title: How to style the menu items on an Android action bar
body: <p>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.</p>
  
  <p>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.</p>
  
  <p>I've read this:
  <a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/04/customizing-action-bar.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FhsDu+%28Android+Developers+Blog%29" rel="noreferrer">http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/04/customizing-action-bar.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FhsDu+%28Android+Developers+Blog%29</a></p>
  
  <p>And this question:
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5123086/style-an-action-bar-in-android-honeycomb">Style an Action Bar in Android Honeycomb</a></p>
  
  <p>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.</p>
  
  <p><strong>A styles file:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
  &lt;resources&gt;
  
  &lt;style name="MyAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:actionBarStyle"&gt;@style/MyActionBar&lt;/item&gt;
  &lt;/style&gt;
  
  &lt;style name="MyActionBar" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:titleTextStyle"&gt;@style/MyActionBar.TitleTextStyle&lt;/item&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:actionMenuTextAppearance"&gt;@style/MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle&lt;/item&gt;
  &lt;/style&gt;
  
  &lt;style name="MyActionBar.TitleTextStyle"
      parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textColor"&gt;#F0F&lt;/item&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textStyle"&gt;bold&lt;/item&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textSize"&gt;24dip&lt;/item&gt;
  &lt;/style&gt;
  
  &lt;style name="MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle"
      parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textColor"&gt;#F0F&lt;/item&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textStyle"&gt;bold&lt;/item&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textSize"&gt;24dip&lt;/item&gt;
  &lt;/style&gt;
  &lt;/resources&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>A menu for the action bar:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
  &lt;menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"&gt;
  
  &lt;item android:showAsAction="always|withText" android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
      android:id="@+id/menu_item1" android:title="menu_item1"&gt;&lt;/item&gt;
  
  &lt;item android:showAsAction="always|withText" android:icon="@android:drawable/ic_menu_edit"
      android:id="@+id/menu_item2" android:title="menu_item2"&gt;&lt;/item&gt;
  
  &lt;/menu&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>The main activity:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>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;
  }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>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). </p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong ?</p>