I just checked on a couple of programs I wrote for the 42s and noticed this:
1. On the custom menu (shift 2), I have 3 pages of menu assigned and the annunciator works fine.
2. In a program where I built two custom menus for it, there is no annunciator.
In the program, where I built the menus, there is only one page of menu options, which then gets replaced by another menu of only one page later in the same program - these are two distinct separate menus, not TWO pages of ONE menu.
I believe for the annunciator to work, you need to have two or more pages in the SAME menu. I.E. when you build the menu, instead of assigning to "KEY 3 XEQ WHATEVER" you would assign on 2nd page as "KEY ^3 XEQ SOMETHING" or on 3rd page as "KEY v3 GTO 3RD THING", where ^ is the up arrow key, and v is the down arrow key as part of your assignment. This allows you to have up to 18 different items in one menu, instead of just the six visible at one time.
I could be wrong about this, as I don't have my manual at hand, but I'll check it when I get home and edit this post if necessary.
polarbear Mike
OK - I got home and looked it up. It's a little more complicated than what I said above. In the spiral bound HP42S Owner's Manual PN.0042-90001 (not the HP42S Programming Examples and Techniques Manual PN.00042-90020) on pages 145 thru 148 the function and building of "nested" submenus and multi-page menus is very well explained. Use of the up arrow key, the down arrow key, and the exit key are controlled by keys 7, 8, and 9, respectively. These keys MUST be used to send your program to other pages of your menu, which are then accessed by using the up and down arrows, and the exit key. Too long an explanation to go into here, but if you want to build this type of menu, this manual reference is a MUST have. It's do-able, but might not be worth the effort - your decision. Good luck with it!
polarbear Mike
Edited: 25 Feb 2008, 9:12 p.m. after one or more responses were posted