Why the change to the 2 menu item style in WM 5.0??

  • Thread starter Thread starter David D Webb
  • Start date Start date
D

David D Webb

I'm really not understanding why they changed the style of menus in all WM
5.0 apps to have only 2 items - mostly one that acts as a button and one
menu... Why would you bury the menus under one main menu with the submenus?
Makes even less sense in landscape mode where you have all that room.

What I really don't like is when you switch between the 2 menu item screen
and a 3+ menu item screen (or 2 + toolbar) that the menus completely change
style and the SIP button moves. I think this is confusing. Any way to
override this behavior?

Anyone know the "logic" behind this?

-Dave
 
There's nothing preventing you from adding more than 2 menu items at the top
level (I just verified that). The reasoning for the 2 item system, however,
is to enable 1-handed operation. Most WM 5.0 devices are adding two buttons
for the top-level menu, which opens it, then the d-pad to move up and down
through them. For devices like the SmartPhone which has no touchscreen this
is pretty important.

-Chris
 
I think Microsoft is trying to colaborate Smart Phone and Pocket PC
interfaces. You will notice also that the menu bar is used for primary push
button controls on screens that have two buttons such as "Accept" and
"Cancel".

I do like this as it streamlines Windows CE for both Smartphone and Pocket
PC, which is great for end users.

As pointed out by a previous post, the menubar will revert to "oldstyle"
when adding more than two top level items.

I have changed my code so when running on Windows Mobile 5 and greater, the
menubar reverts itself to two top level items. When running pre Windows
Mobile 5, the "oldstyle" menu layout is used.

Cheers
Simon.
 
Simon,

How do you deal with the multiple layouts in VS? Use the designer, or just
generate everything in your own code?

-Dave
 
I handle everything in code. I localize everything as well and I prefer
handling the localization in code rather than VS doing it. Having said this
I do use extensive use of the designer where required in CF 2.

Simon.
 
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