Click a Button from a list of possible names

I'm trying to build a macro that will click the button that means "don't save" when closing an unsaved document in any app. The problem is, different apps have different names for the button, including:

  • Don't Save
  • No
  • Delete
  • Revert Changes

and so on.

At first, I just augmented a simple script with if/then/else hard-coded with the various button names. However, I keep running into new variants.

Is there a way I could define a list of button names, have KM check for a button name on the list, and click the named button KM finds? That way when I find another name in the future, I can just add another name to the list, instead of building another branch in the if/then/else tree?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Yes. You can use a RegEx pattern for the Button Name, which will actually be your list of names.

Here's an example macro that works with TextEdit:

MACRO:   Click on Any Button with Name in List [Example]

**Requires: KM 8.2.4+   macOS 10.11 (El Capitan)+**
(Macro was written & tested using KM 9.0+ on macOS 10.14.5 (Mojave))

#### DOWNLOAD Macro File:
<a class="attachment" href="/uploads/default/original/3X/f/8/f80e3a76e831daa7009f98717ff0172cf55eb1d6.kmmacros">Click on Any Button with Name in List [Example].kmmacros</a>
**Note: This Macro was uploaded in a DISABLED state. You must enable before it can be triggered.**


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<img src="/uploads/default/original/3X/9/f/9f91356542cd7798b02790052f4aa38eb16cc424.png" width="580" height="696">

Does this work for you?
1 Like

YES. Wonderful. Thanks for that.

Solves the problem and opens my mind to even more possibilities.

1 Like

This works very nicely, and I just used it to build a similar macro for a changing menu name.

Forgive my ignorance, how does it work exactly? I get that the regex is replacing the with a |, but I don't understand how the Press A Button/Choose A Menu responds to

Don't Save|No

differently than

Don't Save
No

The secret is in the RegEx alternate metadata. So what the Press Buttom Action sees is this:
^Don't Save|No|Delete|Revert Changes

which tells it to match a Button Name with ANY of the names shown between the alternation symbol |.

Make sense?

Yes! And thanks for the link.