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Editing the Right-Click Contextual Menu

J

Jetheat

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2008
247
2
Hi, is it possible to edit the right-click menu and insert some text there, so that when I click on any of these text statements, it automatically pastes it into the application I am currently in, where the cursor is.

Is this possible?

JH
 
I'm not sure that it is, but the first thing that came to my mind was text shortcuts. If I type WTF and hit space it expands out to "you know what"

Not sure if that is helpful for your scenario
 
I do use text shortcuts and clipboard managers but I was looking for a one tap solution.
I wanna paste specific bullet points in my word documents and I was thinking the easiest way to do that would be to right-click at the cursor, select my statement and bham, it's there.
 
I don’t think it’s possible because you don’t see macOS’ contextual menu in Microsoft Word. You see its menu and macOS services/QuickActions are available only in Word’s main menu, below Preferences. This applies to other similar apps, like LibreOffice, not just Word.
 
From what I’ve briefly read, I think it might be possible.
https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/customize_shortcut_menu.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/word/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-a-macro-c6b99036-905c-49a6-818a-dfb98b7c3c9c
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/o...customizing-word/inserting-text-in-a-document

I’ve only managed to create a new VB macro to insert text after the cursor and add it the ribbon:
Code: 
Sub AddTextAfterSelection()
Selection.InsertAfter Text:="new text "
End Sub
 
bogdanw said:
From what I’ve briefly read, I think it might be possible.
https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/customize_shortcut_menu.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/word/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-a-macro-c6b99036-905c-49a6-818a-dfb98b7c3c9c
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/o...customizing-word/inserting-text-in-a-document

I’ve only managed to create a new VB macro to insert text after the cursor and add it the ribbon:
Code: 
Sub AddTextAfterSelection()
Selection.InsertAfter Text:="new text "
End Sub
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. But I have like 30 statements that I would paste. So if its in the ribbon, how would it fit?

JH
 
Jetheat said:
But I have like 30 statements that I would paste. So if its in the ribbon, how would it fit?
Click to expand...
You give them shorter names :) Like S1, 2, ... or the first word in each.
Here are 5 named “statement”

Word.jpg
 
That wont work for me. Its hard to remember which statement is which.
Need a different type of solution.
 
The simple answer is that you're not going to be able to do what you want. Just find a clipboard manager that you like using, save those text snippets and set up shortcuts for them (if you want), and train yourself to use them.

What you're asking for just isn't what contextual menus are built to be. You could probably set up 30 different services to do what you want, but it'll be a lot of work and accessing them will be much more cumbersome than just mousing up to a clipboard manager icon in the menubar and choosing the one you want.
 
MacGizmo said:
The simple answer is that you're not going to be able to do what you want. Just find a clipboard manager that you like using, save those text snippets and set up shortcuts for them (if you want), and train yourself to use them.

What you're asking for just isn't what contextual menus are built to be. You could probably set up 30 different services to do what you want, but it'll be a lot of work and accessing them will be much more cumbersome than just mousing up to a clipboard manager icon in the menubar and choosing the one you want.
Click to expand...
Yes i figured this was probably going to be the solution. I'll do this. Thx
 
Jetheat said:
Yes i figured this was probably going to be the solution. I'll do this. Thx
Click to expand...
I like CopyLess 2 for a clipboard manager. It's free for basic use, but has an in-app purchase for $9 that adds some additional features like unlimited favorites and cloud syncing of your preferences/settings/shortcuts.

By the way, have you considered trying to set one of these text snippets as a "Text Replacement" in the System Settings/Keyboard panel? However there is no visual cue as to what you're expanding, so you would have to set up the shortcut to something obvious to each snippet.

A text expansion utility might be a better solution than a clipboard manager. aText ($30 for a lifetime license) is pretty good. TextExpander is pretty much the industry standard, but costs $40 per year subscription and has gotten quite bloated and sluggish over the last few years, in my opinion. I'm sure there are many others out there, maybe even freebies.
 
Last edited:
macOS text replacement from System Settings doesn't work in Word.

In my Word version, you can add AutoText entries in the AutoCorrect preferences. The length of each entry is limited to around 250 spaces.
 
Try Clipy, it's free.

clipy-app.com


  • This is a clipboard extension app that supports multiple formats such as plain text and images.
  • You can call up the menu freely using shortcut keys and refer to the clipboard history at any time.
  • Also, by registering a fixed phrase as a snippet, you can paste the fixed phrase at any time.
 
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