How do I add actions to the ctrl+click or right click menu when using it on a link on Microsoft Outlook?

Question

I'm using the Microsoft Outlook Mac client to read work email. Sometimes I want to open links in my default browser, and sometimes I want to open them in a different browser. When I right-click on a link it gives a few options: Copy Link and Share. Under Share, there are a few options that appear to come from the "Share Menu" in Preferences. Is it possible to create a new entry in the share menu such as "Open in Firefox" or "Open in Safari"? How would I do this without purchasing software to do it for me?

I'm using MacOS Big Sur if that's relevant.

I've seen this answer: Force URL link to open with a specific browser but it does not answer my question. The answers talk about software that operates on rules to open different browsers; I want to choose which browser to open each time I right-click on a link. There is already a menu there; how do I add to it? Actually allowing even just one alternative to the default browser is sufficient for my purposes.

The Automator looks promising: I was able to create a simple action to read aloud text highlighted on the screen. However, I want the action to operate on the link destination instead of the displayed text. I have created an action that calls a shell script but it doesn't appear in the context menu.

Answer 1

After lots of searching, I found something that mostly works, though it's not as seamless as what I was searching for.

I set up the following Automator workflow. First I set the workflow to receive no input in any application. The first action is "Get Contents of Clipboard". The second action in the workflow is "Run Shell Script", using /bin/bash as the shell and passing input as arguments with the following body (most of which was automatically populated):

for f in "$@"; do
  open -a /Applications/Safari.app "$f"
done

I named my service "Open in Safari". Save.

Then I set up a global shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > General > Open in Safari, click on (none) and add my shortcut which I set to Ctrl+Shift+S, though it could be anything. I'm not sure if that key combination will clash with something else or not.

So now I can just right-click on a link in Outlook, select Copy Link, then hit my key combination to open the link in Safari. The only other side effect is that the link also gets opened in Firefox which is set as the default browser. I'd be interested to find out how to stop this behavior.

Answer 2

Choosy can easily do this for you. From Choosey site:

Choosy can prompt you to select from the browsers on your Mac, or just the ones that are running, so you can decide which browser is right for a particular link.

Powerful behaviour rules mean that Choosy can pick the right browser without prompting you. Always want links from your email client to open in Safari? No problem.

Answer 3

Bumpr is available from the App Store. It allows to choose the browser each time you click on a link, it also supports rules if you already know that you will use the same browser each time for specific URLs.