DesktopTextArea Right Click Options

General
1

Hello.

I am building a basic Text Editor and I noticed that the DesktopTextArea control when right-clicked will display the following items on the Mac. I am okay with it displaying Cut, Copy, and Paste, but I’d like to have it NOT display the other context menu items. I haven’t yet looked at what items appear when running on Windows and Linux, but I’d like for those to display only Cut, Copy, and Paste as well.

Is there a way to do this?

Screenshot 2026-06-12 at 9.42.47 AM
Screenshot 2026-06-12 at 9.42.47 AM1124×1018 58.5 KB

2

Something like this in the Mousedown event of the DesktopTextArea. The “Return True” suppresses the built in pop-up menu.

 If IsContextualClick Then
    
    ' ' example from the docs that clones the Menu bar's Edit menu (minus the Writing tools etc...)
    ' Var popMenu As DesktopMenuItem
    ' popMenu = EditMenu.Clone
    ' Var selectedMenu As DesktopMenuItem
    ' selectedMenu = popMenu.Popup
    ' Return True
    
    '  Or build your own
    
    
    Var m1 As DesktopMenuItem 
    Var m2 As DesktopMenuItem 
    
    m1 = New DesktopMenuItem
    
    m2 = New DesktopMenuItem("Cut","cut")
    m1.AddMenu(m2)
    
    m2 = New DesktopMenuItem("Copy","copy")
    m1.AddMenu(m2)
    
    m2 = New DesktopMenuItem("Paste","paste")
    m1.AddMenu(m2)
    
    Var Answer As DesktopMenuItem = m1.PopUp
    
    If Answer <> Nil Then
      Select Case Answer.Tag
      Case   "cut"
        Var selSt As Integer = TA1.SelectionStart
        Var selLen As Integer = TA1.SelectionLength
        TA1.Copy
        TA1.Text=TA1.Text.Left(selSt)+TA1.Text.Middle(selSt+selLen)
        TA1.SelectionStart=selSt
        TA1.SelectionLength=0
        
       Case  "copy"
        TA1.Copy
        
       Case  "paste"
        TA1.Paste
        
      End Select
      
       Return True
       
    End If
    
  End If
3

use events
ConstructContextualMenu
ContextualMenuItemSelected

4

These are macOS Default ContextualMenus.

You really want to remove these features to your users ?

5

Yes, because I have users who use macOS for some things and Windows for other things and the right click results will differ for each OS and they’ll expect the same results.

6

@Keith_Keller
Have you tested on windows?

7

Just did. It shows nothing on right click. I’m good with just cut, copy, paste.

I also just tested on Ubuntu which I also use and it shows this (see below). I prefer sticking with the basic items + any additional ones I plan to add to the right-click menu in the future.

image
image734×367 19.5 KB

8

Are you sure about that? If they use other apps on those platforms, they’re already accustomed to seeing them and perhaps using them in other apps. Your app might be the one that sticks out if you eliminate them.