stever@tektronix.UUCP (Steve Rogers) (08/19/83)
Lotus 1-2-3 is an excellent example for the present hardware of the IBM PC of a menu system that works well for the naive, occasional, and sophisticated user. 1-2-3 uses a two line horizontal menu system. The first line are the actions at the first level, the second line displays a description or a further set of subactions. What is on the second line is controlled by where the cursor is on the first line. The user can activate the action by placing the cursor on word and entering a carriage return OR by typing the first letter of the word. Hitting the F1 key results in a full screen help message. Hitting esc returns the user to exactly the same point. I have found this system to be very easy when I am in a naive or occasional mode, and nonfustrating when my rare sophisticated mode appears. The horizontal menu frees up the rest of the screen for actual work while still having a functional sense of where one is. A mouse would enhance this program in terms of speeding the cursor, but it is very effective as it stands (esp. with a hard disk). Lotus also provides a separate on-line tutorial.