Sometimes more than one item might have the same name. Each item with the same name must belong to a different action bar template. However, globally defined items always have unique names. In the example in An Example Action Bar Template, the only globally defined item is OpenFile, which is defined outside the MainMenu action bar template. Any attempt to create another item named OpenFile, inside or outside an action bar template, will produce an error.

When referring to an item in an action statement or a response, you can usually just use the form item ITEM_NAME. However, sometimes there might be more than one item with the same name. Each such item must be referred to as item ITEM_NAME from ACTION_BAR_NAME. Whenever an item is defined in an action bar template, you can refer to it using item ITEM_NAME from ACTION_BAR_NAME although you are required to do so only when an item in another template has the same name.

Global items can be referred to only as item ITEM_NAME. In the preceding example, the global item OpenFile cannot be referred to using item OpenFile from MainMenu although it appears in MainMenu.