Customizing Menus Statically

Complete the following steps to customize a menu statically.

  1. Select Edit»Run-Time Menu to display the Menu Editor dialog box.
  2. Select Custom from the pull-down menu of the Menu Editor dialog box.
  3. In the Item Type pull-down menu, select User Item. To add LabVIEW default menu items to your custom menu, select Application Item and select the LabVIEW menu items you want.
  4. In the Item Name text box, type a menu name. The menu name appears in the Preview field, and the Item Tag field. You can modify the tag name to give the menu item a unique identifier. The block diagram uses the tag name to identify the menu item programmatically. Menu item tags can have the same name as menu item names.

    Windows You can type an underscore (_) before a letter you want to be associated with the <Alt> key for that menu. When you associate a letter with the <Alt> key, the user can press <Alt> and that key to access the menu.
  5. Select Enabled if you want this item available to the user. Clicking Enabled to remove the checkmark dims the menu item, making it unavailable to the user.
  6. Select Checked if you want a checkmark to appear next to the menu item. A checkmark is useful for operations that continuously run until the user removes the checkmark from the menu item.
  7. Create a keyboard shortcut in the Shortcut text box. You must use the <Ctrl> menu key in addition to any other key.

    Macintosh Press <Command>, Sun Press <Meta>, Linux Press <Alt>.
  8. Click the blue plus button in the toolbar to add more items to the custom menu. Click the red X button to delete items.
  9. Select File»Save As. The Save run time menu as dialog box appears, allowing you to save the menu file wherever you choose. Name the menu and click Save. When you load the VI, the customized menu automatically loads.
  10. Use a Case Structure to execute each menu item.

You can arrange the menu hierarchy in the Menu Editor dialog box by clicking the arrow buttons in the toolbar, using the hierarchy manipulation options in the Edit menu, or by dragging and dropping. You can expand or collapse hierarchies by clicking the submenu glyphs or by choosing from the expand or collapse options in the Edit menu. To add separators, select Separator in the Item Type pull-down menu.