Feature Request: "GET" Button to Capture Window Position & Size in Actions

Questions & Suggestions
1

I'm new to KM, but it seems to be exceptionally powerful. I could me missing how to do this easier, but so far I can't easily seem to do what I want:

What I want to do is capture the window size/positions for various applications, so I can run the macro and the defined windows snap into their captured positions. However, the "move a window" and "manipulate a window" only allow configuration by inputting x and y coordinates.

Feature request: What would be exceptionally helpful is a "get" button in the "resize a window" and "manipulate a window" action pane that would grab the existing size/location of the specified application and display those coordinates/size.

As it stands now, it would be exceptionally time consuming to try and figure out all the custom coordinates of a number of windows, when I'm running a dual 4K monitor setup. That process is so tedious, that I just can't do it.

2

I did find a macro that displays the window coordinates and sizes, instead of blindly trying to input numbers. However, I still stand behind my feature request to add a "get" button to streamline the window size/position capturing process.

1 Like
3

Hey Derek,

Do a search on the forum for:

  • Move Window
  • Resize Window

There's a ton of window related stuff on the forum.

See the Manipulate a Window action on the Wiki.

See the window text-tokens (in the Keyboard Maestro Editor's Edit Menu ⇢ Insert Token by Name).

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The manipulate a window actions will take variables – not just numerical coordinates.

-Chris

4

You'll probably like the next version then.

3 Likes
5

Just downloaded v10, and I see the new "get" button for Window sizing. That's an improvement over v9, but still could use some improvements. When I click on "get" I was expecting that I could click on an existing window and it grab the existing size/coordinates. However, what "get" does is brings up a pointer that I can draw an outline on the screen of where I want a window to be. For pixel perfect alignment that pointer is hard to use and not 100% precise. The pointer concept is fine, but it would also be great to allow that pointer to select an entire existing window and pull the size/coordinates.

Snag-it screen capture does exactly this. When I start a screen capture with Snagit, if I move my mouse around the screen I can either highlight a window and it will automatically grab in a pixel perfect manner that window, OR I can draw a rectangle on any area and just grab that custom section. KM just allows the 'custom' area definition. "Get" is a good step forward, but not quite there in terms of full usability.

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6

Hey Derek,

I agree that this would be nice.

@peternlewis – is this on your to-do list?

Nevertheless – you can do this yourself right now with a macro using the FrontWindowFrame token.

-Chris

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7

Any update on this? Trying to do pixel perfect position captures is still really hard.

8

You can record positioning and resizing windows which will get the window positions, or you can use the WindowFrame token to capture the window position and size.

It would be nice if the Get option allowed getting a specified window, but I don't currently have any plans to add that.

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