Next, I move on to menu control in OS X. Menus are handy drop-down controls that allow you to select commands that are grouped logically. For example, an application’s File menu usually allows you to create or open a document, save a document to disk, or print a document. To open a menu, click the desired menu group name on the bar at the top of the screen and then click the desired menu option from the extended menu.
Figure 2-7 illustrates the Safari menu. Submenus are designated by rightarrow icons. When you move your mouse pointer over a submenu command, you get another set of even more specific menu commands. In this case, the Services submenu command displays commands, such as Make New Sticky Note and Look Up in Dictionary.
Some applications allow you to create your own custom menus. Although configuring a new menu system takes some time to figure out, imagine the productivity gains that you’ll enjoy! Custom menus are sleeker and easier to navigate. (However, you have to stop short of claiming that you wrote the application. Software developers get downright snippy about it.)
OS X also provides another type of menu: contextual. A contextual (or rightclick, or shortcut) menu appears when you right-click certain items, revealing commands that relate specifically to those items. (Unfortunately, the items that sport contextual menus vary from application to application, so check the program’s documentation before you spend countless hours right-clicking everything onscreen.) The same items in the right-click menu appear when you select an item and then click the Action pop-up menu, which looks like a mechanical gear. You can also hold down the Control key while clicking an item to display the contextual menu (or tap with two fingers, if you’re using a trackpad).
Most manufacturers sell mice, trackballs, and other pointing things that include a secondary mouse button. And Button Number 2 is oft-called the “right-click button.” Generally, if you have a pointing device with multiple buttons, the device displays contextual menus when you click the secondary button. Then again, you might launch Aunt Harriet into a geosynchronous orbit, so double-check the manual for your pointing thing on the default button assignment (and how to change it, if necessary). Note that you can set the behavior of the right button in the corresponding System Preferences pane (usually Mouse or Trackpad).
Many commands in menus have keyboard shortcuts. Because I hold forth on this subject in the upcoming section, “Keyboard Shortcuts for the True Power User,” I hold off describing those shortcuts here.
Figure 2-7 illustrates the Safari menu. Submenus are designated by rightarrow icons. When you move your mouse pointer over a submenu command, you get another set of even more specific menu commands. In this case, the Services submenu command displays commands, such as Make New Sticky Note and Look Up in Dictionary.
Some applications allow you to create your own custom menus. Although configuring a new menu system takes some time to figure out, imagine the productivity gains that you’ll enjoy! Custom menus are sleeker and easier to navigate. (However, you have to stop short of claiming that you wrote the application. Software developers get downright snippy about it.)
OS X also provides another type of menu: contextual. A contextual (or rightclick, or shortcut) menu appears when you right-click certain items, revealing commands that relate specifically to those items. (Unfortunately, the items that sport contextual menus vary from application to application, so check the program’s documentation before you spend countless hours right-clicking everything onscreen.) The same items in the right-click menu appear when you select an item and then click the Action pop-up menu, which looks like a mechanical gear. You can also hold down the Control key while clicking an item to display the contextual menu (or tap with two fingers, if you’re using a trackpad).
Most manufacturers sell mice, trackballs, and other pointing things that include a secondary mouse button. And Button Number 2 is oft-called the “right-click button.” Generally, if you have a pointing device with multiple buttons, the device displays contextual menus when you click the secondary button. Then again, you might launch Aunt Harriet into a geosynchronous orbit, so double-check the manual for your pointing thing on the default button assignment (and how to change it, if necessary). Note that you can set the behavior of the right button in the corresponding System Preferences pane (usually Mouse or Trackpad).
Many commands in menus have keyboard shortcuts. Because I hold forth on this subject in the upcoming section, “Keyboard Shortcuts for the True Power User,” I hold off describing those shortcuts here.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий