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&utm_medium=feed&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:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

<style name="MyAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>

<style name="MyActionBar" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar">
    <item name="android:titleTextStyle">@style/MyActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
    <item name="android:actionMenuTextAppearance">@style/MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="MyActionBar.TitleTextStyle"
    parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
    <item name="android:textColor">#F0F</item>
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">24dip</item>
</style>

<style name="MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle"
    parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
    <item name="android:textColor">#F0F</item>
    <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">24dip</item>
</style>
</resources>

A menu for the action bar:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<item android:showAsAction="always|withText" android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
    android:id="@+id/menu_item1" android:title="menu_item1"></item>

<item android:showAsAction="always|withText" android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
    android:id="@+id/menu_item2" android:title="menu_item2"></item>

</menu>

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 ?

Answer 1

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