Convert document to PDF from right-click context menu

You could assign a shortcut to a script like this:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Finder"
    value of attribute "AXFocusedWindow" is scroll area 1
end tell
tell application "Finder"
    if result is true or number of windows is 0 then
        set t to desktop
    else
        set t to target of Finder window 1
    end if
    set f to make new file at t
    if t is desktop then
        set selection to f
    else
        select f
    end if
end tell

There is a bug in 10.7 and 10.8 that affects many other scripts and Automator services like this. Finder ignores new windows when getting the insertion location and selection properties. If you open a new Finder window, select some items in it, and run tell app "Finder" to selection in AppleScript Editor, the result is the items selected in some window behind the frontmost window (or an empty list). One workaround is to move focus to another application and back, but it results in a visual glitch.

So neither of these ways of checking if the desktop is selected work reliably:

tell application "Finder"
    insertion location as alias is desktop as alias
    container of item 1 of (get selection) as alias is desktop as alias
end tell

You could also wrap the script as an Automator service, but there is another bug where the shortcuts for Automator services don't always work until you hover over the services menu from the menu bar. If the input type was set to no input, the service wouldn't show up in context menus. If it was set to folders or files, you'd have to always secondary-click some folder or file.

Related questions:

• Create new file from contextual menu
• New File Action in Finder
• How to create a text file in a folder
• How do I create files in Finder without Terminal?

I didn't vote to close this question, because many of the solutions in the other questions are affected by either of the two bugs mentioned above. We'll likely get even more questions like this, which could then be closed as duplicates of this question.

I don't know any way to show a context menu for items selected with the keyboard like what the menu key does in Windows.

To assign a keyboard shortcut for performing a secondary click at the current coordinates of the pointer, you can either:

• Use a private.xml like this with Karabiner:

  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <root>
    <item>
      <name>Right Mousebutton</name>
      <identifier>rightMouseButton</identifier>
      <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::OPTION_R, PointingButton::RIGHT</autogen>
    </item>
  </root>
  

• Use BetterTouchTool:

  

• Use Keyboard Maestro:

  

• Download MouseTools and assign a shortcut to MouseTools -rightClick.