docs » hs.window

The default duration for animations, in seconds. Initial value is 0.2; set to 0 to disable animations.

Using hs.window:setFrame() in some cases does not work as expected: namely, the bottom (or Dock) edge, and edges between screens, might

Returns all windows

• None

• A list of hs.window objects representing all open windows

• visibleWindows(), orderedWindows(), get(), find(), and several more functions and methods in this and other modules make use of this function, so it is important to understand its limitations
• This function queries all applications for their windows every time it is invoked; if you need to call it a lot and performance is not acceptable consider using the hs.window.filter module
• This function can only return windows in the current Mission Control Space; if you need to address windows across different Spaces you can use the hs.window.filter module
  • if Displays have separate Spaces is on (in System Preferences>Mission Control) the current Space is defined as the union of all currently visible Spaces
  • minimized windows and hidden windows (i.e. belonging to hidden apps, e.g. via cmd-h) are always considered to be in the current Space
• This function filters out the desktop "window"; use hs.window.desktop() to address it. (Note however that hs.application.get'Finder':allWindows() will include the desktop in the returned list)
• Beside the limitations discussed above, this function will return all windows as reported by OSX, including some "windows" that one wouldn't expect: for example, every Google Chrome (actual) window has a companion window for its status bar; therefore you might get unexpected results - in the Chrome example, calling hs.window.focusWindowSouth() from a Chrome window would end up "focusing" its status bar, and therefore the proper window itself, seemingly resulting in a no-op. In order to avoid such surprises you can use the hs.window.filter module, and more specifically the default windowfilter (hs.window.filter.default) which filters out known cases of not-actual-windows
• Some windows will not be reported by OSX - e.g. things that are on different Spaces, or things that are Full Screen

Returns the desktop "window"

• None

• An hs.window object representing the desktop, or nil if Finder is not running

• The desktop belongs to Finder.app: when Finder is the active application, you can focus the desktop by cycling through windows via cmd-`
• The desktop window has no id, a role of AXScrollArea and no subrole
• The desktop is filtered out from hs.window.allWindows() (and downstream uses)

Gets all invisible windows

• None

• A list containing hs.window objects representing all windows that are not visible as per hs.window:isVisible()

Gets a table containing all the window data retrieved from CGWindowListCreate.

• allWindows - Get all the windows, even those "below" the Dock window.

• true is succesful otherwise false if an error occurred.

• This allows you to get window information without Accessibility Permissions.

Gets all minimized windows

• None

• A list containing hs.window objects representing all windows that are minimized as per hs.window:isMinimized()

Returns all visible windows, ordered from front to back

• None

• A list of hs.window objects representing all visible windows, ordered from front to back

Enables/Disables window shadows

• shadows - A boolean, true to show window shadows, false to hide window shadows

• None

• This function uses a private, undocumented OS X API call, so it is not guaranteed to work in any future OS X release

Returns a snapshot of the window specified by the ID as an hs.image object

• ID - Window ID of the window to take a snapshot of.
• keepTransparency - optional boolean value indicating if the windows alpha value (transparency) should be maintained in the resulting image or if it should be fully opaque (default).

• hs.image object of the window snapshot or nil if unable to create a snapshot

• See also method hs.window:snapshot()
• Because the window ID cannot always be dynamically determined, this function will allow you to provide the ID of a window that was cached earlier.

Sets the timeout value used in the accessibility API.

• value - The number of seconds for the new timeout value.

• true is succesful otherwise false if an error occurred.

Gets all visible windows

• None

• A list containing hs.window objects representing all windows that are visible as per hs.window:isVisible()

Finds windows

• hint - search criterion for the desired window(s); it can be: - an id number as per hs.window:id() - a string pattern that matches (via string.find) the window title as per hs.window:title() (for convenience, the matching will be done on lowercased strings)

• one or more hs.window objects that match the supplied search criterion, or nil if none found

• for convenience you can call this as hs.window(hint)
• see also hs.window.get
• for more sophisticated use cases and/or for better performance if you call this a lot, consider using hs.window.filter

Usage:

-- by id
hs.window(8812):title() --> Hammerspoon Console
-- by title
hs.window'bash':application():name() --> Terminal

Returns the window that has keyboard/mouse focus

• None

• An hs.window object representing the currently focused window

Returns the focused window or, if no window has focus, the frontmost one

• None

• An hs.window object representing the frontmost window, or nil if there are no visible windows

Gets a specific window

• hint - search criterion for the desired window; it can be: - an id number as per hs.window:id() - a window title string as per hs.window:title()

• the first hs.window object that matches the supplied search criterion, or nil if not found

• see also hs.window.find and hs.application:getWindow()

Gets the hs.application object the window belongs to

• None

• An hs.application object representing the application that owns the window, or nil if an error occurred

Makes the window the main window of its application

• None

• The hs.window object

• Make a window become the main window does not transfer focus to the application. See hs.window.focus()

Centers the window on a screen

• screen - (optional) An hs.screen object or argument for hs.screen.find; if nil, use the screen the window is currently on
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Closes the window

• None

• True if the operation succeeded, false if not

Focuses the window

• None

• The hs.window object

Focuses the tab in the window's tab group at index, or the last tab if index is out of bounds

• index - A number, a 1-based index of a tab to focus

• true if the tab was successfully pressed, or false if there was a problem

• This method works with document tab groups and some app tabs, like Chrome and Safari.

Focuses the nearest possible window to the east (i.e. right)

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the east are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true focuses the nearest window that isn't occluded by any other window
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the eastward axis

• true if a window was found and focused, false otherwise; nil if the search couldn't take place

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Focuses the nearest possible window to the north (i.e. up)

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the east are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true focuses the nearest window that isn't occluded by any other window
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the eastward axis

• true if a window was found and focused, false otherwise; nil if the search couldn't take place

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Focuses the nearest possible window to the south (i.e. down)

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the east are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true focuses the nearest window that isn't occluded by any other window
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the eastward axis

• true if a window was found and focused, false otherwise; nil if the search couldn't take place

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Focuses the nearest possible window to the west (i.e. left)

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the east are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true focuses the nearest window that isn't occluded by any other window
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the eastward axis

• true if a window was found and focused, false otherwise; nil if the search couldn't take place

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Gets the frame of the window in absolute coordinates

• None

• An hs.geometry rect containing the co-ordinates of the top left corner of the window and its width and height

Gets the unique identifier of the window

• None

• A number containing the unique identifier of the window, or nil if an error occurred

Gets the fullscreen state of the window

• None

• True if the window is fullscreen, false if not. Nil if an error occurred

Determines if a window is maximizable

• None

• True if the window is maximizable, False if it isn't, or nil if an error occurred

Gets the minimized state of the window

• None

• True if the window is minimized, otherwise false

Determines if the window is a standard window

• None

• True if the window is standard, otherwise false

• "Standard window" means that this is not an unusual popup window, a modal dialog, a floating window, etc.

Determines if a window is visible (i.e. not hidden and not minimized)

• None

• true if the window is visible, otherwise false

• This does not mean the user can see the window - it may be obscured by other windows, or it may be off the edge of the screen

Maximizes the window

• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

• The window will be resized as large as possible, without obscuring the dock/menu

Minimizes the window

• None

• The hs.window object

• This method will always animate per your system settings and is not affected by hs.window.animationDuration

Moves the window

• rect - It can be: - an hs.geometry point, or argument to construct one; will move the screen by this delta, keeping its size constant; screen is ignored - an hs.geometry rect, or argument to construct one; will set the window frame to this rect, in absolute coordinates; screen is ignored - an hs.geometry unit rect, or argument to construct one; will set the window frame to this rect relative to the desired screen; if screen is nil, use the screen the window is currently on
• screen - (optional) An hs.screen object or argument for hs.screen.find; only valid if rect is a unit rect
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves the window one screen east (i.e. right)

• noResize - (optional) if true, maintain the window's absolute size
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves the window one screen north (i.e. up)

• noResize - (optional) if true, maintain the window's absolute size
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves the window one screen south (i.e. down)

• noResize - (optional) if true, maintain the window's absolute size
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves the window one screen west (i.e. left)

• noResize - (optional) if true, maintain the window's absolute size
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves the window to a given screen, retaining its relative position and size

• screen - An hs.screen object, or an argument for hs.screen.find(), representing the screen to move the window to
• noResize - (optional) if true, maintain the window's absolute size
• ensureInScreenBounds - (optional) if true, use setFrameInScreenBounds() to ensure the resulting window frame is fully contained within the window's screen
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Moves and resizes the window to occupy a given fraction of the screen

• unitrect - An hs.geometry unit rect, or constructor argument to create one
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

• An example, which would make a window fill the top-left quarter of the screen: win:moveToUnit'[0.0,0.0,0.5,0.5]'

Gets every window except this one

• None

• A table containing hs.window objects representing all visible windows other than this one

Gets other windows on the same screen

• None

• A table of hs.window objects representing the visible windows other than this one that are on the same screen

Brings a window to the front of the screen without focussing it

• None

• The hs.window object

Gets the role of the window

• None

• A string containing the role of the window

Gets the screen which the window is on

• None

• An hs.screen object representing the screen which contains the window.

• While windows can be dragged to span multiple screens, part of the window will disappear when the mouse is released. The screen returned by this method will be the part of the window that remains visible.

Sends the window to the back

• None

• The hs.window object

• Due to the way this method works and OSX limitations, calling this method when you have a lot of randomly overlapping (as opposed to neatly tiled) windows might be visually jarring, and take a fair amount of time to complete. So if you don't use orderly layouts, or if you have a lot of windows in general, you're probably better off using hs.application:hide() (or simply cmd-h)
• This method works by focusing all overlapping windows behind this one, front to back. If called on the focused window, this method will switch focus to the topmost window under this one; otherwise, the currently focused window will regain focus after this window has been sent to the back.

Sets the frame of the window in absolute coordinates

• rect - An hs.geometry rect, or constructor argument, describing the frame to be applied to the window
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Sets the frame of the window in absolute coordinates, possibly adjusted to ensure it is fully inside the screen

• rect - An hs.geometry rect, or constructor argument, describing the frame to be applied to the window; if omitted, the current window frame will be used
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Sets the frame of the window in absolute coordinates, using the additional workarounds described in hs.window.setFrameCorrectness

• rect - An hs.geometry rect, or constructor argument, describing the frame to be applied to the window
• duration - (optional) The number of seconds to animate the transition. Defaults to the value of hs.window.animationDuration

• The hs.window object

Sets the fullscreen state of the window

• fullscreen - A boolean, true if the window should be set fullscreen, false if not

• The hs.window object

Resizes the window

• size - A size-table containing the width and height the window should be resized to

• The hs.window object

Moves the window to a given point

• point - A point-table containing the absolute co-ordinates the window should be moved to

• The hs.window object

Gets the size of the window

• None

• A size-table containing the width and height of the window

Returns a snapshot of the window as an hs.image object

• keepTransparency - optional boolean value indicating if the windows alpha value (transparency) should be maintained in the resulting image or if it should be fully opaque (default).

• hs.image object of the window snapshot or nil if unable to create a snapshot

• See also function hs.window.snapshotForID()

Gets the subrole of the window

• None

• A string containing the subrole of the window

• This typically helps to determine if a window is a special kind of window - such as a modal window, or a floating window

Gets the number of tabs in the window has

• None

• A number containing the number of tabs, or nil if an error occurred

• Intended for use with the focusTab method, if this returns a number, then focusTab can switch between that many tabs.

Gets the title of the window

• None

• A string containing the title of the window

Toggles the fullscreen state of the window

• None

• The hs.window object

• Not all windows support being full-screened

Toggles the zoom state of the window (this is effectively equivalent to clicking the green maximize/fullscreen button at the top left of a window)

• None

• The hs.window object

Gets the absolute co-ordinates of the top left of the window

• None

• A point-table containing the absolute co-ordinates of the top left corner of the window

Un-minimizes the window

• None

• The hs.window object

Gets all windows to the east of this window

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the east are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true unoccluded windows will be placed before occluded ones in the result list
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the eastward axis

• A list of hs.window objects representing all windows positioned east (i.e. right) of the window, in ascending order of distance

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Gets all windows to the north of this window

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the north are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true unoccluded windows will be placed before occluded ones in the result list
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the northward axis

• A list of hs.window objects representing all windows positioned north (i.e. up) of the window, in ascending order of distance

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Gets all windows to the south of this window

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the south are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true unoccluded windows will be placed before occluded ones in the result list
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the southward axis

• A list of hs.window objects representing all windows positioned south (i.e. down) of the window, in ascending order of distance

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Gets all windows to the west of this window

• candidateWindows - (optional) a list of candidate windows to consider; if nil, all visible windows to the west are candidates.
• frontmost - (optional) boolean, if true unoccluded windows will be placed before occluded ones in the result list
• strict - (optional) boolean, if true only consider windows at an angle between 45° and -45° on the westward axis

• A list of hs.window objects representing all windows positioned west (i.e. left) of the window, in ascending order of distance

• If you don't pass candidateWindows, Hammerspoon will query for the list of all visible windows every time this method is called; this can be slow, and some undesired "windows" could be included (see the notes for hs.window.allWindows()); consider using the equivalent methods in hs.window.filter instead

Gets a rect-table for the location of the zoom button (the green button typically found at the top left of a window)

• None

• A rect-table containing the bounding frame of the zoom button, or nil if an error occurred

• The co-ordinates in the rect-table (i.e. the x and y values) are in absolute co-ordinates, not relative to the window the button is part of, or the screen the window is on
• Although not perfect as such, this method can provide a useful way to find a region of the titlebar suitable for simulating mouse click events on, with hs.eventtap