Guidelines for placing items in full menus

• Place contextual actions at the top of the menu and global actions at the bottom of the menu. Consistent item placement makes it easier for users to find and recall actions across applications.
• Place the "Options" and "Help" menu items at the bottom of the full menu, above the "Close" menu item.
• Avoid placing the default menu item in a submenu.
• Refer to the diagram below for more details on how to group and place items in a full menu:

• Include settings and infrequent actions in "Options."
• Group menu items according to common usage or common functionality, and where possible, test the groups with users. If the number of items in a group is large (for example, more than seven), consider including an additional separator in the group. However, maintain a balance between separating logical groups and designing an aesthetically pleasing menu.
• Avoid adding separators manually. Display issues might occur if menu items change position. Separators are added for every increment of 0x10000 in the menu positioning parameter if there are menu items on either side. Place each group of menu items within the same range and make sure that the menu items that you want to be separate from the group have a placement of at least 0x10000.
• If specific menu items are similar and difficult to distinguish, avoid placing the menu items next to each other. For example, do not place a "Reply" menu item next to a "Reply All" menu item. Users might choose the wrong menu item and not recognize the difference.

Guidelines for labels

• Use concise, descriptive labels. If a label is too long, an ellipsis (...) indicates that the text is truncated.
• In most cases, use verbs for labels.
• Use title case capitalization for labels.
• Use an ellipsis in a menu item label to indicate that users must perform another action after they click the menu item. For example, if users click the "Select Calendar..." menu item in the calendar, they must specify a calendar on the screen that appears.
• Avoid using symbols such as an asterisk (*) in labels.
• Use "Enable <mode>" to indicate that a specific state is turned on. Use "Disable <mode>" to indicate that a specific state is turned off.
• Verify that the menu item label matches the title of the associated screen where appropriate. For example, if users click "Change Display Name" in the menu, then the title of the screen that appears should be "Change Display Name."