Choosing a region

SideScopes analyzes one rectangular region at a time. At launch, a moderate square global region appears on the display containing the application. With no saved window placement, the compact application window opens at the left of the primary display and the region is centered there. The square provides a neutral starting area for landscape and portrait content. This is an ordinary region: drag or resize its border, replace it with another selection, attach it to a window, select a face, or close it.

Opening a region tool dims the desktop and previews the candidate region on the scopes before you confirm it. Cancelling restores the previous committed selection, including when no face is found.

The toolbar and keyboard provide three selection modes. The keys below are the defaults; all three selection shortcuts can be changed in Settings. You can switch among them while the picker is open. Window and face suggestions are offered only when the platform reports or detects them; otherwise you can draw the region directly.

Global region (D)

Drag a rectangle anywhere on the current display. A global region remains at that screen position when windows move beneath it. Use this mode for any fixed area of the desktop, including part of an application window.

The launch region is a global region and behaves exactly like one drawn with D. It is centered on the display containing the SideScopes window when that space is clear. If a saved application-window position occupies the center, the region moves into nearby open space instead.

Select a window (A)

Click a suggested window to create a region attached to it. SideScopes insets the initial rectangle so its own border and label do not cover the title bar. To exclude application controls, draw inside the window instead or edit the border after selection. Either method can produce a window-attached region.

An attached region follows the window when it moves. A shrinking window edge pushes the region inward. If the window becomes smaller than the region, the visible rectangle is clipped; its saved size returns when space allows. The region does not scale with the window, which avoids changing the measured subject when an application panel or window edge moves. Minimizing and restoring a window preserves the crop it held before the animation.

You can attach regions to several windows. SideScopes measures the region for the focused attached window. If that window is minimized, unavailable, or no longer focused, analysis pauses until an attached window is available. When the last-used parent is confirmed closed, its last valid rectangle stays global on the same display. Closing a background parent does not replace a region that is still active.

Select a face (F)

Where face detection is available, SideScopes presents detected faces as suggestions. Selecting one places an ordinary window-attached region over the face. Its border shows the window title and pin icon, just like a region drawn inside that window.

Detection sets the initial rectangle once. The region follows the window when it moves, but stays at the same position and size within it while a photograph is panned or zoomed, or a video plays. The scopes keep measuring that rectangle even if the face moves away. Drag or resize the border to adjust it, or select a face again using the toolbar or your configured shortcut.

If no face is detected, the picker reports that result. Cancelling keeps the prior selection. Closing the parent window keeps the rectangle as a global region, following the same rules as any other window-attached region.

Face selection does not recognize a person’s identity, classify complexion, evaluate skin color, or change how the scopes analyze the enclosed pixels.

Editing the border

A confirmed region has a desktop border labeled with its attached window when applicable. The border is interactive:

drag the striped band to move the region;
drag a corner handle to resize both axes;
drag the midpoint of an edge to move that edge;
use the binding control to change what the region follows;
click the close button to remove this region. Other windows keep their regions.

The close button appears when the region is wide enough to fit its controls.

The binding control shows the current state. The pin identifies a region fixed inside a window, and the struck-through pin identifies a global region fixed to the display. Clicking the pin makes the region global. On a global region, the control attaches to the frontmost window under the region’s center.

The scopes update while the border is edited. The border hides while a picker is open, while SideScopes is hidden or minimized, and while an attached window is being moved.

Clearing a region

Escape closes an open menu or Scope Controls first, or cancels an active picker, restoring the committed selection. Otherwise, Escape clears every selected region, including saved regions on other windows. The border’s close button removes only the region it outlines. Clearing a region leaves the scope graticules visible and stops analyzing that selection. The startup region returns at the next launch; it is not recreated while you are working.

Stop Following Window and Stop Following All Windows keep the last-used rectangle as a global region on its display. A capture interruption pauses the scopes; it does not invent a region on another display.

Multiple displays

The starter region appears on the display containing the SideScopes window. A picker opens on the display under the pointer, and confirming a region there moves capture to that display. A global region belongs to one display. An attached region follows its window across displays.

If the captured display disconnects or becomes unavailable, SideScopes pauses the scopes and reports the interruption. Capture resumes when the display returns.