Application Services

Some Mac OS X applications provide services that enable you to use content from one application with another. The content can include text, graphics, or movies. For example, the services for Grab are available from within TextEdit (Figure 95)this means you can use Grab to take a screen shot and have the image appear in your Text Edit document.

Figure 95. The services for Grab are supported by TextEdit, enabling you to quickly and easily insert screen shots in a TextEdit document.

Although these application services have been available in Mac OS X since its original release, not all applications support it. As a result, the Services submenu, which offers access to application services, often contains dimmed menu commands. This feature of Mac OS X will become more useful as it is adopted by applications. Experiment with it to see what it can do for you!

To use application services

Display the Services submenu under the application menu and choose the application and command you want.

For example, in Figure 95, to take a screen shot of the entire screen for placement in TextEdit, you'd choose TextEdit > Services > Grab > Screen. Grab would launch, take the screen shot, and insert it in your TextEdit document at the insertion point.