Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Yosemite Edition

Right-Clicking and Shortcut Menus

You can get terrific mileage out of shortcut menus on the Mac, just as in Windows (Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. A shortcut menu is one that pops out of something you’re clicking—an icon, a button, a folder. The beauty of shortcut menus is that they’re contextual. They bring up commands in exactly the spots where they’re most useful, in menus that are relevant only to what you’re clicking.

They’re so important, in fact, that it’s worth these paragraphs to explain the different ways you can trigger a “right-click.” (Apple calls it a secondary click, because not all of these methods actually involve a second mouse button. Also, left-handed people may want to make the left mouse button trigger a right-click.)

• Use the trackpad. If you have a trackpad (a laptop, for example), you can trigger a right-click in all kinds of ways:

  Out of the box, you do it by clicking the trackpad with two fingers. The shortcut menu pops right up.

  Or you can point to whatever you want to click. Rest two fingers on the trackpad—and then click with your thumb.

  But even those aren’t the end of your options. In System Preferences→Trackpad, you can turn on even more right-click methods (and even watch little videos on how to do them; see Figure 1-3). For example, you can “right-click” by clicking either the lower-right or lower-left corner of the trackpad—one finger only.

  Figure 1-3. The Trackpad ...