Preferred menus for C# application.

Question

Which of the menu tools do you use for C# windows applications? I began with MainMenu, but when I moved to VS2005, only MenuStrip appeared in the Toolbox, so I assumed it was new and better. However, the merge/replace action seems to require a lot more time and effort, and leave one open to maintenance problems. (Perhaps my real question is "what were they thinking when they created MenuStrip?)

Do you drag/drop the menus, or do you write the code? Do you use MainMenu, MenuStrip, or some other alternatives?

Answer 1

MenuStrip is a complete rewrite of the MainMenu component. It doesn't rely on the stock implementation of menus as provided by Windows, allowing you to customize the menu look-and-feel to a much larger degree. By popular demand, that answers the "what were they thinking" question. ToolStrip was a similar replacement for ToolBar.

There is no compelling reason to stop using MainMenu if you prefer the way it works. Something that drives UI designer nuts about MenuStrip is that it doesn't faithfully reproduce the new menu theme in Windows 7, MainMenu does since it leaves the rendering up to Windows.

Simply add the MainMenu component back to the toolbox. Right-click it, Choose Items.

Answer 2

I really love the Third-Party Infragistics Toolbars. I use the Ribbon style to get an Office 2007 look and feel.