All menu items have a combination of style bits that determine what kind of data the item contains and what kind of message it generates when the user selects it. For example, a menu item can have the MIS_TEXT, MIS_BITMAP, or other styles that specify the visual representation of the menu item on the screen. Other styles determine what kinds of messages the item sends to its owner and whether the owner draws the item. Menu-item styles typically do not change during program execution, but you can query and set them dynamically by sending MM_QUERYITEM and MM_SETITEM messages with the menu-item identifier to the menu-bar window. For text menu items (MIS_TEXT), an MM_SETITEMTEXT message sets the text. The MM_QUERYITEMTEXT message queries the text of the item. For non-text menu items, the hItem field of the MENUITEM structure typically contains the handle of a display object, such as a bit-map handle for MIS_BITMAP menu items.

An application can draw a menu item by setting the style MIS_OWNERDRAW for the menu item. This usually is done by specifying the MIS_OWNERDRAW style for the menu item in the resource-definition file; but it also can be done at run time. When the application draws a menu item, it must respond to messages from the menu each time the item must be drawn.