I think Alfred or BetterTouchTool are a much better fit for those use cases.
Although there is something that caters to this need coming in the next version.
It’s called Window Actions and it’s kind of like the Static Assignments but for windows.
With static assignments, if you assign let’s say rcmd-S to Safari, and you press that hotkey while Safari is not running, it will be automatically launched.
Window Actions do that for specific windows.
Let’s say you have a specific URL that you use often in a separate window in Safari, like this MPU forum. You can assign it the Right Option - M hotkey and the URL of talk.macpowerusers.com and when you press that hotkey, the window will automatically open if it’s not open, or instantly focused if it’s already open.
The actions also support assigning opening a specific file (useful for text editors) or a shell script (which is infinitely flexible).
I’ll also look into adding AppleScript and Shortcuts.
Thanks. When I said “URL” I really meant “using a URL scheme to kick off eg a Keyboard Maestro macro or tickle OmniFocus”. I hope your support covers that, not just a web page.
For example I mapped Right Option + D in Spotify to open the URI of my Discover Weekly playlist to quickly get to it instead of looking around for the playlist title.
It’s not mandatory for the action to open a window, it’s just its main use case, but you can use it for anything.
The main thing to know is that this works per app, so Right Option + letter will do different things depending on the focused app. It’s not a global hotkey like the Right Command ones.
For that use case (generic global hotkeys) BTT or skhd are easiest to work with.
Focused means it’s the app in the foreground. It’s just a convenience to show it up top in settings.
If you foreground vscode and hit rcmd+right opt+c twice, it’ll assign vscode to c as well. However, I can’t figure out a way to make Chrome be the first app to appear. It seems like I can only make vscode the first app by assigning it to c, or leave vscode assigned to v. I might be missing something.
I’m happy this thread was updated because of the timing. Just started using it to address a minor problem.
Frequently, I’m watching a video related to work and taking notes on it at the same time in Obsidian. A small irritation is that in the flow of writing and listening I often want to either pause the video or skip it back. But doing that involves moving a hand off the keyboard, which stops the typing, and then moving the cursor over to the browser window with the video and then clicking the controls. Then I have to get my hands back and into the flow of notes again. This feels feels a little too disruptive if I have to do it often enough.
Surely, others have this problem, too? There must be some good shortcuts for this? But I decided to try rcmd as a way to quickly activate the other window/ app while keeping my hands on the keyboard. I’m thinking this is probably a decent solution.
I know there is a way to use Finder shortcuts to switch between apps and windows but I’ve been struggling to make that work. Not sure what I’m doing wrong with that…
Anyway, rcmd is nice and quick- snappy. Looking to also use it as a compliment to Alfred.
Thanks! One key to switch them wins over my two-key combo;-)
I don’t have keyboard maestro… (maybe I’m the only person around this forum that doesn’t?) I do use Alfred and have access to BetterTouchTool through Setapp… maybe possible to do the same thing? Thinking about it, maybe I didn’t need to get rcmd for my current two-key solution…
Anyway, I’ll see how it goes. So far, it feels decent, like I’ve improved that workflow.
Thanks @cornchip for explaining this! I wasn’t notified of these replies for some reason.
@sridhar
The order of the dynamic assignments is based on a score computed from the usage of those apps.
To change that, you would assign C to Chrome with ⌘ Right Command + ⌥ Right Option + C, and set its When already focused action to Cycle.
Although I’m not sure why VSCode is getting the C assignment there. That might be a bug, I’ll have to look into it.
But if you don’t have a need for dynamic assignments, show/hide apps with the same hotkey, or focusing/opening specific windows/URLs/projects, then rcmd might not be a good fit for you and a simpler workflow using BTT would be better.
