The File Menu
Many applications deal specifically with documents or images or more specialized content, not generic files, so they might as well title the menu after the kind of content its items apply or relate to. File is not a required menu title!
Nisus Writer Express
Being a word processor, this application is document-based, so it makes sense that the File menu be retitled Document. The HIG should prescribe this for all document-based applications.
GraphicConverter
GraphicConverter is focused on bitmap images, so replacing File with Image is my recommendation. The Picture menu could be retitled View.
NetNewsWire
NetNewsWire’s File menu items mostly relate to Subscriptions, the application’s preferred term for Atom and RSS syndication feeds. I consolidated those having to do with tabs and windows in the Window menu.
Adium
The items in Adium’s File menu are actions mostly related to chat conversations, so Chat could replace File.
The account connection commands might be better removed in favor of those already in the Status menu or placed in the application menu as they are in iChat.
Feel free to contact me using either of those accounts, particularly if you know of someone needing an interface designer!
You can easily modify menu titles and positions in some Cocoa applications by editing their menu bar nib, usually located in [Application bundle]/Contents/Resources/[Language].lproj. Both the Nisus Writer Express and NetNewsWire screenshots are of the actual application, modified by me in Interface Builder. Of course, modify at your own risk. It caused some problems in Adium…
With exception of Chat, these File replacement titles also have the incidental benefit of creating larger click targets.
I get what you’re saying. In fact, NetNewsWire 1.0.x did not have a File menu — it had a Subscriptions menu.
So we got tons of bug reports from people saying that we should have a File menu. (Some even cited the HIG, even though the HIG says it’s optional.)
What we eventually realized is this:
Having a File menu is an issue of consistency. Most apps have a File menu. The name “File” is really a label that means “This is the menu where you create new *things* — whatever the main thing is that your app manages.”
The *things* may not be files, but that doesn’t matter. Because of user expectations built up over many years, a File menu is the way to go.
Very interesting observations.
I agree that the “File” menu has become somewhat of a “standard,” in that people *expect* to see it. It’s almost like a “base point,” or “home.”
I also agree that the “File” menu should be named appropriately, depending on the nature of the application. User have become so adapted to seeing the word “File,” that they don’t even read it anymore - not really, anyway. I think users need to actually READ what the menu options are - and perhaps they wouldn’t become so lost all the time.
My speculation (backed up by nothing) is that as long as the general purpose of the menu and its placement relative to the other application menus is consistent, the vast majority of users would not care whether it was titled File or something more specific. Those who took the time to file bug reports and (incorrectly) cite the HIG are probably adaptable enough to cope with a change I think would benefit new users.