The Right-Click Menu - Capture or Copy a Table Without the Popup

## Why it matters

The popup is powerful but it adds a click. Sometimes you want to grab a table without opening any UI. The right-click menu is faster when you want to:

• Copy one table straight to your clipboard without opening the popup
• Capture all tables on a page and then decide which ones to export
• Work entirely in the browser context menu without any modal overlays

## How it works

Scalpel Tables adds up to two items to the browser's right-click menu:

Capture tables on this page: Highlights every detected table and opens the picker. You can click the table you want or hit Escape to cancel. This is the same as clicking "Pick on page" in the popup, but reachable directly from the page.

Copy table under cursor: If your cursor is over a detected table when you right-click, this item copies that table straight to the clipboard in TSV format (tab-separated, for clean pastes into spreadsheets). If your cursor isn't over any table, the item is greyed out.

Each context menu item grants the extension one-time access to the current tab only. Nothing runs in the background; the extension only acts when you explicitly use the menu.

## What does not matter

The context menu doesn't see your entire browsing history or run on every page automatically. The extension only activates when you right-click on a page where it can detect tables. If a page has no tables, the items are either not shown or are greyed out.

Also, the menu items can be customised independently. You might turn off "Capture tables" but keep "Copy under cursor", or vice versa. Go to the extension's Settings (in the popup) to toggle each one.

## Code example

Right-clicking over a table on a page:

Context menu (right-click):
├─ Capture tables on this page
├─ Copy table under cursor
├─ ...other browser menu items...
Copy

Click "Copy table under cursor" and the table is copied as TSV to your clipboard. Paste into Google Sheets, Excel, or a text editor. The table structure is preserved. The entire flow takes two clicks: right-click and confirm.

## How Scalpel Tables shows it

Right-click on any page with Scalpel Tables active. If the page has tables and the context menu items are enabled (the default), you'll see "Capture tables on this page" and optionally "Copy table under cursor" (if your cursor is over a table). Each item can be toggled on or off in the extension's Settings panel, accessible from the popup.

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Related:

• Pick a table on the page
• Copy a table to Google Sheets