Keyboard shortcut for secondary click

[vtatai]

Recent Mac (MBPro) / MacRumors user here, so bear with me please

I've been searching for a way to emulate a right click using EXCLUSIVELY the keyboard (the trackpad is awesome, but in raw speed nothing can beat the keyboard!). In Windows I was able to use the menu key, and in Ubuntu I could configure Gnome to do pretty much whatever I wanted, but I am having a hard time figuring this out on the Mac.

For me even if there was some small utility to do this I would be willing to try it out - I even tried to do something with Quicksilver but didn't get anywhere with it.

Any help appreciated! Thanks.

PS: please no Control-Click answers, I know how to right click using the trackpad

 

[GGJstudios]

1. System Preferences > Universal Access > Mouse & Trackpad > Mouse Keys: On
   (or press the Option key 5 times in a row. Repeat to turn off)
2. Position the mouse cursor.
3. Hold Control and press "i"

Shortcuts for Mouse Keys

 

[vtatai]

Thanks that works, but the problem is that positioning the mouse over the item using the keyboard is really awkward, and then I have to press Option five times to get back to using the application.

What I was looking for is something which takes the current selection / caret position into consideration, with absolutely no mouse use. For instance right now I am typing this text in Firefox, I simply press this "magical" key (or key combination), and the secondary menu appears, and I can then switch the language for the spellchecker. I know it is kinda odd, but it is really a time-saver if you are a heavy keyboard user.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks that works, but the problem is that positioning the mouse over the item using the keyboard is really awkward, and then I have to press Option five times to get back to using the application.

You don't need to use the mouse at all. Note the link to the shortcuts, which include moving the pointer/cursor with the keyboard.

 

[vtatai]

Hey thanks for the quick response! Yes I saw the link, but what I meant is that moving the pointer using the keyboard feels really awkward and is really slow, not mentioning the fact that I have to be constantly pressing Option five times to enter / leave the Mouse Keys mode.

I am starting to think that perhaps there is really no way of doing what I want

 

[jegbook]

Hey thanks for the quick response! Yes I saw the link, but what I meant is that moving the pointer using the keyboard feels really awkward and is really slow, not mentioning the fact that I have to be constantly pressing Option five times to enter / leave the Mouse Keys mode.

I am starting to think that perhaps there is really no way of doing what I want

Ever get an answer?

In Windows, even on a keyboard without a menu key, Shift-F10 activates the contextual menu on the currently selected item.

I'm with you. The Mouse Keys method "works", but is hardly convenient and is a major slowdown instead of the speed up accomplished by not having to go back to the trackpad all the time.

That said, I trained myself to use my thumb to work the trackpad so I don't have to move my hands off the keyboard to use the trackpad. I can also rotate down pretty quickly to right click, but a convenient shortcut would be ideal.

I wish OS X and Windows would trade their best features with each other so they could become Super OSes.

 

[vtatai]

No never really got an answer - yeah if we could have a mix between the "just works" OS X philosophy, the customization features of Ubuntu, and some other small Windows features we could have a perfect OS!

 

[Rowf]

This is something that I'd find quite useful, I've had a look around the 'net but it seems it's not possible.
I know it's not quite what you're looking for but does this help?

http://www.macworld.com/article/51062/2006/05/shortcuts.html

 

[vtatai]

Oh thanks, cool find, but I couldn't get it to work - the 32 bit version actually shows something, but I guess since I have only one 32 bit program then it is a short list. Have you managed to get it work? Does it show all options for the item? I am running on the latest OS X 10.6.7.

 

[Rowf]

I haven't actually tried the program, I just found the article when I was looking around for a similar kind of thing.

This is worth checking out though:http://dwellclick.com/

It's a program to save clicking on the mouse (I have carpal tunnel syndrome and was trying to take some of the stress off my mousing arm) but there is an option for setting up the keyboard which includes entering a shortcut for context clicking.

I've tried it out over the last couple of days, including the keyboard shortcut for context menu, and it works fine.
There's also an option to turn off the dwell click so I should think you could use it just for setting up the keyboard.


There's a 30 day trial on the developers site and it's available on the app store as well.

 

[vtatai]

Hey thanks, I tried it but unless I am missing something when you assign a keyboard shortcut the action takes place under the mouse pointer, not on the current input focus - for instance if my mouse pointer is hovering over the Finder's menu bar, but my input focus is on a file, it will actually open the context menu for the menu bar, not the file. That defeats my purpose which is to not depend on the mouse for anything - I am really trying to go 100% mouseless since I find I am more productive this way.