When should I use a ellipsis in a Menu Item

Question

When should I put ... at the end of a menu item? I seem to remember reading some rules but can\'t for the life of me find them.

For context - I\'m adding a properti

Answer 1

To be exact, the rule is that if more information is required from the user to complete an action, then include an ellipsis. In the MS Vista User Experience Guidelines, getting a confirmation qualifies as "more information" (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511502.aspx). Commands to show Properties, About, Help, Options do not get ellipsis because no further information is needed to execute the command, which is "Show Properties" or "Show Documentation" or "Show Options." The File Open command gets an ellipsis because additional information is needed to open the file, namely the file name.