title: How do I automatically activate an item in the OS X Services Menu
body: <p>I need to have a service I created enabled by default in the services menu.</p>
  
  <p>I've created a service for my OS X app (running on Snow Leopard). I've configured the Info.plist like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;key&gt;NSServices&lt;/key&gt;
  &lt;array&gt;
      &lt;dict&gt;
          &lt;key&gt;NSSendTypes&lt;/key&gt;
          &lt;array&gt;
              &lt;string&gt;NSStringPboardType&lt;/string&gt;
          &lt;/array&gt;
          &lt;key&gt;NSMessage&lt;/key&gt;
          &lt;string&gt;dropService&lt;/string&gt;
          &lt;key&gt;NSMenuItem&lt;/key&gt;
          &lt;dict&gt;
              &lt;key&gt;default&lt;/key&gt;
              &lt;string&gt;Drop Service&lt;/string&gt;
          &lt;/dict&gt;
          &lt;key&gt;NSPortName&lt;/key&gt;
          &lt;string&gt;MyApp&lt;/string&gt;
      &lt;/dict&gt;
  &lt;/array&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So far so good, I follow the other steps outlined in: <a href="http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServices/introduction.html" rel="nofollow">http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/SysServices/introduction.html</a> and everything seems to be working correctly.</p>
  
  <p>I ran the command:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And now my service shows up under "System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Services". So the system knows about it. But it won't show up in the services menu unless I manually activate it.</p>
  
  <p>When I try to debug the service, I get this message:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit -NSDebugServices com.myapp.MyApp
  Drop Service (com.myapp.MyApp) is disabled in the services menu and disabled in the context menu, by the standard Services policy.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have no idea what the "standard Services policy" is and I can't find any reference to this error on the Apple developer site.</p>
  
  <p>I would think that automatically enabling service items is impossible but I've confirmed that certain apps do it (like Things from Cultured Code) so I know it can be done.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>