You'll find that the 'classic' windows start menu follows the convention.
The newer XP one ignores it for the Log Off and Shut Down for what I can
only assume is eye candy purposes.
Anyway, afaik it is more of a general UI convention rather than a specific
thing Windows does. I'm not sure where the practice originated but it is
now used across many OSs and applications, including Windows, MacOS and a
lot of Unix GUIs.
As a random example, the attached image is the Firefox 'File' menu which I
just happened to be using at the moment. Some of the menu items have ...
and some don't, and you will notice the difference is the ones that do
have it will result in dialog boxes coming up for further actions (eg.
Save Page As...), while the ones without are immediate actions (eg. New
Tab).
The same convention is used in the following apps I just sampled: iTunes
on Mac, Gimp on Linux, Word on Windows.
Cheers
Derek
Which OS does this? Windows has it for Run..., but not
for Shut Down.
But Run can do many things. Run a program, open a document, open an URL.
It's kind of hard to make space for it all.
-----Original Message-----
From: ros-dev-bounces(a)reactos.org [mailto:ros-dev-bounces@reactos.org]
On Behalf Of Derek
Hinchliffe
Sent: 28. oktober 2005 08:32
To: ReactOS Development List
Subject: RE: [ros-dev] Role of UI coordinator and committing
Casper Hornstrup wrote:
<snip>
... are usually used when there isn't enough
space left to write what
you
want to write. There is lots of space here to
write "Log Off User" and
"Turn Off Computer".
Elipses (...) are also used in menu items when clicking on the item will
result in some sort of dialog box before any real action is actually
taken.
So if clicking the 'Turn Off Computer' were to result in a prompt giving
(for example) the option of Turning Off or Cancelling, then it should be
written 'Turn Off Computer...'. But if clicking it immediately
initiates
the shutdown process then it should have no '...'. The dots just gives
the user a subtle hint that there will be more required to perform the
action after clicking the item.
Cheers
Derek
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