Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks

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 one of the following items from the Services menu:

ChineseTextConverter

This service can be used to convert selected text either to simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.

Disk Utility

This service invokes Disk Utility to calculate either a CRC-32 or an MD-5 image checksum of a selected disk.

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).

Font Book

This can be used either to create a font collection or a font library from text.

Grab

Not supported by the Terminal.

Import Image

Not supported by the Terminal.

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.

-Y)

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

Open URL

This service opens the URL specified by the selected text in your default web browser.

Script Editor

This service gets the result of an AppleScript, makes a new AppleScript (in the Script Editor), or runs the selected text as an AppleScript.

Search with Google (Shift--L)

This service searches for the selected text using google.com in your default web browser.

Send File To Bluetooth Device (Shift--B)

This service sends the file specified by the selected text to a Bluetooth device.

Speech

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

-F)

This service invokes Tiger's system-wide search technology Spotlight to search for selected text. (Tiger provides command-line utilities for working with Spotlight. See Chapter 2.)

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 (Shift--J)

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.)

Third-party applications may install additional 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.)