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=Introduction= The purpose of this page is to describe '''10 basic principles to build easy to use Menus for a rich mind map software called Freeplane''' ! You can refer to [[Menus : work in progress]] to follow and collaborate in the design of the new FreePlane menus structure. = Legend = In this page : *'''MM''' means Main Menu. Main menu is the main bar of menus which gives access to all software features *'''CO''' means Command. A command is available in menu, it executes an action *'''SM''' means Sub Menu. A submenu is a menu entry which opens an other menu *'''CM''' means Contextual Menu. A contextual menu is a menu displayed only in a specific context (ie while on a node or on the map background) *'''XX#''' means rules number # for subject XX. =Rules to organize Main Menu= * (MM1) a MM entry is created for each kind of operation (File / Edit / Display ...) * (MM2) MM should be in a logical order inspired by other softwares best practices =Rules to organize Commands in menus = * (CO1) in a MM entry, items are grouped by type of operations (all commands to move nodes are at the same place) * (CO2) items are ordered logicaly (items used first at the beginning : ie "Create Node" then "Edit Node" then "Delete Node" or "Print Preview" then "Print". If no logical order can be found other rules can apply: ** the most often used commands can be set in first position ** order can also be set from particular to generic (ie: "Fold selected node" then "Fold all nodes of map") =Use of Sub Menus= * (SM1) SM are created to simplify long MM or CM (ie more than 20 items in the menu) * (SM2) SM should be limited to 3 levels (ie 3 clicks before displaying the wanted command) * (SB3) SM should contain 3 items or more =Contextual Menu= * (CM1) in CM, order should be the same as in MM (consistency for end-users). For instance Node Contextual menu is yet a copy of the Main Menu structure * (CM2) CM should contain only very frequently used commands * (CM3) 3 navigation levels are the maximum allowed in contextual menu. =Toolbars= * (TB1) the rules for toolbars are the same as for CM : same order as MM, only frequently used commands.

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