Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with menu

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type "i" for Internet and "f" for Firefox to open that browser?

oxit — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:12:54 -0800

A start menu for Windows 7 where I type i for Internet and f for Firefox to open that browser? Prior to Windows 7 I was using the classic Windows start menu to access most of my software by pressing only three keys on the keyboard:

1. the Windows key, then
2. a key for the folder, e.g. (I)nternet, or (O)ffice, then
3. a key for the application, e.g. (F)irefox or (I)nternet Explorer.

Typing a part of the name in Windows 7's start menu is a lot slower, more cumbersome and error-prone.

Is there a solution to have this in Windows 7? There are many start menu replacements out there, but none I've seen does this. Can you help?

Fall Food!

ihavepromisestokeep — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:02:49 -0800

Help me plan a vegetarian, autumn-inspired menu! I'm cooking for a lovely group of friends, all hilarious young women, one vegetarian. We cook for each other about once a month and the meals have been getting more and more impressive!

I know I'm going to make a pumpkin pie for dessert because pumpkin pies are awesome! I love them.

And I wouldn't mind a savory apple dish as part of the main course. And if there is some hint of traditionally-Jewish food that would be good, too. I've been looking into making latkes, but frying things . . . well, that is straight-up tricky for this girl. And I've heard the baked ones aren't so scrumptious.

Simplicity is good.

Beyond pumpkin pie, cider and turkey - your favorite autumn party recipes?

librarianamy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:26:17 -0800

Autumn is almost here where I live! Tell me your favorite autumn party recipes, with some restrictions listed inside. I will be the hostess of a small (less than 15) gathering of friends in a few weeks. By then, autumn will be in full swing here (Western PA in late Oct-early Nov), and I'd like to have a seasonally themed and delicious menu.

Our monthly gatherings usually include one large main dish, a variety of finger-food-esque or salad-ish sides, some snacks, and at least one dessert. And drinks. Both alcoholic and non.

The restrictions are that one of the group has celiac's and at least two others are doing South Beach. So wheat is an issue, though I do have access to a great gluten free bakery, if I had to.

September dinner party ideas

rossination — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:33:44 -0800

Late summer dinner party ideas? We are planning a dinner party for mid-late September and I'm trying to come up with some ideas for a menu. As much as I love to cook with fresh (local) fruits and vegetables, I don't usually give much thought to seasonal cooking, so I thought it would be fun to try to highlight foods that really capture the end-of-summer vibe (something like this squash and chickpea stew).

Some details:
-- Vegetarian meals preferred, although some meat/fish is definitely OK (we will have one non meat eater). Either way, we tend to prefer meat as an accent/seasoning, as opposed to the main course.
-- We don't have a grill, but we do have a broiler.
-- Other than the meat thing, we're a pretty adventurous bunch, and I'm willing to source weird ingredients if the recipe is worth it.
-- Dessert ideas are also welcome, as are wine/beer/spirits pairings.

Can you save remote desktop connections to log in to different user accounts?

Mokusatsu — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:36:27 -0800

Is it possible (in Windows Vista Ultimate) to save remote desktop connections to the same computer but for different users? i.e. have icons in my quick launch menu which log me in with a click to user1 or user2? I have a computer which is used for several specific purposes, accessed only by remote desktop (i.e. it sits in a back room and is rarely used in person).

I want to be able to quickly access each of the individual accounts by saving an RDP file and then shortcutting to that from my quick launch bar.

So I enter the credentials for user1 and "save as" the RDP file as username1.rdp and drag it onto the quick launch bar.

Clicking on this RDP logs me in to user1's account.

Then I open remote desktop again, enter the credentials for user2 and save username2.rdp.

When I click on username2.rdp, I get instantly logged in to user2's account.

So far so good.

But if I close that and click on username1.rdp, I get logged into user2. If I manually change the credentials by opening remote desktop and enter the credentials to user 1, username1.rdp will on the next attempt log me into user1's account, as does username2.rdp.

So saving a connection doesn't save the credentials, it possibly saves the computer I'm logging into, but not the user.

Am I doing it wrong or does an RDP file just not contain credentials? Is there some way I can set it up so I can one-click log in via several icons to any one of several accounts?

Clean computer start menu for more speed

psc1860 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:15:11 -0800

I want to clean up my start menu on Dell Inspiron E1705 with Windows XP Pro. Computer beginning to run slowly. I use computer almost exclusively for internet, word-processing and Quicken. I have trouble identifying which entries on start menu to delete.

Suppress right-click menu on a web site

maxwelton — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:50:40 -0800

Is there a way to disable the right-click menu on a particular web page I visit that isn't managed by me? I play a solitaire game on a particular web site fairly often. It's not a Flash game, nor is it a Java applet, I suspect it's simply JavaScript.

The game allows you to use both left and right clicks, each performing different actions, but every time you right-click the normal browser right-click menu appears...very annoying in this context.

Is there a way for me to tell my browser I don't want the right-click menu to appear on this one particular page (or its domain, if that's easier)? I have greasemonkey installed, so a GM script would be ideal, but I haven't been able to locate one.

I'm on Windows, using FF. Thanks mucho for any ideas. (I could possibly write my own script if pointed in the right direction.)

Fancier way of saying "paired with" for Italian wine menu?

chudmonkey — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:28:03 -0800

In the context of an Italian-themed wine & food pairing menu, is there a more elegant way to say or express the phrase "paired with"? My pairing menu currently has a bunch of entries that go like this:

Food X
paired with
Wine X

For whatever reason, the "paired with" is really clunking in my head. Every dish and wine on the menu has an Italian name, so maybe I'm finding the banal English phrase too incongruous.

Any any rate, can you suggest something better? Bonus points for something with some Italian verisimilitude, but anything more elegant or old-world would be appreciated.

It would totally ideal if there was some sort of symbol that communicatess this, like a fancier version "w/".

Thanks in advance for any ideas you can share.

(Also: more/better tags for this post?)

Pizza Bella, pizza bellissimo

unSane — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:01:40 -0800

What pizzas were on the menu at Pizza Bella in Crouch End, London, during the 1990s? I lived in Crouch End, London for most of the 1990s. During that time I ate hundreds of delivery pizzas from Pizza Bella. They were the best pizzas I ever ate, and had some inventive combinations of ingredients... gorgonzola and anchovies... egg and spinach. Now I would like to make my own versions but I can't for the life of me remember the exact menu. I know there was one called the 'Alba', a good four seasons, a fishy one, a Florentine. But what were they?

(I think Pizza Bella still exists but is under new management and the menu may have changed... in any case I can't find it online).

Any help/memories most welcome. The ones I really miss are the Alba and the one with the egg, but I can't remember what they were!

out of hand menus

parallax7d — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:25:43 -0800

In Windows XP I'm finding that many of the context menus (when I right-click on different files) have gotten out of hand. How do I customize and clean up these context menus?

Pull-Down Menu (Preferably Nonmodal) in Javascript Bookmarklet?

WCityMike — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:10:59 -0800

Is the presentation of a choose-item-from-multiple-choices-presented menu possible to implement into a Javascript bookmarklet? Ideally, I would be looking for the menu to act in the same nonmodal fashion like "prompt" does in a Javascript bookmarklet. (If you don't know what I mean by that, click on the text "Find in this page" on this webpage.)

I currently have a bookmarklet that takes the webpage that I'm currently on, and funnels it into a task on Remember the Milk. The bookmarklet right now is:

popw=window.open('http://m.rememberthemilk.com/add?name=' + escape("Web: Check out \"") + escape(document.title) + escape("\".") + '&list=[list ID]&priority=&repeat=&estimate&tags=' + escape("@web rtmurl") + '&priority=2&url=' + escape(location.href) + '&add=' + escape('\"Add Form\"'), 'taskForm','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=510,top=175,left=75,status=no,resizable=yes');if (!document.all) T = setTimeout('popw.focus()',50);void(0);

Essentially, I would like to trigger the bookmarklet, and be presented with a multiple-choice menu appears where I'm presented with choices. The text of the choice will go into the "tags" section of the URL; it'll let me do further sorting.

This seems to be simple enough, but there's enough stuff out there with similar wording that I can't seem to pin myself right down to this.

Looking for meal ideas for Murphy's Law pregnancy: Gestational-diabetic-menu-filter?

Sweetdefenestration — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:50:29 -0800

Can you wonderful ladies (and awesome supporters of same) who have experienced gestational diabetes, even though you already ate pretty well, post as many meals as you remember eating/liking/working for you? So, this might be a bit long. My sister is just shy of 28 weeks pregnant with twins, and was just diagnosed with gestational dibetes. Other complications include: PCOS fertility problems (she's been taking Metformin since she started trying to get pregnant), reduced high order multiples (7 down to 2), vanishing cervix (cerclaged at 17 weeks), has always had GI problems (motility/reflux/insoluable-fiber-evilness), has been on strict bed rest for 10 weeks now (exercise=going to pee), has had preterm labor for 7 weeks (monitoring at home and on a breathene turb pump), both twins are small and one of her twins might not make it due to growth restriction. She's a healthy eater, loves her organics and whole grains. Her idea of "pigging out" on bad food would be 3 freshly-baked chocolate cookies and a glass of whole milk. (we switched to whole-fat foods when she wasn't gaining any weight week after week. Yes, we're back to low-fat and skim foods now).

So, onto the main course: glocose fun-ness. She's already a healthy eater, and the suggestions we've found so far on the web are abysmal -- 5 ritz crackers, a string cheese and a tablespoon of peanut butter as a snack?? her snacks are usually cottage cheese with a bit of diced pineapple, or like 1/2 cup of plain yogurt with a tablespoon of whey powder. Her insurance isn't allowing her to get a nutritionist to talk to her, but she'll be testing her glucose 4xdaily starting monday. She's not really sure what she should be changing, and between reflux, sensitivity to insoluable fiber, and now gestational diabetes, it's all getting to be a bit much for us to figure out. Bust out the pivot tables and Crystal Reports, folks.

We don't know too many glucose numbers, but her 1 hour non-fasting level was 150. Her 3-hour fasting was normal on on the fasting and 3rd hour, but was consistatnly 10 points over on hour 1 and 2.

So, back to the original question.... Can you wonderful ladies (and awesome supporters of same) who have experienced gestational diabetes even though you already ate pretty well do me a big big favor? If you could post as many meals as you remember eating/liking/working for you, we would really really appreciate it. I'm turning out to be a pretty decent cook and i look after her 2-3 days a week. Mom looks after her 2 days a week, and would rather do take out from a restaruant than cook for her, and her husband just needs left-overs to reheat.

I'm so grateful to each and every one of you for any meal suggestions you might have. it's the putting-it-all-together part that's (the latest thing) really wearing us all out. And that's so not fun for the lady who has precious few things to enjoy right now.

What to feed my guest from Australia?

shesbookish — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:52:21 -0800

What should I feed my Australian house guest? A friend of my husband's is coming to stay with us for five days next month. My husband seems to think it would be weird to ask his guest about his food preferences in advance of his trip. So, I'm wondering how comfortable an Australian would be with typical American food.

I realize that I'm generalizing here, but assuming that the guy has a "normal" diet in Australia, would he be freaked out if I served dinners like spaghetti and meatballs, chicken piccata, baked salmon, etc? Will soups and sandwiches be okay for lunch? I typically stock yogurt, fruits and cereal for breakfast. Will any of this seem bizarre to a 20-something Australian? Is there something I should definitely serve to make him feel at home?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I am going to do my best to get my husband to ask our guest about his tastes, but if I can't get that to work out, I'm sure some generalized recommendations will be helpful.

Mac OSX: I need an app or some way that allow me to display the clock +3 hours.

Leech — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:57:18 -0800

I live in Argentina, and I'm working on an app that requires to use the time of a city in the US otherwise it doesn't compiles (NDA related, I think). So I've changed my macbook hour to that city timezone, and hidden the mac clock to only show the clock in analog (so I don't see this much). I need an app or some way that allow me to display the clock +3 hours.

not sweet desserts

whatzit — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:39:53 -0800

Desserts for people who don't like sweet stuff? Dinner party help! I have to bring dessert, and while I'll definitely have some mango-lime sorbet, my favorite guest doesn't like sweets that much. hm. What to do?! I'm definitely not looking for Indian (can't get the ingredients) and would prefer not do Asian. Bonus point for non-oven-based desserts.

Help me plan a beer pairing menu (with constraints).

RobotVoodooPower — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:27:43 -0800

I'm planning a wedding rehearsal dinner for about 100 guests. Besides the usual wine service I'd like to do something different and do a beer pairing menu. There are four courses total, but guests have multiple options for each course. I think the logistics of serving will limit us to one beer (about 6 oz) per course regardless of food selection, which is the tricky part. Here are the courses:

First: popcorn crawfish caesar salad / crab bisque with lump crab

Second: shrimp & grits / crab cakes with corn maque choux and remoulade

Third: grouper with potato croquette & crawfish buerre blanc / duck confit and sweet potato hash / ny strip with bernaise

Dessert: This is the twist, because I have a stout with star anise (heavy licorice taste) I want to serve for this course. What dessert goes with this beer?

Oh -- and I also want domestically brewed suds, preferably from the East Coast. How best to solve this puzzle?

kosher picnic

lockestockbarrel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:49:50 -0800

What snacks can I bring to an outdoor picnic that are easy and kosher? Friday night we're going out with two other couples to an outdoor music venue -- BYO drinks and snacks. One of the couples keeps kosher. Not super-kosher (so I don't think the fact that my knife isn't kosher will be a problem) but kosher enough.

We're responsible to bring snacks to go with the drinks. What should we bring that won't offend the kosher people? Refrigeration isn't a problem, but I'll only have an hour or two to put some things together.

What should we bring?

Summertime Beers?

rossination — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:03:37 -0800

What kind of beer should we serve at our party tomorrow? We're having a dinner party tomorrow night and are serving tacos (fish and chicken) and spring rolls (I've successfully duplicated the ones from the steelhead diner, much to my delight). I'm looking for some sort of lightish summery beer to serve but I don't really know anything about this kind of stuff. Corona comes to mind but it's not my favorite -- any other recommendations?

I'm not opposed to buying 2 or 3 six packs, and I have access to a regular Trader Joe's, if that helps.

Notepad? Honestly?

like_neon — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:39:49 -0800

I am looking for a good menu planner/template that fulfills what I think are pretty basic features. About once a week I create a weekly menu (mainly for dinners) for my boyfriend and myself. I create this using... Notepad.

I list the ingredients needed for shopping at the top and all the recipes below. It works ok but I wish I could use something a bit snazzier to reuse past "hits" and such. Right now, I don't even save the files because I usually do this at my work computer at the end of the day.

What I would like:
- Allow me to enter my OWN recipes (I usually cut and paste them from recipes linked in my del.icio.us account)
- Let me reuse them easily.
- Let me create a separate list for ingredients shopping (if it could pull them out of the recipes, that would be awesome!)
- Save weekly menus
- Online access

Nice to have:
- Keep track of how often I use particular recipes
- Budgeting options where I can enter grocery totals

Most solutions I've checked out so far make me use their own database of recipes or suggest their own meals, which some people may like but I find restrictive.

Oh and I'd like this to be Free!

Obviously Web 2.0 is not good enough. Help.

damnjezebel — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:25:29 -0800

Boss needs a CSS drop down vertical menu, circa non-existent Web 5.0. Oh, and he needs it tomorrow. Please point me at a picture or something to use as reference (or even use THAT) so I don't lose my job because I'm not psychic.

It's fricassee, it must be Tuesday

Miko — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:06:52 -0800

What are your favorite, efficient, menu-planning sequences that use a limited set of ingredients in several different ways? I love home cooking and like to make really good things, but keep the budget down. A lot of meats I buy locally, so they tend to be complete cuts with bones in and need different handling and planning than convenience cooking. For this I'm finding the tried-and-true strategy of using a few main ingredients in different dishes one after the other can really work.

For instance, I had a great week last week: roasted chicken with wild rice and sweet potatoes on the first night, which became chicken enchiladas on the second night, and also provided for a chicken and wild rice soup with thyme on the third night. Everything got used and was delicious. The best part about this is the variety: it wasn't just chicken, chicken salad, chicken salad, chicken salad.

What are some other meal plans that result in three iterations or so with different spins on a main ingredient or two? I'd love to do this more often!

What's wrong with my firefox tools menu?

HSWilson — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:04:43 -0800

Why is my Firefox Tools menu horizontal instead of vertical? I've googled, but had no luck. All of my other menus are standard vertical menus, but for some reason my tools menu is horizontal. I've looked through the about:config file, but I don't really know what I'm looking for. I'd like to know why it's like this, but mostly I want the menu to be vertical. Any help would be appreciated. I'm running XP, Firefox 3.0 RC1, and it started happening when I installed Firefox 3.0 Beta 4.

balls balls balls balls balls

Greg Nog — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:06:16 -0800

I'm throwing a Balls Ball. You know, just a buncha dudes, enjoying balls, watching 300 and drinking together. That kind of thing. We have a reasonable menu already, but still, I would like you to suggest your favorite balls. Give me your balls. Right now, the menu is:

Hors D'Oeuvres:
Melon balls
Cheese balls

Main course:
Swedish Meatballs
Souzoukakia (Greek meatballs in tomato sauce)
Other possibilities?: Malai or Palak Kofta, Pan de Yucca

Dessert:
Bourbon Balls
Peanut Butter Balls

Drinks:
Highballs

So that ain't bad, but I'm sure that there are key balls I'm neglecting. What other balls could I serve, metafilter? Suggestions are nice, but recipes are nicer! Thanks in advance for your balls.

How to get rounded corners on a dropdown menu?

desjardins — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:59:39 -0800

Please help me modify my flyout menu navigation to have rounded corners. Currently it's an asp .net control, which (apparently) does not allow this modification. I found this web page which purports to have solved this problem, but I can't get the sample files to work, and frankly, the whole article is a bit over my head. What I do understand is this: asp .net menus are square by default, and they require a programming background to change. I'd be happy using a background gif but the menu controls do not seem to allow this (you can use images for the separators but not the background).

I am using Microsoft Expression Web (yah, don't ask) but I am not married to asp .net. I don't care if this can be done in Javascript, CSS, or with a satanic ritual. All I need is 1) rounded corners and 2) a vertical fly-out menu, similar to the picture on the website linked above.

I also have access to Adobe CS2, including GoLive, if that helps.

iTunes annoyance

Aloysius Bear — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:38:46 -0800

When I right-click the iTunes icon in the Windows system tray, often the taskbar context menu will pop up at the same time and interfere with the iTunes menu, like this. How can I fix this? The iTunes taskbar toolbar works, but it takes up much more space than the system tray icon. The problem seems to happen mostly when an application has focus, rather than the taskbar. TIA!