I’ve had various interactions with users in the last week where the solution involved right-clicking in their Web browser. It surprised me that they weren’t aware of the numerous right-click options that I thought were commonly used. Maybe not, so I thought I’d share them with you today.

First were some users who had dreamed of building an online business. By their own admission, their computer skills were very poor overall. One of the tasks they needed to master was saving product photos from the Web sites of their suppliers. It is as simple as right-clicking on the photo and selecting Save Image As… (the bottom red box in screen shot at right). When you do that, you are asked where to save the file.

After over an hour of walking them through the process, they still couldn’t master it and realized that an online business was an unrealistic dream.

Other users were having trouble downloading some files. Simply clicking on the download link wasn’t working. Something was definitely wrong, but there was an easy workaround. Just right click on the download link and select Save Link As… (the top red box in screen shot at right). This worked even when directly clicking on the link didn’t work.

So if you are ever faced with trouble doing something, it is at least worth trying a right-click to see if the solution you need is available.