Menu management system

A menu management system providing application developers a flexible tool for building a consistent user interface. A menu data base is created and edited using a maintenance module. The menu data base is then used by a menu manager (10) to present displays to the user and accept user selections. The system provides for user selections to be indicated by menu picks, programmable function keys, or by typed commands. The menu manager maintains a list of menus that have been presented to the user and provides (24, 26, 28, 36) four ways that the user can back up through these menus. One of these four ways (26) is a command that causes the menu manager to display for the user a list previous menus, allow the user to select one from the list, and back up directly to the selected menu.