title: Are there any standards to follow in determining where to place menu items?
body: <p>In developing Windows forms based application, are there any standards that should be followed when designing your form's main menu system?  </p>
  
  <p>Most windows applications with menu systems will have your standard File | Edit | View | Tools | Help menus.  How do you determine placement of any additional top level menu items?  </p>
  
  <p>In addition, how do you determine placement of sub-menu items?  For example, what rules or principles would you follow to determine whether an items should be placed in the Edit, Tools, or maybe your own non-standard top-level menu?</p>
  
  <p>I am looking for two things here:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Published resources (web or print) that detail this (especially if it is from Microsoft), or other material from UX or UI professionals.</li>
  <li>Your own opinions.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Based on a response by Gamecat mentioning the Ribbon, I'll expand this to the Ribbon as well.  How do you determine which tab buttons appear on?  Looking for the same as above.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Related question:</strong>
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/126797/is-there-a-style-guide-for-guis-somewhere">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/126797/is-there-a-style-guide-for-guis-somewhere</a></p>