.COLUMN

Begin a menu column definition

WSupported on Windows

USupported on Unix

VSupported on OpenVMS

NSupported in Synergy .NET

.COLUMN name, text[, justification][, DISABLE][, SELECT(character)]

Arguments

name

The name of the column (a maximum of 15 characters).

text

A quoted or alphanumeric string that contains the text of the column’s heading.

justification

(optional) Designates how the column is aligned beneath the heading: LEFT (default), RIGHT, CENTERED. (Unix and OpenVMS only)

DISABLE

(optional) Specifies that when the column is placed on the menu bar, it will be disabled.

SELECT (character)

(optional) Specify a single, printable quick-select character.

Discussion

The .COLUMN command marks the beginning of a new menu column definition. This column can be used either as a primary or a submenu column.

Name is case insensitive, and must be a unique window name within the window library.

Text is the text that will be displayed on the menu bar. Upper and lowercase will appear as entered. Text is required for submenu column definitions, but is currently ignored.

Justification defaults to LEFT if you do not specify LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTERED. If you specify RIGHT justification, the right sides of the column and heading will be aligned. If you specify CENTERED justification, the column will be centered beneath the heading. (See figure 1.) When the column is being used as a submenu, the justification setting will be ignored. On Windows, justification has no effect.

Menu column placement is limited by available screen space.

If you specify DISABLE, you can later re-enable the column with the M_ENABLE subroutine.

If you do not specify SELECT(character), UI Toolkit uses the first non-blank character of text. A column’s quick-select character will not work if any menu column is dropped down, which sometimes happens automatically. You can use the M_DEFCOL(0) subroutine to disable automatic drop-down.

The width of the column’s heading is two spaces larger than the length of text, with the text beginning at the second column. If you want the heading text to have more than one leading or trailing space, you can include spaces in the quoted text string.

To create a submenu column, define the column and the parent column (the menu from which the submenu will cascade) as you would any other, but in the parent menu column’s definition, use the SUB argument for the menu entry that will cause the submenu to be displayed. And, for the same menu entry, use the submenu column’s name (the name argument for .COLUMN) as the entry name (the name argument for .ENTRY). See Examples below.

See also

.ENTRY for more information about defining column entries

Examples

This example generates a new menu column named util whose text in the menu bar is “General utilities,” with an extra leading space. The column is left-aligned beneath the heading by default.

.column util, "General utilities"

The column generated by the second example is named receive; the text entry in the menu bar is “Receivables.” The column is centered beneath the heading.

.column receive, Receivables, centered

This example creates a menu column primary that references a submenu column submenu.

.column primary, "Primary"
.entry submenu, "Submenu", sub
.end
.column submenu, "Submenu"
.entry subent1, "Sub entry 1"
.entry subent2, "Sub entry 2"
.end