# Metadata
Platforms: desktop, server, mobile OS: mac, windows, linux, ios, android Introduced: 1.0 Security:
# Syntax
menuPick pChosenItem [, pPreviousTab]
# Params
- pChosenItem : The label of the menu item the user chose. If the menu item chosen is part of a submenu, the menu item label is followed by a vertical bar (|) and the submenu's label. - pPreviousTab : The text of the menu item that was selected before the user chose a new menu item. This parameter is included only if the button's menuMode property is set to "tabbed".
# Examples
on menuPick pChosenItem -- in a pulldown menu if pChosenItem is "Close" then close the defaultStack else if theItem is "Quit" then quit end menuPick
# Description
Handle the menuPick message to do something when the user chooses a menu item from a button menu, or chooses a tab in a tabbed button.
>*Note:* If the specification of a menu or submenu includes a tag, that > tag will replace the menu label in the pChosenItem parameter
The menuPick message is sent when the user clicks a tab in a tabbed button, when the user chooses a menu item from the menu associated with a button, or when a button menuHistory property is set by a handler.
The menuPick message is sent every time a menu item is chosen, even if the menu is a type that retains its state (such as an option menu) and the chosen menu item has not changed. (However, no menuPick message is sent when an already-chosen tab in a tabbed button is clicked, since no menu is displayed.)
To get the item number of the currently chosen menu item, use the menuHistory property.
>*Note:* The & and / characters can be used in a pulldown menu to create > special effects. To be shown (instead of creating these effects), > either character can be doubled. (For example, placing the line > "This && That" in a menu item results in the menu item being > displayed as "This & That", with one ampersand.) When the user chooses > a menu item with these special characters, the pChosenItem > parameter is the text that appears in the menu as displayed, not the > text of that line of the button menu.
The menu item specification allows a tag to be specified using the form:
label [ '/' [ accelerator ] [ '|' tag ] ]
Note that the tag is optional as is the accelerator however, if you want an item with a tag but without the accelerator you need:
If a menu item has a tag then it is the tag string that is passed to menuPick rather than the label. This is useful for localization of menu items as you don't need to change the menuPick handler for each language supported.
The following tags should be used to label the standard edit menu items to enable them to be controlled by the system dialogs on Mac OS X (e.g. answer file, ask file etc.):
- undo - redo - cut - copy - paste - clear - select all - preferences
# Tags
# See