The geek in me thinks this is amazing and wants it right now. The graphic designer in me can't really think what I would use it for.
So, fellow designers, are you using Keyboard Maestro and what are you using it to do?
One thing I could think of was batch triggering pre-press and outlining text of PDFs.
The only other thing was somehow using this to bypass an issue I'm having with google drive. Long story short, the desktop app isn't working so I need to manually upload everything via the web app. Feel like there would be no way of setting this up to know where specific files specifically needed to go within the 100s of folders across the 2 drive accounts I'm using, even if I could schedule some sort of workflow to take anything I'd saved throughout the day and put it on the drive via the web app.
I only recently started using Keyboard Maestro and I haven't been using InDesign much lately (once I have more print projects in the queue, I can think of a bunch of things I want to automate), but I created one right off the bat to run "Fill Frame Proportionally" and "Fit Frame to Content" (Fill Frame, Fit Frame) in succession, and another to run "Fit Content Proportionally" and "Fit Frame to Content" (Fit Content, Fit Frame) in succession:
I also created a couple that run Photoshop droplets on the current selection in Finder, and one that takes every subdirectory in a specific folder and generates a source set images based on how large the original image is. Most of the work for this one is done by Photoshop's built-in scripting since I wrote the original 5 or 6 years ago—it's just more convenient to trigger it using KM.
I use Keyboard Maestro with InDesign, Illustrator and Acrobat.
InDesign
Export pdfs with different settings.
Package files and zip them afterwards.
Run JavaScripts. Sometimes with automation which writes the JavaScript first. It contains Keyboard Maestro variables which has been picked up in another program.
Insert current selection from Word in InDesign.
Illustrator
Running automation to copy currently selected text. Wait for me to select and object. Move object to layer named the previously selected text.
Acrobat
Various shortcuts when preparing PDF-files to adhere to the PDF-UA/WCAG standard.
The main thing I want KM to do is replicate items over my page. To explain. I design business cards on a 55x89mm page size. Once the design is complete, I change the page size to SRA3, then select my business card image, move it to the top left of the page, replicate it across to the right, then repeat this using alt cmd U & return (it used to be simpler). Then I group the three items, replicate them DOWN the page once, then use the above keys to replicate the grouped set, all the way down until I've filled the page with 24 business cards.
This is very tedious and time consuming. I have made several failed attempts at this, and have ALMOST got a macro to do this, but it doesn't seem to want to copy the items in an exact straight line horizontally, but offsets them a fraction - so not sure what I'm doing wrong, any help would be appreciated.
Difficult to say without seeing your macro or knowing what software you are using.
You'll find instructions on how to post a macro here: How to Post/Upload Your Macro to the Forum. Start a new thread so it gets maximum exposure! And include a note of your macOS version plus the name and version of the graphics app, so people can try and replicate the problem.
Hi Nige_S, I shared the macro and sent it to the forum, but I don't know where it went, I'm just getting familiar with the forum. I thought there might have been a way to send it to you on here, but the only button available was [CREATE NEW POST]
I'll try sharing it to my desktop and then see if I can post it on here.
The software I'm using is Indesign CC on my iMac retina 5K with OS Sonoma, if any of that helps.
Thanks for your interest in my attempted Macro, Jimmy. It's much appreciated, but I've now cracked it (partially) - it was just a case of inserting pauses between everything - KM was too fast for InDesign.
There's another wee glitch (I've managed a workaround for it at the moment) but when I replicate the items across and / or down the page, the always seem to offset by a couple of mm. Don't know if this is the macro that's doing it, or if the replicate tool of InDesign does that itself. At the moment, I just select all and then align them to the top or left margin, before proceeding to the next stage. Sooner or later, I'll figure it out. But thanks for attempting to help.