Mar 06, '03 09:41:00AM • Contributed by: cfoster
My Services menu was starting to get a little bit cluttered with all the different services every application on my system wanted to offer me. The menu is generally unobtrusive but the problem was many of these apps wanted to offer services with hot-keys and by doing so were preventing me from using those hot-keys for my own purposes. I have dozens of tasks automated through the amazingly powerful and free Youpi Key. So, because these unwanted services were squatting on useful command keys, I wanted to remove them.
The services menu is created by the system every time you login. The system scans the info.plist or Info-macos.plist file of every application available for the NSServices item. To remove or alter a service, first locate the application that responds when the service menu item is selected. Control-click (or right-click) on the application's icon in the Finder (not in the dock) and select "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu. A new folder window will appear; open the "Contents" folder that appears in this window.
In the current folder window should be an Info.plist or Info-macos.plist file. Open this file with the Property List Editor that came with the Developer Tools (if you have them installed) or a program like PrefEdit. You can even use a text editor such as TextEdit if you don't have any of these, but there is much greater chance of something going wrong if you do.
Within this file, find the item called NSServices. If you want to simply remove all services for this application, delete the NSServices item. If instead you want to disable the hotkey, but leave the service available, delete the NSKeyEquivalent item from within each NSService. Save your changes.
Repeat for every service you want to alter/remove. Logout. Login. Give the system about 30 seconds after the Finder appears to build the Services menu. It should now reflect your changes.
[robg adds: I haven't tested this yet, but I will soon, as my services menu is filled with things I seldom use. You may also wish to backup the files before you modify them, just in case you want the services back at some point in time.]
