Good to know Peter. Was not aware of the “revert”.
Could I please add my name to this list if you’re willing to share. New to KeyboardMaestro and your list seems too enticing to resist.
Bolli
@JMichaelTX - I really like this idea, and I did rely heavily on Peter’s example macros to get started with KM and found them very useful. Likewise the email drip campaign after I purchased KM.
I wonder if breaking up this “best of” list into a “Getting started/Intermediate/Expert/Going Completely Nuts” type grouping would be useful. Extend the existing walk through with more examples.
2 Likes
I agree.
Hey John,
Okay. I've finally cleaned these up for public consumption.
Note – Some macros require support files which are iincluded in the zip file.
- PDF address book file (included).
- Text address book file (included).
- AppleScript for resizing the name column in the Finder (included).
pdftotextUnix executable (download links included – get the precompiled binaries for the Mac)
Example Macros by ccs.zip (90.0 KB)
-Chris
The following Macros are included
ACME Telephone Number Look-Up v1.0
ACME Telephone Number Look-Up v1.1
Add Prefix to Text on Clipboard
Finder → Rename and Sequentially Number Selected Items
Finder → Resize Name Column using System Events
Finder-Selection → Display Paths in a Window
Finder-Selection → Set Tags of Selected Items to Red
Folder Watcher
Generate and Paste Email Salutation
Get Most Recent File Added to the Documents Folder
Lookup Email Address v0.01
Lookup Email Address v0.02
mdls → Meta-Data Report → Display in TextEdit
nvALT → Create New Note with Tags
Paste as Plain Text
Safari Page Text to TextWrangler
Safari Text to TextWrangler with Processing
Sentence Case
Take NVAlt Note
Test → If All Conditions Are Met
Test → Text-Matches
Title Case → Selected Text
Toggle ~Library Folder Visibility
User Input Creates Collection of Folders
2 Likes
Hi Chris,
Thanks for taking the time. Should I use "Import Macros" or "Import To Macro Libarary"?
I have not run into Xpdf but am intrigued!
Also to install Xpdf I assume I need to: make install?
I see there's an installer for the 64bit version but it's 3.03. Thanks for providing the link as well to the 3.04 download.
-J
Hey John,
Just double-click the Example Macros by ccs.kmmacros file, and it will import into its own group.
There are nine useful tools, but the one I use most often is pdftotext.
It's a fantastic little tool, and it's the only such tool I know of that will attempt to preserve the layout of a PDF when it converts it (which makes parsing the resulting text much easier most of the time).
The basic syntax for pdftotext is:
pdftotext -layout <path> -
Replace <path> with the path to your file.
Quote the path with double or single quotes if it has ANY spaces in it.
The trailing dash is required if you want your output to go to the console – otherwise a new file will be written.
No. Read the INSTALL file in your favorite text editor and follow its instructions.
The xpdfbin 3.04 precompiled binaries are here:
ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdfbin-mac-3.04.tar.gz
The /user/local/… directories are invisible in the Finder.
Use ⇧⌘G in a Finder window to bring up the Go-To-Folder sheet.
Paste in the path you want to go to.
Hit the Go button.
And the correct directory will open in the Finder window.
-Chris
1 Like
Thanks for the details Chris. I did find the correct directories but what stopped me when I first took a look at this was that I don't have an /usr/local/man/ directory. I am on 10.11.5 so the MAN path was perplexing and I think I have it figured out. I am posting this so if someone else has problems they will know what to do.
I googled and found I could find out the path to any MAN (manual) document by typing:
MAN COMMAND --path
So for example to find the path to the man page for the MacOS MANual I can type:
man man --path
Which returns:
/usr/share/man/man1/man.1
So I dropped the man files in the /usr/share/man/man1 and /usr/share/man/man5 directories and tested it. Worked!
I was really pleased with how it handles displaying some invoices I fed to it using the 'layout' option you suggested.
I took a look at your macros and was delighted to find two for nvALT which is a favorite of mine. I use it for everything. I see you have a tag of scratchx which I am guessing is scratch pad? I am not really using tags too much with nvALT but maybe I will. Thanks for some great stuff. It's going to take me a little time to get through all these and truly understand how they work but they are great.
J.
Hey John,
Better to put them where the dev says to put them – outside of the normal user-paths.
I may have had to create that directory, but I don't remember any more.
Aside from the xpdf stuff the only thing currently in there on my system is the interarchy command-line tool.
But it all works fine.
Yes – this is why it's superior to all other tools I've tried to date.
I wrote that macro for someone else, and “scratchx” was their specified tag name.
-Chris
I definitely needed "Move Selected Files to Desktop" as an example. I've been looking everywhere to find a way to manually move receipts to various quarterly folders and spent considerable time today trying to figure it out. This came in my email today! Thanks so much!
1 Like
Does anyone remember the “Put Away” command from OS 9.x days?
I will have to look at the Move Selected Files To Desktop action. I might actually be able to keep my desktop clean for once. 
Hi ccstone,
could you please be so kind to tell me where to find your example group for download?
Especially I’m interested in “Shell: Echo to Floating Window” to find out how to target a system floating window.
Thanks a lot in advance
LarryLayouter
Thanks Dan,
sorry, seems I clicked the wrong reply button?…?
LOL. No, it means I should pay more attention when reading posts. I overlooked the (incredibly obvious) fact that you replied to him.
I've really got to stop doing things like this. The last few days, I've been misreading posts like crazy.
Sorry about that! 
never mind … the funny thing is that your reply was the first one I ever got to my questions in this forum so far
1 Like
See this post from above:
Larry,
See below. I copied this from @JMichaelTX's post because he was replying to @ccstone.
Here's the link to the files:
https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/ec173b0026e1ea68912b456e733a849bdfa5d3c9.zip
See @JMichaelTX's post (Just above mine for the details).
Hey Larry,
Not so. 
Macro “Select or show a menu item” + key pressed…
I reckon you saw JM's pointer to the archive, so I won't repeat it.
That macro doesn't target a floating window. It outputs text from an Execute a Shell Script action to a Keyboard Maestro floating window.
If you want to target an OSX floating window you'll probably need to use AppleScript and System Events.
Tell me specifically what floating window you're trying to interact with, and I'll try to help.
-Chris