The menu can be the set of dishes that are part of a meal or the list of foods and drinks available in a gastronomic establishment.
Menu is a term with various uses depending on the context. Coming from the French menu , it can be the set of dishes that make up a meal (breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner).
For example: “The menu for tonight includes baked meat with grilled vegetables and apple pancakes” , “Before starting the walk, we will have a nutritious breakfast: fruits and cereals will not be missing from the menu” , “I didn't like it today's menu since all the foods had too much fat."
The menu in restaurants and similar establishments
The menu can also be the letter that indicates the meals, desserts and drinks available in a restaurant or similar establishment: “I'm going to ask the waiter to give me a menu so we can choose the dessert” , “Have you already seen the menu? There is a great variety of fish” , “I can't read the menu without my glasses” .
Another use of the concept linked to food indicates that the menu is the fixed price meal offered by a restaurant or a hotel and that has limited possibilities of choice: “The room rate includes a fixed menu for dinner” , “The menu allows you to choose between pizzas or pastas” , “I can't believe the menu has increased in price so much” .
Sometimes the menu is placed outside the restaurant, bar or cafe so that it can be seen by pedestrians.
The term in computing
In the field of computing , however, the list of options that appears on a computer screen is known as a menu. Computer programs usually use a menu to present the user with the various tasks that can be performed: “Enter the menu and modify the page format so that we can print the document without problems” , “If you want to change the font, you must access the menu and go to the “Sources” tab .
The concepts of menu and toolbar are not always very easy to distinguish, given the evolution that both have seen in recent years, with the increase in resolution in monitors, the greater capacity of processors and the transition of much of users to the world of touch screens. However, in programs for the Windows operating system published in the 90s, for example, a series of words could be seen with the naked eye starting from the top left, generally headed by "File"; each one of them represents a menu.
This set of menus is called the menu bar and, generally, it is not possible to alter its position. Clicking on one of them displays a series of options , many of which are also accessible through a toolbar. The basic difference between both bars is that the menu bar is usually always present, so that the user controls all the configurable aspects of the application and accesses all the available functions of the program.
From a menu it is possible to show or hide a toolbar, but the same does not happen in the opposite direction. To continue with the nuances that often make it difficult to distinguish between both elements, a toolbar can contain menus, which can be displayed after pressing an icon, with the purpose of saving space while it is not necessary to expose all its options to the user. .
Main menu of a video game
The screen from which the options and loading of games of a video game are usually accessed is known as the main menu .
Nowadays, it is most common to display the game title on an animated background, with options such as “Start,” “Settings,” and “Exit” at the bottom. It is worth mentioning that the developers have the obligation to ask the player for confirmation every time he decides to leave a game to go to the main menu, to avoid losing data by mistake.