Mac Quick Actions and the Services menu: act on what you've selected, in any app
Every Mac has two menus that act on whatever you've selected — a file in Finder, a sentence in Mail, a URL in Safari — and most people never open either. Mac Quick Actions live on files: right-click in Finder and you can rotate, convert or trim without opening an app. The Services menu lives on everything else: select text anywhere and a list of things you can do with it is one right-click away. Both are extensible, both can be put on a keyboard shortcut, and the Shortcuts app can add your own to either in about two minutes.
Quick Actions vs the Services menu: what's the difference?
They overlap, so it helps to separate them by what you're pointing at:
| Quick Actions | Services menu | |
|---|---|---|
| Acts on | Files and folders | A selection in any app — usually text, sometimes files |
| Where it shows up | Finder right-click → Quick Actions, the Finder Preview pane | App menu → Services, right-click → Services |
| Built-in examples | Rotate, Markup, Create PDF, Convert Image, Remove Background, Trim | Open or search the selection with another app, make a note from it |
| Turn items on/off | Quick Actions → More → Customize | System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services |
| Add your own | Shortcuts app → Use as Quick Action → Finder | Shortcuts app → Use as Quick Action → Services Menu |
One naming trap: Spotlight in macOS Tahoe can also run "actions" when you type a verb into it. That's a different feature. This article is about the two right-click menus.
Finder Quick Actions: the ones that ship with your Mac
Control-click (or two-finger click) a file in Finder and hover over Quick Actions. What you see depends on the file type — Apple only lists actions that make sense for it:
- Images — Rotate Left (hold Option for Rotate Right), Markup, Create PDF from several selected images, Convert Image (the fast way to turn an iPhone HEIC into a JPEG or PNG), and Remove Background.
- PDFs — Markup, so you can sign or annotate without opening Preview.
- Video and audio — Trim, right there in a Quick Look window.
The same buttons appear at the bottom of the Preview pane in a Finder window (View → Show Preview, or ⇧⌘P). If you use column view, that's often faster than the right-click.
To add or hide items, choose More → Customize at the bottom of the Quick Actions submenu. That jumps to the Finder extensions list in System Settings, where anything a third-party app installed — and every shortcut you've flagged as a Quick Action — can be switched on or off.
The Services menu: text actions in every app
Select some text in almost any app, then either open the app's menu (the bold one next to the Apple menu) and choose Services, or right-click the selection. Depending on how many are enabled, services appear at the bottom of the context menu or collapse into a Services submenu.
Services are contextual. Select text and you get text services; select a file in Finder and you get file services; select nothing and the menu says "No Services Apply." That's why many people open it once, see an empty list, and never come back.
The fix is to look at the full list. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services. It's grouped by what each service accepts — Text, Files and Folders, Searching, Pictures and so on — with a checkbox beside each. The exact list varies by Mac and installed apps, but these long-standing ones are worth looking for:
- New Terminal at Folder (Files and Folders) — right-click any folder
in Finder to open a Terminal already
cd'd into it. - Search With Google (Searching) — look up any selected phrase without copying it.
- Make New Sticky Note — sends the selection straight into Stickies.
- Open man Page in Terminal — for anyone who reads command names in documentation.
Apps you install add their own services here too, which is also the place to untick the ones cluttering your menu.
Give a service a keyboard shortcut
In the same Keyboard Shortcuts → Services list, double-click to the right of a service's name and press the combination you want. Now the service runs on your selection without touching the mouse — select a word, press the keys, done.
Two things to know before you pick keys:
- The frontmost app wins. If the app you're in already uses that combination, its menu command fires instead of your service. Pick something apps rarely claim: Control-Option plus a letter is nearly always free. If a new shortcut does nothing, it's almost certainly a collision — Mac shortcut conflicts covers how to find the culprit.
- It only fires when there's a matching selection. A text service with nothing selected does nothing. That's by design, not a bug.
If you want a key for a command that already lives in an app's menu, that's a different setting — see how to add a keyboard shortcut to any menu item.
Build your own with the Shortcuts app
This is the part almost nobody knows: both menus are user-extensible, and you don't need to write code. Here's a Services item that turns a selection into Title Case and pastes it back:
- Open Shortcuts and create a new shortcut. Name it "Title Case" — the name is what appears in the menu.
- Open the details pane (the ⓘ button) and turn on Use as Quick Action, then tick Services Menu. Tick Finder too if the shortcut should work on files.
- A Receive … input from Quick Actions block appears at the top. Narrow it to Text so the service only shows up when text is selected.
- Add the Change Case action and set it to Title Case.
- Add Stop and Output. When a shortcut run from the Services menu ends with output, macOS replaces the selection with it in editable text fields.
- Back in the details pane, use Add Keyboard Shortcut if you want it on a key.
Swap step 4 for other actions and the same skeleton gives you a word counter (Count → Show Result), a "search this on my company wiki" service (URL → Open URLs) or a file renamer that works on a Finder selection. For file-based Quick Actions, change the input type in step 3 to Files and tick Finder instead of Services Menu.
The older route — Automator → New → Quick Action — still works on macOS Tahoe, and it's what most tutorials from before 2021 describe. For new work, Shortcuts is the better home: the same shortcut can also live in the menu bar, the Share sheet or a hotkey. Our guide to Mac automation with Shortcuts covers all eight places a shortcut can run.
Where these menus stop being the answer
Quick Actions and Services are brilliant for doing something to a selection. They're the wrong tool for moving around your Mac — getting to a window, arranging windows, launching apps — because those jobs have no selection to act on and happen dozens of times an hour. That's what dedicated keyboard tools are for: Let's Switch gets you to a specific window by keyboard, and Let's Tile places it. Services handle the text; they don't handle the desk.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Mac's Services menu empty?
Either nothing is selected, or no enabled service accepts what you've selected. Select some text and check again, then turn more services on in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services.
Where did my Quick Action go?
Check it's enabled under Quick Actions → More → Customize in Finder, and that its input type matches the file you right-clicked — an image action won't appear on a PDF.
Are Quick Actions the same as Services?
No, though a single Shortcuts shortcut can be both. Quick Actions act on files in Finder; Services act on a selection in any app, most often text.
Can I use Automator Quick Actions on a new Mac?
Yes. Automator still ships with macOS Tahoe, and existing Quick Action workflows keep working, but new ones are easier to build and maintain in the Shortcuts app.