Menu buttons

There are three variants of menu buttons (or menu triggers): menu button, combo button, and overflow menu button. Menu buttons are comprised of a button and a menu, which can be clicked to trigger an action or selected to initiate an action from a menu.

Menu button, combo button, and overflow menu are useful when you need to show numerous options but have limited screen space available to display them. By hiding less frequently used or advanced options until the user needs them, it avoids cluttering the main interface with too many options.

A feature flag has been added to the overflow menu variant of menu buttons to improve accessibility and changes parts of its functionality, not its visual appearance. For code-specific feature flag information, refer to the Code tab. The current overflow menu is not being deprecated, but teams are encouraged to use the feature flag overflow menu for their products moving forward.

Menu items come in four sizes: extra small, small, medium, and large. See more about size specifications on the style tab. When using a menu button trigger, the height of the menu item (singular) reflects the size of the button being used.

By default, the menu button and combo button follow the button structure style, and the menu maintains a minimum width of 160px to prevent a narrow appearance.

If the menu item labels become longer, the menu button and combo button remain the same size while the menu component can expand up to a maximum of 288px. Conversely, if the button labels become longer, the menu component should not appear narrower but should extend to match the width of the menu buttons.

If you opt for fluid-width default buttons, both the menu button (or the combo button) and the menu should have the same width.

Ghost buttons only adhere to the button style. This is because enlarging the ghost button’s width to match the menu’s width would result in the caret appearing disconnected from its associated button, especially when the menu button is in its closed state.

By default, combo button, menu button, or overflow button remains positioned at the top, to the left or right side of the menu when it is open, depending on the available space and layout.

Alternatively, open menus can be positioned at the bottom, to the left or right of its associated menu button trigger, depending on the available space and layout.

These buttons are ideal for page headers, where multiple, distinct actions may impact the page content, and where real-estate is limited. In the page header component, multiple buttons will become a single action button at smaller screen sizes. These buttons should only be used when the actions affect a full page or a large object on a page (examples include a canvas UI, diagram, or whole data table).

When actions affect a smaller proportion of a page, such as table rows or cards, use an overflow menu.

The text label of the button is important to communicate the action that is triggered when the user interacts with it. The text label must accurately describe the button action or indicate that interacting with it displays a list of possible actions.

For further content guidance, see Carbon’s content guidelines.

The default and interactive states of menu buttons should follow the button style guidelines.

Users can reveal the menu by:

Users can reveal the menu by:

Users can reveal the overflow menu by:

Menu buttons group actions that share the same level of importance. The icon used within the menu button should always be a caret in order to visually convey to the user that there are options to select from. There are three main use cases where using a menu button is recommended:

Menu button and combo button come in three different button types: primary, tertiary, and ghost.

Menu buttons are effective when a single action affects multiple distinct objects. This is particularly applicable when users need to Create or Add various objects, and all these objects are equally relevant options.

The shared action should not be repeated in the menu list. This adds unnecessary clutter and makes each option less distinct at a glance.

Another common use of a menu button is grouping actions related to a common label. An example of this is when users have multiple approaches to execute an action, all of which are presented as choices within the menu button.

In many cases, actions on a page may not use the same verb or have a shared label for the menu button. When grouped actions remain distinct, consider labeling the menu button as ‘Actions’ to encompass all available choices.

A combo button is composed of two buttons: the left is the default option (the most commonly used selection), and the right (chevron icon) shows the rest of the available options. A combo button provides quick access to a default action while also offering a list of related actions or options.

The combo button is expected to have less use than the menu button, as the additional actions are more hidden than they would be in menu button. However, this button does have particular use where screen real estate is limited and one of the actions has particular importance.

Combo button has only one button type: primary.

Remember to choose the default, primary action that will be displayed in the primary button so it is not hidden within the menu of additional actions. The primary default action is typically the most commonly used action there is to take.

Combo buttons reduce visual complexity by grouping similar commands together. For example, how navigation menus group together related options to enable conceptual understanding of the site information structure.

Overflow menu is also another option that is available to the user when there is a space constraint, usually used in data table rows or in cards. Overflow menu has the ghost button style only.

When there are more than three interactive icons, consider moving less important ones into the overflow menu. The overflow menu then takes the place of a third action.

The overflow icon can be customized to align with the product’s requirements. However, it’s advisable to make minimal changes to the overflow menu’s icon to maintain consistency across the product and ensure a consistent user experience.

Overflow menu displays extra options with simple text, typically utilized within data table rows or cards. The tab tip popover allows the user to include more complex inputs such as a checkbox group or a radio button group, usually connected to a data table toolbar.

To learn more about the details of how to use the menu component correctly, see menu buttons.

To understand how the menu component can be used differently from the dropdown component, see dropdown.

The popover component is visually similar to menu, but is used for different purposes. See popover for more information.

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