The Often Overlooked Context Menu Part 1

The Context menu is often overlooked by many users. This is a pity as it provides lots of quick ways to get on with the job. I am writing three articles about Context Menus. 

In this, the first, I’ll explain what is a Context menu and tell you a little of the History of the Context Menu and then show where you can access them. All it needs is a right-click and “Hey presto!” and a context menu appears! 

Tip! However if you have problems right-clicking with the Mouse select the object and press the Window Context key. This works just as well. 

Windows Context Menu key

What is a Context Menu?

According to Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia — “A context menu offers a limited set of choices . . . related to the selected object.”  

History of Context Menus

Again Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia provides the following information  – “Context menus first appeared in the Smalltalk environment on the Xerox Alto computer, where they were called pop-up menus.” 

Then came the NEXTSTEP operating system which continued developing the idea of using the right mouse button to access the context menu. Apple took the idea on board too, but their method of access was different as their Mouse only had one button. 

According to Wikipedia to get a context menu under the Apple system , you had to hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the Mouse button. Now, as I’ve never had an Apple Computer or a Mac for that matter, I may have got this wrong so for those in the know please excuse my ignorance in this matter. 

It is obvious that Context Menus have been around a long time, well before Windows 95. Microsoft capitalized on this innovation and used it effectively in all versions of Windows right up to Windows 7. Of course other software developers have done the same thing so you will find them in almost all applications these days. 

Unfortunately, many users know little about them and ignore their potential as these right-click context menus provide for quick access to many commands. They allow you to perform different actions depending on the object and location where you are working. 

Even in a basic application like WordPad you will find many different context menus again depending on where you are clicking. Below are four examples. 

Some WordPad Context Menus

You will find Right Click Context menus available in most applications. Take advantage of them! 

Your Desktop is another location where they come into their own. 

Perhaps the best example is the Context Menu you get when you right-click on a blank area of your Desktop. 

Context Menu from empty area of the Desktop

Of course, this is not the only Context Menu you can access on your Desktop! Below are some examples of context menus found when clicking on different Desktop features: 

• Start button
• Taskbar
• Recycle Bin icon
• Picture file
• Document file 
  

  More Desktop Context Menus

But it doesn’t stop there! For example, if you open My Computer window or any of the Library Folders, you’ll find plenty of examples there. Just right-click in different spots and you’ll see. Here are a few from My Computer window. 

My Computer Context Menus

You will find context menus in many other applications besides Microsoft products. In the next illustration you’ll see three examples of Context Menus in three applications I use. 

Non-Microsoft Applications have Context Menus too!

Now you know a little more about Context Menus, give serious thought to using them and use them to perform tasks much quicker. 

In my next article, “Add Useful Commands to your Context Menu”, I’ll show you different ways to add useful commands to your Desktop Context menu. Then in my final article I’ll show you how to remove them from your Context Menu.