Creating an Interactive Menu

To create a Menu object, you must first create an Interactive Menu. An Interactive Menu is a menu that is stored within a project, but does not actually display on the screen until you use it in a Menu object.

An Interactive Menu can contain Menu Items, Submenus, and Separators. Each Menu Item and Submenu item can be assigned an action (such as linking to a different page or opening a URL).

An Interactive Menu can be displayed as a Menu Bar or as a Pop-Up Menu (drop-down menu).

  • If an Interactive Menu displays as a Menu Bar, the Menu Items display as menus at the top of the Menu Bar, the first-level Submenus display in a drop-down list as menu items in the menus, and any further Submenus display as submenus of the menu items.
  • If an Interactive Menu displays as a Pop-Up Menu, the Menu Items display vertically as menu items in a drop-down list, and all Submenus display as submenus of the menu items.

To create an Interactive Menu:

  1. Choose Edit > Interactive Menus. The Interactive Menus dialog box displays.
    QuarkXpress db interactive menus for Creating an Interactive Menu

    The Interactive Menus dialog box enables you to create, delete, and duplicate Interactive Menus.

  2. To create an Interactive Menu, click New. The Edit Interactive Menu dialog box displays.
    QuarkXpress db edit interactive menu menu props Creating an Interactive Menu

    The Menu Properties tab of the Edit Interactive Menu dialog box enables you to control the appearance of an Interactive Menu.

  3. Enter a name for the menu in the Menu Name field. This is the name you will use to assign the Interactive Menu to a Menu object. The menu name does not display in exported files.
  4. Use the Menu Properties tab to determine how the menu will look:
    • Assign a style sheet, text inset, and background for the menu’s Normal and Highlight states. (The Text Inset value is applied on all sides of the text.)
    • Assign a line width and color for the menu’s Border and Separator.
  5. Click the Menu Items tab.
    QuarkXpress db edit interactive menu menu items Creating an Interactive Menu

    The Menu Items tab of the Edit Interactive Menu dialog box enables you to add Menu Items, Submenus, and Separators to an Interactive Menu.

  6. To add a menu item or submenu item, do the following:
    • To create a menu item, choose Menu from the Add Menu button QuarkXpress btn interactive menu add menu Creating an Interactive Menu. Or, to create a menu item on a submenu of the menu item selected in the scroll list, choose Submenu.
    • Enter a name for the menu item in the Item Name field.
    • To specify a keyboard command that activates this menu item’s action, enter a key combination in the Key Alias field.
    • To assign the action that should be executed when this menu item is selected by an end user, choose an action from the Action drop-down menu.
  7. To add a separator beneath the menu item selected in the scroll list, choose Separator from the menu.
Parent topic: Working with menus

Creating an Interactive Menu