I'm steadily adding more and more macros to my Cubase application (it's a digital audio workstation). It's AMAZING. Hands down it's made me twice as efficient already.
However, in the Keyboard Maestro application itself, things are starting to look a little busy/overwhelming. I'm approaching 100 macros, and I wondered whether it were possible to sort them into folders etc? I'd probably sort them by menu function (think File, Edit, Window etc etc).
Thanks for any help! Sorry if this has been asked loads, I couldn't find it on the forum.
Use Macro Groups -- while these Groups can be very functional, letting you control when the macros in them are active and so on, they can be used "just" for organisation.
Macro groups are key, as @Nige_S says.
Here is an example of how I have organized my numerous macros.
It is still a work in progress.
Groups I want at the top, enclosed in brackets. Some groups are based on which application the macros are active in. Some are for customers at my workplace. Lastly, I have event-based macros.
I have a lot, many of which are related to my work as a graphic designer and IT Manager. Some get used a lot, some not so much, and some I just need to clean up.
Groups—and setting rules for when and how they appear—struck me as important enough that I settled on a few "rules" for organization right off the bat (I'm relatively new to KM). Note I have caps lock remapped to ⌃⌥⌘.
Most macros go into groups named for the app they're associated with (i.e., "Drafts"):
These groups are only available in that specific app
Most of the macros have a unique hot key
All of the macros can also be triggered with ⌃⌥⌘Space which brings up a conflict palette
A macro palette for the group can be triggered with ⌃⌥⇧⌘Space
Most of them also appear on the global macro palette
Any macros that are app-specific but can be triggered from anywhere go into a group named for the app they're associated with followed by "(Global)" (i.e., "Music (Global)"):
These groups are only available when that app is running
All of the macros have a unique hot key
All of them also appear on the global macro palette
Finally there are miscellaneous groups that are only active if an app hasn't been launched yet and for text expansions. Global macros that aren't app-specific (like clipboard operations) go in the Global Macro Group.
The reasoning behind this is there are apps I use at work that I would never allow on my personal computer and vise versa and I don't want those macros cluttering up my palettes or causing error notifications if I accidentally trigger them.
Do you set this up by making ⌃⌥⇧⌘Space a hotkey trigger for each macro, or do you set it up at the Macro Group level? (Presumably Activate for one action when?)
I've never considered doing it this way, but I'd often forget app specific short keys and usually use a 'search macro' macro I have instead.
⌃⌥⇧⌘Space is set at the group level with the "Always activated and shows/hides a palette when:" option is selected. This way I can have an app-specific palette that stays open until I toggle it back off.
⌃⌥⌘Space is set for most (I realize I said "all" above, but that's no longer true) macros within the group, and brings up the conflict palette. This way I can have an app-specific palette that only stays open for a single action (for when I forget or haven't set specific hot keys for all of that app's macros).
It jumped out at me as one I couldn't at least guess the usage of based on the name.
