The menu system that you create at design time can be programmed to respond dynamically to changing conditions at run time. If a particular menu item is an inappropriate choice in certain contexts, you can prevent the user from selecting it by removing it or disabling it (also called dimming the menu item, or making it gray). If a menu item represents an option with two possible states, you can place a check mark next to it to show that the option is turned on and remove the check mark to show that it's turned off. For example, the Microsoft Excel default menu system uses a check mark on the Record Macro submenu on the Tools menu to show that the Use Relative References option is turned on.
Finally, you might want to rename a menu item in response to current conditions. For example, clicking the Freeze Panes command on the Windows menu causes it to be renamed "Unfreeze Panes."
Note that although you can make design-time changes to the menu system using either the Menu Editor or Visual Basic, you must use Visual Basic to make any run-time changes.