SERVICES
The material on this page is based on several sessions of MAGIC, formal presentations, and informal discussions.
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CONTENTS Introduction Free Services Managing Services Snow Leopard update |
Introduction
Services are useful small applications like the old Desk Accessories from older Mac operating systems. They are available in most Cocoa applications and can be found in the pulldown menu of the applications that can use them. Here is an exaple using Mail:
When the Services menu is evoked then a set of services are seen in the submenu. Many of these were added by the OS-X operating system. Others were added by applications when they were installed by the user. Here is an example:
Free Services
Additional Services can be found on the internet and added to the services already on the computer. They can be added in one of two places:
- For single user - ~/Library/Services
- For all users - System/Library/Services
Some third party Services that might be worth considering include the following:
| Product | Vendor/URL | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| AppendNote | Enigmarelle | Appends any select text into a text file of the users choice. useful when grabbing textual information from the internet. |
| WordService | Devon Technology | Performs many useful text operations. Useful when entering and editing text into many applications. |
| AtYourService | Selznick Scientific Software | Provides a whole set of useful services that are user controlled and can be added to by the user. Includes translation services, lookup services, search and technical services. |
Managing Services
Sometimes you can find that you have way too many Services, especaially ones that you do not use or need. A useful application that can control the number of Services displayed in the menu is Service Scrubber by Peter Maurer. It is easy to use and looks like this:
Snow Leopard Updates
Based on a presentation made in MArch 2010
In Snow Leopard some substantial improvements were made to the Services.
Services are now available in four different ways:
- Services Menu - same as in previous versions of OS-X
- Action Menu
- Contextual Menu
- Text Editing Contextual Menu
CONTEXTUAL In Snow Leopard, only the services appropriate for working with the currently selected data appear in the Services menu. Select text in TextEdit, Safari, iChat, or even the Terminal application, and the active services for manipulating textual data are displayed. Select image files in the Finder, and only services for working with image files are displayed. Menu clutter and confusion are gone, you only see what services can assist you with now.
CONVENIENT Services in Snow Leopard are accessible where you need them. Either from the Services sub-menu in the current Application menu, or the current application’s contextual menu. In the Finder, Services are displayed on the Action Menu in the Finder window toolbar. Services are available at the point-of-need. Right-click on a text selection in Safari, or an image file in the Finder, and appropriate services appear on their contextual menu.
CONFIGURABLE All the services installed on your computer are listed by category in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse system preference pane. Enable or disable them to suit your needs. You can even assign a keystroke combination to your favorite ones, so activating their power only requires a quick keystroke!
CUSTOMIZABLE Got a multi-step process you want to simplify? Create your own service using Automator! It's newly streamlined interface works with Data Detectors to make it easy to identify what kind of information or file you want to process. Then complete your automation recipe with Automator’s easy drag-and-drop process of adding actions for each step of what you want to do. Save your workflow, and it will automatically appear as a new service in the Services menu and application contextual menu.
Setting up Automator to produce a new Service.
For further information, a video, tutorial, and several free Services, go to the Mac OS X Automation: Services website.
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Copyright: |
©Macintosh Appreciation Group of Island County (MAGIC) 2006
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