Contextual Menu
Contextual Menu
A Contextual Menu is the right-click action menu that Ultima Online surfaces over any selectable in-world target — your own character, another player's character, an NPC, a pet, a Player Vendor, an item on the ground or in your pack, or a piece of decorated Houses furniture. Contextual menus are the modern interaction surface in UO: where the legacy interface relied on typed-keyword Speech ("vendor buy", "bank", "guards", "bod info") the contextual menu collapses every per-target action into a small right-click pop-up, identical in shape across the Classic Client and the Enhanced Client. Almost every system added since the original Age of Shadows era is contextual-menu-first: Bulk Order Deed requests, Pet Training commands, Title display toggles, Soulstone operations, House Add-on demolition.
This page covers what a contextual menu is, how to open one in each client, the standard categories of menu entries (per target type), and the systems that have adopted contextual-menu-only interaction since 2003.
Opening the menu
| Client | Default binding | Configuration |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Client | Right-click on the target. Some targets require a shift-right-click to disambiguate from drag/move, especially on stacked items inside packs. | Configurable in Options → Macros; the right-click default has been stable since AoS. |
| Enhanced Client | Right-click. The Enhanced Client also exposes contextual entries on a long-press for some touch-emulation drivers. | Configurable in Options → Input Settings. |
When the menu opens, it is anchored to the cursor and remains visible until (a) an entry is clicked, (b) the menu is right-clicked again or dismissed via Esc, or (c) the target leaves screen. The menu inherits the target's view-state — out-of-line-of-sight targets cannot be opened from the screen, and stealthed/hidden targets cannot be opened at all (see Hiding).
Menu shape and entries
Every contextual menu has the same structural shape: a vertically-stacked list of entries, sometimes with a leading icon (chosen by the action — backpack icon for Open Backpack, gear icon for configuration, Heart icon for emote actions). Entries are typically 1-line, sometimes nested into submenus for action-rich targets like pets and Player Vendors.
The standard pattern across target types:
Own character
Right-clicking your own character or paperdoll in the Classic Client (or the character entry in the Enhanced Client party panel) opens the self-menu — the management surface for everything character-bound:
| Entry | Action |
|---|---|
| Open Paperdoll | Open the Paperdoll panel; equivalent to the toolbar paperdoll button. |
| Open Backpack | Open the main backpack inventory. |
| Toggle Run / Walk | Switch between walking and running movement. |
| Title (submenu) | The Title Menu — display toggles for Skill Title, Reward Title, Champion Title, and the Reputation Title prefix. |
| Mount / Dismount | If a riding mount is equipped or stabled in the saddlebags, mount or dismount. |
| Use Bandage Self | Trigger the Healing self-bandage cycle (also available as a Macro). |
| Cancel Protection | Drop the Magery Protection effect. |
| Decline Bulk Order | Cancel a current BOD-pickup gump. |
| Toggle Insurance | Open the auto-insurance panel for inventory. |
| Resurrect | If a ghost, request resurrection (offers an in-game choice of the nearest Healer or self-rez via Chivalry etc.) |
| Quest Log | Open the active-quest panel. |
A few self-menu entries are conditional — Cancel Protection appears only when Protection is active; Resurrect appears only when ghosted; some Skill Mastery toggles appear only for the relevant equipped mastery.
Other player characters
Right-clicking another player opens a smaller menu focused on social and combat actions:
| Entry | Action |
|---|---|
| Profile | Open the player's character profile. |
| Send Message | Send a private message; cross-shard available via the cross-shard messaging system. |
| Trade | Initiate a secure-trade window. |
| Add to Party | Send a Party invite (party leader only). |
| Challenge | Issue a duel request (Felucca / Jhelom Dueling Pit). |
| Toggle Combat | Engage / disengage combat with the target. |
| Last Target | Set the player as the macro Last Target (uses the Macros system). |
The Profile and Send Message entries are always present; the rest are conditional on the target's flag state and your own. Hostile targets in Felucca display only the combat-relevant entries.
NPCs
The richest contextual menus in the game live on NPCs. Each NPC profession has a per-role menu shaped to its services:
- Banker — Open Bank Box, Check (write a Check), Deposit Gold, Withdraw Gold, Buy Vendor Contract.
- Mage — Buy / Sell, Train Skill (if Magery trainer).
- Smith / Tailor / Alchemist / Inscription / Carpenter / Cook / Tinker / Fletcher — Buy / Sell, Train Skill, Bulk Order Info (the Bulk Order Deed request gump).
- Stablemaster — Stable Pet, Claim Pet, Buy Animal (if Animal Trainer), Pet Resurrection.
- Healer — Buy / Sell (bandages, basic potions); Resurrection if ghosted.
- Innkeeper — Logout (safe-logout), Quest dialogue keywords (where active).
- Town Crier — News (latest publish announcements and event hooks).
Many NPCs also expose a generic Speak Of submenu for keyword-matched dialogue that the legacy speech-keyword system used. The contextual menu and keyword speech are kept in sync — anything you can say to an NPC can also be selected from the menu, and vice versa.
Pets
Pet contextual menus are the command surface for the Pet Training and combat-control system:
| Entry | Action |
|---|---|
| All Follow Me / All Stay | Group commands for all controlled pets. |
| Guard | Order pet to defend its owner. |
| Kill | Target an enemy for the pet to attack. |
| Stop | Cease current action. |
| Friend / Unfriend | Add or remove another player as authorised pet handler. |
| Stable | Initiate a stable transaction (pet must be near a Stablemaster). |
| Release | Permanently release the pet to the wild (with confirmation). |
| Transfer Ownership | Initiate a pet-transfer trade with another player. |
| Pet Training | Open the Pet Training advancement gump (post-Pub 97). |
| Mastery Selection | Choose a pet Skill Mastery ability if the pet has unlocked one. |
The Pet Training menu was the principal new addition with Publish 97 (Pet Revamp). Before that, pets were trained passively as they fought; the contextual-menu-driven training gump replaced that with an explicit point-spend interface.
Items, deeds, and tokens
Many in-pack items expose a contextual menu instead of (or in addition to) double-click activation:
- Soulstone — Activate Soulstone, Transfer Skill, Reset Soulstone, Convert to Fragment.
- Bulk Order Deed — Combine Order, Add to Book, Decline.
- Reward Title Deed — Consume Title (with confirmation).
- House Add-on customisation pieces — Demolish (returns to deed for redeeding-eligible add-ons; permanent destruction for non-redeed-eligible).
- Crafting tools (Forge Tongs, Sewing Kits, etc.) — Open Craft Menu, Last Craft, Repair.
- Aquarium — Feed, Examine, Decorate, Demolish.
House placement and customisation
The Houses interface uses contextual menus extensively:
- Right-click on a house sign — Customize House, Transfer Ownership, Demolish, Set Co-Owner, Place Vendor, Set Public/Private.
- Right-click on a house add-on — Move (within house, free-relocation window for some add-ons), Demolish to Deed, Configure.
- Right-click on a Player Vendor — Open Pack, Set Prices, Customize Appearance, Dismiss Vendor.
Modern contextual-menu-only systems
A growing list of UO systems are accessible only via the contextual menu, with no speech-keyword fallback:
- Pet Training advancement (Pub 97 onward).
- Reward Title display configuration (Title Menu).
- Soulstone operations.
- Bulk Order Deed request and combination.
- House Add-on redeeding.
- Aquarium maintenance.
- Cleanup Britannia point-bin trash and reward-stone exchanges.
The general design principle: any system that involves per-action confirmations or multi-step state transitions (point spends, irreversible consumption, multi-party agreement) is contextual-menu-first to provide the confirmation gump pipeline that pure speech keywords cannot.
Speech-keyword fallback
For backward compatibility with the legacy interface, many basic NPC actions retain a Speech-keyword fallback. Typing "bank", "guards", "vendor buy", "bod info", or "stable" near the appropriate NPC triggers the same action as the contextual-menu equivalent. New systems do not get keyword fallbacks; the speech-keyword system is in slow legacy maintenance and not extended for new features.
The keyword fallback also serves Macros — players who script "bank" into a macro key get the same effect as right-clicking a banker and choosing Open Bank Box.
See also
- Speech — the keyword fallback for many menu actions.
- Macros — programmable shortcuts that often invoke menu actions via keyword.
- Paperdoll — the self-menu surface and primary self-character UI.
- NPC — the per-profession menu rosters.
- Pet Training — the modern pet-command and progression menu.
- Bulk Order Deeds — the BOD-info menu and reward-bag claim flow.
- Reward Title — the Title Menu opened from the self contextual menu.
- Soulstones and House Add-ons — two systems that are contextual-menu-only.
- Classic Client and Enhanced Client — both clients use the same contextual-menu shape with minor input-binding differences.