Soft Key Menus Left or Right Side?

Short Question: Should mainmenu menu options go on the left or right
side for Mobile 5.0 and Mobile 6.0 applications? Why?

Long Question:
I've been reading through the Microsoft Mobile Development Handbook
again. This time through I've noticed a descrepancy between the book
and a document that it referrences.

In the beginning of Chapter 2 "Building a Microsoft Windows Form GUI"
the authors encourage the reader to check out the "UI guidelines for
Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms (http://msdn.microsoft.com/
mobility/
windowsmobile/partners/mobile2market/participatevendors.aspx) p37.
>From that link you can access the "Designed for Windows Mobile
Software Application Handbook for Pocket PC".

In chapter 2 the authors state "The official guidelines go further by
stating that the left button should represent the primary function
and
the right button should hold all other menu options" p54.

The linked handbook states "Any menus appearing in the Menu Bar must
appear in the leftmost portion of the Menu Bar, except for when
dynamically providing space for the global New button" pg8. -I'm
wondering if this is just referring to a menuitem and a toolbar in
the
same control area?

I'm not sure if these are conflicting statements, or I'm miss-reading
the linked handbook. In the past I've heard the argument that the
book
states and because of that I'm currently using it in our
applications.
After reading the logo certification handbook I'm confused on which
method is correct. Could somebody please straighten me out? I would
also love to know the reasoning behind putting the menu options on
the
right side.

Thanks,
Jerod

Scott
Wed Oct 10 11:23:59 PDT 2007

Jerod Houghtelling <houghtelling@gmail.com> wrote:
>In chapter 2 the authors state "The official guidelines go further by
>stating that the left button should represent the primary function and
>the right button should hold all other menu options" p54.

This is the preferred layout for all soft-key menus. It's all about
consistency and not forcing users to guess which soft key will bring up
a menu and which one will trigger an immediate action.

>The linked handbook states "Any menus appearing in the Menu Bar must
>appear in the leftmost portion of the Menu Bar, except for when
>dynamically providing space for the global New button" pg8. -I'm
>wondering if this is just referring to a menuitem and a toolbar in the
>same control area?

This is actually refering to a menu-bar on the PocketPC. This is what
you'd see on pre WM5 PocketPCs and on WM5 PocketPCs when the application
creates a menu bar with more than two buttons. It's something that as
far as I know is deprecated. Actually, I just noticed a few other things
in that hand book that are deprecated (GAPI, for instance), so the hand
book itself might be out of date.

If it were me, I'd follow the preferred layout for soft-key menus, and
avoid using the old style menubars. Not only will your app have the same
sort of UI as the built-in apps, but any users that have hardware keys
mapped to the soft-keys will be able to more easily navigate through
your app.

--
--------- Scott Seligman <scott at <firstname> and michelle dot net> ---------
Anybody remotely interesting is mad, in some way or another.
-- The Doctor in Doctor Who:"Remembrance of the Daleks"