Converting Maps to Menus

The Open Menu dialog provides a facility for converting ordinary maps into menus. This is useful where you have upgraded an application database that contains a pull-down menu system, and you want to amend it with the Map Editor.

Before converting a map, make sure there are enough free map numbers for its pulldowns, or if they exist already that the map references them correctly. As an example, the typical set of controls for a menu bar with two pulldowns is given below:

Field Nr

Type

Position

Description

0

Line

1,19

Underlines the menu bar

1

Text

1,1

The first menu bar option

2

Text

65,1

The second menu bar option

101

Edit

1,19

The attach point for the first pulldown

102

Edit

65,19

The attach point for the second pulldown

 

The field numbers of the attach points are:

100 + <fieldnr_of_associated_menu_bar_option>

which define the location of the top-left corners of the pull-down maps. The convention is that the map numbered one greater than the menu bar is attached as the first pulldown, the map numbered 2 greater is the second pulldown and so on.

To convert a map into a menu:

1. Select Open Menu from the File menu

2. In the Open Menu dialog, specify the database and mapset

3. Enable the All Maps option. This causes the Menu: list to display all the maps in the mapset, rather than all the menus

4. In the Menu: list, locate the number of the map holding the menu bar, and click OK

The Map Editor should find that the map is not marked as a menu and ask you whether you want to convert it

5. Click Yes to convert the map into a menu

Edit the menu to the desired state; for details see Creating a New Menu.