Power a Control-Click Away

The usefulness and utility of Contextual Menu Modules

With the introduction of Mac OS 8, Apple added support for special context-sensitive popup menus known as contextual menus. While this feature has been available to computer users since the release of Windows 95, Apple didn’t deem it of any value until recently. The ability to invoke a menu of commands specifically tailored for selected content could prove to be an invaluable productivity tool for any user. The power of these menus is contained in a modular paradigm known as a Contextual Menu Module (CMM) through which developers distribute their wares. The contextual menu’s functionality can be augmented by adding modules to the Contextual Menu Items folder residing in the System Folder. Following is a mere sample of the various tools that harness this new medium’s potential.

A Better Finder Select: Shift-clicking a large number of files matching a desired criteria is time-consuming and prone to human error. This CMM makes the job easier by providing a way to search for a determined string of characters in the filenames of multiple items. Within the CMM search window, distinctions can be made on the location of the string in a filename (beginning or end for example) through the use of a pulldown menu and with wildcard characters. Selections can be concluded or further refined with the buttons on the rightmost pane. The buttons along the bottom provide links to the author’s other CMM’s. Overall, this utility can be useful when working with a large number of files where finding similarities between them becomes increasingly difficult.

Align Icons: This module by Softwarium adds the Finder’s icon arrangment features to the contextual menu. With a selection from the submenu, icons can be arranged in any fashion possible by its View menu counterpart.

CMTools: This CMM and helper application combination by Éric de la Musse provides a whole suite of enhancements. These include a small launcher, features that make aliases in, copy items to, or move items to a defined location, and commands that alter a selected item’s Finder attributes such as type, creator, and lock. This utility greatly extends the capabilities of the contextual menu and provides a whole smorgesboard of features in one package instead of seperately as they are in many other CMM’s and stand-alone utilities.

FileCM: This module by Andy Finnell mimics another Windows 9x feature: the ability to cut or copy the entire contents of a file or folder and paste it as a new file without ever needing to open documents in an application. This unique capability makes it possible to merge files out of several segments or folders within the Finder.

Internet Location CM: Handling an avalanche of email addresses and URL’s has become an ever more common occurrence, and finding a way to keep track of them all and retrieve them later can become a daunting task. This little CMM by Tomasz Kukielka helps alleviate this predicament by easily translating URL’s to clipping files and back again. This way URL’s can be launched from the Finder and their addresses can easily be copied to the clipboard for use in other applications.

Open With: Files come in all shapes, sizes, and formats, and chances are a user will at some time want to open a file in an application other than its creator. This contextual menu module and helper application combination by Peter O’Gorman provides a quick and easy way to open a file in any application that supports it. The helper application when run will compile a list of all applications installed as well as the formats they support. When using the contextual menu, the CMM will match the selected file’s format against the formats in the list. This results in a listing that only includes applications that can handle the format of the source, saving users from drudging through irrelevant items. Open With also recognizes translators that can convert an unsupported format of one application into a format it can handle and places these applications in an “Open with translation” submenu. Additionally, applications that can open any file, such as a text or resource editor, are listed in an “Open With (can open everything)” submenu. Overall, this utility sports an intuitive and powerful solution to opening files in various applications. The best part is that the helper application does all the configuring for the user!

Send To CM: Placing a file or folder in a desired location can be quite a chore if the destination is deeply nested on a volume. This CMM by Francesco Meschia provides an elegant solution for such a menial task. It can send files to an application to be opened or route a file to a folder. With Send To, items can be added to its preferences folder as aliases which can later be grouped into categories. Because of its drag-and-drop nature, items can be routed to the appropriate folders when sent to the System Folder, and an application will respond as it would if a user had dropped an item onto its icon. Files can even be sent to a printer through the use of an included AppleScript. This utility offers these powerful and time-saving features all contained within a single submenu in the contextual menu.

StuffCM: This module by David Catmull harnesses the capabilities of the Stuffit Engine, providing commands for stuffing, expanding, and encoding files and archives. An included control panel provides a way to configure the contextual menu. Inside the control panel menu items can be enabled or disabled and preferences for stuffing, unstuffing, BinHex encoding, and archive segmenting can be configured. These settings can be temporarily toggled by setting up hot key combinations for on-the-fly switching. With StuffCM, most of the functionality of the Magic Menu, a feature included with Stuffit Deluxe, is provided in this CMM and control panel combination!

Translation CM: Converting files between different formats is a way of life, and this CMM by Philippe Gauthier does this by working with Mac OS Easy Open-style translators. By selecting a file and invoking its contextual submenu, a list of translators appropriate for the selected file appears. Having a document translation program from DataViz would provide the best results when working with this module.

WildSelect: This CMM by Iván Ordóñez provides similar functionality to A Better Finder Select but with fewer bells and whistles. A user simply selects a group of files, selects WildSelect from the contextual menu, and types a character string to search for. Wildcards can be used to broaden the search. After clicking OK, the items found to match the entered string will be left selected. It’s a one trick pony, but it does its job well.

Contextual menu modules provide an entirely different approach to working. Menus items are visible only when they are relevent to the item selected. Many modules group their commands together in submenus for organization, and these menus are completely unobtrusive and available wherever the selected item is. Hopefully this article will show Mac users how useful the contextual menu can be, especially since third-parties have used it as a canvas for some pretty amazing tools.

Feb. 1, 2000
Jeremy Hoesly
ResExcellence Software Tester and Snapshot Maintainer