Keep a Specific Window Always on Top Until KM Executes a Macro in the Background

Questions & Suggestions
1

Happy Friday Everyone!

I wonder if there is any way to keep a window frontmost while KM in the background perform actions with other apps?

I tried to find a way to keep a window always on top natively on the Mac like linux can, but it doesn't seem to be possible.

(Also this) I found this page with a similar topic but this doesn't keep in front the current page but minimize the other windows.

My System:

  • macOS Ventura 13.1
  • Keyboard Maestro 10.2

Things I've tried:

  • Find a way to keep always on top a window natively with Mac Os - no success
  • Find a similar macro that can help with my issue - no success
  • When the macro finishes execute keystroke CMD+Tab to return to the previous app but with this partial workaround I'm switched for few seconds to the other app in which KM is performing the actions of the macro so I don't reach the outcome to stay alway on the previous app I was before launching the macro.

Thank you all!

2

Floating windows actually need to be provided by the app itself to work properly.

I know of only two apps that can do this with windows of other apps.

  1. BTT. Not Free. I use it and can confirm that it works fine.

  2. AfloatX. Free. But I do not know how well it works.
    GitHub - jslegendre/AfloatX: An alternative to Afloat that lives in the dock icon menu

3

What is it you're trying to do in the background app? You can send hotkeys to background apps (in some cases) so if what you'd like to achieve can be done with hotkeys, then it might be possible. There certainly isn't a way to do anything and everything in the background though.

4

What @noisneil said...

You need to tell us what you're doing, because knowing those details will give us a clue of whether your task is possible or not and what possible workarounds might be.

5

Sure @noisneil and @ccstone, apologies if I didn't provide more details.

My starting point is a OneNote page.

I want to stay in the doc while I open Lightroom I execute some actions in the background on a picture and then copy the amended picture to my clipboard after the picture is processed – so that I can use it in OneNote without leaving the screen.

The solution suggested by @Frankb partially works even if for just a second Lightroom window appears and then BTT force OneNote to stay on top (thanks so much! I have a license of BTT but I didn't know they recently added this feature!).

If there is an alternative way to execute in background commands only in KM without Lightroom appearing even for a sec I'd be curious to hear, but I don't want to let you lose time if it's too much trouble (you might just point met to some KM documentation to do so).

I can leave with the BTT workaround in case no alternative solution is available.

Thank you all!

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6

If I understand correctly you want to see a window of Onenote while Lightroom is the front app. This works of course if the two windows are side by side, otherwise not. For that you need a floating window that is still visible even if another app is the front app. This is exactly what BTT does. KM cannot float windows of other apps.

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7

What do you want to do in Lightroom? If it's happens to be something as simple as resizing, you may be able to do it without needing Lightroom at all.

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