Why not grey out first level menu commands since sub commands don't work

[jianfa.tsai 8]

In Evernote Windows, when user selects multiple notes via note list, why aren't those app functions top first level menu greyed out? The second level sub-menu is greyed out but the first level menu isn't. If the subcommands don't work, then everything to the first level menu should be greyed out e.g. "Format" and others. Please test all. 

[dcon 166]

Because that's not how Windows works... There are event handlers for each menu item. These dynamically enable/disable those items based on the menu identifier. But there are no event handlers for the parent menus because those items have no identifier.

As a side note, those items not having an identifier make it very "interesting" when you want to add/remove a menu hierarchy.

[jianfa.tsai 8]

Thank you for the reply. 

Since the parent menu cannot be grey. 

Why are some first level child menu (see screenshot) e.g. "Font" child menu greyed and other child menus e.g. Paragraph and Style not greyed?

It is technically feasible for the child menu Font to be greyed thus why not grey all other first level child menu where the sub commands doesn't work? 

 

[jefito 5,589]

Same answer, most likely: The Paragraph entry doesn't have an ID (there's no "Paragraph" command), only its children do, e.g. "Left" (= aligh left), "Right" (= "align right"), etc.

Is this a problem?

[dcon 166]

Exactly. It doesn't matter what level a menu item is at - it matters whether that item has children. An item with children is a very different beast (in Windows-land) than an item that performs an action.