Menu templates are data structures used to define menus. Menu templates can be loaded as resources or created dynamically, or embedded in dialog templates, which in turn can be loaded as resources or created dynamically. Templates loaded as resources cannot contain references to bit maps or owner-drawn items. A menu template consists of a sequence of variable-length records. Each record in a menu template defines a menu item. If a menu item contains a reference to a submenu, the menu template that defines that submenu is placed after the definition of that particular menu item.