focused_element_details in Conditional Activation Group

Feature Requests
1

I would like to see "focused_element_details" added to the conditions of Conditional Activation Group. I know that I can set keyboard shortcuts etc. with this condition in the trigger condition Advanced Conditions, but when I do this, the key I set becomes unresponsive when the trigger condition does not match.

For example, while using Safari, the right arrow key should be esc key only when the AXDescription of the focused UI Element is "drop down", otherwise it should function as the right arrow key as usual.

Or if there is already a way to make this happen, please let me know.

2

unfortunately this would be a big performance killer, thus I can't add it.
The difference between conditional activation groups and advanced trigger conditions is that the trigger conditions only get evaluated if a trigger has been activated. Thus it does not matter if evaluating their condition takes some cpu. The CAGs however need to be evaluated all the time, this would kill battery life and performance.

You can set up workarounds to the problem by creating a second shortcut with a different condition, which as an action just sends the same key again (make sure to check the "prevent recursive triggers" option if you try this). @Frank1 has been using this workaround I think.

3

That's true and it works well in my experience.

What you could also try in this case is short/long press for two different actions. Long press scares many away because they fear it will disrupt their workflow. But in fact the difference between short and long can be minimal, with some practice.

4

I did not even consider CPU usage. I am sad that I could not achieve this, but I am convinced about the cause. Thank you very much.

5

I have never used the short/long press function, but this is an opportunity to try it. Thanks for your advice.

6

@anony Be warned, if you write fast, then short/long press might cause a problem if you use only one letter as trigger.

Assuming the trigger is "a", short press just "a" and long press something else. In this case, when writing fast, there will be letter twists because the letter "a" is typed when the key is released. If this problem occurs (like with me) then you can invert short/long press.