Choose what happens when you click

Contextual menus allow you to choose what happens when you click. Right-click if you’re a Windows user or hold down the Control key while you click if you’re a Mac user. [First published May 2003.]
In the usual way of things, simply clicking on an item on your computer screen may cause something [...]

In the usual way of things, simply clicking on an item on your computer screen may cause something to happen. Click on a link in a web page, for example, to move to a new page.

But change how you click and you can cause a Contextual menu to appear that offers many more options. These menus are called Contextual because the menu contents change according to context.

What a contextual menu does

Right click or Control click on a web page link, for example, and you’ll see you can choose such useful activities as: Open in New Browser Window, Open in New Tab, Copy Address, Download Link to Disk or various other possibilities.

The screenshot shows a contextual menu over a link in Safari on the Mac.

Exactly what you see in the Contextual Menu depends on your browser (eg Opera, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer), which version you’re using and which platform you’re using (eg Mac, Linux, Windows etc).

Try calling up Contextual Menus in different programs, and explore the options available.

How to call up a contextual menu

If your mouse has more than one button, try clicking the right-hand button. On recent Mac laptops try tapping with two fingers at once on the trackpad. On a Mac laptop, visit System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Trackpad and check ‘Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click’ to enable two-finger tapping.

Alternatively, on a Mac, hold down the Control key while single-clicking n the usual way.

Written for and reproduced from
CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, May 2003.

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