It overrides your green plus (zoom) button and works like Windows maximize. You can add it to your login items in your user account to run every time you start OS X. This software is free and it allows for custom key-bindings! As for having to use Option + Shift + Left-Click to use the maximize feature. On basically every mouse, the scroll wheel can be clicked to perform what’s called a “middle click”, and it’s incredibly useful while browsing the web. You can middle-click any link to open it in the background, or middle-click any tab to close it. It’s one of those things that are hard to live without once you discover them. Shut down your Mac. Then press the power button to turn on your Mac. Then press and hold the keys as your Mac starts up. Wait a few seconds before pressing the keys, to give your Mac more time to recognize the keyboard as it starts up. For the sake of this tutorial, I’m going to refer to “control-click” as “right-click”. As much as I love OS X – and it has become my primary OS by a long shot – I don’t think I’ll ever be happy using a single-button mouse.
Automating the User Interface
Unfortunately, not every Mac app has scripting support, and those that do may not always have scripting support for every task you want to automate. You can often work around such limitations, however, by writing a user interface script, commonly called a UI or GUI script. A user interface script simulates user interaction, such as mouse clicks and keystrokes, allowing the script to select menu items, push buttons, enter text into text fields, and more.
Enabling User Interface Scripting
User interface scripting relies upon the OS X accessibility frameworks that provide alternative methods of querying and controlling the interfaces of apps and the system. By default, accessibility control of apps is disabled. For security and privacy reasons, the user must manually enable it on an app-by-app (including script apps) basis.
Click The Button Mac Os Download
Launch System Preferences and click Security & Privacy.
Click Accessibility.
Choose an app and click Open.
When running an app that requires accessibility control for the first time, the system prompts you to enable it. See Figure 37-1.
Attempting to run an app that has not been given permission to use accessibility features results in an error. See Figure 37-2.
Note
To run a user interface script in Script Editor, you must enable accessibility for Script Editor.
Admin credentials are required to perform enable user interface scripting.
Targeting an App
User interface scripting terminology is found in the Processes Suite of the System Events scripting dictionary. This suite includes terminology for interacting with most types of user interface elements, including windows, buttons, checkboxes, menus, radio buttons, text fields, and more. In System Events, the process
class represents a running app. Listing 37-1 shows how to target an app using this class.
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 37-1AppleScript: Targeting an app for user interface scriptingtell application 'System Events'
tell process 'Safari'
-- Perform user interface scripting tasks
end tell
end tell
To control the user interface of an app, you must first inspect the app and determine its element hierarchy. This can be done by querying the app. For example, Listing 37-2 asks Safari for a list of menus in the menu bar.
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 37-2AppleScript: Querying an app for user interface element informationtell application 'System Events'
tell process 'Safari'
name of every menu of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
--> Result: {'Apple', 'Safari', 'File', 'Edit', 'View', 'History', 'Bookmarks', 'Develop', 'Window', 'Help'}
Accessibility Inspector (Figure 37-3) makes it even easier to identify user interface element information. This app is included with Xcode. To use it, open Xcode and select Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Accessibility Inspector.
Once you know how an element fits into an interface, you target it within that hierarchy. For example, button X of window Y of process Z
.
Clicking a Button
Use the click
command to click a button. Listing 37-3 clicks a button in the Safari toolbar to toggle the sidebar between open and closed.
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 37-3AppleScript: Clicking a buttontell application 'System Events'
tell process 'Safari'
tell toolbar of window 1
click (first button where its accessibility description = 'Sidebar')
end tell
end tell
end tell
--> Result: {button 1 of toolbar 1 of window 'AppleScript: Graphic User Interface (GUI) Scripting' of application process 'Safari' of application 'System Events'}
Choosing a Menu Item
Menu items can have a fairly deep hierarchy within the interface of an app. A menu item generally resides within a menu, which resides within a menu bar. In scripting, they must be addressed as such. Listing 37-4 selects the Pin Tab menu item in the Window menu of Safari.
APPLESCRIPT
Press The Button
Listing 37-4AppleScript: Choosing a menu itemtell application 'System Events'
tell process 'Safari'
set frontmost to true
click menu item 'Pin Tab' of menu 'Window' of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
--> Result: menu item 'Pin Tab' of menu 'Window' of menu bar item 'Window' of menu bar 1 of application process 'Safari' of application 'System Events'
Note
Scripting the user interface of an app can be tedious and repetitious. To streamline the process, consider creating handlers to perform common functions. For example, Listing 37-5 shows a handler that can be used to choose any menu item of any menu in any running app.
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 37-5AppleScript: A handler that chooses a menu itemon chooseMenuItem(theAppName, theMenuName, theMenuItemName)
try
-- Bring the target app to the front
tell application theAppName
activate
end tell
-- Target the app
tell application 'System Events'
tell process theAppName
-- Target the menu bar
tell menu bar 1
-- Target the menu by name
tell menu bar item theMenuName
tell menu theMenuName
-- Click the menu item
click menu item theMenuItemName
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
return true
on error
return false
end try
end chooseMenuItem
Listing 37-6 calls the handler in Listing 37-5 to select the Pin Tab menu item in the Window menu of Safari.
APPLESCRIPT
Choosing a Submenu Item
Some menus contain other menus. In these cases, it may be necessary to select a menu item in a submenu of a menu. Listing 37-7 demonstrates how this would be done by selecting a submenu item in Safari.
APPLESCRIPT
Listing 37-7AppleScript: Selecting a submenu itemtell application 'System Events'
tell process 'Safari'
set frontmost to true
click menu item 'Email This Page' of menu of menu item 'Share' of menu 'File' of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
--> Result: {menu item 'Email This Page' of menu 'Share' of menu item 'Share' of menu 'File' of menu bar item 'File' of menu bar 1 of application process 'Safari' of application 'System Events'}
Copyright © 2018 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Policy Updated: 2016-06-13
You can choose from icon, list, column, or Cover Flow view. In Cover Flow view, the browser is split horizontally into two sections. The top section is a graphical view of each item, such as folder icons or a preview of the first page of a document. The bottom section is a list view of the items.
To jump, press VO-J. If you’re using VoiceOver gestures, keep a finger on the trackpad and press the Control key.
Icon view: Use the arrow keys to move to the item you want.
Click The Button Mac Os X
List view: To move down the list rows, press VO-Down Arrow. To expand and collapse a folder, press VO-. To move the VoiceOver cursor across a row and hear information about an item, press VO-Right Arrow. Or press VO-R to hear the entire row read at once.
Column view: To move down the list until you find the folder or file you want, use the Down Arrow key. To move into subfolders, press the Right Arrow key.
Cover Flow view: To flip through the items in the top section and move automatically through the corresponding list rows in the bottom section, press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key.
When you find the file or folder you want to open, use the Finder shortcut Command-O or Command-Down Arrow to open it.VoiceOver announces when you have selected an alias or a file or folder you don’t have permission to open.