# How to simply view a body of text in TouchBar?

**URL:** <https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143>\
**Category:** Configuration Help & General Discussion\
**Created:** [December 7, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143 "2020-12-07T14:31:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Quo)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/1 "2020-12-07T14:31:23Z")

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With the display mouse on, could we move through the text with a scroll or something?

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**Author:** ![Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Quo)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/2 "2020-12-15T19:23:34Z")

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+++ is this forum really this dead? At least open the subreddit if you're going to let it die like that.

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**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/3 "2020-12-15T19:29:55Z")

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not dead, there probably just hasn’t been anybody who could answer your question.

I think I haven’t fully understood what you need, to just show text you can add any sort of Touch Bar button and enter the text you want to show.

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**Author:** ![Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Quo)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/4 "2020-12-15T19:32:03Z")

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Alright, while I have your attention I have another ask as it looks like what I'm searching for is not exactly possible.

Is there a way to display notifications on touchbar? Say I want to see the contents of an iMessage notification I received. Linger for 5 secs maybe and then disappear?

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**Author:** ![Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/user_avatar/community.folivora.ai/andreas_hegenberg/32/39221_2.png) [@Andreas\_Hegenberg](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Andreas_Hegenberg)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/5 "2020-12-15T19:39:01Z")

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Unfortunately macOS currently makes it hard to listen to notifications from the Notification Center. It would be possible to create a script that regularly polls the notification state and then displays it in the Touch Bar but it would not be good for performance.

I have been looking into performant ways to listen to notifications (because that would be a great feature) but I haven't found anything good yet ;-(

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**Author:** ![Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Quo](https://community.folivora.ai/u/Quo)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://community.folivora.ai/t/how-to-simply-view-a-body-of-text-in-touchbar/20143/6 "2020-12-15T19:57:44Z")

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Oh well. TouchBar would be a really great tool with some more freedom, but apple being apple I guess.

Sorry about the weird passive aggressiveness. I've been searching really hard for a week for a solution but looks like It's not possible. And while at that, thank you for making the greatest add-on I've had on my computer.