Is there a way for BTT to be aware of when I have Spotlight open?

Configuration Help & General Discussion
1

I learned that when you have Spotlight open, you can send your search query directly to Google (or your default search engine in your default browser) with the keyboard command ⌘+B. I'd like to remap this with BTT to ⌘+return... but only when the Spotlight search field/window is open and active. Is BTT able to detect this?

Thanks!

2

Strange, this used to work with the Advances Conditions. The Spotlight window is named: “Spotlight - Spotlight - 23”

BTT shows the name in the “Visible Windows Viewer”, but does not recognize it as a condition. Maybe Andreas can explain this. :man_shrugging:

3

that should work fine, make sure to use „contains“ as condition

4

Unfortunately not. I have 5 key sequences that should only work in the Spotlight window. This condition

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They no longer work. Unfortunately, I don't know since when.

5

I think that might be some other problem, the condition seems to work ok here. Does it turn green when you open Spotlight?

6

It used to, but not anymore :man_shrugging:

Shouldn't the name be displayed here?

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Edit: I don't quite understand. Has anything changed in the appearance of the window? Even with this condition (which is fulfilled) it does not turn green.

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7

ah good point I haven’t added that in the updated condition viewer in the current alphas yet :grinning: will add later

8

Thanks for this nudge! "Advanced Conditions" is new to me. I got it to work!

According to the Visible Window Viewer, Spotlight is Spotlight - (null) - 23.

So, the condition that seems to work for me is:

visible_window_list CONTAINS "Spotlight"

I just now set this up, so I haven't done any longterm testing. I'll report back if I learn anything new.

As an aside, I am constantly impressed with how much BTT is capable of. Thanks so much!

9

The word “spotlight” is not that rare. Every web page with this word leads to a false positive result. It is probably better to do it this way. :slightly_smiling_face:

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10

Good advice. Thanks.

Question: the visible window viewer shows it as Spotlight - (null), so should I use that instead of Spotlight - Spotlight?

11

use exactly as your visible window viewer shows it while it's active

12

Normally you can simply select and copy the name. This is not possible with Spotlight because the window disappears when you try. :slightly_smiling_face:

@Andreas_Hegenberg Could it be that this window is called differently with different macos? Mine is called differently.

13

If it's helpful, I'm on a brand new M4 MacBook Pro running macOS 15.2.