4.13  Hiding and Scripting

4.13.1  Hiding

Just Quit It

If you have activated syncing to manage web browsers singly or sync web browsers, there is no need to leave Smarky, Synkmark or BookMacster running, and no need for it to be a Login Item in your System Preferences.  The app’s agents work more efficiently when the app is not running.  Just quit BookMacster, and leave it quit until the next time you want to do bookmarks housekeeping.

Do not quit Markster, and do not quit BookMacster if you are using BookMacster Directly.  Instead, use one of these other methods if you want it to remain hidden…

Minimize to the Dock

In OS X, you may minimize a window to your Dock by typing ⌘M.

Running it in the background

Preference for how the app is launched

In Markster or BookMacster, in Preferences > General, there is a checkbox to Launch in Background.  If you switch that box on, the next time you launch the app it will be a background application, meaning that it will not appear in your Dock and not appear in your ⌘-tab Application Switcher.

To enable that checkbox, you must have set either a keyboard shortcut to the app’s Floating Menu or else enabled the app’s Menu Extra.  That is because you must have at least one means available to interact with the app.  (If Launch in Background is on and you violate this by switching both of these off, the app will silently switch Launch in Background off.)

If you are running Markster or BookMacster in the background, without the Menu Extra, wherein the only way to interact with the app is via your keyboard shortcut to its Floating Menu, you are in a “super stealth” background mode wherein the app  is completely invisible.  When the app is launched in this mode, for users of Mac OS X 10.8 and later, a notification appears in the Mac OS X Notification Center reminding you of the keyboard shortcut which is necessary to show the app.

Switching Between Background and Foreground

Regardless of how Markster or BookMacster is launched, you may want to switch it from one Background to Foreground or vice versa.

To switch the app from the foreground into the background, If you have Mac OS X 10.7 or later, clicking Background Markster|BookMacster in either the application menu, Dock Menu or Menu Extra.  If you do not have Mac OS X 10.7 or later, you must switch your Launch in Background preference on, quit and re-launch.

If your Mac is running a system earlier than Mac OS X 10.9, after clicking Show Markster|BookMacster, the app will not show its menu until you activate a third application and switch back to the app.  Just hit ⌘-tab a couple times, then ⌘-shift-tab.  (This is due to a bug in Mac OS X which Apple provided a workaround for in 10.9.)

4.13.2  Scripting

Smarky, Synkmark, Markster and BookMacster implement some AppleScript commands which make additional behaviors possible.  For example,

To get started AppleScripting , launch AppleScript Editor and File > Open the app’s scripting dictionary.  Also, download BookMacster’s sample AppleScripts.