What I'm hoping to be able to do is have something like the conflict palette pop up but with all running foreground applications that I could then hit a single key to bring a given app to the front. So for instance, I would hit ⌘-Tab and bring up something like the application palette, from which I could then hit a single letter key to select the app I want to bring to the front. (I'm aware even the conflict palette doesn't quite do this and requires multiple key presses to drill down when there are multiple letter matches.)
Maybe something like this already exists, but I haven't been able to find it. I made something close to what I'm after, but it isn't any faster than the Application Switcher (and I didn't realise how much I depend on app icons). I thought it should be possible, but the more I'm thinking about it, the less certain I am because currently the only way forward that I can see is making a macro for every application that I might ever run in order to build/populate a custom palette, and that way madness lies.
A long time ago I put together a group of macros that is not too far from what you are looking for. However:
A macro for each application has to be set up within the group, so that‘s just a bit of a chore (unless you script the process maybe).
All the macros will display in the conflict palette, whether they are running or not.
The method is:
Create a macro group (to be available in all applications).
Within that group, create a macro for an application.
Optional: add two characters and a space to the start of the name of the macro. For example, for Safari, called the macro “sa Safari”. This is to tackle the “multiple key presses to drill down” issue that you mentioned.
Assign your hotkey (you might find that you are fighting MacOS with ⌘-⇥).
The macro has just one action, Activate a specific application, in which, of course, you specify the application.
Duplicate the macro and configure it for the next application, e.g. “fi Finder”…
After all that, whenever you press the hotkey, a conflict palette will appear listing all your applications. As I mentioned, the problem is that these are not just the running applications, but all of them. I wonder if there is a way around that. I suspect not but you never know what may be possible with Keyboard Maestro!
Before I got into all that just now, I put together a little macro that might be barely adequate, or the start of something barely adequate, for your requirements, but it does not give the kind of interface that you were looking for.
The running applications (and only the running foreground applications ) appear in a list that you can select from by typing. You would lack the application icons, however.
Thanks so much for this! It seems like it might actually be feasible in spite of the manual effort necessary to set it all up. And my first thought for running apps vs all apps is perhaps have separate macros that enable/disable these as each is launched/quit. I'll definitely test this all out.
Yeah, this is the very method I've been using/trying to use. My issue with it is that it isn't any faster than ⌘-Tabbing through all my running applications. This could be because ⌘-Tab is second nature and I haven't yet adjusted to this alternative even though I know exactly which app I want to jump to the moment I hit the hotkey, my brain just sort of momentarily stalls when confronted with a list of words. Having to learn a new hotkey is almost certainly another factor considering how ingrained the ⌘-Tab muscle memory is. I've changed the hotkey to ⌥-Tab now to try that for a bit, though I may need to commit to testing it with ⌘-Tab for a while to see how that goes.
On a somewhat related note, there's an issue that has plagued nearly every Mac system I've used for the past two decades — ever since Command+Tab was introduced back in Panther (kind of like Alt+Tab on Windows).
The problem is this: when I press Command+Tab and hold down Command, it just keeps cycling through all the open apps endlessly — even when I'm no longer pressing Tab. Has anyone else experienced this? And does anyone know why this happens? It is clearly a glitch like Tab is being held down along with command but it is not. It has nothing to do with a sticky tab key either since I have had it happen on many different keyboards across systems that don't have the same software and are not my own setup.
I’ve never seen this behavior on Windows with Alt+Tab. It’s always puzzled me.
I have this happen fairly regularly even though I exclusively use the KM application switcher. Periodically Mac's switcher will come up before KM's and go berserk like you described. I've always assumed it was a bug because I don't ever remember it happening prior to my using KM. I couldn't say about Windows though as I (thankfully) haven't had to use it in ages.
Good to know others have this happen. I don't use Keyboard Maestro's window switcher and probably one of those things I haven't really seen the advantage of. I visually don't like the way it looks as much. I wonder what internally happens to make macOS switcher do that. I can't say for 100% positive that it happened before Keyboard Maestro but I am almost certain. I have been on Keyboard Maestro for over 10 years now so things get a little fuzzy. I don't even remember everything I did yesterday
I used to not use it for the same reasons, but some number of macs ago I never got around to disabling it after a new install and I got used to it. Now I rather prefer the grid layout and smaller footprint and only just relatively recently learned about all the powerful features hidden within!
If you can consider a solution outside KM, and something designed solely for the job of application (and window) switching, perhaps try Witch. Its appearance and behaviour can be tweaked in various ways.
I use the familiar keystroke ⌘-⇥ to call it up and to move down the list of currently running applications (and ⇧⌘-⇥ to move up the list)—even though that choice of keystroke does occasionally result in the MacOS switcher appearing as well.
It‘s not that arduous, really. Note though that if you want to change the hotkey, you shall have to change it for all the macros! If I remember correctly, I was told once that that sort of thing could be done within the Keyboard Maestro Editor by using Applescript.
Ah! Clever.
For what it's worth: I reserve that keystroke for window switching in Witch (although somehow I never seem to use that function as often as perhaps I should).
Never seen it myself -- and, obviously, it shouldn't happen.
⌘-Tab activates Apple's Application Switcher. If you hold down the ⌘ key then further presses of the Tab key cycle forward, ⇧Tab or ` (backtick) cycle backwards, you can also use the left and right arrow keys or scroll.
So it isn't. I guess I just got up in my head about it and it began to feel quite daunting. But I've had a minute to work on this a little, and so far I'm quite happy with the results. If I had one wish, it would be to control the colour/size/appearance of each different conflict palette based on which hotkey trigger was used, but even so this is already much better than my prompt with list solution.
My solution for showing only running apps vs all apps
[edit] Still tinkering with this, and I realised that I needed an action to handle the macros where I manually set the first character and thus no longer matches the application name.
I had never tried the arrow keys before. Thanks for sharing. I pressed the command+up and down arrows and went into expose for the app, and could cycle between the windows in that application. Further, if you press Command+` at that point, you can go through all windows of each app. That is pretty handy. I have been using this for a couple of decades hundreds of times a day and never knew that.
I managed to come up with a solution for this as well Naturally, it's just to make a macro that calls a palette of macros for the group (in my defence I've not done much with palettes before). This of course necessitated moving this calling macro along with the en/disable controlling macro to a different group, which flies a bit in the face of my obsessive organisation efforts, but ultimately it's better for me to have the visual distinction between my palettes than to have the backend organised pristinely.
@hemicyon, I shall mention one other little feature of my old palette system in case you like it too.
Add a macro, triggered by the same hot key, which contains just an Activate Last Application action. Name the macro “ Previous application”, with a space at the front.
Now, whenever you call the palette, you can switch to the previous application by hitting space.
I have never used my conflict palette system as much as I thought I would. Sometimes thinking of the right pair of trigger letters requires conscious thought and breaks the flow!
Genius! ...as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning...
This is exactly why I think the prompt with list method didn't work very well for me (plus having to then hit return as well), and also why I feel that a single letter keystroke is crucial.
Analysing one‘s own behaviour with an interface can be difficult. However, reflecting further, I am not now so sure that it is actually the abbreviating of application names that was the issue, or, at least, the only issue. After all, it is more obvious to me that, for example, “fi” means “Finder” and “ff” means “FireFox” (or Flaming Firefox…) than what “f” represents.
I think perhaps it was actually something to do with the palette appearing that seemed like an interruption to flow...
I might be happier with holding down a key while typing in a pair of letters, or using a “dead key” approach. I shall think further along those lines… at some point.
I didn't know the H one but I do use command+tab and q everyday several times a day to just quite everything fast. It is so handy since they are right next to each other tab with middle finger and Q with index while holding down command with the thumb.
Sounds a bit like a good application launcher that gets smarter like QuickSilver seemed to pioneer, and now Alfred, LaunchBar etc. I love that QuickSilver would stick the last thing you typed and that Alfred added that feature in preferences after the request.
I agree it is difficult know where the friction lies and have spent a lot of time on things I thought would be useful and then I end up not using all that much.
) appear in a list that you can select from by typing. You would lack the application icons, however.
Naturally, it's just to make a macro that calls a palette of macros for the group (in my defence I've not done much with palettes before). This of course necessitated moving this calling macro along with the en/disable controlling macro to a different group, which flies a bit in the face of my obsessive organisation efforts, but ultimately it's better for me to have the visual distinction between my palettes than to have the backend organised pristinely.
