MATLAB Function Reference |
You can set and query graphics object properties in two ways:
inspect
function at the command line.
set
and get
commands enable you to set and query the values of properties
You can set default Uimenu properties on the root, figure and menu levels:
set(0,'DefaultUimenuPropertyName',PropertyValue...) set(gcf,'DefaultUimenuPropertyName',
PropertyValue...) set(menu_handle,'DefaultUimenuPropertyName',
PropertyValue...)
Where PropertyName
is the name of the Uimenu property and PropertyValue
is the value you specify as the default for that property.
For more information about changing the default value of property see Setting Default Property Values.
Uimenu Properties
This section lists all properties useful to uimenu
objects along with valid values and instructions for their use. Curly braces { } enclose default values.
Property Name |
Property Description |
Accelerator |
Keyboard equivalent |
BusyAction |
Callback routine interruption |
Callback |
Control action |
Checked |
Menu check indicator |
Children |
Handles of submenus |
CreateFcn |
Callback routine executed during object creation |
DeleteFcn |
Callback routine executed during object deletion |
Enable |
Enable or disable the uimenu |
ForegroundColor |
Color of text |
HandleVisibility |
Whether handle is accessible from command line and GUIs |
Interruptible |
Callback routine interruption mode |
Label |
Menu label |
Parent |
Uimenu object's parent |
Position |
Relative uimenu position |
Separator |
Separator line mode |
Tag |
User-specified object identifier |
Type |
Class of graphics object |
UserData |
User-specified data |
Visible |
Uimenu visibility |
Accelerator
character
Keyboard equivalent. A character specifying the keyboard equivalent for the menu item. This allows users to select a particular menu choice by pressing the specified character in conjunction with another key, instead of selecting the menu item with the mouse. The key sequence is platform specific:
Accelerator
. These keys are reserved for default menu items: c, v, and x.
Accelerator
. These keys are reserved for default menu items: o, p, s, and w.
You can define an accelerator only for menu items that do not have children menus. Accelerators work only for menu items that directly execute a callback routine, not items that bring up other menus.
Note that the menu item does not have to be displayed (e.g., a submenu) for the accelerator key to work. However, the window focus must be in the figure when the key sequence is entered.
To remove an accelerator, set Accelerator
to an empty string, ''
.
BusyAction
cancel | {queue}
Callback routine interruption. If a callback is executing and the user triggers an event (such as a mouse click) on an object for which a callback is defined, the callback associated with the new event uses the value of BusyAction
to decide whether or not to attempt to interrupt the executing callback.
cancel
, the event is discarded and the second callback does not execute.
queue
, and the Interruptible
property of the first callback is on
, the second callback is added to the event queue and executes in its turn after the first callback finishes execution.
Note
If the interrupting callback is a DeleteFcn or CreateFcn callback or a figure's CloseRequest or ResizeFcn callback, it interrupts an executing callback regardless of the value of that object's Interruptible property. See the Interruptible property for information about controlling a callback's interruptibility.
|
Callback
string
Menu action. A callback routine that executes whenever you select the menu. Define this routine as a string that is a valid MATLAB expression or the name of an M-file. The expression executes in the MATLAB workspace.
A menu with children (submenus) executes its callback routine before displaying the submenus. A menu without children executes its callback routine when you release the mouse button (i.e., on the button up event).
Checked
on | {off}
Menu check indicator. Setting this property to on
places a check mark next to the corresponding menu item. Setting it to off
removes the check mark. You can use this feature to create menus that indicate the state of a particular option. For example, suppose you have a menu item called Show axes that toggles the visibility of an axes between visible and invisible each time the user selects the menu item. If you want a check to appear next to the menu item when the axes are visible, add the following code to the callback for the Show axes menu item:
if strcmp(get(gcbo, 'Checked'),'on') set(gcbo, 'Checked', 'off'); else set(gcbo, 'Checked', 'on'); end
This changes the value of the Checked
property of the menu item from on
to off
or vice versa each time a user selects the menu item.
Note that there is no formal mechanism for indicating that an unchecked menu item will become checked when selected.
Children
vector of handles
Handles of submenus. A vector containing the handles of all children of the uimenu object. The children objects of uimenus are other uimenus, which function as submenus. You can use this property to reorder the menus.
CreateFcn
string or function handle
Callback routine executed during object creation. The specified function executes when MATLAB creates a uimenu
object. MATLAB sets all property values for the uimenu before executing the CreateFcn
callback so these values are available to the callback. Within the function, use gcbo
to get the handle of the uimenu being created.
Setting this property on an existing uimenu object has no effect.
You can define a default CreateFcn
callback for all new uimenus. This default applies unless you override it by specifying a different CreateFcn
callback when you call uimenu
. For example, the code
creates a default CreateFcn
callback that runs whenever you create a new menu. It sets the default Visible
property of a uimenu
object.
To override this default and create a menu whose Visible
property is set to a different value, call uimenu
with code similar to
See Function Handle Callbacks for information on how to use function handles to define a callback function.
DeleteFcn
string or function handle
Delete uimenu callback routine. A callback routine that executes when you delete the uimenu object (e.g., when you issue a delete
command or cause the figure containing the uimenu to reset). MATLAB executes the routine before destroying the object's properties so these values are available to the callback routine.
The handle of the object whose DeleteFcn is being executed is accessible only through the root CallbackObject property, which is more simply queried using gcbo.
See Function Handle Callbacks for information on how to use function handles to define a callback function.
Enable
{on} | off
Enable or disable the uimenu. This property controls whether a menu item can be selected. When not enabled (set to off
), the menu Label
appears dimmed, indicating the user cannot select it.
ForegroundColor
ColorSpec
X-Windows only
Color of menu label string. This property determines color of the text defined for the Label
property. Specify a color using a three-element RGB vector or one of the MATLAB predefined names. The default text color is black. See ColorSpec
for more information on specifying color.
HandleVisibility
{on} | callback | off
Control access to object's handle. This property determines when an object's handle is visible in its parent's list of children. When a handle is not visible in its parent's list of children, it is not returned by functions that obtain handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying handle properties. This includes get
, findobj
, gca
, gcf
, gco
, newplot
, cla
, clf
, and close
. Neither is the handle visible in the parent figure's CurrentObject
property. Handles that are hidden are still valid. If you know an object's handle, you can set
and get
its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on handles.
HandleVisibility
is on
.
HandleVisibility
to callback
causes handles to be visible from within callback routines or functions invoked by callback routines, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This provides a means to protect GUIs from command-line users, while allowing callback routines to have complete access to object handles.
HandleVisibility
to off
makes handles invisible at all times. This may be necessary when a callback routine invokes a function that might potentially damage the GUI (such as evaluating a user-typed string), and so temporarily hides its own handles during the execution of that function.
You can set the root ShowHiddenHandles
property to on to make all handles visible, regardless of their HandleVisibility
settings. This does not affect the values of the HandleVisibility
properties.
Interruptible
{on} | off
Callback routine interruption mode. If a callback is executing and the user triggers an event (such as a mouse click) on an object for which a callback is defined, that callback attempts to interrupt the first callback. MATLAB processes the callbacks according to these factors:
Interruptible
property of the object whose callback is executing
drawnow
, figure
, getframe
, pause
, or waitfor
statements
BusyAction
property of the object whose callback is waiting to execute
If the Interruptible
property of the object whose callback is executing is on
(the default), the callback can be interrupted. Whenever the callback calls one of the drawnow
, figure
, getframe
, pause
, or waitfor
functions, the function processes any events in the event queue, including the waiting callback, before performing its defined task.
If the Interruptible
property of the object whose callback is executing is off
, the callback cannot be interrupted (except by certain callbacks; see the note below). The BusyAction
property of the object whose callback is waiting to execute determines what happens to the callback.
Label
string
Menu label. A string specifying the text label on the menu item. You can specify a mnemonic using the "&" character. Whatever character follows the "&" in the string appears underlined and selects the menu item when you type that character while the menu is visible. The "&" character is not displayed. To display the "&" character in a label, use two "&" characters in the string:
`O&pen selection' yields Open selection
Parent
handle
Uimenu's parent. The handle of the uimenu's parent object. The parent of a uimenu object is the figure on whose menu bar it displays, or the uimenu of which it is a submenu. You can move a uimenu object to another figure by setting this property to the handle of the new parent.
Position
scalar
Relative menu position. The value of Position
indicates placement on the menu bar or within a menu. Top-level menus are placed from left to right on the menu bar according to the value of their Position
property, with 1 representing the left-most position. The individual items within a given menu are placed from top to bottom according to the value of their Position
property, with 1 representing the top-most position.
Separator
on | {off}
Separator line mode. Setting this property to on
draws a dividing line above the menu item.
Tag
string
User-specified object label. The Tag
property provides a means to identify graphics objects with a user-specified label. This is particularly useful when constructing interactive graphics programs that would otherwise need to define object handles as global variables or pass them as arguments between callback routines. You can define Tag
as any string.
Type
string (read only)
Class of graphics object. For uimenu objects, Type
is always the string 'uimenu'
.
UserData
matrix
User-specified data. Any matrix you want to associate with the uimenu object. MATLAB does not use this data, but you can access it using the set
and get
commands.
Visible
{on} | off
Uimenu visibility. By default, all uimenus are visible. When set to off
, the uimenu is not visible, but still exists and you can query and set its properties.
uimenu | uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64 |
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