TIP: How to Ensure App Menu Items are Available

Some applications do not necessarily update or even build their menu bar until the menu is selected with the mouse. When asked for the menus via the accessibility subsystem, the menus are either not there, or not currently correctly built for the context (eg, menus may be disabled or invisible when they should not be).

Options to force the application into updating its menus include:

  • Switch out and back to the application, and then use the Select Menu Item action.
  • Use the Show Menu variant (leave the item field blank) of the Select Menu Item action to show the menu item first, and then the Select Menu Item.
  • Simulate a click in the menu bar, and then use the Select Menu Item action.
  • Desperate measures, simulate a click in the menu bar, and then use arrows and typeahead (Insert Text by Typing) to select the menu item.
2 Likes

There is an entire topic expanding on these instructions at: