sign changes to the > minus sign and the menu displays below?
An abomination? ;-) I've commonly seen the plus/minus boxes as nodes in a directory or tree structure, but I don't think I've ever seen a _menu_ that used them. And I'd rather not. But maybe I'm thinking of the term "menu" too narrowly -- to me, it's a set of commands listed under one of several top-level names (like File or Edit), or displayed in response to a right mouse click (context menu). If you're using the term more broadly to refer to a list of values, options, etc., I'd call it a list. If my audience were computer novices, I'd call it a "drop-down list" and explain how to display it. But only for real novices. In general, I don't name interface elements, just their labels. If necessary for clarity, I'll refer to the X list, Y box, or Z button. But I generally don't use terms like combo list, drop-down list, multi-edit box, tree node, etc. Readers usually don't care what interface designers call some widget as long as they can find it and understand what to do with it. Pretty much everyone who isn't completely new to computers knows how menus, lists, trees, buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons work. HTH! Richard ------ Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 ------ rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 ------
