KaKeeware ToolTip Thief: Complete Guide to Features and SetupKaKeeware ToolTip Thief is a lightweight utility designed to capture, store, and manage tooltip text from applications and system UI elements. Developers, QA engineers, technical writers, and power users often find tooltip content useful for localization, documentation, automated testing, or UI inspection. This guide walks through ToolTip Thief’s core features, installation and setup, practical use cases, troubleshooting, and best practices for integrating it into workflows.
What ToolTip Thief Does — at a Glance
- Captures tooltip text from windows and controls that expose tooltip information.
- Logs and stores captured tooltips for later review or export.
- Supports multiple capture modes, including passive monitoring and manual capture.
- Provides filtering, search, and grouping to help manage large collections of tooltips.
- Exports captured data to common formats (CSV, JSON, plain text) for localization, QA, or documentation work.
Key Features
1. Tooltip Capture Modes
ToolTip Thief typically offers several capture modes to suit different tasks:
- Passive monitoring: runs in the background and records tooltips as they appear.
- Manual capture: user triggers capture via hotkey or UI button for focused sessions.
- Contextual capture: captures tooltip text for a specific window or application only.
2. Multi-language and Encoding Support
ToolTip Thief handles various text encodings and can capture tooltips in applications that display non-Latin characters, making it suitable for localization and internationalization testing.
3. Search, Filter, and Grouping
Captured entries are searchable and filterable by application, window title, control class, or text content. Grouping by application or context helps keep related tooltips organized.
4. Export and Integration
Export formats commonly include CSV, JSON, and plaintext. These are useful for localization pipelines, automated tests, or importing into spreadsheets and translation management systems.
5. Hotkeys and Automation Hooks
Hotkeys let you quickly start/stop capture or tag entries. Some versions provide API or command-line hooks to integrate with automation scripts or CI pipelines.
6. Privacy and Security Considerations
Because ToolTip Thief reads UI text, review privacy policies and legal constraints before capturing information from third-party or sensitive applications. Use capture filters to exclude sensitive windows or applications.
Installation and Setup
System Requirements
ToolTip Thief typically runs on Windows (most common for UI-inspection tools). Minimum requirements generally include:
- Windows 10 or later (32-bit/64-bit variants may be supported).
- .NET runtime or equivalent framework if the tool is built on managed code.
- Sufficient permissions to inspect other processes’ UI (may require administrator privileges in some environments).
Download and Installation Steps
- Download the installer or portable ZIP from the official source.
- If provided as an installer, run the setup and follow prompts. Choose portable mode if you prefer no system changes.
- Launch the application. If Windows prompts for administrator rights, grant them if you need to capture tooltips from elevated processes.
- Configure default save directory and export formats in Settings.
Initial Configuration
- Set capture mode (passive/manual/context).
- Assign hotkeys for quick capture and tagging.
- Configure filters to include or exclude applications, window classes, or text patterns.
- Choose default export format and encoding (UTF-8 recommended for multilingual text).
Using ToolTip Thief — Step by Step
- Start the application and choose your capture mode.
- If using passive mode, leave the tool running. When you hover over UI elements, the tool logs any tooltip text it detects.
- In manual mode, hover over the target element and press the capture hotkey or click the capture button.
- Review captured entries in the main list. Each entry commonly shows:
- Captured text
- Source application and window title
- Timestamp
- Control class or identifier (when available)
- Tag or comment entries to add context for translators, QA notes, or documentation guidance.
- Use search and filters to find specific strings or groups of entries.
- Export selected or all entries to CSV/JSON for handoff to localization teams or test suites.
Practical Use Cases
- Localization: Extract all tooltip text for translation without needing developers to manually collect strings.
- Documentation: Build user guides or help pages that include exact tooltip wording.
- QA and Accessibility Testing: Verify that tooltips are present, correctly worded, and appear for all controls (useful for verifying UI regressions).
- Automation: Feed captured strings into automated UI tests to assert expected tooltip content.
Example Workflow for Localization
- Run ToolTip Thief in the application under test, capturing tooltips as testers navigate the UI.
- Filter captures to the target application and export as CSV (UTF-8).
- Import CSV into a translation management system or spreadsheet.
- After translation, developers or testers re-run the app with the localized build and use ToolTip Thief to verify translations rendered correctly.
Troubleshooting
-
Tooltips Not Captured:
- Ensure ToolTip Thief has necessary permissions (try running as administrator).
- Some tooltips are drawn custom and not exposed via standard accessibility APIs; use screen-reading or OCR features if available.
- Check filters — the target application might be excluded.
-
Incorrect or Garbled Characters:
- Set export and display encoding to UTF-8.
- Verify system locale settings for legacy applications.
-
Performance Impact:
- Passive monitoring can increase CPU usage; switch to manual capture for heavy workloads.
- Limit capture to specific processes to reduce overhead.
Best Practices and Tips
- Use manual capture when auditing a small area to avoid large unwanted logs.
- Create filter presets per project or application to quickly switch contexts.
- Combine with accessibility tools (like UIA inspect) to capture control identifiers alongside tooltip text.
- Regularly export and archive captures — tooltips can change during development and you may need historical records.
Alternatives and Complementary Tools
- UI automation and accessibility inspectors (e.g., Microsoft Inspect, Accessibility Insights) — useful for capturing properties and control tree.
- OCR tools — for custom-drawn tooltips that don’t expose text programmatically.
- Localization extraction tools integrated into build pipelines for source-driven string extraction.
Summary
KaKeeware ToolTip Thief is a focused utility for capturing tooltip text from applications and saving it for localization, documentation, QA, and automation needs. Its main strengths are ease of capture, filtering/search, and export options. For the best results, combine ToolTip Thief with accessibility inspectors, configure filters, and choose the capture mode that matches your workflow.
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