My Touch Bar Accordance Customization

[Joe Weaks]

I have a question, is there a quick way to add a specified Bible version as parallel pane to the active Tab? This functionality would be great when integrated with the touch bar. The most frequent operation for me is to "Add Parallel" to a Tab.

 

Unfortunately, no. There inexplicably is no "Add Parallel" item either in the Menu bar or the Contextual Menu. I've been disappointed with the number of functions added to Accordance of the years that are only in the GUI of a window (using custom interface items which foil UI scripting) and not in any of the menus.

[Martin Z]

Unfortunately, no. There inexplicably is no "Add Parallel" item either in the Menu bar or the Contextual Menu. I've been disappointed with the number of functions added to Accordance of the years that are only in the GUI of a window (using custom interface items which foil UI scripting) and not in any of the menus.

 

I have posted a feature request to make "Add Parallel" available in the Menu Bar.

[dandennison]

I will post Joe's BTT config to the Accordance Exchange once I get it.

[Ken Simpson]

I will post Joe's BTT config to the Accordance Exchange once I get it.

Thanks, but there’s no real need. Joe has sent me the config already. I am just waiting for the dust to settle a little, then I will get it posted if he’s ok with that. Thanks for thinking of us over on the exchange though!

Edited August 8, 2020 by Ken Simpson

[Joe Weaks]

Please do not post what I shared privately. I will make it public soon.

[Paul Meiklejohn]

Weekly review: Just to say that I have been using Joe's BTT set for over a week now.  It has been brilliant.  In fact I would say that it has really drawn me into the full potential of the Touch Bar.  I've owned a Touch Bar Macbook for over a year and have mostly used Apple's default  interface.  Since I've downloaded Joe's Touch Bar, I've used it constantly to the point that I have hardly used accordance on my iMac.  The ease of use to bring up the library, or bookmark an item is a game changer. I constantly 'copy the url' into 'Bear', my note taking app, so having that shortcut has changed how I use Accordance.  

 

As I said before, I have disabled a few of his triggers and copied some the triggers that he had nested into my primary strip.  I've also changed a few icons and some some font sizes.  Nearly all the changes are cosmetic and easily configured on BTT prefs.  I've combined Joe's work with a few trackpad gestures that I had already set up.  Simply put, the simplicity of the Touch Bar combined with Accordance has totally changed my workflow.    He may well be working on a few other triggers, but a I would love to see the 'add parallel', (although he's already pointed out that Accordance lacks a menu bar item to link that to). I'd also like to see trigger links to specific dictionaries and commentaries, although that might be a bit too much to ask since everybody's library is unique.  However, Joe has inspired me to have a go myself.  

 

Thanks Joe, I'm really interested to see what you come up with next.

Paul

Edited August 9, 2020 by Paul Meiklejohn

[Martin Z]

 I'd also like to see trigger links to specific dictionaries and commentaries

You can do it already with BetterTouchTool by changing (1) to whichever dictionary or commentary you want to open.

[Fabian]

Many thanks to Joe! After receiving Joe's preset, I've successfully imported it to BTT.

Just to mention one thing:

 

For those who are not using English UI. The click menu item actions will not work, because it is set to click English menu items.

A solution is to use Keyboard Maestro. I've added a "Enter Tags" group to the BTT. Instead of clicking activate menu item, I set it to execute an AppleScript that will execute a Keyboard Maestro macro.

 

In Keyboard Maestro, I can set conditions, Keyboard Maestro will first examine whether the menu item "Search ➤ Enter Tag" exists or not. If it does, it means the UI is English. It will activate the English menu. If it does not exist, in my case, the UI is Chinese, it will activate the Chinese menu. Because I often switch the UI language in Accordance, this trick is very useful to me. (See screenshot below) Of course, I could also assign other triggers in Keyboard Maestro for the same action.

 

(For reasons I don't know, if I use "Search" instead of "Search ➤ Enter Tag", the condition does not work as expected)

 

Pasted Graphic.png

Does someone a request for the BTT to have translations? In their Forum?

Edited August 9, 2020 by Fabian

[Paul Meiklejohn]

You can do it already with BetterTouchTool by changing (1) to whichever dictionary or commentary you want to open.

 

Thank you Martin, I hadn't picked that up. 

[Joe Weaks]

Here is the public release of my Accordance Better Touch Tool Preset.

 

 

 

 

It has many triggers on it, including many you surely won't use. If you want to reduce the scroll, you can easily disable the ones you know you don't want. The idea is to provide many options / examples, so you can use this preset as a basis for customizing how you want. I've tripled the number of triggers from what I first shared privately.

I included a trigger for the global "Get Verses…" function. You might want to copy that trigger and place it in your triggers for Word, etc.

I included an AppleScript trigger that copies the current selection and pastes it in the document open in TextEdit. This is to show you how to create a simple 1 touch button to collect items in a document using a script.

 

The list of triggers include:

• New tab… various
• Copy as… various
• Toggle Library
• Toggle Instant Details
• Change current field
• Bookmark selection
• Highlight selection
• Global font size up / down
• Previous / Next Hit
• Context Increase / Decrease
• Reader View Toggle
• Display as Paragraph / Verses
• Search selection on the web
• Lookup selection in lexicon
• New Workspace
• Duplicate Current Tab
• Get Verses… function
• An AppleScript to simply paste the current selection in the open TextEdit window (this is simple to change to Word or Pages, etc.)

[Fabian]

Hello Joe

 

Many thanks. 

I have a bug. Instead of enlarge the font it writes "=== etc. " in the search entry box.

 

[Ken Simpson]

Please do not post what I shared privately. I will make it public soon.

Of course! Thanks Joe

[Joe Weaks]

Dan, you can put the posted version on the Accordance Exchange.

 

Fabian, I would guess this is because most of the triggers are not nationalized for your keyboard. The "Increase Font Sizes in All Panels" trigger sends a ⌘>  which is the keyboard shortcut. You'll have to change that trigger to whatever is the keyboard shortcut in Accordance, in menu Display | Zoom | Increase Font Sizes in All Panels

 

You will find many of the triggers do not work because of your keyboard. You'll have to change those triggers to the correct keyboard shortcut, or change the menu path, using either the names or numbered paths. For instance, the numbered menu path for Increase Font Sizes in All Panels  on my machine is: (6);(5);(3)

Edited August 10, 2020 by Joe Weaks

[Fabian]

Fabian, I would guess this is because most of the triggers are not nationalized for your keyboard. The "Increase Font Sizes in All Panels" trigger sends a ⌘> with is the keyboard shortcut. You'll have to change that trigger to whatever is the keyboard shortcut in Accordance, in menu Display | Zoom | Increase Font Sizes in All Panels

 

You will find many of the triggers do not work because of your keyboard. You'll have to change those triggers to the correct keyboard shortcut, or change the menu path, using either the names or numbered paths. For instqance, the numbered menu path for Increase Font Sizes in All Panels  on my machine is: (6);(5);(3)

Thanks. 

 

Fabian

[Joe Weaks]

Weekly review: Just to say that I have been using Joe's BTT set for over a week now.  It has been brilliant. … I constantly 'copy the url' into 'Bear', my note taking app, so having that shortcut has changed how I use Accordance.  …

 

Paul,

Thanks for your kind words and the report on the Accordance BTT TouchBar triggers.

 

I'm glad the Copy As… URL is useful, but we can take it a step further. You can have a TouchBar button that does the copying and pasting automagically for you.

If you see the last trigger I added to the public release, it copies the selection and then brings TextEdit forward and pastes the result in the currently open document.  You can edit that to do what you want with Bear. It would have two triggers.

 

1. Copy As Location URL, just like the single trigger for that.

2. An AppleScript that brings Bear to the front and sends a ⌘v trigger to paste the result

 

You can also do a lot more by using the "do shell script" command and "open \"bear://x-callback-url/create…"

 

 

I wrote the trigger and copied it it here. You can paste this into your preset:

[  {
    "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "Copy URL⇢Bear",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 629,
    "BTTTriggerTypeDescription" : "Touch Bar button",
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchBar",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : 124,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Trigger Menubar Menu-Item",
    "BTTMenubarPath" : "Edit;Copy As…;*URL",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "EFFE2160-B2EC-4C02-9795-1159E1C9A452",
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 22,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTMergeIntoTouchBarGroups" : 0,
    "BTTAdditionalActions" : [
      {
        "BTTTriggerType" : -1,
        "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchBar",
        "BTTPredefinedActionType" : 172,
        "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Run Apple Script (blocking)",
        "BTTInlineAppleScript" : "delay 0.2\rtell application \"Bear\" to activate\rdelay 0.2\rtell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"v\" using {command down}",
        "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
        "BTTAlternateModifierKeys" : 0,
        "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
        "BTTUUID" : "B90559C1-4659-4392-9290-4AFCA1B4122A",
        "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
        "BTTEnabled" : 1,
        "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
        "BTTOrder" : 16,
        "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
        "BTTMergeIntoTouchBarGroups" : 0
      }
    ],
    "BTTTriggerConfig" : {
      "BTTTouchBarButtonColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconWidth" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonTextAlignment" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonFontSize" : 15,
      "BTTTouchBarAlternateBackgroundColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemPlacement" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarAlwaysShowButton" : false,
      "BTTTBWidgetWidth" : 400,
      "BTTTouchBarIconTextOffset" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonWidth" : 100,
      "BTTTouchBarOnlyShowIcon" : false,
      "BTTTouchBarFreeSpaceAfterButton" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "Copy URL⇢Bear",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconHeight" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarItemPadding" : 0
    }
  }
]

[Fabian]

You can also do a lot more by using the "do shell script" command and "open \"bear://x-callback-url/create…"

 

 

This reminds me to a feature request I started https://www.accordancebible.com/forums/topic/25330-x-callback-url/?hl=callback

 

Greetings

 

Fabian

[Paul Meiklejohn]

 

Paul,

I'm glad the Copy As… URL is useful, but we can take it a step further. You can have a TouchBar button that does the copying and pasting automagically for you.

 

 

Joe, this is just brilliant.  Particularly good because it puts it straight into the open Bear note (instead of opening a new note).  This means I can compile a complete list of url links with a few clicks of the trigger.  I'm indebted, thank you!

Edited August 10, 2020 by Paul Meiklejohn

[Joe Weaks]

Update:  Yesterday uploaded version 1.2 that includes two more triggers:

• Add selection to Current Stack
• Show Analytics

 

You can actually add the triggers by copying this code and then select your preset and paste:

 

Add selection to Current Stack

[  {
    "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "+ Stack",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 629,
    "BTTTriggerTypeDescription" : "Touch Bar button",
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchBar",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "k",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "58,55,40",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "CF8907A9-5DA4-4C33-A223-28923F4FB109",
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 18,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTMergeIntoTouchBarGroups" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerConfig" : {
      "BTTTouchBarButtonColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconWidth" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonTextAlignment" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonFontSize" : 15,
      "BTTTouchBarAlternateBackgroundColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemPlacement" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarAlwaysShowButton" : false,
      "BTTTBWidgetWidth" : 400,
      "BTTTouchBarIconTextOffset" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonWidth" : 100,
      "BTTTouchBarOnlyShowIcon" : false,
      "BTTTouchBarFreeSpaceAfterButton" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "+ Stack",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconHeight" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarItemPadding" : 0
    }
  }
]

Show Analytics

[  {
    "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "% Show Analytics",
    "BTTTriggerType" : 629,
    "BTTTriggerTypeDescription" : "Touch Bar button",
    "BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchBar",
    "BTTPredefinedActionType" : -1,
    "BTTPredefinedActionName" : "No Action",
    "BTTLayoutIndependentActionChar" : "'",
    "BTTAutoAdaptActionToKeyboardLayout" : true,
    "BTTShortcutToSend" : "55,39",
    "BTTEnabled2" : 1,
    "BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
    "BTTUUID" : "BC58A599-8200-460E-974E-87A4DA43262D",
    "BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
    "BTTEnabled" : 1,
    "BTTModifierMode" : 0,
    "BTTOrder" : 19,
    "BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
    "BTTMergeIntoTouchBarGroups" : 0,
    "BTTTriggerConfig" : {
      "BTTTouchBarButtonColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconWidth" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonTextAlignment" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonFontSize" : 15,
      "BTTTouchBarAlternateBackgroundColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
      "BTTTouchBarItemPlacement" : 0,
      "BTTTouchBarAlwaysShowButton" : false,
      "BTTTBWidgetWidth" : 400,
      "BTTTouchBarIconTextOffset" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonWidth" : 100,
      "BTTTouchBarOnlyShowIcon" : false,
      "BTTTouchBarFreeSpaceAfterButton" : 5,
      "BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "% Show Analytics",
      "BTTTouchBarItemIconHeight" : 22,
      "BTTTouchBarItemPadding" : 0
    }
  }
]

[Paul Meiklejohn]

Top job Joe, I was just thinking about 'add to stack'. 

 

Just one small niggle, with the send to TextEdit script (Bear) .  It's working brilliantly but because the first recorded keystroke is 'c' for copy, Accordance immediately thinks I'm about to type in a search beginning with 'c'.  The script soon kicks in and does what it should, but every time I run the trigger I'm left with a 'c' in the search box.  Is there something we can do to stop Accordance thinking I'm about to enter a search?

 

Thanks for the code for the individual triggers.  I had already overwritten my BTT presets twice. Getting the last two triggers in was much easier.

 

Paul. 

 

 

 

[Paul Meiklejohn]

Thanks Joe for redirecting me to the latest "copy URL and paste script"  It completely bypassed the keystrokes as above.

[Joe Weaks]

You bet. And, it's easy to share a trigger here if anyone has a request and wants help creating it.

[Paul Meiklejohn]

... It's easy to share a trigger here if anyone has a request and wants help creating it.

 

And just another tip if your not fully familiar with BTT.  Under Touch Bar settings / advanced... there is a beta option to enable Touch Bar control from the trackpad.  You just drag the cursor down to bottom of the screen and it will jump onto the trackpad triggers.  Bear in mind that this feature is still in Beta, but it has been working brilliantly for me.  This gives me full access to Joe's triggers even when my fingers are on the trackpad and Touch Bar control when I'm on the keyboard.

[dandennison]

I finally got around to installing the touch bar described here. I really like it @Joe Weaks.

 

@Joel BrownCan you just put these buttons into the next Accordance release? BTT is cool, but its not trivial to get working properly, especially with Accordance Aleph. If not, can you consider linking to this from the main Accordance website like we do with the Services addon?

 

In the meantime, is it possible to link to the download on the Accordance Exchange now? It seems the development has slowed down to the point where it could be hosted there.