Drop down menu
Sometimes referred to as a pull-down menu or drop box, a drop down menu is a menu that appears when clicking on a button or text selection. For example, many programs will have a "File" drop down menu at the top left of their screen. Clicking on the "File" text generates a new menu with additional options. Below is an example of a drop down menu as a form component in your Internet browser.
A drop down menu can make it easier to display a large list of choices - since only one choice is displayed initially, the remaining choices can be displayed when the user activates the dropbox. To place a drop box on a web page, you would use a select element. The first <option> tag within the select element will need to have the selected option set to the value of selected, as shown in the code below:
Select a Choice:
<select name="s" id="s">
<option selected="selected">Choice 1</option>
<option>Choice 2</option>
<option>Choice 3</option>
</select>
Drop down menu's can also be used in software. You will often see these used in the Windows operating system to allow users to make selections for various options, such as the display theme that is used. The drop box for this is shown below under the "Theme:" heading in the Windows XP Display Properties.
