http://www.intellij.net/tracker/idea/viewSCR?publicId=23144 Implement a different type of GUI designer specifically for menus. These shoud persist to disk as .menu XML files ( similar in vein to the Form layout designer ). As part of the design process, the developer can bind the menu to a class ( note: form may also be bound by the form designer ). With each menu item being bound to JMenuItem in the class. Menu Items could also be bound to a drop-down selectable Action class in the projects classpath - promoting reuse/separation of processing logic.