Mac OS X 10.6.5 Right Click at cursor position

Question

I want to right click where the focus is not where the mouse cursor is (eg. the blinking text cursor or on a file) using only the keyboard.

I've tried mouse keys and it right clicks at the mouse pointer, not the text cursor. I'm open to any 3rd party apps or services.

Answer 1

This is a common request of ex-Windows Keyboard Maestro users. Apparently there is a window key which will display a contextual menu based on the insertion point, but there is no equivalent behaviour on the Mac. It is impossible in general to get the screen location of the current insertion point (some applications may allow some method via AppleScript or Assistive services).

So there is no way to move the mouse pointer to the insertion location in general, and the contextual menus are based on the mouse pointer.

This is why Keyboard Maestro doesn't implement this, and without some low level hackery, it is almost certainly impossible.

So essentially you are out of luck. You will need to find an alternative solution to your issue.

Answer 2

There could be at least two ways to do it:

• Using a direct action for opening the context menu
• Moving the mouse pointer over the selected items or text, and then triggering a secondary click

But I haven't found a way to do either of those.

Applescript is pretty crappy at working with both selections and mouse stuff. Keyboard Maestro, iKey, QuicKeys or BetterTouchTool don't seem to have any way to do it either. Or MouseTools or XTool.osax. Or KeyRemap4MacBook.