The Edit Menu Item dialog box allows users to modify a Shell Extension’s menu item. Each of such menu items consists of various information which can to be defined right here. See following figure to get an impression about data that are available for menu items.
| Label |
This editable combo box allows users to define the menu item’s text to be
shown in the Windows Explorer’s context menu. This label is mandatory because
otherwise an empty item will appear inside that context menu. By default, the control
is initialized with value (Mandatory) which indicates
that the label is required and therefore it must be set! Further, it is also possible to use (Separator) as label text. In this case the menu item will behave as a separator. For a better user convenience, the combo box offers this pre–defined statement as parameter. Additional information about conditions and requirements for menu items can be found in section Menu Item Conditions. |
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| Executable | This edit box allows users to define the filename of the executable to be used along with this menu item. This executable file is mandatory because otherwise a menu item does not make sense. By default, the control is initialized with value (Mandatory) which indicates that the executable is required and therefore it must be set! Note, an executable’s filename should consist of a full qualified path. For a better user convenience, the button […] right next to the edit box can be used to pick–up an executable via Open File… dialog. | ||||||
| Parameter | This edit box allows users to define additional parameters to be used with the executable. But be aware, these parameters will be appended at the command string at runtime. This means that the additional parameters are always put behind the list of filenames! Furthermore, to use these extra parameters the executed program must support them. | ||||||
| Help String | This edit box allows users to define a menu item’s help string to be shown in the Windows Explorer’s status bar. But keep in mind, a help string makes only sense for a menu item and not for a separator. Yes of course, it would be a good idea to have help strings for popup menus too. But they are not supported, unfortunately. See section Menu Item Conditions for more information about this issue. | ||||||
| Icon File |
This editable combo box allows users to define an icon to be used along with this
menu item. The PlexData Shell Extension offers four different
ways to assign an icon image to its menu item. First of all it is possible to have no icon assigned to a menu item. This can be achieved through a blank combo box (default behavior). Secondly, it is possible to benefit from the standard icon which is included in the Shell Extension’s core binary file. To use this icon simply select the pre–defined statement (Default) from the combo box’s drop–down list. As the third, it is of course possible to use an external file. But note, at the moment the only supported image type is Bitmap (*.BMP). To load such an image file the button […] right next to the combo box can be used. But be careful, using an external file requires that this file must be available on the target system! Otherwise no icon is shown along with this menu item. As the fourth, and as result of the problems with external image files, it is also possible to embed images into the Shell Extension configuration. The advantage of embedding images is clear because the configuration file is only required for installation. Thereafter, all information needed to display a menu item – including the icon – will come from the Windows Registry! The only question is, how to embed such an icon? No problem at all! First, select an external file as described above. Then, if the combo box contains a valid filename, select the pre–defined statement (Embedded) from the combo box’s drop–down list. Another issue that needs to be mentioned is that the supported icon size strictly depends on the target platform! In other words, Windows XP for example only supports icons of size of 16 × 16 pixels. Under Windows 7 instead it is possible to use bigger icons. And in this case the Windows Explorer will enlarge its context menu to fit to the icon’s size. |
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| Multi Select | This check box is intended to define a menu item’s behavior when the user selected more than one objects in the Windows Explorer. In case of this option is check the menu item remains enabled independent of how many files, folders etc. are selected in the Windows Explorer. In case of this option is not check than the menu item will be enabled only if exactly one file, folder and so on has been selected. Otherwise the menu item is disabled! Selecting multiple objects is allowed by default. | ||||||
| Menu Items |
This list view control allows users to define the sub–menu item entries for
popup menus. Note that, once this list view contains at least one sub–item
entry it is assumed that this menu item is a popup menu! For a detailed description
about handling sub–menu items see chapter
Menu Items List. Furthermore, three additional buttons are available below this list view to perform the operations New, Edit and Delete. And of course, this list also supports keyboard shortcuts.
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