In any ALPHA Application, the Main Menu Form is always important - it's the first thing you see! But, if you are selling the Application, it becomes even more important. You want to make a good first impression, how can you do that?

First, a couple of General Rules - Strive to make your Menu and other Forms look "Professional". Be consistent in Form design throughout your Application. Years ago Steve Workings said placing a Customer Logo on the opening form is an excellent idea. He is correct, it's just that little touch and, it costs so little extra to have a First Class Opening Form. Next week I'll be starting on an Application for a Bank. The first thing I'll do is get a Logo to place on their Main Menu.

Always have a "Dummy" Table in every Application. Use it for all Menu Forms. Mine is always named "START". Usually there is just 1 field in my START Table, it contains the Version and Build Number of the Application. This field is displayed in the Lower Right corner of the Menu Form. In sample #1 it is: Version 1.0 Build 11. Each time a change is made, I increment the Build Number. Remember though, Version 5 gives you several other ways of saving your Application Version number, but that's not our main focus now.

I'm going to show you a couple of my Menus. But don't forget! You already have several great looking sample Menus sitting in your Computer just waiting for you to take a peek. They are in your Samples Folder. Look for the Alpha Sports Application. Start it up - it has a very nice Menu, it even gives you an idea of using a Toolbar as your Menu. Remember the Alpha Sports Application is a fantastic resource that you can use. It uses a lot of features and techniques - borrow them, learn from them, use them in your application - everybody does.

The important thing is pick a sample Menu that you like, and looks like it would fit your needs. I didn't invent my Menus, I got the idea from someone years ago, refined the format, now I use them almost 100% of the time.



Sample #1 - (The one & only Alpha Installation in this large Multi National Corporation.)

The Systems Manager for this Client asked if he could send down a couple of their Access Programmers to get a few Screen Shots of my Menu Forms. I said yes and it made me feel good.



Sample #2 - POS Application for Sales & Service in the Catskill Mountains of New York

Both Menu forms consist of 2 frames and a Conditional Object. The Main Menu Choices on the Left are enclosed within a frame. The Frame on the Right encloses the Conditional Object. Remember, a Conditional Object can display a default page plus multiple pages based on expressions.

In both Samples, the Logo is the Default Page, and Sub-menus for each of the Menu Choices on the left are on their own page. Rather than a step-by-step "How To", this article's purpose is to show one method of Main Menu Design. Like most things in Alpha, there is usually more than one way to accomplish a task.



Sample #1 AFTER clicking on "Select A File to Use"

There are NO BUTTONS on my Menu Form! I use "Hot Spots". I think a Hot Spot looks nicer than a button with a bitmap. My Hot Spots each consist of 3 objects, a bitmap object, a Text Object and finally a Hot Spot Object. Do you have to use Hot Spots? Of course not! If you love Buttons, use Buttons.

Define your "Hot Spot" in three steps:
  1. Drag a Bitmap onto your form.
  2. Draw a Text Object, Enter desired Text for example "Select A File to Use"
  3. Drag a Hot Spot to the form, make a rectangle surrounding your bitmap and the Text Object.

A Hot Spot has only an OnPush Event. All of the Hot Spots (within the left frame) have a similar OnPush Event Script:

dim shared rh_cond1 as c
rh_cond1="import" 'Fill variable with name of page to be displayed in cond1
cond1.refresh() 'Refresh the conditional Object-
end

Alpha names the Conditional Object "Cond1". I dimensioned a variable named RH_cond1 (the name mnemonically reminds me it refers to the Right Hand Conditional Object).

It's much quicker setting up an Application Main Menu form if you normally do it the same way.

Find something that works well for you, something that your Clients seem to like and use it. If you see something on someone else's Menu, incorporate it in your form, if it works, use it!

One last Tip learned from experience. Name your Menu Form "A_Menu", don't name it "Johnson_Menu" or "Start". If you are at the control panel searching for it, it will always be at the top of the form list. The more Forms in an Application, the more important it is to have your Main Menu at the very top of the list