waffle

Something that got lost in the shuffle when Monocle 1.5 was introduced was its plugin API to provide suggestions and results. Monocle is easily bastardized to do your evil bidding even when it’s not necessarily related to launching web searches, and I thought I’d demonstrate this.

In about two hours tonight, I wrote a small plugin called Texposé. When you install it, it will install a new results provider that you can enable. Texposé lets you search the open on-screen windows in any application by name. When you hit enter to “follow the result”, you will immediately jump to the window.

The windows are grouped by applications; while the applications don’t show up in any particular order, the windows appear in their “z-order” and so the topmost window is also on the top of the list. This lets you distinguish between two windows with the same name in the same app. Right now, Texposé also tries to leave out less important windows, which filters out palettes but also some useful windows that happen to be “panels”.

Install Texposé by putting it into [home] → Library → Application Support → Monocle and restarting Monocle. Also make sure to go to System Preferences → Universal Access (the white person on the blue circle) and check Enable access for assistive devices, the topmost checkbox of the bottom two; otherwise Monocle can’t actually switch to the window for you.

Texposé requires Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard). Full source code available on request - use the contact link on Monocle’s web site.