I have several macros that clean a text according to what I need it to be clean. Example, one to replace all smart quotas by regular quotas, one to replace all smart apostrophes by regular apostrophes and so one. All these macros are called when I type !clean.
Because all them are triggered by !clean, Keyboard Maestro shows me a little black menu, like the one in the following picture.
This menu forces me to lift my hands off the keyboard and use the mouse to select an option.
It would be great if I could assign numbers, like 1, 2, 3, or 4 to the 4 items seen on the menu, so I could type 1 to select the first option, 2 for the second and so on.
Is that possible?
EDIT: I realized now that the grayed letters are what I need, so I need to rename the macros to 1 Clean Quotes, 2 Smart Apostrophe and so on.
Since you’ve already worked out the solution for yourself that’s great. But if you have a large number of these macros to rename you might want to look at @DanThomas utility macro that’ll help you out:
You don't need to lift your hands from the keyboard though! just hit the letters and then another palette will appear if there is still a conflict. For example your "Smart Apostrofe" will be triggered if you type the letters 'sa" from that conflict palette. It is how I do a lot of things. The triggers act so fast that now some are in muscle memory and I don't even realise there is a sequence of palettes. I do 'number' some of them though. Just add a number to the name in the editor.
I will add that nearly all my use of Keyboard Maestro is through palettes. The key sequences of some macros are now so automatic that I don't really 'see' the palettes as they arise. It feels just like typing a string really and being away from the mouse or trackpad really matters to me. I really would investigate the conflict palette for your needs, it will just be an extra letter from your typing point of view. It is amazing actually, way better than Apple shortcuts, which I never use.
