Hello,
would it be somehow possible to Trigger Context Menu Item for selected items in Finder, instead of triggering the Context Menu Item in the current mouse cursor location?
If not, is there an action, which would move the mouse cursor to the first selected item in Finder before triggering the Context Menu?
I need to run an action, which will select an Item from the Context Menu, but this Context Menu Item is only available, when the mouse right-clicks on a file in Finder, not on empty space. I need to use a keyboard shortcut for the whole process.
Just stumbled upon this today as I was looking for a way to do something similar with context menus within Finder for items I selected with the keyboard. I saw elsewhere that other people were triggering the Show Context Menu action and then using keyboard input (down arrows and Enter key) to select the item they want.
I found one simplification for that: context menus allow typing the first few letters of the menu item to automatically move selection to that item. For example, to move to the "Copy link to clipboard" item on the menu, regardless of which position it is in, typing C-O-P-Y-L-I-N-K will automatically make that the selected item.
With that in mind, instead of using Down Arrows to get to the right menu item (my situation would have required sixteen of these), I just used the Type Text action to type enough of the beginning of the item to uniquely identify it. My sequence then looks like this:
@Captaindondo The problem is, the opening of the context menu. If the mouse is not focused on the file, it doesn't seem to be possible to open the file's context menu.
While it may not offer a direct solution to your issue with BetterTouchTool, many of us also use KeyboardMaestro simultaneously. The two complement each other to some extent. KeyboardMaestro has a function called "Open the Finder Selection," which I've included in several of my macros (that's what they're called in KeyboardMaestro), and it works perfectly. I'm not aware that BetterTouchTool has this feature.
EDIT: After reading your post again, I don't think my suggestion is helpful for you. Sorry.
@fre.lax , I'm not sure I follow. The "Show Context Menu For Selected Item" action is not configurable as it just is what it is. By that, I mean it only works on the selected item.
Are you saying that you have a file selected (highlighted) in the Finder window but the context menu that shows is for the folder, not the file? I guess my first question would be, how do you know for sure that it is the folder and not the file?
A great way to confirm is to open the Get Info window from the context menu that pops up. That will show exactly what the context menu is for. In my example here, the Get Info window clearly shows the difference between the folder and a file.
Oh, this is very interesting:
In icon view, it will be the menu of the containing folder. Can you try that on your machine @Captaindondo ?
I only tried it in icon view before. In list view, it seems to work. This might be a bug @Andreas_Hegenberg
@fre.lax , you seem to be correct. I have replicated your issue on my machine. I had not tried it in icon view but I demonstrate below that when in Finder's Icon View, running that "Show Context Menu For Selected Item" action, it does not function as expected. It shows a context menu for the parent folder instead of the file within the folder. This is different from List View (in the gif of my post above) where it reveals the context menu for selected item.
Good to know! Thanks for the reply!
Probably the most easy ways for a workaround is to first toggle list view and then go back immediately after the operation. Don't know wether there's a way to determine the current view option, though.
Hello, I stumbled upon this thread in search of something similar as OP.
Currently, there are two actions that are also discussed in the context of this thread:
"Show Context Menu for Selected Item", which opens and shows the context menu for whichever item is currently selected (e.g. in Finder)
"Trigger Context Menu Item", which immediately triggers a specific context menu item but for whichever item is currently at the position of the mouse cursor
I would love to be able to immediately trigger a specific context menu item (like in action 2) but for the currently selected item, e.g. in Finder (like in action 1).
Is the combination of "Show Context Menu for Selected Item" and "Type text" – as suggested by @Captaindondo – still the best way to do this? Or is there a better way?
Or, ideally, would there be a way to implement this as an additional action at some point, @Andreas_Hegenberg – so, essentially "Trigger Context Menu Item for Selected Item"? (Edit: If it was possible to implement this the same way as "Trigger Context Menu Item", it would also have a couple of advantages compared to Captaindondo's workaround, e.g. being able to directly trigger sub-menu items or include multiple names of the menu item for different states).
