25-460: The Apple menu is a drop-down menu that is on the left side of the menu bar in the classic Mac OS , macOS and A/UX operating systems . The Apple menu's role has changed throughout the history of Apple Inc. 's operating systems, but the menu has always featured a version of the Apple logo. In System 6.0.8 and earlier, the Apple menu featured a Control Panel, as well as Desk Accessories such as
50-645: A file , quitting a program , or manipulating data. Most widget toolkits provide some form of pull-down or pop-up menu . Pull-down menus are the type commonly used in menu bars (usually near the top of a window or screen), which are most often used for performing actions, whereas pop-up (or "fly-out") menus are more likely to be used for setting a value, and might appear anywhere in a window. According to traditional human interface guidelines, menu names were always supposed to be verbs , such as "file", "edit" and so on. This has been largely ignored in subsequent user interface developments. A single-word verb however
75-495: A menu is a list of options presented to the user . A user chooses an option from a menu by using an input device . Some input methods require linear navigation: the user must move a cursor or otherwise pass from one menu item to another until reaching the selection. On a computer terminal , a reverse video bar may serve as the cursor. Touch user interfaces and menus that accept codes to select menu options without navigation are two examples of non-linear interfaces. Some of
100-514: A Calculator, the Scrapbook and Alarm Clock. If MultiFinder (an early implementation of computer multitasking ) was active, the Apple menu also allowed the user to switch between multiple running applications. The Macintosh user could add third-party Desk Accessories via the System Utility "Font/DA Mover". However, there was a limitation on the number of Desk Accessories that could be displayed in
125-507: A PC or server is shut down by selecting the Shutdown item from the Start menu on the desktop. Options include shutting down the system and powering off, automatically restarting the system after shutting down, or putting the system into stand-by mode . Just like other operating systems, Windows has the option to prohibit selected users from shutting down a computer. On a home PC, every user may have
150-448: A combination of text and symbols to represent choices. By clicking on one of the symbols or text, the operator is selecting the instruction that the symbol represents. A context menu is a menu in which the choices presented to the operator are automatically modified according to the current context in which the operator is working. A common use of menus is to provide convenient access to various operations such as saving or opening
175-573: A computer is to remove power from a computer's main components in a controlled way. After a computer is shut down, main components such as CPUs , RAM modules and hard disk drives are powered down, although some internal components, such as an internal clock, may retain power. The shutdown feature and command is available in Microsoft Windows , ReactOS , HP MPE/iX , and in a number of Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Apple macOS . In Microsoft Windows and ReactOS ,
200-430: A specific area. Other more recent electronics in the 2000s also have menus, such as digital media players . Menus are sometimes hierarchically organized, allowing navigation through different levels of the menu structure. Selecting a menu entry with an arrow will expand it, showing a second menu (the submenu) with options related to the selected entry. Usability of submenus has been criticized as difficult, because of
225-474: Is referred to as "menu diving". In computer menu functions or buttons , an appended ellipsis ("…") means that upon selection, another dialog will follow, where the user can or must make a choice. If the ellipse is missing, the function will be executed upon selection. Displays with touchscreen functionality, e.g. modern cameras and printers, also have menus: these are not drop-down menus but buttons. Shutdown (computing) To shut down or power off
250-771: Is sometimes unclear, and so as to allow for multiple word menu names, the idea of a vertical menu was invented, as seen in NeXTSTEP . Menus are now also seen in consumer electronics , starting with TV sets and VCRs that gained on-screen displays in the early 1990s, and extending into computer monitors and DVD players . Menus allow the control of settings like tint , brightness , contrast , bass and treble , and other functions such as channel memory and closed captioning . Other electronics with text-only displays can also have menus, anything from business telephone systems with digital telephones, to weather radios that can be set to respond only to specific weather warnings in
275-581: The Special menu have been merged into it. The Apple menu was missing entirely from the Mac OS X Public Beta , replaced by a nonfunctional Apple logo in the center of the menu bar, but the menu was restored in Mac OS X 10.0 . The quick file access feature implemented in System 7 was removed, although a third-party utility, Unsanity 's FruitMenu, restored the Apple menu to its classic functionality until it stopped working with
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#1732859105472300-550: The Apple Menu, showing the contents of the folder or disk. Prior versions of System 7 showed only a standard menu entry that opened the folder in Finder. Apple Menu Options also added Recent Applications, Recent Documents, and Recent Servers to the Apple Menu; the user could specify the desired number of Recent Items. macOS (previously known as Mac OS X and OS X) features a completely redesigned Apple menu. System management functions from
325-681: The Apple menu. Third-party shareware packages such as OtherMenu added a second customizable menu (without the trademarked Apple logo) that allowed users to install Desk Accessories beyond Apple's limitations. System 7.0 introduced the Apple Menu Items folder in the System Folder . This allowed users to place alias(es) to their favorite software and documents in the menu. The Menu Manager forced these additions into alphabetical order, which prompted users to rename their aliases with leading spaces, numbers and other characters in order to get them into
350-613: The advent of OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The Apple menu is now dedicated to managing features of the Macintosh computer, with commands to get system information, update software , launch the Mac App Store , open System Preferences , set Dock preferences, set the location (network configuration), view recent items (applications, documents and servers), Force Quit applications, power management ( sleep , restart, shut down ), log out , etc. Menu (computing) In user interface design ,
375-479: The black logo found in previous versions. In System 7.0, the black logo was retained in grayscale modes, and was used when the Monitors control panel was set to display "Thousands" or "Millions" of grays, though the rest of the display was in color. System 7.0 featured built-in multitasking, so MultiFinder was removed as an option. The feature allowing users to switch between multiple running applications as in System 6
400-450: The input devices used in menu interfaces are touchscreens , keyboards , mice , remote controls , and microphones. In a voice-activated system, such as interactive voice response , a microphone sends a recording of the user's voice to a speech recognition system, which translates it to a command. A computer using a command line interface may present a list of relevant commands with assigned short-cuts (digits, numbers or characters) on
425-459: The narrow height that must be crossed by the pointer . The steering law predicts that this movement will be slow, and any error in touching the boundaries of the parent menu entry will hide the submenu. Some techniques proposed to alleviate these errors are keeping the submenu open while moving the pointer in diagonal, and using mega menus designed to enhance scannability and categorization of its contents. Negative user experience with submenus
450-478: The order that suited them the best. Several third-party utilities provided a level of customization of the order of the items added to the Apple menu without having to rename each item. The Apple menu also featured a Shut Down command, implemented by a Desk Accessory. An alias to the Control Panels folder was also present. System 7.0 was also the first version to feature the rainbow striped logo, as opposed to
475-533: The power key to bring up the power management dialog box and selecting button "Shut down". An administrator may also use the Unix shutdown command as well. It can also be shut down by pressing Control + ⌥ Option + ⌘ Command + Power key/button (or Media Eject key) or clicking Shut Down on the Apple Menu while holding the ⌥ Option key, but this will not prompt the user anything at all. On newer and some older Apple computers, starting with Mac OS 9 ,
500-455: The screen. Entering the appropriate short-cut selects a menu item. A more sophisticated solution offers navigation using the cursor keys or the mouse (even in two dimensions; then the menu items appear or disappear similarly to the menus common in GUIs). The current selection is highlighted and can be activated by pressing the enter key. A computer using a graphical user interface presents menus with
525-401: The shutdown option, but in computers on large networks (such as Active Directory ), an administrator can revoke the access rights of selected users to shut down a Windows computer. Nowadays there are many software utilities which can automate the task of shutting down a Windows computer, enabling automatic computer control. The Windows Shutdown website lists various software utilities to automate
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#1732859105472550-462: The task of shutting down. In Windows, a program can shut down the system by calling the ExitWindowsEx or NtShutdownSystem function. There is also a shutdown command that can be executed within a command shell window. shutdown.exe is the command-line shutdown application (located in %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe ) that can shut down the user's computer or another computer on
575-399: The user is given a time limit in which the computer will automatically shut down if the user does not click the "Shut Down" button. In Unix and Linux , the shutdown command can be used to turn off or reboot a computer. Only the superuser or a user with special privileges can shut the system down. One commonly issued form of this command is shutdown -h now , which will shut down
600-482: The user's network. Different parameters allow different functions. More than one parameter can be used at a time for this command. which computer to turn off. By default it is set to 30 seconds. It can not be more than 127 characters. In Apple macOS the computer can be shut down by choosing "Shut Down…" from the Apple Menu , by pressing Control + Power key/button (or Media Eject key), or by pressing
625-555: Was given its own menu (appearing as the icon of the active application) on the opposite side of the menubar. Beginning in Mac OS 8.5, this new menu was given a unique "tear-off" capability, which detached the menu from the menu bar to become a free-floating window when the user dragged the cursor downwards off the bottom of the menu. In this case, it ran the application called "Application Switcher". System 7.5 added an Apple Menu Options control panel, which added submenus to folders and disks in
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