Focussed window title triggers - what's the difference?

Questions & Suggestions
1

As brought up in this thread (Can't get "The focussed window's title changed" to work), there are some seemingly duplicate "focussed window title changed" triggers.

According to the Wiki, here are the options (emphasis added):

The Focussed Window trigger (v7.0+) executes the macro when:

the focussed window changes.
the focussed window title changes.
the focussed window’s title changes.
the focussed window’s frame changes.

The application itself adds a little nuance in that the middle two are broken out into "title changes" and "title changed," which adds some present vs. past tense to the wording, but doesn't do a lot of good to explain what the difference might be.

What, if any, differences exist between these two title-change-related triggers? In my own testing, I'm not seeing any difference between the behavior of the two.

If someone has an idea, sound off, and regardless, @peternlewis probably needs to update the wiki.

2 Likes
2
  • the focussed window changes ➤ the front window changes to some other window
  • the focussed window title changes ➤ the title of the front window changes, either by changing the front window or by changing the front window's title.
  • the focussed window’s title changes ➤ the title of the front window changes. Changing the front window will not trigger this, only a change to the front window's title.
  • the focussed window’s frame changes ➤ the frame of the front window changes. Changing the front window will not trigger this, only a change to the front window's frame.
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3

@peternlewis, I have updated the KM Wiki based on your post.
Please review/confirm that I have correctly understood your description.

See
Focussed Window Trigger

4

If you’ve done it right (and by my read, you have), you’ve done an excellent job of summarizing the triggers and what they mean.

Many thanks,
Bill

5

Might be worth changing the name of the two title change triggers to make it a little clearer. Suggestion:

Focussed window title changes
Focussed window title is updated

6

Hmmm... "changes" vs "updated" -- doesn't immediately appear different to me.

Maybe something like this:

ID Changes
ID or Title Changes
Title Changes
Frame Changes

Since the trigger name is "Focussed Window", we don't need to repeat that in the Options list. This allow the user to more easily focus on the the meaning of the Option.

I'm not sure "ID" is the best term for indicating a change in the actual window (whether or not the Title changes). Other ideas?

7

@peternlewis, what is the difference between “frontmost window” and “focused window” ?

8

Usually nothing. It is possible to have the focussed window not be the frontmost window, but that generally only happens in cases where the window is not a real window (such as a floating palette of some sort), in which case the frontmost window would be the front most real window and the focussed window would be the one containing the keyboard focus.

But Keyboard Maestro does not always pay consider non-real windows to be windows, so you will not necessarily get expected results with them.

9

So, since KM cannot distinguish "non-real", "focussed", windows from frontmost windows, I wonder if it would be more clear (or reduce confusion), to call this trigger "Frontmost Window" trigger? This would also help avoid spelling differences in "focussed" vs "focused".

I haven't seen the term "focussed" (or "focused") window used elsewhere in the Mac system (there could be some, I just haven't seen any).

So, I'm just wondering what the typical Mac/KM user would find the most intuitive to understand.