How to add a separator to a WinForms ContextMenu?

Question

Inside my control, I have:

ContextMenu = new ContextMenu();
ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem("&Add Item", onAddSpeaker));
ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem("&Edit Item", onEditSpeaker));
ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem("&Delete Item", onDeleteSpeaker));
ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add( ??? );
ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(new MenuItem("Cancel"));

How to add a separation line to this ContextMenu?

@GerbenLimburg: The '&' allows you to design the shortcut key (it's called "*mnemonic*") that will be available to the user (combined with Alt). — Otiel, Sep 24 '12 at 15:46

score 244 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 28 '09 at 23:26

244

I believe it's just a dash:

ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add("-");

answered Aug 28 '09 at 23:26

SqlRyan

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This is one of many poorly documented items in Windows. I needed to do this a few months ago. I remembered that I could do it in Win32, but couldn't remember the syntax. I ended up pulling up some old VC++ 6 files to find it. By the way, I still occasionally refer to "The Petzold Book" for some things. Wow, I'm feeling old... – Brad Bruce Aug 29 '09 at 01:27
32

Surely this is more readable `ContextMenu.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());` see [Gabriel's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/5880762/15639) – MarkJ Mar 18 '12 at 12:28
9

@MarkJ, The ContextMenu no longer has an Items property. ToolStripSeperator() is also not a valid argument for ContextMenu.Items.Add(). – Cypher Jun 25 '12 at 06:04
4

Note that you can do this visually by entering the hyphen in the "Type here" entry field of the menu designer in the Visual Studio Windows Forms designer. The separator will appear immediately in the designer. – Buggieboy Jan 16 '13 at 18:43
@SqlRyan Can you pls look into this question, I suppose you can help me with this. – Ananthu K Kumar Mar 18 '21 at 08:57
Looks like this might be borken in .NET 6.0 - I am now seeing a dash instead of a separator. – David Airapetyan Jan 25 '23 at 00:45

score 61 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '11 at 08:39

61

This works just as well as the dash, and i suspect the Winforms will translate the dash to a ToolStripSeparator. I for one think this solution is more obvious for anyone who has to maintain the code.

yourContextMenu.Items.Add(new ToolStripSeparator());

answered May 04 '11 at 08:39

Gabriel

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The .Net 2 winforms ContextMenu class doesn't have an Items property. – AndrewS Apr 30 '12 at 01:22
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This is only possible with a ContextMenuStrip and not with a ContextMenu. – Gerben Limburg Jul 17 '12 at 22:13
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And you can do `yourContextMenu.Items.Insert(3, new ToolStripSeparator());`, but you cannot `Insert` a dash "-". – Otiel Apr 07 '14 at 09:55
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Perfect Thanks a lot – Garuda prasad K Sep 06 '19 at 11:13

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '10 at 14:42

11

In WPF:

ContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(new Separator());

answered Mar 17 '10 at 14:42

al2suarez

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score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 06 '13 at 21:53

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If you are using the Designer, place a single hyphen "-" as text the same way you would name your menu items. After hitting enter, the separator will be created.

edited Oct 06 '13 at 21:53

answered Aug 28 '09 at 23:27

Aziz

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 28 '09 at 23:28

3

Set the text property to a hyphen.

answered Aug 28 '09 at 23:28

shahkalpesh

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 28 '19 at 00:06

Horizontal separators are cool, but what if you want a vertical separator instead?

Well, worry ye not - you can have one!

Set BarBreak property to true on the MenuItem which should be the first one after the seperator:

var item = new MenuItem(text: "Settings", onClick: SomeFunction) { BarBreak = true };

To add the item to a MenuItems collection: yourContextMenu.MenuItems.Add(item).

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 14 '14 at 19:37

Perhaps in later versions of Visual Studio they made this simpler. I'm using VS 2012. You can add a separator via the forms designer. 1) Select/Create a MenuStrip. 2) On "Type Here", right mouse. 3) Select "Insert". 4) Select "Separator". 5) Drag the new separator to the text you want it to be above. Done.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 27 '19 at 23:41

ContextMenu has a constructor which receives an array of MenuItem objects. Needless to say, you can't add a string to that array. You can however get a seperator by adding a new MenuItem("-"):

    var contextMenu = new ContextMenu(new[]
    {
        timerMenuItem,
        keypressMenuItem,
        new MenuItem("-"), // Seperator
        new MenuItem(text: "Exit", onClick: (sender, args) => Application.Exit())
    });

How to add a separator to a WinForms ContextMenu?

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