Menuette Sets are the documents that contain the icons Menuette draws.

If you examine the names of the Menuette Sets, you’ll notice that each of them contains the name of a program (except one, which we’ll talk about in a minute). The name of the Menuette Set indicates that it contains icons specific to that program — for example, the Finder Set contains icons to replace the Label and Special menus you see when you are using the Finder. The icons in one program’s set will not appear in other programs, even if the other programs have menus with the same names.

“But wait a minute!” we hear you saying, “What about the File and Edit menus in the Finder? They’re replaced by icons, but the Finder Set doesn’t contain them!” That’s a good question, and it has an important answer, so pay attention: some menu titles are so common (such as File, Edit, View, Window, and Font) that they’re included in a separate Menuette Set called the Universal Set. The icons in the Universal Set do appear in every program using these common menu names.

There are two benefits to this. First of all, it saves space: you don’t have to include the same icons with almost every Set. Secondly, it maintains consistency: your File menu always has the same icon, making Menuette easier to use. (Note that there can be only one Universal Set inside the Menuette Sets folder.)

You’ll notice, then, that Menuette actually needs to be able to find two files to draw a complete set of icons for most applications: the application set (such as Finder Set or MacWrite Set) and the Universal Set. If you only see half of the icons, it’s probably because Menuette can only find one of the two files it’s looking for. If you’re using an application for which you don’t have a specific Menuette Set, the common menu titles (File, Edit, etc.) will be drawn as icons (because they’re in the Universal Set), but the more unusual ones (Noogie) won’t.

And as you’ve probably guessed, adding icons for a new program is as quick and easy as placing a new Menuette Set file into the Menuette Sets folder (once again, don’t just leave them loose in the System Folder or Control Panels folder). Some additional Menuette Set files (generally completely free) are available from online services, including America Online.

A note about Menuette Sets and program versions: most of the Sets included with Menuette have been written to provide icons for a particular release of the program they match. Most programs use pretty much the same menu names from version to version, so don’t be afraid to try the Menuette Set if you have an older or newer version of the same program. Do observe, however, that we’ve only tested the Set on the release whose number is indicated in the Set’s title — we can’t promise that the Menuette Set in question will work flawlessly with other versions of the software. So if you try it and the engine block from a ’57 Chevy pickup comes flying through your screen and lands in your lap, don’t come running to us for explanations. (Actually, the worst that can happen is that you’ll see some of those annoying menu titles again — but let us know if you find the engine block; it’s been missing for months and our mother’s still waiting for us to go pick her up at the train station.)

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can use a resource-editing program (such as Apple’s ResEdit) to create your own Menuette sets. If you have such a program (and preferably some artistic talent), you’ll have no problem creating new sets (but read the help topic Technical Info About Sets first). 

If you don’t know what ResEdit is, you’re probably better off getting Sets that other people have created for now; in the future, we plan to release a Menuette Sets editor, but it’s not ready yet.