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An Example: SimpleText

SimpleText by Apple Computer is a small text editor which is shipped with every Apple Macintosh;⁵³ it is comparable to Microsoft Notepad which belongs to the default Windows installation.
The SimpleText menu bar includes the following menu titles and menu items:

• File: New, Open, Close, Save*, Save as..., Page Setup..., Print one Copy, Quit
• Edit: Undo*, Cut*, Copy*, Paste**, Clear*, Select All, Next page*, Previous Page*, Go to Page*, Show Clipboard**
• Font: (list of all available fonts)
• Size: (list of all available font sizes)
• Style: Plain Text, Bold, Italic, Underline, Outline, Shadow, Condensed, Extended
• Sound: Record..., Play*, Erase*, Speak All*, Stop Speaking*, Voices (a hierarchical menu which lists all available voices in a sub-menu)
• Help: SimpleText Help

All menu items with one asterisk are only available when the file is not empty respectively when at least one object in the file is selected. Menu items with two asterisks are only available when the computer's clipboard is not empty. Some of the menu items have keyboard equivalents which are also listed in the menu (see figure 3 for an example).
The menu title File includes all actions which apply to the document as a whole whereas the menus Edit, Font, Size, and Style apply to objects in the document. Furthermore, some menu items are verbs whereas others are subjects and adjectives. Menu items which are verbs represent the action which will be undertaken when selected, for example "Close this file" or "Cut the selected object". Menu items which are adjectives or subjects represent states or attributes of an object, for example "Change the selected text to Bold" or "Change the font of the selected text to Helvetica".
Menu items without an Ellipsis character require the user to select an object (or a document) before selecting the menu item whereas menu items with an Ellipsis character require a selection or further input after the selection of the menu item. Some menu items such as "Save as" may require the user to do both, selecting a document first and providing further information after the selection of the menu item.
All menu items which are represented by verbs are directives as stated previously. Menu items represented by adjectives are also directives since a "change the selected object to ..." has to be added to each adjective.⁵⁴ The menu item Page Setup... is a special case: it invokes a dialog box depending on the selected printer driver.

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