Hey @jipnet,
It sounds like you're playing with the security agent.
See this thread:
-Chris
Thanks again. Iâm now using control-j (as posted earlier); the problem is that the more macro keyboard shortcuts you need, the more you have to keep these in your head. I already use jj and other such things. I donât mind adding one more, but would have liked to be able to make this shortcut/trigger context-specific. No problem.
Two techniques to address that issue:
I make good use of both. If you'd like more info, click on the links and/or just ask.
Good ideas. Thanks.
Allow me the indulgence of a personal essay on this topic. In my many years of teaching and consulting I have found that people vary widely as to their taste and ability for memorizing keystrokes.
At the other extreme are the many people who mostly just use the mouse along with the standard well-known command-key shortcuts., as is the intention for WYSIWYG GUIs. One of the biggest differences among people is the extent to which they use the mouse or the keyboard for navigating among characters, words, lines, paragraphs, and pages, including selection and selection extension.
I am on the keystroke extreme: I have keystrokes bound to "activate application" for dozens of applications. I have many groups of macros bound to keystrokes that are only active for one application. I use keystrokes for editing, for automating, for file manipulation, window manipulation, and on and on. I know hundreds of Emacs keybindings, and many more that I know are there and can find with an "apropos" lookup. It is a wonder my hands haven't fallen off by now.
And I have been using a mouse since 1975. That is not a typo. I was at Xerox PARC when the Alto, the precursor to the Mac, was invented and used. So my preferences for keystrokes are not out of a lack of mousing fluency.
Of course KM is drug, wine, and food for me. I used to use QuicKeys, and a succession of similar utilities before that. I used Launcher and Butler (QuickSilver and Alfred were also options). KM is 10X more powerful, better designed, and complete then all the rest of those combined.
And remember, the ability to bind a key is just a small part of the game â being able to program your own tiny applications, automate frequent sequences of actions, write scripts, etc. opens up OS X and system and applications to however much effort you want to put into changing its behavior. People vary there too, from those who aren't at all interested to the extremes you see on this forum (or in my case, don't see because I don't post much of my own work). I will program and automate anything that has any kind of programmable interface. (I have written hundreds of macros for Emacs, my favorite programmable environment. I have automated MS junk with Visual Basic, ugh. And so on.)
Palettes are an excellent compromise, as suggested above â you get to script and automate anything you want, but give yourself a visual interface to it. Take a look at my palette for revealing Safari pages from a selected site.
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Also the Status Menu is very handy for not having to remember yet more hot keys - I use it for many of my less frequently used macros, and especially for generic âdo somethingâ style macros where a menu selection âfeels rightâ to me.
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Thanks for point that out, Peter. I also use the Status Menu a lot for this purpose.
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Iâve never tried the status menu, but will experiment with that next. So thereâs no way to restrict a macro to a context where you are being asked to log-in to your machine with a user id? (âFinderâ doesnât capture this.)
Fascinating. I donât have the time or patience to learn scripting, but I agree that keyboard shortcuts are a great way to go (I have several for use with Word and Acrobat Pro, and a few others for other situations.) If you have any other examples Iâd love to see them just to get an idea of what I might be missing out on. tx.
As a non-scripter/UI hacker hereâs some other options to not use your head to remember triggers:
KM has a âDisplay Textâ action that you can set to a trigger (hot key, status menu, etc.) and within the text window that is displayed you can save a list of your keyboard triggers and actions they evoke.
You could create a document in your preferred document app and have KM open that doc with a hot key or access it from KMâs status menu.
Apple says this Fallâs OS update (http://www.apple.com/macos/sierra-preview/) will include an option to pin docs in the âNotification Centerâ which would be a handy place to park such info.
The app âKeyCueâ which when activated (from yes another key combo to remember or use the menu icon at the top of the screen) can show several different lists of various available keyboard shortcuts (the shortcut must have a keyboard shortcut trigger for KeyCue to pick it up) including KM hot key triggers AND you can write in custom triggers that KeyCue doesnât pickup automatically.
One other kinesthetic option to access info is IF you use a trackpad along with the app âBetter Touch Toolâ you can set up an area of the trackpad which when tapped or clicked or swiped will trigger a shortcut which can be used to get some list to display.
DanThomas does a better job laying out KeyCue here: How Can I use the KM Action "Show Palette for one action"?
Have you tried the âTrigger Macro By Nameâ shortcut which is CONTROL+OPTION+COMMAND+âTâ and just start typing a word that thatâs relevant to the name?
You might also try the pallet option which I use more often which is to assign several macros to one keyboard shortcut then a palette will appear and you can choose the desired macro to run by letter. There is some control you have over it too by being more selective in how you name the macros.
Yes he does. I am going to have to try and be a little more careful when reading the "new posts" since they take you right to the post and sometimes I am not aware there's a thread above. Brain glitch.
Or: it merely confirms that this (yours and his) are a good response 
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Well then, @JMichaelTX gets credit since I learned about it from him. 
I think it's very powerful though because the more you type the narrower the list of choices gets making it very easy to hone in on a specific macro you are looking for. I need a sticky for shortcuts like this because I am still having to look it up just to use it. I gather I will have it memorized soon though.
Hi Tunes,
No I hadnât tried âTrigger Macro By Nameâ. Nice option! I did try evoking the conflict resolution palette and thatâs a simpler, nice option as well.
Thank you!