Mac OS X for Unix Geeks

The Services Menu

Mac OS X’s Services menu (Terminal → Services) exposes a collection of services that can work with the currently running application. In the case of the Terminal, the services operate on text that you have selected (the pasteboard). To use a service, select a region of text in the Terminal, and choose an operation from the Services menu. Mac OS X comes with several services, but third-party applications may install services of their own. When you use a service that requires a filename, you should select a fully qualified pathname, not just the filename, because the service does not know the shell’s current working directory. (As far as the service is concerned, you are invoking it upon a string of text).

Here is a list of the services available in the Mac OS X Services menu:

Finder

The Finder services menu allows you to open a file (Finder → Open), show its enclosing directory (Finder → Reveal), or show its information (Finder → Show Info).

Mail

The Mail → Send To service allows you to compose a new message to an email address, once you have selected that address in the Terminal. You can also select a region of text and choose Mail → Send Selection to send a message containing the selected text.

Make New Sticky Note

This service creates a new Sticky (/Applications/Stickies) containing the selected text.

Speech

The Speech service is used to start speaking the selected text. (Use Speech → Stop Speaking to interrupt.)

Summarize

This service condenses the selected text into a summary document. The summary service analyzes English text and makes it as small as possible while retaining the original meaning.

TextEdit

The TextEdit service can open a filename, or open a new file containing the selected text.

View in JavaBrowser

This service browses Java documentation for the selected class name. This is available whether the selected text is a real Java class name or not. (Garbage In, Garbage Out applies here.)