Pages - Contextual Menu Synonym Suggestions - So Simple, Still Missing.

There are a couple of threads regarding this issue, but I see that most of them are locked, and so far I have not been able to find a satisfactory solution. I suspect this is because there is no solution, yet, and with this post I am hoping to prompt someone to develop an adequate solution, or point me in the right direction plugin-wise.
The problem: No drop down contextual menu synonym suggestions in Pages.
Before everyone hops on to tell me how to OPEN the dictionary / thesaurus application through the contextual drop down menu in Pages, I just want to let you know: I am aware. This is inadequate on several levels.
I and those people who have posted before, but remain unsatisfied, are not looking for a way to open another program, take the time to sort out irrelevant information, have to re-type the word, get or read through all the different definitions of the word. etc. etc. What is wanted is an exact replica (or better) of the Microsoft word contextual drop down menu, which is clearly superior. This menu simply has the option of "synonyms >" and then lists many synonyms in an adjacent drop-down menu. Should you want to change the word you've selected to a different more appropriate word, you simply select the word you want and it replaces the original. Simple, slick, uncomplicated, and indispensable.
Now, I am uncertain if this sort of feature has a copyright, and that would be the reason Apple has not included this feature, nor any third parties built some sort of plugin that will do this, but it is a feature without which making a switch to Pages as a main word processing program is not possible, which sadden's me.
Let me be clear, I am only interested in a solution that mimics the MS Word contextual menu synonym suggestion feature, or somehow improves upon it (if possible). Wasting time trudging through the ponderous options Pages currently offers is unnecessarily tedious. I hope an alternative feature for Pages is either out there, or will be soon. Thank you for your time.
Jonner.

So, thank you for letting me know about the plug-in situation with Pages. That is to bad. Maybe someone who is interested will see this post and decide to develop a plug-in with this feature! That would be sweet. As I've said, I am planning to stay with MS Word, so your advising me to do so is a bit vestigial. You do follow up with information that clarifies my point by framing just how long Pages has gone without such an obviously useful feature, so thanks for the assist. :-)
I managed to find the direct feedback link all by my own self quite a while ago, and have utilized that excellent feature, I'm sorry I didn't relate this information in my prior reply. As far as your statements about my expectations about Apple responding at all, or incorporating my suggestion into future product revisions, well, as you have taken so much time and trouble to let me know exactly how unconnected you are from them, how can you expect me to believe you'd actually know anything about it? I'll leave it up to fate. Meanwhile, you've done your duty as an International Mac Using Volunteer. I really was not under the impression that Apple consulted with any users on this forum. I understand that the tone of my original post had an "I want to be persuasive" vibe. I didn't put much thought into the nature or purpose of these forums, but was just finding a place to vent. I find it a little hard to believe that no Apple employees ever read these forums, and that nothing that is said here ever actually makes its way into their thoughts, one way or another, but I understand, since I have such incomplete knowledge of the nature of these forums (after all, I am only a "level 1"), that I have erred. I get the overall feeling that you feel my post is irrelevant, or obnoxious, or both, and I am sorry if I mis-posted. I do appreciate you taking the time to respond to it despite this, but they've really sort of been "non-response-responses," haven't they? Sometimes thats the only type of response a person deserves, or can expect though. So, thank you again, anyways.

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Can no longer access contextual menus on the desktop but still can in Dock

What's going on??? I used to be able to right click my mighty mouse on an icon on the desktop and access contextual menus. Now when I right click, all the icons on my desktop disappear then there is a slight pause before they reappear. If I right click in MS Office the application now crashes. Amazingly the contexual menus still work on the Dock and in Safari. Does this sounds like a virus/malware or is it a bug in my system? Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a solution to it?

Hi, xstatical.
If Finder quits when you either:• Control-click an object.
• Right-click an object using a two-button mouse.This may be due to either:• Installed software that added a bad contextual menu item.
• Removed software that left a contextual menu item behind.What software did you last install or remove? Does its documentation refer to its use of Contextual Menu items?
Contextual menu items can be installed in two places:(1) Your Home > Library > Contextual Menu Items folder.
(2) Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Contextual Menu Items folder.If the item is in the folder listed in (2), then:
- Under Tiger or Panther, you'll be prompted to authenticate this operation by providing your Admin password when trashing it.
- Under Jaguar, you may have to change the Owner to you (via Get Info > Ownership and Permissions) before you can trash it.
Note that some of the information above is from page 220 of the "Finder" chapter of my book, Troubleshooting Mac® OS X, Second Edition.
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Contextual Menu Plug-in for Finder in Snow Leopard

I have Contextual Menu Plug-in for Finder which works with my application, but it doesn't work in Snow Leopard. I read that plugins are not supported in 64bit environment. There is still Menus.h file with CFPlugin interface in 10.6 SDK, but my plugin not loaded by Finder even it is compiled for x86_64.
I read about revamped Services that they should be used, but I didn't find a clue how to create dynamic menu with tree of items.
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Hi
Guys, any suggestion?

Contextual menu items remain after Bitcasa removal - why?

Hello there.
I'm looking for a solution of Bitcasa context menu items that won't go away. After removing the app they still appear in the Finder context menus. I already searched the usual places like Keyboard Shortcuts, Services, etc. but couldn't find any entry that explains why it is still there.
Anyone got an idea why I can't remove it?

Okay. You got me on the wrong foot there. Sorry for being touchy.
I contacted the Bitcasa support and did everything they wrote on their support pages and more. I even got terminal commands from them to remove everything Bitcasa manually:
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Bitcasa.app
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.bitcasa.*
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.Bitcasa.*
rm -f /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.bitcasa.*
rm -f /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.Bitcasa.*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.bitcasa.*
rm -r ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.bitcasa.Bitcasa.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.bitcasa.*
The problem seems to be that I actually removed everything identifiable as part of Bitcasa code. And that's the only reason I cant't get rid of this darn menu. I'm not a programmer but I usually know my way around when it comes to apps. What puzzles me is the fact that there seems to no source for this contextual menu item.
Is that even possible?

Can't open apps with contextual menu, or dragging onto dock icon

I've recently reinstalled Tiger and updated successfully with the 10.4.11 combo installer.
I've discovered that when, for example, I use the contextual menu to open a jpeg with Photoshop CS, nothing happens. If I try to drag it onto the Photoshop icon in the dock, the app will open but the file won't.
Double clicking the file opens it in Preview (default), but I sometimes want to do more than view it in preview - I want to edit it in PS. I can only open it from within PS. Also, when using Iphoto, even when I select external editor it won't open in Photoshop.
This is a new quirk and I've never had the problem before. I'd appreciate any suggestions of how I can solve this. Many thanks, Karen

Before I start trashing things, just to play it safe ... what are the consequences/downside of getting rid of those folders?
Just move them to the Desktop incase we need for some unknown reasin to put them back.
Should I just move them out one by one to see if I can isolate the problem?
Yes, you could do that, but... I think some prefs help rebuilding other prefs if present.
I have created a new "test user" - I guess I should log out/log in to see if the problem is still there before doing any throwing away of prefs, right?
Yep!

Opening Contextual Menu without pressing Control

Is it possible to access the Contextual Menu while clicking on a link in a page while using Safari without having to press any other keys like Control? It is akin to right clicking in Windows. This was an issue when using Firefox, but with a simple tweak to the config page, I can click and hold the mouse on a link and it will open the contextual window, allowing me to select "open in new tab". I know I can do this by pressing another key in Safari, but is there a way around this? It just makes surfing a little easier and more streamlined.

Using OS 6 with a one-button mouse, holding down the button produced a contextual menu. Recently, I bought a M$ mouse that has a scroll wheel as well as a magnification button. It's an Optical Mouse 3000. Since the scroll wheel works for vertical AND horizontal movement, it reduces the effort in surfing. Another advantage is opening links in some browser windows (e.g., VersionTracker) in tabs without actually making each link the active link.
As far as this mouse working in one browser but not another, I believe I have the same features in Safari and Firefox.

Contextual menu to open a URL

Hello all,
I've poked around and done a bunch of searching, and have some bits and pieces but no cohesive idea on how to accomplish what I want. I'm thinking it should be simple: highlight text somewhere, right-click to open contextual menu, select item that will open the selected text as a URL.
I've come across suggestions to use Automator to create the CM plugin, which seems to make sense. I tried cobbling together something, but the input doesn't seems to work in the default script of
on run {input, parameters}
(* Your script goes here *)
return input
end run
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Should I be using 'activate' instead? Am I missing something entirely?
Can anyone point me in the right direction to build what I'm looking to do?
Maybe this already exists somewhere (I looked!) and I just haven't found it?
Thanks for any helpful advice,
Markie

Markie,
As one option, you might consider using a browser which supports the Services Menu -- one such as Camino, Safari 3.0.3, Shiira 1.2.2 or Opera 9.2.2. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Firefox doesn't seem to provide much support for the Services Menu at this time.
To use the Services Menu you would simply highlight the text, select Open Url from the Services menu, and the url should open in your default browser (assuming the highlighted text would yield a valid domain, of course). Opera actually makes things easier for you by providing a Go to Url command in its own contextual menu.
If you're looking for a contextual menu plugin, there may an easier solution for you than anything you could come up with using Automator or AppleScript (I tried; came up empty). You might check out OnMyCommand, a freeware application. After reading the ReadMe and installing the necessary components, open the OMCEdit app, and from its toolbar choose Download Commands.You might not have any use for many of the available commands; you don't need to install them all. But the one in particular that you're interested in is "Open Selected Text as URL." Locate it, highlight it, and then press the Append to Commands button. Voilá. You should now find Open Selected Text as URL among your contextual menu items available in most of your apps (not Firefox, though).
Good luck!
Andrew99

Can't access in Finder Contextual Menu the sub-menu named More

Hi!
I was trying to learn how to use Automator, in the web page
http://www.macosxautomation.com/automator/examples/ex03/index.html
and I realize that I can't access in Finder Contextual Menu the sub-menu named More for choose Automator > Create Workflow... from the sub-menu.
Someone can help me to configure the finder in order to

That page is out of date since it doesn't reflect the change in Snow Leopard that did away with the More contextual menu. Try this. System Preferences->Keyboard->Keyboard Shortcuts->Services->Development->enable Create Workflow. Close the prefPane, select the object, CONTROL-click->Services->Create Workflow.
If that solves your issue, then send a message to the page's developer and ask them to update it.
BTW, see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2241804 for a four-parter by Sal Saghoian on *Automation in Snow Leopard*
and this, which describes the old and new automator—services stuff:
http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/08/automator-and-finder-interactions-in-os-x-10- 6/

Contextual menu on links in mail doesn't work

I had hoped that this annoying bug was fixed in release 10.10.1 of Yosemite. It is not and I have to ask the question.
There is a contextual menu in mail if you option click on a link:
The problem is: it doesn't work! All the three options do nothing. I submitted it to Apple but unfortunately it wasn't fixed. Somebody else has this problem and was able to fix it? It is quite annoying, like almost everything these days in Yosemite.
I've don't a clean install of Yosemite several times. Didn't fix.

Hi cchauvin08,
If you can't post your page on the web for others to see,
then perhaps you can paste the relevant markup/code. For example,
what type of inputs are you using? You said "text box" do you mean
a TextArea or a TextField? What does the widget constructor for
that particular validation field look like? What does the markup
look like, including the markup for the <form> tag?
We're going to need more info due to the fact that some of
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validation).
--== Kin ==--

Contextual Menu Not Working

Hi!
My Contextual Menu doesn't work in Safari, nor in Mail - possibly not in other apps, as well, but I haven't really checked. For instance, say I select a word on a web page. If I try to "right-click" by putting down two fingers on the pad and clicking - nothing happens. Also, if I hover over a word, and do <controlcommandd>, no Dictionary pop-up. Dictionary is the main thing I use the CM for, but no other options are available.
It used to work, but I don't know what I might've done to change this. I've tried clearing CM items from both /Library/Contextual Menu Items/ and ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/ and restarting, but no go. I can't think of anything I might've installed that would coincide with the problem. Any ideas, folks?

That's odd, I've only seen "system flippers" in relation to trying to open an older PPC app on an Intel.
Certainly the command for rebuild Launch Services should not give that.
I'd run Verify Disk from /Utilities/Disk Utility and also Repair Permissions and see what it turns up.
1. Navigate to Utilities/DiskUtility and launch Disk Utility.
2. Choose your volume (usually the second icon)
3. Choose "First Aid" tab
4. Click on "Repair Permissions"
Also run "verify" disk. If the disk needs repair:
Repair Disk:
Steps for using Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Tiger Install disc or Install Disk 1 that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.) Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair.
If you repair errors run it until no errors found.
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Is there a contextual menu plug-in to send files with Mail?

Anyone have any ideas if there exists a contextual menu plug-in that works between the Finder and Apple Mail which would allow you to email a file with a simple right-click.
Unfortunately to make a comparison with a PC, in the same way that you can select +Send To+ > +Mail Receipient+ via the contextual menu.

You can also make one yourself with Automator.
With Automator (/Applications/Automator):
Select "Files & Folders" and set 'Get content from' to "Use files and folders selected in the Finder when workflow runs"
From the far-left panel, under Library, select "Mail".
Drag "New Mail Message" and drop it under "Get Selected Finder Items" shown on the far right panel
Select "Save as Plug-in" from the File menu. Give it a meaningful name.. "Send with Mail" should be OK. The plug-in type you want is "Finder"
The action is now available from the contextual menu: More -> Automator -> Send with Mail
Have a nice day

Installed 10.2.8 and contextual menu doedn't work

Hi all,
I install 10.2.8 on two iMacs and options in the contextual menu in the Finder are not displaying anymore except the arrows e.g "open with" arrow or the arrow to scroll a long list of options. Has anybody got any ideas what I could do?

HI Donny,
I haven't had a chance to come back to this computer till now. I reinstalled the Mac OSX 10.2.8 update, I had forgotten that you said to install the Combo version. Only change I have noticed is that the "Open with" arrow on the the contextual menu appears and displays the names of applications when clicked but the actual contextual menu still hasn't any text.
I am getting this strange read out in Disk Utility and if I remember correctly 10.2 should not be displaying all for this but I think only the line with "New Permissions". Would you have a look through it & see do you recognise anything there. I will give the Combo update an install and report back.
Thanks again,
Fiachra.
"2006-06-10 12:41:20 +0100 - Repair of privileges has started
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/hfs.fs/hfs.util. New permissions are 33261
Group differs on ./private/var/run/utmp, should be 0, group is 1
Owner and group corrected on ./private/var/run/utmp
Permissions corrected on ./private/var/run/utmp
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Owner and group corrected on ./usr/share/man/man1/less.1
Permissions corrected on ./usr/share/man/man1/less.1
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Owner and group corrected on ./usr/share/man/man1/more.1
Permissions corrected on ./usr/share/man/man1/more.1
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Open with contextual menu

My problem: When i select/highlight "Open with" option in the Finder Contextual Menu, then Finder quits. i.e. the open with menu doesn't even expand- just highlighting/hovering the cursor over it, causes Finder to crash.
This has been happening for quite some time.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance
mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.9) 1.42 GHz, 512 MB RAM

The free Expander shouldn't have installed any contextual menu items. Look in the "Contextual Menu Items" folders in your "Library" folder, and in the one in "Library" at the top level of your disk. If there are any files there, try moving them out, then logout, then login, and see if you still have problems.

"Open with ... other" Finder contextual menu

Hi, I am facing a curious situation in my SL 10.6.8 machine, when using the "Open with ... other" Finder contextual menu.
When I'm logged with any user account except one, the menu item behaves normally : it creates an "Open window" pointing to the /Applications folder of the machine and the window seems to be a normal one.
But when I'm logged with a specific user account, the menu item creates an "Open window" pointing to the /Documents folder of the user account instead of the /Applications folder of the machine. So I need to manually navigate to the /Applications folder to choose the application to launch.
Of course, I may create a new account, transfer my files to this new account, delete the current one and explain to Time Machine that the new account is the same as the old one. But I don't want to waste my time with this basic solution. So, I'm looking for a better one. But, at this time, I failed to find the way the "Open with ... other" Finder contextual menu knows where to open the "Open window".
Any suggestion will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Hello linda2009
1) I bought my first Default Folder licence in 2002. I upgraded to Default Folder X in 2003. I have a very good opinion of this product, and I recommend it to my friends when they decide to switch to Mac.
2) My Macs are configured with many accounts, one which is admin (and the only admin) of the machine, the others which are non-admin users.
3) The incident I described in my first post occurred only when logged in one of the non-admin accounts.
4) To solve the incident, I did not deinstall the product, but only deactivate it when logged in the specific account showing the problem, delete the preference files of this account, and reactivate the product always logged in the same account. Of course, as the licence key was stored in one of the files I deleted, I had to register it again.
So, the incident did not change my mind about the product. I suggest you try it. It's free for 30 days.
Hope this will help you.

No Magic Trackpad taps, clicks, or combination will get me the contextual menu since I upgraded to Lion. I want to kill it.

In Snow Leopard, the magic trackpad was a thing of beauty. tap to click, swipe with three fingers to navigate, two finger tap for contextual menu. Horizontal scrolling just an evil threat, easily opted out of.
Now that I've upgraded, well, three fingers will still navigate me around Safari. And I was able to correct the truly disorienting "natural scrolling" and get the words moving back the right way again. But no matter what I do, or what I select in Preferences, I have no more right-click equivalent. I've tried deselecting and reselecting, changing the number of fingers, choosing a bottom corner click option... still no contextual menu. Instead, I get the dashboard widgets. 2 finger tap: dashboard widgets. bottom right, or left, click: dashboard widgets.
I've tried a fix some folks have posted that involves adding a line in Terminal (defaults -currentHost write -g com.apple.trackpuad.enableSecondaryClick -bool YES) and then logging out and in. Many have had success with that. I have not.
As far as I can tell, I have now far fewer options and less flexibility with the trackpad in Lion than I did in Snow Leopard. More animation to tell me about them, but less functionality. That said, I'm guessing there's a bug here. Can anyone help me fix this thing? Bonus extra points if someone can tell me how to un-choose horizontal scrolling!

So, Darrall, it seems to be fixed. Mind you, this has happened through a seemingly unrelated, but hopefully replicable sequence of events. You be the judge.
I went to my other login account, which as it happens is also an admin account. Voila, the secondary click worked fine. So I returned to my primary account, where I did the following:
First, I unpaired the trackpad. then I remembered I needed something to move the mouse with, so I re-paired the magic mouse I'd had before. I thought I'd turned off the trackpad, but apparently not, so the computer re-paired it automatically. None of this had any immediate effect, as you'd imagine.
Then I went to Mission Control in Preferences. There, I deselected "Show dashboard as a space", and in the hotcorners, I deselected Mission Control from the bottom left, where it had been. I didn't replace it.
Now, my secondary click works. Uh huh. I was suspicious that it might have more to do with Mission Control and/or Dashboard than the trackpad, only because I'd beaten that horse till my arm hurt and this was all I could think of.
Never did I imagine this would get fixed short of creating a new login account and somehow copying everything - since I didn't know what was wrong, I could easily have copied the error too - so I'm very pleased and relieved. If you haven't fixed yours yet, try this. Let me know what happens!

Pages - Contextual Menu Synonym Suggestions - So Simple, Still Missing.

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