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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T17:57:11+00:00

Given an NSApp object (aka [NSApplication sharedApplication]), how can I get the currently active

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Given an NSApp object (aka [NSApplication sharedApplication]), how can I get the currently active NSTextView, where the insertion point is blinking right now (if there is one)? 🙂

I can go [[NSApp keyWindow] contentView] and try traversing the whole view hierarchy, but that seems too hard. Ideal code would be: [NSApp focusedTextView].

I tryed firstResponder for an app and a window, and also fieldEditor:forObject:, but this does not return anything interesting (at least, to me).

By the way, if anybody knows how to get the system wide current text view, that would be even cooler (Accessibility APIs won’t work: it won’t return a Cocoa NSTextView).

Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The -firstResponder function returns the field editor. So if you want the real view you might need to check the first responder’s delegate to get to it. Also see field editor for details.

    There is probably no way to get it system wide as a NSTextViews since that object is in general in a different process space.

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