One of the little - known time - saving features of Mac OS X is service — hide , exclusive - characteristic mastery that you may get at from a particular Services computer menu , or , sometimes , from a contextual carte . These features are generally provide by software — built - in OS X applications or third - company programs — and let you quickly preform actions that commonly demand launching extra programme and taking many steps . Here are answers to frequently asked questions about how to find , use , and negociate service .
Q: What are services?
A : Simply put , OS XTC services lease you borrow features from other program . So , as I write this article in Bare Bones Software’sBBEdit , I can pick out some text , take the Services menu ( get inApplicationName- > Services , in this case , BBEdit - > Services ) , and then choose New Email With Selection . A new subject matter window opens in Apple ’s Mail , filled with my text selection , that I can easily treat and send to my editor program .
Services are group in categories , and have app icons next to them . They ’re found in the Services submenu of the menu name after the app . For example , BBEdit - > Services . As this screenshot show , the Services menu allows me to do many thing with selected text — all without leaving BBEdit . I can research in Dictionary , Google or Spotlight ; I can lend the text edition to Literature and Latte ’s Scrivener , make a new gummy note , or a new note in Bare Bones Software ’s Yojimbo ; or I can send the textual matter to Mail to make a note or an email . What you see in your Services menu will depend on which coating you have establish on your Mac .
Q: Can I right-click to use services?
A : You do n’t always have to use the Services computer menu to access services . Right - click , or ascendence - click , on pick out textbook in a papers , and you ’ll see either a Services menu near the bottom of the contextual card , or merely a list of services ( this depends on the covering ) . You ’ll see only some service there ; not as many as in the menu bar Services menu . So unless you are sure the divine service you want is in the contextual menu , you ’re well off using the menubar menu .
Q: Where’d all my services go? I don’t see anything in the Services menu.
A : If you do n’t pick out anything before you enter the Services menu , you might find out the menu is empty or has very few options . This is because services are contextual ; what you see depends on what ’s selected . With nothing selected in TextEdit and Pages , for example , I see only the selection to take a screenshot or import an image . In general , serve function when you select subject . This can be text or graphics in an covering , or even file cabinet in the Finder . Also , some applications do n’t hold service : this is the case for Microsoft Office 2008 ; Office 2011 does support them , though .
Q: My Services menu is out of control. Can I cut down the number of things I see there?
A : If you have a quite a little of applications , you may have a lot of services . In fact , there may be too many to make using the Services menu pragmatic . luckily , in OS X Lion , you could choose which ones are visible . Go to System Preferences , select the Keyboard pane , and take the Keyboard Shortcuts tab . select Services to see a list of all the service on your Mac . Here , you’re able to chink or uncheck the ones you use most or not at all . notice that just because you check one does n’t mean it will display all the time ; remember , services only expose when they ’re relevant to the type of content you ’ve selected .
The Keyboard preferences let you get at services , and pick out which ones expose in the Services carte .
Services are group here by class — Pictures , Internet , Files & Folders , and so on — but they do n’t display with app ikon , so it may be hard to see on the nose which program they belong to . If you get disordered , fit the Services menu ( whichdoesdisplay curriculum icons ) to figure out what practical program a specific service is for , so you’re able to better make up one’s mind what to check or uncheck .
Services are grouped in categories, and have application icons next to them. They’re found in the Services submenu of the menu named after the application. For example, BBEdit -> Services.
Q: Where are services installed?
A : Services can be installed in three places . First , they can be inner applications . secondly , diligence can install them in the /Nameofstartupdisk / Library / Services folder . Finally , some applications put in them in the Library / Services folder in your user folder . Some of these may be .service file , but others may be automator activity , with a .workflow extension .
Q: Is there any easier way to get to the services I want to use the most?
A : Using the Services carte du jour can be annoying because you have to tap the software computer menu , then the Services submenu , and then pick out the service you require to use . ( As I mentioned before , many services do n’t show up in the contextual menu . ) If you plan to utilise a specific service regularly , making a keyboard shortcut for it will spare you time . To do this , launch the Keyboard pane in System Preferences , tap the Keyboard Shortcuts tab , and then in Services . Find the religious service you require to access with a shortcut , and then double - click to the right of it .
Get warm access to a inspection and repair by create a keyboard crosscut for it . Enter the keyboard shortcut you want in this pane , do sure it is n’t used by another program . Using the Control key ( ^ ) in the crosscut by and large ensures that other programs do n’t use it .
After you ’ve set the cutoff and pressed return , the service will become unchecked . take it again to ensure it depict up in the Services carte du jour . If you blank out the shortcuts you have give to service , depend in the bill of fare to jog your memory — they’ll be displayed to the right of the service ’s name .
The Keyboard preferences let you access services, and choose which ones display in the Services menu.
Q: Can I download more services?
elderly contributor Kirk McElhearn writes about more than just Macs on his blogKirkville . Twitter:@mcelhearnKirk is the author ofTake Control of Scrivener 2 .
Get quick access to a service by creating a keyboard shortcut for it. Enter the keyboard shortcut you want in this pane, making sure it isn’t used by another application. Using the Control key (^) in the shortcut generally ensures that other programs don’t use it.
