How to style the menu items on an Android action bar

Question

There s been many questions on styling on action bars  but the ones I ve found either are relating to styling the tabs  or have answers that don t work for me   The question is really quite simple  I want to be able to change the text styling  even just colour  of the menu items in the action bar   I ve read this  http   android-developers blogspot com 2011 04 customizing-action-bar html utm source feedburner amp utm medium feed amp utm campaign Feed 3A blogspot 2FhsDu  28Android Developers Blog 29  And this question  Style an Action Bar in Android Honeycomb  From which I have put together a test application that I am using to try and get the menu items to change  It uses all the default values for an app created in the eclipse android plugin  except for the following   A styles file    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt resources gt    lt style name  MyAppTheme  parent   android style Theme Holo Light  gt       lt item name  android actionBarStyle  gt  style MyActionBar lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  MyActionBar  parent   android style Widget Holo ActionBar  gt       lt item name  android titleTextStyle  gt  style MyActionBar TitleTextStyle lt  item gt       lt item name  android actionMenuTextAppearance  gt  style MyActionBar MenuTextStyle lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  MyActionBar TitleTextStyle      parent  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  F0F lt  item gt       lt item name  android textStyle  gt bold lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 24dip lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  MyActionBar MenuTextStyle      parent  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  F0F lt  item gt       lt item name  android textStyle  gt bold lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 24dip lt  item gt   lt  style gt   lt  resources gt    A menu for the action bar    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt menu xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android  gt    lt item android showAsAction  always withText  android icon   android drawable ic menu edit      android id    id menu item1  android title  menu item1  gt  lt  item gt    lt item android showAsAction  always withText  android icon   android drawable ic menu edit      android id    id menu item2  android title  menu item2  gt  lt  item gt    lt  menu gt    The main activity   public class Main extends Activity     Override public void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState        super onCreate savedInstanceState       setContentView R layout main             Create the options menu that is shown on the action bar      Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu Menu menu        MenuInflater inflater   getMenuInflater        inflater inflate R menu main menu  menu       return true        The application compiles and runs  The styling for the action bar title text works perfectly  is that lovely shade of pink  F0F I ve defined   The menu items do not change appear but with default styling  holo light     What am I doing wrong

User · Answer

Chris answer is working for me     My values-v11 styles xml file    lt resources gt   lt style name  LightThemeSelector  parent  android Theme Holo Light DarkActionBar  gt       lt item name  android actionBarStyle  gt  style ActionBar lt  item gt       lt item name  android editTextBackground  gt  drawable edit text holo light lt  item gt       lt item name  android actionMenuTextAppearance  gt  style MyActionBar MenuTextStyle lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt  --sets the point size to the menu item s  in the upper right of action bar-- gt   lt style name  MyActionBar MenuTextStyle  parent  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title  gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 25sp lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt  -- sets the background of the actionbar to a PNG file in my drawable folder   displayOptions unset allow me to NOT SHOW the application icon and application name in the upper left of the action bar-- gt   lt style name  ActionBar  parent   android style Widget Holo ActionBar  gt       lt item name  android background  gt  drawable actionbar background lt  item gt       lt item name  android displayOptions  gt  lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  inputfield  parent  android Theme Holo Light  gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color red2 lt  item gt   lt  style gt     lt  resources gt

User · Answer

Instead of having the android actionMenuTextAppearance item under your action bar style  move it under your app theme

User · Answer

My guess is that you have to also style the views that are generated from the menu information in your onCreateOptionsMenu     The styling you applied so far is working  but I doubt that the menu items  when rendered with text use a style that is the same as the title part of the ActionBar   You may want to look at Menu getActionView   to get the view for the menu action and then adjust it accordingly

User · Answer

I think the code below   lt item name  android actionMenuTextAppearance  gt  style MyActionBar MenuTextStyle lt  item gt     must be in MyAppTheme section

User · Answer

I know its an old post  but just in case anyone is looking here   I added this to my style xml and it worked for me    lt  -- This is the main theme parent -- gt   lt style name  MyTabStyle  gt       lt item name  android actionBarTabTextStyle  gt  style MyTabTextStyle lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  MyTabTextStyle  parent   android style Widget ActionBar TabText  gt       lt item name  android textAppearance  gt  android style TextAppearance Medium lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 14sp lt  item gt       lt item name  android textStyle  gt bold lt  item gt       lt item name  android textColor  gt  color pressed skylogtheme lt  item gt   lt  style gt

User · Answer

I did this way    lt style name  AppTheme  parent  Theme AppCompat Light DarkActionBar  gt       lt item name  colorPrimary  gt  color colorPrimary lt  item gt       lt item name  colorPrimaryDark  gt  color colorPrimaryDark lt  item gt       lt item name  colorAccent  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt       lt item name  actionMenuTextAppearance  gt  style MenuTextAppearance lt  item gt       lt item name  android actionMenuTextAppearance  gt  style MenuTextAppearance lt  item gt       lt item name  actionMenuTextColor  gt  color colorAccent lt  item gt   lt  style gt    lt style name  MenuTextAppearance   gt       lt item name  android textAppearance  gt  android style TextAppearance Large lt  item gt       lt item name  android textSize  gt 20sp lt  item gt       lt item name  android textStyle  gt bold lt  item gt   lt  style gt

User · Answer

You have to change    lt style name  MyActionBar MenuTextStyle  parent  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Title  gt    to   lt style name  MyActionBar MenuTextStyle  parent  android style TextAppearance Holo Widget ActionBar Menu  gt    as well  This works for me

User · Answer

BottomNavigationView navigation    BottomNavigationView  findViewById R id navigation        TextView textView    TextView  navigation findViewById R id navigation home  findViewById R id smallLabel       textView setTypeface Typeface DEFAULT BOLD       textView    TextView  navigation findViewById R id navigation home  findViewById R id largeLabel       textView setTypeface Typeface DEFAULT BOLD

[android] How to style the menu items on an Android action bar

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