Thanks! That worked Christof.  I had thought  I could only get a bang once the panel was opened but I can see that trigger did what I guess it was designed for and could send out a bang when the read was completed.   Much appreciated.

If you control the patch, I don't see the problem. Just add a trigger
after the [read( message and do whatever you need to do.

On 28.10.2025 23:35, Jim Ruxton wrote:
> Thanks for clarifying this. I'm wondering if there is a work around 
> to know when the object has been updated. In my patch I have
>
> bang
>  |
> [openpanel]
> |
> [read $1(
> |
> [text define -k text-1]
>
>
>
> I would like to take an action when someone opens a new text file. Any
> thoughts how I can know when this happens. I was hoping the second
> outlet on the [text define] would accomplish that.
>
>     Hi,
>
>     "Second outlet notifies you when text changes. As of Pd 0.48 this
>     only
>     outputs the message "updated" when text changes, but this might be
>     extended to offer more information in the future."
>
>     This is indeed a bit vague. The "updated" message is sent when the
>     user
>     changes the text in the editor window and hits Ctrl/Cmd+S.
>
>     @porres to the rescue!
>
>     Christof
>
>     On 27.10.2025 23:12, Jim Ruxton wrote:
>     > I'm using the [text define] object . The help file states:
>     >  "Second outlet notifies you when text changes. As of Pd 0.48 this
>     > only outputs the message "updated" when text changes, but this
>     might
>     > be extended to offer more information in the future."
>     >
>     > I'm not seeing anything come out the second outlet when text
>     changes
>     > in the text define object. Is this a bug?  I'm using Pd 0.56.0
>     > (Linux/amd64 - single precision) . Actual object I'm using is
>     > [text define -k text-1] as in the help file.
>     >
>
>