Hi Stef,
normally a menubar, has items where each item will popup a list of actions.
For very-simple forms, it seems very handy to me (and to the end-user),
if instead of popping up the action list,
an action is directly performed.
(In Delphi this can be achieved, so there's no OS limitation)
The advantage for the designer is,
a menubar is much simpler than a number of buttons (no positioning
necessary).
Making a menubar with just 1 item,
works very bad for the user: 2 clicks instead of 1.
Please, don't do that 
A couple of "famous" softwares, in the past, were put in the Interface
Hall Of Shame because of that:
http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/
I agree this is an old web page, but I know a couple of softwares used
in the industry I work for which are simply counter-intuitive (and
thus badly written).
"Here's the rule: the menu title bar is a collection of menu titles;
click on a menu title, and the program will display the menu. Having a
"special" menu title that acts like a command button is not a good
idea ("special" means "inconsistent" and "undesirable")."
HTH.
Andrea.
"Imagination Is The Only Weapon In The War Against Reality."
http://xoomer.alice.it/infinity77/
···
On 8/5/07, Stef Mientki wrote:
hi Andrea,
Andrea Gavana wrote:
Hi Stef,
normally a menubar, has items where each item will popup a list of actions.
For very-simple forms, it seems very handy to me (and to the end-user),
if instead of popping up the action list,
an action is directly performed.
(In Delphi this can be achieved, so there's no OS limitation)
The advantage for the designer is,
a menubar is much simpler than a number of buttons (no positioning
necessary).
Making a menubar with just 1 item,
works very bad for the user: 2 clicks instead of 1.
Please, don't do that
Sorry but I would say "do it" 
- it's always good to try any other user interface (how does Science otherwise find new ideas ?)
- many commands in M$-windows are much too complex / fully unnecessary
But in this case you might be right and I should better switch to a toolbar, I'll think about that.
A couple of "famous" softwares, in the past, were put in the Interface
Hall Of Shame because of that:
http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/
I agree this is an old web page, but I know a couple of softwares used
in the industry I work for which are simply counter-intuitive (and
thus badly written).
"Here's the rule: the menu title bar is a collection of menu titles;
click on a menu title, and the program will display the menu. Having a
"special" menu title that acts like a command button is not a good
idea ("special" means "inconsistent" and "undesirable")."
Who invented this rule ?
Since when yields this rule ?
Can't we make a better rule ?
I would suggest that we add the whole menubar to the Hall of Shame
Why ?
In western languages we read from left top to right bottom,
therefor the left top must contain the most important part of the information,
which in most cases (I hope) is the content
cheers,
Stef Mientki
···
On 8/5/07, Stef Mientki wrote:
There are certainly people who agree with you and prefer to have
interface elements on the bottom. However, by far, the most important
principle here is the principle of least surprise. What you want to do
is to take an existing, well known UI element and change it's behavior
in an important way, without any sort of clue to your user.
There are established UI mechanisms for "single click" actions -
keyboard shortcuts, buttons, toolbars. Using the menu bar for it is
just as bad of an idea as making your buttons look like text controls.
···
On 8/6/07, Stef Mientki <s.mientki@ru.nl> wrote:
hi Andrea,
Andrea Gavana wrote:
> Hi Stef,
>
> On 8/5/07, Stef Mientki wrote:
>
>> normally a menubar, has items where each item will popup a list of actions.
>>
>> For very-simple forms, it seems very handy to me (and to the end-user),
>> if instead of popping up the action list,
>> an action is directly performed.
>> (In Delphi this can be achieved, so there's no OS limitation)
>>
>> The advantage for the designer is,
>> a menubar is much simpler than a number of buttons (no positioning
>> necessary).
>> Making a menubar with just 1 item,
>> works very bad for the user: 2 clicks instead of 1.
>>
>
> Please, don't do that
>
Sorry but I would say "do it"
- it's always good to try any other user interface (how does Science
otherwise find new ideas ?)
- many commands in M$-windows are much too complex / fully unnecessary
But in this case you might be right and I should better switch to a
toolbar, I'll think about that.
> A couple of "famous" softwares, in the past, were put in the Interface
> Hall Of Shame because of that:
>
> http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/
>
> I agree this is an old web page, but I know a couple of softwares used
> in the industry I work for which are simply counter-intuitive (and
> thus badly written).
>
> "Here's the rule: the menu title bar is a collection of menu titles;
> click on a menu title, and the program will display the menu. Having a
> "special" menu title that acts like a command button is not a good
> idea ("special" means "inconsistent" and "undesirable")."
>
Who invented this rule ?
Since when yields this rule ?
Can't we make a better rule ?
I would suggest that we add the whole menubar to the Hall of Shame
Why ?
In western languages we read from left top to right bottom,
therefor the left top must contain the most important part of the
information,
which in most cases (I hope) is the content