Organizational commands establish the content and organization of the menus the user sees on the screen. Use these commands to determine what the menus look like.
The following list gives an overview of the organizational commands. Detailed information about each command follows the list.
The MENU command
indicates a new window definition within your menu file.
It has the following command format:
MENU menu_number,menu_name
Replace menu_number with the number you want to assign to this menu. Menus are called and displayed by their number.
A menu number can be any number from 1 through 255. Each menu within a source file must be assigned a unique number, but the number sequence does not matter.
Replace menu_name with the title you want to appear at the top of the menu. Menu names can be a maximum of 40 characters long.
The first menu defined in the source file is always the first menu displayed, no matter what number is assigned to it. Subsequent menus are referenced by their numbers, no matter what order they appear in the .SRC file.
For example, if you have defined three menus and assigned them numbers 1, 2, and 5, and menu 5 is the first menu in the source file, menu 5 is displayed first. Menus 1 and 2 are referenced in control commands and displayed depending upon user selection.
For example, to define a main menu for a program to be used by accountants in your company, type a line similar to the following:
MENU 1,Accounting Main MenuSince this is the first menu you want to appear, place it at the beginning of your menu program.
The ITEM command indicates an option in the menu. It has
the following command format:
ITEM item_name {[option...]}
Replace item_name with the list item you want to appear in the menu. The maximum length for an item is 40 characters.
Replace option with one or more of the options shown in the following list. Separate multiple options with a space. Enclose all options for a single ITEM within a single set of braces.
These options provide you with better control of menu execution. You determine how memory is used, which directory the user remains in, and what information is presented to those users.
Without this option, a portion of the memory stays resident, requiring approximately 32KB of available memory, even though an application may be running.
For example, if you type ITEM Word 5.0 {BATCH}, the menu program is removed from memory when Word 5.0 is executed.
Setting this option automatically sets the CHDIR option. Do not use this command with the EXEC DOS command; use EXEC CALL.
For more information, see ``EXEC''.
For example, to change back to the drive and directory the user was in before executing a word- processing application in another directory, type ITEM Word 5.0 {CHDIR}.
When the word-processing application is closed, the directory is changed to the original directory for the menu.
The message Press any key to continue is also displayed, and
the screen does not change until a user presses a key.
For example, to display a message when a user selects the item ``DOS Copy'' from the menu, include this line:
ITEM DOS Copy {PAUSE}
When the copy function is complete, the display waits at the
Press any key... prompt for a key to be pressed before
returning to the menu.
For example, if you type ITEM Copy Files {SHOW}, the DOS command COPY is displayed when the item is executed.
Each item is automatically assigned an alphabetic selection character.
If you want to assign a different character, place a carat (^) and the character you want in front of the item name (no spaces).
If you assign any selection letters, you should assign a letter to all menu list items. Otherwise an item may be automatically assigned a letter you assigned previously.
For example, if the first menu item is ``Word Processing'' and you want
to assign it the letter ``W'' instead of the automatic letter
designation of ``A'',type
ITEM ^WWord Processing