This is very hard, at least for me. I have spent many hours on this, but have learned a lot.
Here is a general purpose script that should work well with all apps.
I have tested it with:
• Finder
• Apple Mail
• Outlook 2011
• Evernote
• Chrome
• Safari
It is NOT perfect. There could be issues with Finder if you have actual Finder windows with the same name.
If you have any ideas on how to improve, or find issues, please post.
Minimize All App Windows Except Frontmost
(*
===============================================================================
Minimize All App Windows Except Frontmost
===============================================================================
VER: 1.0 LAST UPDATE: 2016-04-09
PURPOSE:
• ============================================================================
Minimize All App Windows Except Frontmost
AUTHOR: JMichaelTX
Find any bugs/issues or have suggestions for improvement?
Contact me via PM or at blog.jmichaeltx.com/contact/
REQUIRED:
1. Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5+
2. Mac Applications -- NONE are required, but this has been tested with:
• Finder
• Apple Mail
• Outlook 2011
• Evernote
• Chrome
• Safari
3. INTERNAL FUNCTIONS:
• removeDups(pList)
REF: The following were used in some way in the writing of this script.
1.
===============================================================================
*)
use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use scripting additions
tell application "System Events"
--- GET FRONTMOST APP ---
-- CAUTION:
-- 1. Some commands do NOT work when using tell application with
-- a variable instead of explicit text
-- 2. Different Apps have different commands to minimize a window
-- 3. Thus, I had to use System Events with a UI keyboard command
-- If you know of a better way, please let me know
set frontAppName to item 1 of (get name of processes whose frontmost is true)
tell process frontAppName
set numWin to count of windows
--- GET LIST OF WINDOW NAMES ---
-- CAUTION:
-- 1. Some apps, like the Finder, can have different windows with the same name
-- 2. Some apps, like the Finder, report duplicate windows in error
set winTitleList to title of every window
set winTitleList to my removeDups(winTitleList) -- needed for Finder windows
--- Remove 1st Window (the current Frontmost) from List ---
set winTitleList to (items 2 thru -1 of winTitleList)
repeat with windowTitle in winTitleList
-- Select/Activate Each Window to Make Frontmost --
click menu item windowTitle of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1
delay 0.1
-- Minimize the Window --
keystroke "m" using command down -- this is same as CMD-M
end repeat
end tell
end tell
--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ END OF MAIN SCRIPT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
on removeDups(pList)
local newList
set newList to {}
repeat with iItem from 1 to count pList
set itemStr to item iItem of pList
if itemStr is not in newList then set end of newList to itemStr
end repeat
return newList
end removeDups
------------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2016/04/10 06:00
# dMod: 2016/04/13 06:37
# Appl: System Events
# Task: Minimize all Windows Except the Front One in the Front App.
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @System_Events, @Minimize, @Windows
------------------------------------------------------------
tell application "System Events"
tell (first process whose frontmost is true)
set winList to windows whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow"
if length of winList > 1 then
set winList to rest of winList
repeat with theWindow in winList
try
tell theWindow to set value of attribute "AXMinimized" to true
end try
end repeat
end if
end tell
end tell
------------------------------------------------------------
So far it's worked with every app I've tried it on.
-Chris
Edited 2016/04/13 06:38 CST to fix the flaw Alain noticed below.
I’m investigating. Sometimes it works in FF, sometimes the front window gets minimized. It seems that it depends if I’ve done something in the front window (e.g. adding a tab).
No, they do have content (they start with the default URL (“Homepage”)). The frontmost window only gets “recognized” as frontmost after I’ve changed the URL or opened another tab.
Same FF and OS version here.
But I don’t think it’s worth investigating much in FF abnormalities…
Thanks Christopher (and @JMichaelTX) for this script.
I've just fiddled a very little bit to avoid minimizing a solitary window:
tell application "System Events"
tell (first process whose frontmost is true)
set winList to windows whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow"
if length of winList > 1 then
set winList to rest of winList
repeat with theWindow in winList
try
tell theWindow to set value of attribute "AXMinimized" to true
end try
end repeat
end if
end tell
end tell
Interestingly, collapsed windows apparently have subrole AXUnknown or AXDialog (for some reason), so this doesn’t work for unminimizing all of an application’s windows. See also Minimize all windows of an application.
