When should I use a ellipsis in a Menu Item

Question

When should I put ... at the end of a menu item? I seem to remember reading some rules but can\'t for the life of me find them.

For context - I\'m adding a properti

Answer 1

Originally, it meant:

An ellipsis (...) after a menu item means that after the item is chosen, the user will be asked for more information before the operation is carried out. Usually, the user must fill in a dialog box and click and OK button or its equivalent. Don't use the ellipsis when the dialog box that will appear is merely a confirmation or warning (for example, 'Save changes before quitting?').

(Apple Human Interface Guidelines, page 69)

Note that it did not mean "show a dialog box", even though that was often the consequence of this. For example, on Mac OS (not X), the "Options" button in the Page Setup window had no ellipsis, even though it showed a modal dialog box. No ellipsis is used because showing the options window is the operation.

(Tog on Interface, pages 46-47)

Of course, these days nobody cares about such things as human interface guidelines, not even Apple, so you can pretty much do what you want and still be more consistent than most any other application out there.

Answer 2

When the option will send the user to some sort of dialog where the user has to do something before a real change is made. Options without the ellipse take effect immediately.

For example, 'Save' doesn't have an ellipsis, while 'Save As...' does because the user has to input the new name/location of the file.

Answer 3

If the menu is an action that the user will be doing, but the action won't be completed until we get more information from the user, you show an ellipsis, e.g.:

• Format Hard Drive… (we need to know which one, and the file system type)
• Save As… (we need to know what filename and type to save as)
• Print… (we need to know what printer and quality settings)
• Find… (we show a text box asking for the text to search for, and where)
• Rename… (rename to what)

As opposed to actions that will happen the moment you click the menu item, e.g.:

• Save
• Undo
• Redo
• Select All

Ellipses don't just indicate that a dialog will appear. i.e. if it's not an "action", then there's no ellipses, e.g.:

• About Gizmo
• Page Setup
• Print Preview
• Options
• File Properties

And asking the user if they want to do something does not count as "getting more information from the user", e.g.:

• Delete File
• Recycle File
• New Text Document

Answer 4

Whenever selecting that item results in another dialog box appearing. For actions that happen immediately (think Save vs. Save As), no ellipsis.

Answer 5

It usually means it'll take your focus away from the current window. Like for example, notepad has a "Find..." which means you're going to focus on another window (ie dialog box) to enter something. But in firefox, it has just "Find" which then focuses on a text input on the same window.

Answer 6

To be exact, the rule is that if more information is required from the user to complete an action, then include an ellipsis. In the MS Vista User Experience Guidelines, getting a confirmation qualifies as "more information" (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511502.aspx). Commands to show Properties, About, Help, Options do not get ellipsis because no further information is needed to execute the command, which is "Show Properties" or "Show Documentation" or "Show Options." The File Open command gets an ellipsis because additional information is needed to open the file, namely the file name.