Dropdown menu on a button?

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

Hi, people.

I'm having a "discussion" with the software
development manager here and I need your opinion.

The premise: Just like any other Windows software, the
application interface has a menu bar (words) and a
button bar (icons).

Right now, the way the interface is designed, if I
click an entry in the menu bar, I get a drop down menu
list. No problem.

However, if I click some (only some) of the icons, I
also get a dropdown menu list. This is my problem.

My contention is that the menu bar should generate a
dropdown list of commands, but a button should only
invoke a single function, (such as Bold) or a single
routine, (such as a print routine or a save routine).
My response from the manager was:

"Having drop-down functions on buttons is something
that is widely used in software."

I cannot ever recall having seen this. Does anyone
have any applications that have dropdown list of
functions assigned to a button icon similar to the way
a menu name uses a dropdown list?

Also...for extra credit...can anyone point to an
authoratative source that outlines the proper design
in this area? I have Microsoft's "Windows Interface
Guidelines..." book, but I cannot find a mention of
this guideline. A page number will do fine.

Thanks


John
===
John Posada
Western Union International
(w) jposada -at- westernunion -dot- com
(p) john -at- tdandw -dot- com
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