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electron/docs/api/menu.md
Erick Zhao cc9ca4bee2
 docs: add Menu module tutorials (#47268) 
* docs: add `Menu` module tutorials

* link API docs to new tutorials

* removed unreferenced fiddles

* add wording for new types

* fix import sort errors

* delete accelerator.md

* fixes
2025-07-15 15:09:32 -07:00

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Menu

Class: Menu

Create native application menus and context menus.

Process: Main

Tip

See also: A detailed guide about how to implement menus in your application.

Warning

Electron's built-in classes cannot be subclassed in user code. For more information, see the FAQ.

new Menu()

Creates a new menu.

Static Methods

The Menu class has the following static methods:

Menu.setApplicationMenu(menu)

  • menu Menu | null

Sets menu as the application menu on macOS. On Windows and Linux, the menu will be set as each window's top menu.

Also on Windows and Linux, you can use a & in the top-level item name to indicate which letter should get a generated accelerator. For example, using &File for the file menu would result in a generated Alt-F accelerator that opens the associated menu. The indicated character in the button label then gets an underline, and the & character is not displayed on the button label.

In order to escape the & character in an item name, add a proceeding &. For example, &&File would result in &File displayed on the button label.

Passing null will suppress the default menu. On Windows and Linux, this has the additional effect of removing the menu bar from the window.

Note

The default menu will be created automatically if the app does not set one. It contains standard items such as File, Edit, View, Window and Help.

Menu.getApplicationMenu()

Returns Menu | null - The application menu, if set, or null, if not set.

Note

The returned Menu instance doesn't support dynamic addition or removal of menu items. Instance properties can still be dynamically modified.

Menu.sendActionToFirstResponder(action) macOS

  • action string

Sends the action to the first responder of application. This is used for emulating default macOS menu behaviors. Usually you would use the role property of a MenuItem.

See the macOS Cocoa Event Handling Guide for more information on macOS' native actions.

Menu.buildFromTemplate(template)

  • template (MenuItemConstructorOptions | MenuItem)[]

Returns Menu

Generally, the template is an array of options for constructing a MenuItem. The usage can be referenced above.

You can also attach other fields to the element of the template and they will become properties of the constructed menu items.

Instance Methods

The menu object has the following instance methods:

menu.popup([options])

  • options Object (optional)
    • window BaseWindow (optional) - Default is the focused window.
    • frame WebFrameMain (optional) - Provide the relevant frame if you want certain OS-level features such as Writing Tools on macOS to function correctly. Typically, this should be params.frame from the context-menu event on a WebContents, or the focusedFrame property of a WebContents.
    • x number (optional) - Default is the current mouse cursor position. Must be declared if y is declared.
    • y number (optional) - Default is the current mouse cursor position. Must be declared if x is declared.
    • positioningItem number (optional) macOS - The index of the menu item to be positioned under the mouse cursor at the specified coordinates. Default is -1.
    • sourceType string (optional) Windows Linux - This should map to the menuSourceType provided by the context-menu event. It is not recommended to set this value manually, only provide values you receive from other APIs or leave it undefined. Can be none, mouse, keyboard, touch, touchMenu, longPress, longTap, touchHandle, stylus, adjustSelection, or adjustSelectionReset.
    • callback Function (optional) - Called when menu is closed.

Pops up this menu as a context menu in the BaseWindow.

Tip

For more details, see the Context Menu guide.

menu.closePopup([window])

  • window BaseWindow (optional) - Default is the focused window.

Closes the context menu in the window.

menu.append(menuItem)

Appends the menuItem to the menu.

menu.getMenuItemById(id)

  • id string

Returns MenuItem | null the item with the specified id

menu.insert(pos, menuItem)

Inserts the menuItem to the pos position of the menu.

Instance Events

Objects created with new Menu or returned by Menu.buildFromTemplate emit the following events:

Note

Some events are only available on specific operating systems and are labeled as such.

Event: 'menu-will-show'

Returns:

  • event Event

Emitted when menu.popup() is called.

Event: 'menu-will-close'

Returns:

  • event Event

Emitted when a popup is closed either manually or with menu.closePopup().

Instance Properties

menu objects also have the following properties:

menu.items

A MenuItem[] array containing the menu's items.

Each Menu consists of multiple MenuItem instances and each MenuItem can nest a Menu into its submenu property.