-- Review author: Tom Piper, appleJAC Macintosh Users Group, and Apple User Group Advisory Board
"I'd switch to a MAC, but I couldn't imagine giving up the right-click." This lament of a PC user is a broad and correctible misconception. Right-click functionality has been built into OS X since 2001, so third-party mice would work. Even though you don’t clearly see it, the Macintosh mouse has had built-in right-click since August 2005.
This article is only about right-click, so we will ignore the clickable customizable scroll-ball and side-button features of the Mighty Mouse. The magic of touch-sensitive technology transforms this seamless top shell into a two-button wonder, in wired or wireless versions. The primary use of the right-click feature is to access contextual menus, a feature that has been in the Mac operating system since OS 8.0 (control-click of the mouse was the alternative). Be sure it is set to “Secondary” (see screenshot).
“Contextual menus” are menus that can be brought up virtually anywhere by clicking the right mouse button. Many programs implement this very well, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Apple Mail being among those that do. The Finder also has this feature, which consists of commands such as "Eject" and "New Folder". You can choose how to view a folder, where to arrange the icons, and more. Both operating systems can "show info", or "get info" an an icon if you right-click on it, and both can also give you help if you need it, simply by right-clicking and selecting "Help" from the menu that pops up. You can actually change your desktop pattern by right-clicking on the desktop (see examples below).
Most people have never even heard of these menus. One favorite use of the contextual menu comes in the dock while iTunes is open. Right-click on the iTunes icon and you will get a menu that displays the currently playing song, as well as options to pause, go to the next song, go to the previous song, show iTunes in the Finder, or quit iTunes. If you've never tried the contextual menu before, you can try it now. Point to a picture on the site, and right-click. A menu should pop up, asking what you want to do with the picture. Or, point to an open app in the dock and right-click, and you will get a menu of open documents in that app and the option to quit the app. Drag a folder into the dock, right-click it, and you can browse the folder quickly and easily. Want to empty the trash? Right-clicking it will give you that option.
Contextual menus are a great way to do things faster and more efficiently on your Mac. They also give you some added functionality to programs, while just giving you easier access to frequently-used commands in others. Overall, contextual menus are very useful. If you haven't considered using them, try them out. You just may start asking yourself how you could have lived without them.
If contextual menus don’t do all that you want, you can enhance them. Abracode’s free Shortcuts lets you perform contextual-menu magic. After launching Shortcuts, its Assign Hot Keys screen presents you with a list of current contextual menu items, divided into the type of action each performs: actions on text (Spotlight searches, third-part text-munging tools), on files (Automator actions, third-party file manipulation tasks), or on folders (similar to files). To assign a keyboard shortcut to a contextual menu action, you simply choose it from the pop-up menu; a dialog will appear asking you to press the desired shortcut. (An item displayed in red in one of the pop-up menus means you’ve already assigned a shortcut to that item.)
But, there is more. If you are using any version of Windows through Boot Camp, Parallels or VMware, then the right-click will continue to work in the same way that PC users have been accustomed to all along. In fact, in addition to the Mac Mighty Mouse, the right-click feature will work with virtually any USB mouse that has this feature in Mac, Windows or Linux mode.
As you can see, right-clicking is a real treasure on the Mac. Hopefully, you will never look at it the same, and be able to enhance your control and enjoyment during daily computer use.
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