Using Google Chrome window name in conditions

Questions & Suggestions
1

Google Chrome let's you "Name" a given window. Until recently, this name was accessible via KM in conditions or actions like "Bring to Front". It counted as the "window title". Chrome's most recent update must've changed the way it reports window titles or something because I just lost function of a whole suite of macros that I use to switch between my myriad Chrome windows that I use as workspaces.

Is anyone else dealing with this? KM doesn't seem to be able to read window titles in Chrome at all.

Edit: The big cheese got to me on a support request and advised using the %ChromeWindowName% web browser token, which does in fact correctly fetch the window name. Thanks everyone!

2

I notice that Chrome window names appear in the Chrome > Window menu,
and are accessible to the Keyboard Maestro Select or Show a Menu Item action.

Keyboard Maestro Version 11.0.2
Chrome Version 120.0.6099.216
macOS 14.2.1

1 Like
3

I figured that out too and it's a work around, but I also have other behaviors in the macros based on window titles, like minimizing the window if I trigger it and it's at front. Plus I'm sure I have a bunch of other less used macros that rely on reading the window title.

I'm hoping for a patch at this point. That reminds me to submit a bug report...

4

The Name feature has a serious bug that's existed for years, so I'm doubtful it'll get fixed: If you have multiple tabs in your named window, they are all given the name of your window. Here's how a Chrome window named My Window containing apple.com, keyboardmaestro.com, and espn.com appears in our window switching app Witch:

image
image1992×355 105 KB

And now, with the most recent update, they're including memory usage in the window title, which is completely stupid. This was reported to Google in January of 2022.

-rob.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the historical background! I guess I won't hold my breath in that case :pensive:

I kinda like the verbose tab tooltips tbh. You get the title, the domain and memory usage so you can tell at a glance if something's chewing up your resources. That said, yeah I really wish it was more parsable to KM.