Services menu

Interface element The Services menu (or simply Services) is a user interface element in macOS. The services are programs that accept input from the user selection, process it, and optionally put the result back in the clipboard. The concept originated in the NeXTSTEP operating system, from which it was carried over into macOS and GNUstep. Similar features can be emulated on other operating systems. macOS Apple advertises the Services menu in connection with other features of its operating system. For example, it's possible to desktop search for a piece of text by selecting it with the mouse and using the service from Spotlight. Other central services are Grab for taking screenshots, and the system spell checker. The concept is similar to a GUI equivalent of a Unix pipe, allowing arbitrary data to be processed and passed between programs. Services can be implemented as application services, which expose a portion of the functionality of an application to operate on selected data, usually without displaying an interface. In its developer documentation, Apple recommends that applications use services to provide features that are "generally useful", giving as an example a Usenet client