Context menu
In the case of graphical user interfaces , a context menu is a control element that offers the user various actions to choose from for a specific context . The pie menu is usually a special form of the context menu, the menu items of which are displayed in a circle around the mouse pointer or another reference point.
function
A context menu is mainly opened by clicking on a certain object (word, picture, button, etc.) with the second mouse button (usually the right mouse button). On the software side, this function can also be mapped to the first (or any) mouse button; an additional key must be pressed on the keyboard to distinguish it ; For example, with the one-button mice from Apple under Mac OS and macOS, the button Steuerung (Control)must be pressed simultaneously when clicking , on other operating systems this has been partially adopted or can be configured (e.g. under Linux ). In contrast to the normal menu , a context menu only contains menu items that are useful for the selected object at the time. This means that context menus remain clear.
While the main menu is often designed in the form of a menu bar, the context menu is usually displayed as a pop-up menu that opens near the mouse pointer so that the mouse has to be moved as little as possible. Context menus can also contain nested submenus. The ability of software to offer different, specialized menus depending on the object clicked on is called context sensitivity .
