The question title pretty much says it all.
When should I put ... at the end of a menu item? I seem to remember reading some rules but can't for the life of me find them.
For context - I'm adding a properties option to a right click menu and am wondering if it is appropriate to add them.
regards
When the option will send the user to some sort of dialog where the user has to do something before a real change is made. Options without the ellipse take effect immediately.
For example, 'Save' doesn't have an ellipsis, while 'Save As...' does because the user has to input the new name/location of the file.
Whenever selecting that item results in another dialog box appearing. For actions that happen immediately (think Save vs. Save As), no ellipsis.
You should add ellipses to the end of text only if you're truncating the text (this applies anywhere). You should truncate the text if it's too long to reasonably fit where you're putting it.
Edit: interesting, I never noticed that menus in Windows use the ellipses to indicate truncated text, but also use the ellipses on short text to indicate that more information will be collected before the action is taken. This is inconsistent interface design, but since menus are under the control of individual programmers it's unavoidable.
I've usually seen it in places where more input is required from the user before completing an operation. If your properties dialog is allowing the user to change properties, I would include the ellipses. If it's just displaying the information, don't include it.
One exception to the first two answers: if the whole point of the menu command is to open a window or dialog, then you don't need an ellipsis. For example, a "Get Info" or "Properties" command shouldn't have it, even though it's opening a window which lets you edit things.
It's only when the menu command's purpose is to do something else, but it needs a dialog or confirmation in order to do it.
More information is in the first related question, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/268532/are-there-any-standards-to-follow-in-determining-where-to-place-menu-items
To be exact, the rule is that if more information is required from the user to complete an action, then include an ellipsis. In the MS Vista User Experience Guidelines, getting a confirmation qualifies as "more information" (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511502.aspx). Commands to show Properties, About, Help, Options do not get ellipsis because no further information is needed to execute the command, which is "Show Properties" or "Show Documentation" or "Show Options." The File Open command gets an ellipsis because additional information is needed to open the file, namely the file name.
If the menu is an action that the user will be doing, but the action won't be completed until we get more information from the user, you show an ellipsis, e.g.:
As opposed to actions that will happen the moment you click the menu item, e.g.:
Ellipses don't just indicate that a dialog will appear. i.e. if it's not an "action", then there's no ellipses, e.g.:
And asking the user if they want to do something does not count as "getting more information from the user", e.g.:
It means that there will be another dialog box after you select that option, it won't actually 'do' anything. There will be another prompt.
They usually signify that clicking on that entry will open a dialog window.
It generally means that a Dialog will be shown when the item is clicked.
As I understand it it indicates that the option will ask you something else before actually doing anything. The 3 dots are actually called an ellipsis, and if you check out the English use it kind of makes sense:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis
BTW I've noticed OpenOffice breaks this convention sometimes!
It usually means it'll take your focus away from the current window. Like for example, notepad has a "Find..." which means you're going to focus on another window (ie dialog box) to enter something. But in firefox, it has just "Find" which then focuses on a text input on the same window.
Originally, it meant:
An ellipsis (...) after a menu item means that after the item is chosen, the user will be asked for more information before the operation is carried out. Usually, the user must fill in a dialog box and click and OK button or its equivalent. Don't use the ellipsis when the dialog box that will appear is merely a confirmation or warning (for example, 'Save changes before quitting?').
(Apple Human Interface Guidelines, page 69)
Note that it did not mean "show a dialog box", even though that was often the consequence of this. For example, on Mac OS (not X), the "Options" button in the Page Setup window had no ellipsis, even though it showed a modal dialog box. No ellipsis is used because showing the options window is the operation.
(Tog on Interface, pages 46-47)
Of course, these days nobody cares about such things as human interface guidelines, not even Apple, so you can pretty much do what you want and still be more consistent than most any other application out there.