after some more investigating, i found that the reason i have a second application process named »keynote« is because stream deck creates it when starting up. this is a really stupid situation, and i will write to elgato about it, maybe they can do something about it, so that the application process name in applescript is NOT identical to the legitimate process. i had quite the extensive (and somewhat productive) dialog with my self (more of a monologue then)... i'll leave it here in case anybody ever has the same problem and is looking for a solution.

well, what would you know, i solved this myself! it turns out, keynote starts not one but TWO application processes, both named »keynote«. the first process has no menu bar, i suspect it is there for presenting; the second process though has the menu bar and can be addressed properly. the script from my original post (as corrected in the first comment) works well, if it is written like this: tell application "System Events" set goodK to id of second application process whose name is "Keynote" tell application process id goodK return entire contents of menu bar end tell end tell so far, the SECOND process was always the 'good' process 🤷

sorry, i copied the wrong script in my original posting, but i can't find a way to edit it... here is the correct one: tell application "System Events" tell process "Keynote" return entire contents of menu bar 1 end tell end tell