Hi KM Friends (and especially any college teachers!)
After writing feedback comments in a word doc for a student, my dream is to save the file with their name, then upload it to the course gradebook where there's a place you can either drag & drop or search for it with a browse button. I've gotten as far as typing keystroke ⌘⇧A (Alert the media!). But then what? In Textexpander I would create a fill-in snippet followed by some boiler plate text for the rest of the file name such as "comments on paper 1." I'm guessing it has to do with "Prompt for user input" but I'm confused by the variable default value and buttons. And after that, there's toggling over to the website and telling KM to upload the file to the correct place. There's lots I'd like to automate about using that site, so any advice about what sorts of actions need to be in combination would help me learn some basics that are beyond my grasp. If it's of any help, the website is a course management system based on Canvas. Thanks much!
We love to help people here. But your case is a tough one because you have lots of broad questions without much specificity. KM is great at automating keystrokes and mouse clicks. If you can write down an approximate sequence of keystrokes and mouse clicks, then most likely I could help you. That's especially true if some of your requirements include software that we/I don't have (eg, "Textexpander") so it's difficult to write code for something we can't see. But you could make it possible for us to help you by documenting exactly what you do.
For example.
- I open a browser. A visit website "abcdef.com"
- I look for a button called "Open File". I click on it.
- etc. etc.
That's fair! I think what I thought were these details got buried by my bigger question. So let me try again: once I'm on the Canvas-type website, I'm looking for a way to get upload the word doc that I've just renamed. What action tells KM to go to the place where I either drag and drop or upload this file?
Thanks!
Dragging and dropping can be done with the Move Mouse action in KM. Calling up an address in a browser can be done with the Set Safari URL action. Pressing a key can be done with the Type Key action or also by the Insert Text by Pasting action. That's how keys and mice are controlled by KM. Then you will also need IF statements with conditions like "If an image is visible on the screen." Everyone is encouraged to give these macros a try and if you need help we can help you.
I'm happy to either start from the bottom up (tell you how the actions work, and let you build them into a macro) or help you from the top down (you advise me what the big pictures is, and answer my questions about the big picture, and I'll work my way down to the details and write the code for you.) Which of these two options appeals most to you?
@Sleepy You're so kind! Since I need to break it down into steps , let me start with that. I'm in a word.doc having just completed my comments. Firefox is open to the page where I need everything to happen, but it's not in front. So then I'd:
• paste keystroke: ⌘⇧S (save as) and in the box that pops up I'd want a way to fill the name of the student followed by "Paper 1 comments" as the name of the new file.
• switch to where the file is saved in Finder
• copy the file
• switch to the Firefox page I have open
• go to the drag and drop file window (it also has an option for searching for the file if that's easier)
• dropping or pasting the file
• hitting the "save" button
• returning to the list of other student papers on finder so I can read, comment, and repeat the process.
Does this make sense? If you show me how it might be done, I think I could learn a lot from your example!
Thanks with many pixels,
-P
Now we're getting somewhere. Let me read that over carefully. bear in mind you use Firefox and MS Word, and I don't have those, so you're going to have to assist, perhaps by answering some of my questions.
No problem. I can also try Safari if that's better. The Word piece isn't changeable though, much to my disgust. 
I will insert some of the actions that you say you need, below. But there are still big pieces missing so I can't write a complete program yet. For example, between the first two actions you may need a Pause Until action. I can't test what you need because I don't have Word. Also, you are using Firefox. (EDIT: you said you could switch that.) I'm not sure if KM actions are as effective with Firefox as with Safari. Anything can be solved, but sometimes it's easier with certain apps. KM has built-in support for Safari and Chrome.
I have inserted some of the actions you will need to solve your problem, below. But as I said there are big pieces missing and that's because I can't see your screen so I can't write the code to tell KM "where to click".
These are some of the pieces of the puzzle. At this point I can't solve the whole puzzle because I can't see the apps or the websites. Some of the actions may require things like taking a screenshot of an image on a website and saying "click there". But I can't see the details yet so I can't fill in all the pieces.
Another (optional) way to proceed is for you to make a video using the built-in macOS video recording feature and upload a clip of the process to Youtube where we can see it. That will allow me to understand what you are doing much better. This can be quite helpful because quite often people ask for specific techniques and those techniques are not always the best techniques. If we can see the big picture we can more readily help you find the right technique. In my experience half the time people are asking for specific solutions and they don't realize there is a better solution.
EDIT: I know this is a pretty lame bit of code but it's the best I could provide given the limited information thus far. And time for lunch.
Thanks so much, and in time for lunch too!
I'm going to have to get back to this in a few days -- I ran into a snag trying to edit the screen recording (there are confidentiality issues), and I don't have the bandwidth to sort it out right now -- it became one of those doors leading to doors leading to doors things. Thanks though, and I will be back!
Just to clarify: my issues with confidentiality and bandwidth have nothing to do with responses to my post -- it's having to deal with restrictions on the webpage I'm trying to engage with and my own lack of time to produce a video recording of what I'm trying to do. I love the KM forum and the help I get here!