In pretty much all applications that have a menu bar, some of the items have an ellipsis (...) after them, and some don't. Is there a well known convention on when to put that ellipsis there and when not to? When do you do it? Do you do it?

I have looked at various windows applications, and this is what I have come to:

• Ellipsis

  • Menu items which opens a form that require user input to do something (Replace, Go to, Font)

• No ellipsis

  • Menu items which just does something (Cut, Paste, Exit, Save)
  • Menu items which opens a form that does not require user input (About, Check for Updates)

But then there always seems to be menu items that doesn't follow this rule. For example the Help items (How do I, Search, Index) and the Find and Replace (Quick Find, Find in Files, Find Symbol) in Visual Studio.

So after thinking about it a bit more I know think this might be the thing:

• Ellipsis

  • Menu items that will definitely open a modal window.

• No Ellipsis

  • Menu items that opens a non-modal window.
  • Menu items that doesn't open any window.
  • Menu items that most likely won't open a modal window (Like Save, which does open a modal window if you haven't saved before or something like that, but otherwise don't)

What do you guys think?