pull-down menu

pull-down menu

Also called a "drop-down menu" or "pop-down menu," the common type of menu used with a graphical user interface (GUI). Clicking a menu title causes the menu items to appear to drop down from that position and be displayed. Options are selected either by clicking the menu item or by continuing to hold the mouse button down and letting go when the item is highlighted.

On Web pages, menu items are often displayed automatically as soon as the cursor is positioned over the menu title. JavaScript is widely used to implement pull-down menus on the Web. See JavaScript.

---

pull-down menu [′pu̇l ¦dau̇n ′men·yü]

(computer science)

A list of options for action that appears near the top of a display screen, usually overlaying the current contents of the screen without disrupting them, and usually in response to an indicator being pointed at an icon.

---

(operating system)

pull-down menu - (Or "drop-down menu", "pop-down menu") A menu in a graphical user interface, whose title is normally visible but whose contents are revealed only when the user activates it, normally by pressing the mouse button while the pointer is over the title, whereupon the menu items appear below the title. The user may then select an item from the menu or click elsewhere, in either case the menu contents are hidden again. A menu item is selected either by dragging the mouse from the menu title to the item and releasing or by clicking the title and then the item. When a pull-down menu appears in the main area of a window, as opposed to the menu bar, it may have a small, downward-pointing triangle to the right. Compare: scrollable list.