The menu items shown by They're Alive! and their association with categories (search, movies, reference etc) are completely customizable.

To begin with, you create categories. Categories are broad level classifications such as movies, music, sports, news, reference, search etc, that represent real world abstractions / actions. There are three predefined categories (search, reference, dictionary) which cannot be deleted / modified, but other than that you can create new categories as well as delete or modify existing ones.

Each category is associated with 'keyword tags'. Tags are just words (ideally around fifteen - twenty specific ones) that accurately represent a category. For example, the 'movies' category can be represented with words such as 'actor', 'actress', 'hollywood', 'oscar', 'producer', 'film', 'trailer', etc.

Finally, each menu item can be associated with one or more 'categories'. For example the IMDB.com menu item can be associated with the category type 'movies'. You can associate the same menu item with more than one category if you wish.

When you browse a website, They're Alive! will try to match the website with the category most appropriate for it. This match is done on the basis of the words you associate with each category (They're Alive! compares words on the website with category tags specified by you). When you select any text, the menu item(s) that has the matching category associated with it is displayed as the default option.

In a nutshell:

• You create a category
• You associate tag words with a category
• You associate the category with a menu item
• When you select text on a website, the most relevant category for the site is determined and the corresponding menu item is displayed.

How to bring up the They're Alive! options screen
Create new / modify existing menu items
Determining the URL that makes up a menu item
Associate a category with a menu item
Create new / modify existing categories and tag words
Other options

How to bring up the They're Alive! options screen
Whenever you select any text and the They're Alive! menu shows up, the last item on the menu will always be titled "Customize They're Alive!". Clicking on this link will launch the They're Alive options screen.
 
You can also launch the options screen by clicking on the They're Alive! icon on the Internet Explorer Toolbar. By default, this icon should be visible. In the event that it's not, click on View -> Toolbars -> Customize and choose the They're Alive! button from the list of Available toolbar buttons.
 
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Create new / modify existing menu items
Right clicking a menu item or folder on the options screen brings up a menu that let's you create a new sub-folder or menu item. There are also options to rename / delete an existing item. New items or sub-folders can be created at the topmost level (outside the "Need More?" top level folder) by right clicking on any blank area of the menu tree.
 
You can rearrange the order of the menu tree by dragging and dropping menu items from one subfolder to another.
 
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Determining the URL that makes up a menu item
They're Alive! menu items work mainly by calling up the search functionality of other websites. A wide variety of popular websites are already represented as menu items by They're Alive!. To create your own menu item for a website not already present, go to the website you want to add and fire a search on it using any test word (say the actual search word used is 'testword'). Copy the URL that displays the search results. Replace the word 'testword' in this URL by the phrase 'SELECTED-TEXT' (in all caps). This modified URL should be associated with the menu item.
 
Whenever you select text on a website and click on that menu item, They're Alive! will now substitute 'SELECTED-TEXT' for the text you select and fire the search query.
 
Note that the above scenario depicts the most common usage pattern. Technically however, any URL will do (it need not contain the word 'SELECTED-TEXT' in it). If the phrase 'SELECTED-TEXT' is not found in the URL however, then substitution of your selected text will NOT take place while actually calling the website.
 
Some sites may operate search using a protocol known as HTTP POST. They're Alive! does not support HTTP POST as of now, and the method outlined above will not work for such sites (support will be added soon).
 
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Associate a category with a menu item
To associate an existing menu item with a category, select that particular menu item. The box marked 'Categories' displays a list of all categories, and the ones associated with the menu item have a check mark next to them. To associate a category, check the category name. To remove an association between a category and menu item, uncheck the category name.
 
A menu item can have more than one category associated with it.
 
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Create new / modify existing categories and tag words
You can create new categories by clicking on the 'New' button on the Categories box. To rename an existing category, double click on the category name. This will put you in edit mode, where you can change the category name. Deleting existing categories can be done by selecting the category you want to delete and then clicking on the 'Delete' button on the Categories box.
 
Each category is associated with tag words. Choose tag words that are specific to the category - avoid words that are general in nature. Common grammatical words (prepositions, articles) such as 'the', 'of', 'from', 'that' etc should definitely be avoided. While They're Alive! will work with any number of tag words, around fifteen - twenty well chosen tag words would be an optimum number. All of the tag words listed don't have to be present on a website for a category match, so putting in more tag words (if they are specific ones) can be helpful.
 
There are three categories that are built in by default. They are Reference, Search and Dictionary. These three categories cannot be renamed or deleted, nor can they have tag words associated with them. Which menu item is associated with them can however be changed.
 
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Other options
Clicking on the 'General' tab on the They're Alive! options screen let's you specify three things:

• If you want to update They're Alive! automatically as newer versions are released (recommended).
• If you want to temporarily disable They're Alive (menu won't show up on text selection). To re-enable it, click on the They're Alive! Internet Explorer toolbar button (if it's not visible, click on View -> Toolbars -> Customize and choose the They're Alive! button from the list of Available toolbar buttons.).
• The transparency level of the initial placeholder menu displayed as soon as you select any text.