{"id":26964,"date":"2017-08-21T09:56:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T13:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/?p=26964"},"modified":"2017-08-18T09:58:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T13:58:16","slug":"uncovering-the-macs-hidden-menus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/uncovering-the-macs-hidden-menus\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncovering the Mac\u2019s Hidden Menus"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to find and open the Mac\u2019s standard menus\u2014all you do is click a word or icon. But did you know about the Mac\u2019s hidden menus? They contain many useful commands, but the Mac\u2019s user interface provides no clue to their existence. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a Name?<\/b><\/h3>\n

These menus go by a few different names. Long-time geeks call them contextual<\/i> menus, but nowadays Apple prefers to call them secondary<\/i> menus or shortcut<\/i> menus. We\u2019ll call them shortcut menus here because they generally provide shortcuts to commands that are also available elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Can I Just Click?<\/b><\/h3>\n

\"\"Sorry, no. You have to invoke these shortcut menus in a special way. The most foolproof method is via a Control-click\u2014hold down the Control key on your keyboard while you click the correct spot. Try it by Control-clicking an icon in the Finder.<\/p>\n

Before the Mighty Mouse appeared in 2005, all Apple mice had just one button, so the Control-click technique was the only way to go. Since 2005, however, all Apple mice have provided multiple buttons, and since then, you\u2019ve also been able to right-click to invoke a shortcut menu. Windows users who switch to the Mac are particularly accustomed to right-clicking, since Windows relies on it heavily. To right-click, click the target spot with the right-hand button on your mouse, or click the equivalent area on your trackpad.<\/p>\n

If that doesn\u2019t work, open System Preferences > Mouse\/Trackpad > Point & Click and make sure the \u201cSecondary click\u201d checkbox is selected. Also, note whether \u201cClick in bottom right corner\u201d or \u201cClick in bottom left corner\u201d (or similar) is selected. (When changing the settings for a non-Apple mouse or trackpad, you may see different options or need to use software that came with the device.)<\/p>\n

Right-clicking is great, but trackpad users can avail themselves of another technique, the two-finger click. If \u201cClick with two fingers\u201d is selected in the Trackpad preference pane, you can invoke a shortcut menu with a two-fingered click anywhere on your trackpad. We prefer this two-finger-click method because, with either click-in-a-corner method, we sometimes click in the corner when we want a regular click, not a menu.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What Can Shortcut Menus Do, and Where Do I Find Them?<\/b><\/h3>\n

We already mentioned the shortcut menu that comes up from a Finder icon. Most of its commands also appear in the Finder\u2019s File menu, but the shortcut menu saves you a trip across the screen. A few favorites from that menu are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Say you want to trash a file on your Desktop. You could drag the file to the Trash icon on the Dock, of course, but that can be a lot of mousing on a large screen! It\u2019s easier to Control-click the file\u2019s icon and choose Move to Trash from the shortcut menu.<\/li>\n
  • Another command on this shortcut menu, Open With, is perfect for opening a file in an application other than the default app. That\u2019s handy if you want to open a text file in Pages instead of TextEdit.<\/li>\n
  • There\u2019s also a Share command that lets you quickly add a photo to your Photos library, post it to Facebook, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Shortcut menus abound in the Finder: Control-click the toolbar of a Finder window to get commands for customizing it. Control-click a sidebar item in a Finder window to get info about it or remove it, among other possibilities. For a Finder window in List view, you can add and remove columns by Control-clicking the column header bar. And of course, you can Control-click icons in the Dock.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Most apps also offer shortcut menus, but the hard part is finding them. The trick is to Control-click any object or interface control you could conceivably customize or work on in some other way. To see what we\u2019re talking about, Control-click a photo you\u2019ve received in Messages, a message summary in Mail, or a graphic in Safari. Those examples are just the tip of the iceberg\u2014try Control-clicking words, graphics, songs, icons, toolbars, sidebars, you name it!<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \n

    Twitter:<\/b> Did you know that most Mac apps have hidden shortcut menus? Here\u2019s how to find and use them:<\/p>\n

    Facebook:<\/b> Want to make using the Finder and nearly any Mac app a little easier? Try shortcut menus!<\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s easy to find and open the Mac\u2019s standard menus\u2014all you do is click a word or icon. But did you know about the Mac\u2019s hidden menus? They contain many useful commands, but the Mac\u2019s user interface provides no clue to their existence. Here\u2019s what you need to know. What\u2019s in a Name? These menus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,39,281,5,282,60,196,283,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-blog","category-contextual-menu","category-mac","category-menu","category-productivity","category-restricted-content","category-shortcut-menu","category-solution"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Contextual-menus-Finder-icon.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YLEm-70U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30442,"url":"https:\/\/www.computeradvantage.us\/v3\/make-your-own-keyboard-shortcuts-on-the-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":26964,"position":0},"title":"Make Your Own Keyboard Shortcuts on the Mac","author":"computeradv","date":"February 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Power users like keyboard shortcuts because it\u2019s faster to press a couple of keys than to navigate lengthy menus.\u00a0But what about menu items that lack shortcuts? 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