Feature request: Ability to set up a hotkey for a specific command

[skobylite]

This would be awesome to build out particular custom workflows that are unsupported in the app itself 👌

For example, I have lots of these set up in bettertouchtool to click simple buttons in apps that don't have shortcuts available.

[roelvangils]

LOL. I thought I was crazy for doing that. I have similar custom shortcuts set up in Keyboard Maestro. For example, there is no other way to change the slide layout for a slide in Keynote.app than by clicking a button in the UI.

So yes, I +1 this idea.

[godbout]

hi.

i have absolutely no fucking idea what you guys are talking about 😅️ i "know" BTT and KM but i've never used any of them.

can you enlighten me? what would be the workflow in Wooshy? how would that fit where? i have absolutely no idea sorry.

[skobylite]

Hah so bettertouchtool allows you to press buttons on the screen based on recognising a section of the screen. You can then trigger that with a hotkey.

So a potential feature within Wooshy would be allowing the user to set a custom hotkey for specific buttons in a particular app - seems like a more elegant solution than setting up a BTT workflow of 'move mouse here, wait 0.1 seconds, click left mouse button, return mouse to position' etc

[godbout]

so like, you have a custom keyboard shortcut that you've defined in Wooshy, to work on a specific app, and on a specific UI element, and using a special click (left, right, shift etc.). then Wooshy recognizes when you're on that app and you press the button, and rather than having to type, it goes directly click there?

sounds like basically developing BTT. what's the issue now you're having with BTT and Wooshy? Wooshy doesn't let your shortcuts go through?

[skobylite]

That's one way of doing it - perhaps there's a more elegant way to solve the problem, perhaps if wooshy defaults to the last used UI element for that app, or the most commonly used one?

Feels in line with the broad principle of wooshy of minimising trackpad use + number of keystrokes required to get what you need in an app

[godbout]

not saying no. just thinking out loud here:

perhaps if wooshy defaults to the last used UI element for that app

just in case you don't know, you can reach the last element with command down, like you would do in any standard macOS document. but the idea with Wooshy is to navigate as little as possible, and you should/may be able to reach your target with a narrower? like you type what you're looking for, and you end up with the type of UI element, like button, checkbox, tab, link, etc. (don't need to type the whole type.)

one way could be to give the possibility to users to choose what is the Primary Target highlighted. rather than top left, maybe bottom right? or rather than dock or menu bar (that you can disable in the Settings), maybe the frontmost window instead? (there was a thread about this: https://github.com/godbout/Wooshy.docs/issues/24).

honestly the whole macro stuff, feels like another app. there's quite plenty of those. i think even Alfred 5 may have some sort of automation for that now.

[skobylite]

Nice, I didn't realise about ⌘↓. Perhaps one final idea would be saved/favourited results: when a UI element is located in an app to be able to right click on it and save for future, or assign it a custom name/sequence of letters.

[roelvangils]

@skobylite this might interest you :)

[godbout]

Nice, I didn't realise about ⌘↓.

😅️

ok i think the first thing to do is for you to have a look at the README: https://github.com/godbout/Wooshy.docs#manual how to 1) search 2) navigate 3) click. (there's other moves to go to the top, half, etc.)

then the last video, on the art of searching: https://youtu.be/wzcsXKZ9ZDc?t=122 there's an important feature currently missing, and that will come before the beta: the ability to hover any UI element, and see what are the matching terms. currently you can use the Accessibility Inspector that comes bundled with Xcode. see the video.

Perhaps one final idea would be saved/favourited results: when a UI element is located in an app to be able to right click on it and save for future, or assign it a custom name/sequence of letters.

UI elements don't have any IDs. which means that would require storing the app name, probably the window somehow also. position/size can't do because they're gonna change, so many title? label? something unique, but nothing is gonna be. so it's gonna be hit and miss i think. although you could hash a couple of attributes together. but again, we're talking about a BTT, or Keyboard Maestro tool. something to build macros or AppleScripts. that's not what Wooshy is about. Wooshy is about you search term, and click. not "rename" the UI elements 😅️

i think you really need to check the search part in the README and in the video. to reach your calendar icon, you could probably type calendar or maybe even cal or maybe c butt for calendar button. again, the goal of Wooshy is to target what you need quickly, not to navigate through all the results.

please let me know if i assumed wrongly and you actually saw and understand how the search works, which terms and narrowers you can use, that you can type just a few letters, that you can reach icons, images, etc without navigating to them, etc, etc.

if you do, then let's talk again more.