Menu bar items are tailored to specific software applications. Although most software applications have menu bars, they do not all contain the same submenus. Additionally, similar submenus do not necessarily contain the same command and menu item subsets. Common menu bar items include File, Edit and View submenus.

Some menu bar items have shortcut key combinations that allow options to be selected without searching for each dropdown menu item. Windows examples include copy (Ctrl+c), paste (Ctrl+v) and undo (Ctrl+z).