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@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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