is there a way to do this? view contents of a text object by sending a pd message? like what happens when you click on [text define]

@youaresound By banging [text tolist my-text] you can output to a message.
But I think what you are looking for is to send the message [click( to the inlet of [text define]....
Then it will show it's contents as if you had actually clicked it.
Unfortunately undocumented and I only found it by trial and error......
You can close it again with the message [close( to its inlet.
David.

awesome. that works. thanks as always David.