Yes, I know, sometimes that right click menu pops up when your hand is just idling on the mouse. You’re staring at something on your computer and your ring finger presses a bit hard on the right mouse button. Boing, up comes your context sensitive menu. The right click menus are hidden treasures, though, and you can use the built-in functionality or you can enhance it with add-ons. For example, as you are working in Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, you can right-click and see different menus, depending upon where you are. Looking at a calendar? Right click to add an event. Got your inbox open? Mark a message as unread by right-clicking on it, to remind you to return to it.
All the major tabbed Web browsers have the option to open a link in a new tab (right click, open in new tab) which can be a handy way to open a reference in a case or law journal or news article without leaving the document you are reading. In Google Chrome, you can select a Web site address even when it isn’t a clickable link. Right click on the selected address, and Google Chrome will sense that it is a Web URL and suggest that you go to that address, rather than having you type it in.
Here are some other interesting right-click add-ons:
- Thunderbird: Packagemapping.com has a right-click menu that enables you to quickly locate a package after you highlight the package tracking information;
- Thunderbird: You can highlight and search from Firefox or Chrome, and now you can from within Thunderbird. Use Simple Search, highlight text in an e-mail or RSS feed in Thunderbird and send the search to your favorite search engine, either opening your Web browser for you or from within Thunderbird;
- Firefox: Rights to Close will close your current tab when you double-right-click anywhere on the page;
- Firefox: If you have opened a bunch of tabs with relevant content on each, you can use CopyAllURLs to quickly copy the Web addresses for all of your open tabs, to be pasted into your word processor. You can have it mark the date and time, and automatically convert long URLs to shortened URLs;
- Chrome: instead of downloading or opening your Microsoft application when you click on a non-Web page link, use Ultimate Google Docs Viewer to right click on a document link and open it in the Google Docs viewer. Formats include Word documents, Powerpoint slide decks and PDF files;
- Chrome: you can place yellow sticky notes on the Web with Note Anywhere. Place notes on any document, anywhere. Your Web browser will store the information on your computer, and when you return to that page, the yellow note will appear where you left it. Firefox users can try XSticky Addon for the same feature.
Get curious! Right-click your mouse whenever you are working on a document, online research, or e-mail. You’ll be surprised at the options that appear – and change – as you use your right click menus.
