Tip! Using Hookmark in foreground mode has several benefits

Discussion & Help
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By default (at least currently), Hookmark runs in background mode. That means that:

  1. Even when you invoke Hookmark’s Bookmarks window, you do not see Hookmark’s menubar.
  2. Hookmark does not appear in the Application Switcher (Command-Tab)
  3. You can’t see Hoookmark in Apple Menu’s “force quit” list.
  4. the Hide Others command (Option-Command-H) doesn’t work even when the Bookmarks window is shown.
  5. You do not see Hookmark in the Dock.

Those are not our doing, but rather the result of how macOS treats background apps.

The good news is that if you want the reverse behavior, you can force Hookmark to run in foreground mode. Currently this is controlled from the command line (i.e., from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)

To make Hookmark run in foreground mode, paste the following command in the Terminal app:

defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook background.app.mode 0

To switch back to background mode, simply run:

defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook background.app.mode 1

Now that Hookmark has a Bookmarks window, acting partly as a bookmark manager, we expect to make foreground mode the default. Instead of using the gear button, users will then typically use Hookmark’s menubar (or keyboard shortcuts) to access “gear” commands. We also plan to add additional commands to Hookmark.

To find out more about command line preferences, you can visit the following link:

We also plan to make foreground vs. background mode configurable from Hookmark’s settings, so you won’t need to rely on the command line for them (but the command line-based setting will still be honored.)

To be clear, the Context window will remain the same: a background mode window with no menu bar of its own. Regardless of the background mode setting, when you invoke Hookmark’s context window (⌃H), the context window technically is nevertheless in the background. That’s because the context window’s context is the window that is in the foreground when you invoke it.

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When I tried it it didn’t work, until I realized I needed to adjust for Setapp’s version of hookmark (Luc’s quote adjusted accordingly):

If I experiment issues having it in foreground mode, I’ll try to remember to report back here.

Your explanations, Luc, were very clear and helped me understand the tradeoffs. I think it’s a good direction for the bookmarks window. The more featureful you’ll make it, the more it’ll make sense to configure it technically as a foreground window.

I’d add that I really don’t like to see bigger windows configured in background mode. They throw off some of my expectations and habits about keyboard shortcuts and windowing experience, so I’m relieved to see this coming. (No issue at all with Hookmark’s regular context window!)

Finally, it’s funny - you already mentioned this hidden setting many times, but it took me this notice to finally act upon it.

With that said, I’m curious if anyone would like to opine differently (preferring to keep the bookmark window in background mode), and why. It’s often nice to learn about other preferences.

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oops! thank you very much for pointing that out! We’ll need to update our documentation accordingly.
Much appreciated, as always, @danieljomphe!

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