Desktop version vs Chrome extension - snippets in Omnibox / URL bar?

Questions and Help
1

I have used the Mac desktop version of TextBlaze, but want to start using some of the more advanced tools/snippets that can read CSS or other data from a page open in Chrome/Brave.

  1. I assume most of the features that extract data from Chrome rely on the Chrome extension and would not work with the desktop version?

  2. The extension seems to be only interacting with the actual viewport (website content), not any other elements of the Chrome/Brave application itself, which is causing a conflict when trying to expand a snippet in the Omnibox (URL/search bar in the Brave/Chrome application) versus the viewport.

  • If I set "Auto disable desktop app in Chrome (Recommended)," then my URL expander snippets don't work in the omnibox -- presumably because the desktop app is able to expand a snippet anywhere in any app, but the Chrome extension is only expanding in the viewport (which the omnibox is not)?

  • If I set "Always active in Chrome," then it works in the omnibox (correctly inserting just once), but snippets get inserted twice in any sites/content area -- presumably because the extension is only interacting with the viewport content, so it's doubling it up with the desktop's insertion.

Thoughts on this? Quick expansion of about 50 different URLs I show off on demos with clients is a big part of why I use Text Blaze, so it would be unfortunate to have other functionality within Chrome crippled to keep this in place.

2

Hi @mreddington Welcome to the forum! :slight_smile:

Note that the Chrome extension can also insert into the omnibox. Please see Text Blaze | Frequently Asked Questions

Now to answer your specific questions:

I assume most of the features that extract data from Chrome rely on the Chrome extension and would not work with the desktop version?

That's right. {click} and {site} are the two commands that rely on the Chrome extension.

The extension seems to be only interacting with the actual viewport (website content)

Due to the technical architecture of Chrome, the extension cannot work outside the webpage.

If I set "Auto disable desktop app in Chrome (Recommended)," then my URL expander snippets don't work in the omnibox -- presumably because the desktop app is able to expand a snippet anywhere in any app, but the Chrome extension is only expanding in the viewport (which the omnibox is not)?

Yes, the desktop app will not run inside any Chrome window if it spots the extension running in one of them, to avoid any conflicts.

If I set "Always active in Chrome," then

Your observation is correct, and we don't recommend that setting either for the same reason.