A method and hierarchical menu is provided for displaying on the screen of a wireless handheld electronic device an extended menu or a short menu, which is a subset of the corresponding extended menu. The method includes displaying a page on a screen and receiving an ambiguous request/selection when no menu is displayed. In response to the ambiguous selection, a short menu corresponding to the displayed page is displayed on the screen. Various short menus are provided with their respective menu items being dependent and adjustable based upon the position of a cursor on the displayed page, the currently opened application, and/or the previous selections. Further, a selection from the short menu is capable of displaying the extended menu corresponding thereto.