how to implement "option+command+h" in App Designer?

I would like to hide all other windows on the desktop (Mac) in App Designer when starting the programme. How do I programme the command sequence ‘option+command+h’? Thank you very much.

Answer 1

[NVSL]

Hi @Harald von der Osten

I understand that you want to program the keyboard shortcut “option+command+h” before running your app so that all other windows in your mac desktop gets hidden.

As mentioned above, you can use Java robot in StartupFcn callback to simulate key presses as follows.

function startupFcn(app) 

    import java.awt.Robot; 
    import java.awt.event.KeyEvent; 
    
    robot = Robot(); 
    
    VK_META = KeyEvent.VK_META;  
    VK_ALT = KeyEvent.VK_ALT;    
    VK_H = KeyEvent.VK_H;       
    
    robot.keyPress(VK_META); 
    robot.keyPress(VK_ALT); 
    robot.keyPress(VK_H); 
    robot.keyRelease(VK_H); 
    robot.keyRelease(VK_ALT); 
    robot.keyRelease(VK_META);
    
end 

VK_META invokes “Command” key whereas VK_ALT invokes “Option” key in mac.

Hope this helps!

[Harald von der Osten]

Hi @NVSL, thank you very much for your valuable help. I will continue to work with it

Answer 2

[Oliver Jaehrig]

I believe you need to find some code which is equivalent to Command + H which can be called in a system call from MATLAB. Then you can input this into the StartupFcn callback of your app.

Maybe other helpful discussion:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55068825/handling-commandh-programmatically-in-mac-os

You could also try to use a Java robot to simulate key presses.

[Harald von der Osten]

Hi @Oliver Jaehrig, thanks a lot for your help and for the link