How do I open the context menu from a Mac keyboard?

Question

In Windows, one can hit Shift+F10 to access the "Context Menu." But a similar keyboard action doesn't seem possible on Mac. One potential application...

When I make a spelling error in a document, Lion gives me the option to correct the error by right-clicking (or ctrl-clicking, two-finger tapping, etc) on the misspelled word and bringing up the context menu.

How can I open this menu from the keyboard? And is it possible to access the Context Menu from a Mac keyboard?

Answer 1

I always have the same question but I didn't find the answer yet.

In Windows, when we use the keyboard short-cuts we mostly use the Menu key in Windows keyboard:

When this Menu key is pressed, Windows will assume that you right-clicked the highlighted/active element > then it will show you the context menu even if the mouse pointer is not pointing to the highlighted element.

So this feature seems to be missing in Mac OS. And whatever suggested solutions, even Enable Mouse Key it always require you to point/move your mouse pointer to element first, which is meaningless. If I need to use the keyboard short-cut to open the context menu on the highlighted item, why do I need again to move the mouse pointer to it also. Somehow this is not a short-cut!!

Answer 2

Solution update for more recent OS versions (e.g. Monterey 12.6)

Note: it is the position of the pointer and not that of the cursor that determines where the contextual menu pops up.

Head to:

1. System Preferences ➤ Accessibility
2. Scroll down on the left menu to Motor ➤ Pointer Control
3. At the top choose Alternative Control Methods tab
4. Check Enable alternative pointer actions
5. Click on the Options... button at its right side

The default option for the Right Click action is fn+F12, but this can be changed by double clicking on that F12 option. Instead of keyboard shortcuts, facial expressions can also be used as an option (e.g. Stick Tongue Out) by clicking the + button.

Credit goes to user Giuseppe's comment and nohillside♦ for suggesting the edition

Original solution

The context menu can primarily be opened by a right mouse click only. But in the Universal Access settings in the System Preferences we can control mouse keys by using the keyboard number pad. When activated, a right mouse click then can be achieved by Ctrl+5 on a keyboard with a numpad or Fn+Ctrl+i on a laptop. This will allow you to trigger a right-click, but at the spot the mouse cursor is hovering, not where your text cursor is.

Go to System Preference → Universal Access → Mouse → Enable Mouse Keys (ON):

Found on: https://stackoverflow.com/a/11238186/1919382

Answer 3

For Word 365 on Mojave, Shift+F10 does the trick. If you have a Touch Bar on your MacBook Pro, you would need to press the Fn key to bring up the function keys.

As jakub.g pointed out, it looks like an MS-only shortcut. However, I found out that it also works in Zotero.

Answer 4

ALMOST SOLVED

I got this solution to work in some Applications (like Finder, TextEdit, Firefox, ...) but not others (like Outlook, Chrome, ... )

A 'context click' can be mapped to a key/key-combo using all native Mac OS X features (thanks to its NeXT/OPENSTEP heritage). However, the solution is pretty technical "under the cover" stuff, and it may take some trial-and-error to get it to work.

Read about Key Bindings here, and follow (some) of the instructions to create your own ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict file.

Key Bindings map keys (or key-combinations) to "Responders" inside the Text System. I found the Responder for rightMouseDown here, and found the "magic string" for my desired target key (F13) from this url: osxnotes.net/keybindings.html

My ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict looks like this

{
    /* Context Menu */
    "^\Uf710" = "rightMouseDown:";  /* Ctrl-F13 */
    "^;" = "rightMouseDown:";       /* Ctrl-; */
}

Now I should be able to hit either Ctrl-F13 or Ctrl-; to get the context menu.

NOTE: You will have to quit & relaunch an Application to have it pick-up changes. (Worked for TextEdit in 10.10) Otherwise, log-out & log-back in.

Answer 5

Close to what you've asked, is to enable spelling auto-correction via:

and then stay with your cursor at the end of a mispelled word, so you'll get an iOS style correction-suggestion:

then with down-arrow and left/right-arrows you can choose the correct word.

Answer 6

I use Alfred with RightClick workflow.

I mapped Option+CMD+Enter to trigger a right click in the frontmost application.

RightClick used to work only in Finder but it was improved to work in most applications.

NOTE: As of Aug 4 2021 changes they reverted back to only support Finder

Answer 7

You can use Better Touch tool to set up any tap/swipe/click/key combination to the right click.

Answer 8

If you have "correct spelling automatically" checked and it doesn't seem to be working, it might be because you're trying it in an unsupported application. E.g., I can use the feature in TextEdit and Pages but not, e.g., FireFox or SublimeText 2 (two of my most used apps).

Tho I've spent way too much time looking, I haven't found any way of getting the suggested spellings from the context menu with the keys alone. The best option I've found so far is to use my thumb on the track pad to position the mouse and then hold ctl and tap (again with the thumb). It takes a bit longer because of the need for positioning, but at least I can keep my fingers on the home row.

I find it awkward to reach the ctl button, so I've used KeyRemap4MacBook (which is generally awesome and free) to customize the layout to make caps lock be ctl. KeyRemap will also let you assign ctl + click to button combinations, so you don't have to tap/click.

Answer 9

Try press [fn]+[SHIFT]+[F10]

To me it seems that most windows on mac F-keys can be called this way.

Cheers!

Answer 10

Cmd+Shift+: Opens “Spelling & Grammar” on Chrome for me with El Capitan. It’s a clunky bodge but I can now spell check.

Answer 11

I feel your pain.....Best work around I've found is on cnet. Haven't tried it yet but I plan to. Unlike a true contextual menu, this does require you look to the top-left for the commands you seek, but may still suffice to bring you the functionality you are looking for. http://www.cnet.com/news/access-menus-via-the-keyboard-in-os-x/

Answer 12

To bring up the spell check use cmd + :.

Answer 13

For spellchek(and more) I'm use popClip + alfred workflow Ppay

Answer 14

On my setup (external PC-style keyboard, Karabiner Elements, and single application I care about), I remapped a PC Menu key (Karabiner sees it as "application") to Keypad Numlock.

The application (CLion) has hotkey remapping ability and supports context menu for focused controls, so I mapped the key in the application.

Answer 15

Here is my solution on Github. This is a little AppleScript that I wrote making a control-click that you can assign to key of your choice using a shortcut utility app of your choice.

Answer 16

You could use Hammerspoon to achieve this.

1. You need to install http://www.hammerspoon.org according to instructions on their site. This is a great utility for automating your mac.
2. Add this script to hammerspoon config (which is located at ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua).

hs.hotkey.bind({"shift"}, "F10", function() local point = hs.mouse.getAbsolutePosition() local clickState = hs.eventtap.event.properties.mouseEventClickState
hs.eventtap.event.newMouseEvent(hs.eventtap.event.types["rightMouseDown"], point):setProperty(clickState, 1):post()
hs.eventtap.event.newMouseEvent(hs.eventtap.event.types["rightMouseUp"], point):setProperty(clickState, 1):post() end)

3. Reload the config in hammerspoon menu: File -> Reload config.

If you press shift + F10 you'll get a right click, just to be Windows congruent, but you can change the keybinding to anything you'd like. Just make sure you keep any modifiers: cmd, shift, ctrl, alt in the squiggly brackets {}

Say you wanted it to be control + alt + spacebar, then the binding would look like this:

hs.hotkey.bind({"ctrl", "alt"}, "space", ..

Answer 17

I was not able to find an exact solution for the question as well (pop up the contextual menu from the keyboard ignoring the mouse pointer position) as it seems that this very contextual menu only pops out from a real mouse right-click and thus all solutions above involve simulating a right-click, hence only making the contextual menu pop from the pointer anyway.

However, one intermediary solution would be to access the whole app Menu Bar (the menu at the very top of the screen right next to Apple's logo) and navigate the menu with the keyboard only. Of course, as its name suggests, it is not a contextual menu anymore, but will eventually give access to the same actions.

To achieve this, the default shortcut is Cmd+F2. (Note: you can change/find the proper shortcut in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts then in the Keyboard section, you should have something like Move focus to the menu bar with the corresponding shortcut listed.

This shortcut (Cmd+F2) will let you focus on the main menu so that you can navigate it using keyboard arrows and select any action using Enter or Space directly.

For example, if I am in Finder, I can focus a file with my mouse as usual and then press Cmd+F2. This will highlight/focus the Apple Logo at the very top left of the entire screen (you will see the top left logo highlighted), then I press the ↓, which will list Apple's menu, then I can just press the → to go the Finder menu, then the → again to see the File menu, etc... then with ↓ and ↑, I can go to the specific option/action I want, then I can press the Enter or Space to select the action I want. If I don't need/find anything I want, I can either press Esc or Cmd+F2 again to just cancel the whole highlighting.

Answer 18

i have found a different solution with BetterTouch Tool. This app is available with Setapp.

If you have downloaded this app and given all permission. You can set up to "Show Context Menu for selected Item" when any trigger (my trigger is pressing "<") happens (screenshot):

BetterTouchTool

Hope it helps!

Answer 19

shift+F10 can be used in many Microsoft apps.

also, if you are using remote desktop of Windows on Virtual Machine this shortcut is very handy.