Feature Request: Start/Stop Hazel by shortcut

Talk, speculate, discuss, pontificate. As long as it pertains to Hazel.

Moderators: Mr_Noodle, Moderators

Hi,

at the moment it seems there is no way to stop or start Hazel by keyboard shortcut.
It would be great if you could make this work.

I'm using Hazel numerous times every day and sometimes need to stop it, which would be easier by shortcut.

tl;dr: Luxury problem :wink:
jraduenz
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:28 am

Why do you need to stop it so often?
Mr_Noodle
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11195
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:30 am
Location: New York City

My company builds plugins for Adobe InDesign. I'm testing this plugins. We are building several plugins every day. I download them, and Hazel deletes old versions from my plugins folder, moves the downloaded plugin to the plugins folder, unzips it and restarts InDesign.
But a few times a day I have to deliver a plugin to customers or colleagues. I have to stop Hazel now because in this case I need to move it to a different location and don't need InDesign to restart and so on.
jraduenz
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:28 am

Not sure if this will work for you but if you can apply a color label to the plugin before it gets to Hazel, you can use that to route things appropriately.

Also, not sure if this will work but if you go to your Keyboard preferences and click on "Shortcuts", you can define keyboard shortcuts for menu items. I think it only applies to the main menubar and not the menus for menubar items but it's worth a shot.
Mr_Noodle
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11195
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:30 am
Location: New York City

Re: Feature Request: Start/Stop Hazel by shortcut Tue Sep 10, 2013 10:05 pm • by sjk
Mr_Noodle wrote:… but if you go to your Keyboard preferences and click on "Shortcuts", you can define keyboard shortcuts for menu items.

Do you mean the Application Shortcuts pane of the Keyboard Shortcuts tab under System Preferences > Keyboard? I couldn't find any way to add shortcuts for Stop Hazel and Start Hazel there. Maybe something like Keyboard Maestro or something less pricey (if just for this purpose), e.g. AppleScript-fu, can do it.
sjk
 
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:43 pm
Location: Eugene

I also vouch for ability to add a shortcut or a terminal command that would allow to start/stop Hazel. Ideally from the same shortcut/command.

My use case is that I have a Hazel rule that automatically commits files when I make any changes to them. I want to be able to very quickly stop Hazel from running. Sometimes I want to save and preview the rendered markdown I changed without committing. Ability to start/stop Hazel from running with a hotkey would be perfect for this.

I really hope you consider adding this feature. Thank you.
nikivi
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 10:04 am

Will consider it but in the meantime, you might want to add conditions to your rules to accommodate this. For instance, you can use color labels to either indicate which files you want to match or alternatively, color the files to indicate that these files shouldn't be processed.
Mr_Noodle
Site Admin
 
Posts: 11195
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:30 am
Location: New York City

Quitting and launching Hazel can be done with AppleScript:

Code: Select all
set appName to "HazelHelper"

if application appName is running then
   tell application id (id of application appName) to quit
else
   tell application id (id of application appName) to activate
end if


Combine that with something like Keyboard Maestro (paid) or FastScripts (free for a limited amount of keyboard shortcuts) and Hazel's running status could be toggled by the user with a keyboard shortcut.
NaOH
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:47 pm


Return to Open Discussion