EMBEDDED MENUS - SELECTING ITEMS IN CONTEXT

Embedded menus, where menu items are embedded within the information being displayed on the screen, in some respects represent an improvement on the more traditional explicit menu. In embedded menus, highlighted or underlined words or phases within the text become the menu items. The authors describe their own experience with embedded menus begun in the interest of providing adequate man-machine interfaces for two textual databases: the Interactive Encyclopedia Systems (TIES), a European history database functioning in a museum environment; and the OnLine Maintenance Manual (OLMM) system, an on-line maintenance manual for electrical and mechanical equipment repair. They review the use of embedded menus in these two specific systems and examine the more general application of embedded menus in interactive spelling checkers, language-based program editors, and interactive graphics systems. They address the relative advantages and disadvantages of embedded menus in different contexts, highlighting areas of equivocation where more research is warranted.