Using the Services Menu

An often overlooked feature of Mac OS X is the Services architecture. Included in the Application menu of many Mac OS X applications is the Services submenu which provides the means for transferring selected data from one application to another for processing. SiteSucker takes advantage of the Services architecture by allowing other applications to download a selected URL using SiteSucker.

For example, to have SiteSucker download the current page displayed in Safari, perform the following steps:

  1. Select the page's URL in the address box at the top of the Safari window.
  2. Choose "Download with SiteSucker" from the Services submenu under the Safari menu.

Safari will send the selected URL to SiteSucker, and SiteSucker will download the URL using its current download settings. If SiteSucker is busy downloading another site, the requested URL will be added to the queue.

Here are some troubleshooting tips in case you have problems getting this feature to work.

  • If the "Download with SiteSucker" menu item doesn't appear in the Services menu, you may need to move the folder containing SiteSucker into the Applications folder on your boot volume and then log out of Mac OS X and log back in.

  • If the "Download with SiteSucker" menu item is disabled, make sure that you have selected the URL text in the browser window. Also, not all applications support the Services menu.

  • If you select the "Download with SiteSucker" menu item and nothing happens, it could be because the browser is trying to send the URL to an incompatible version of SiteSucker. Make sure that you only have the latest version of SiteSucker on your mounted volumes.