I would like to have a shortcut that allows me to automatically show a certain folder when I'm saving a new file. Basically:
I'm working on a Photoshop file, for example. I hit SAVE. The Save window pops up. I use a keyboard shortcut and it automatically sets a certain folder as my destination, instead of me going through folders and subfolders.
For certain things I have the sidebar with those folders, because I need to move files to them sometimes, but I don't want to have a crowded sidebar and I also want to avoid scrolling up and down to find the destination. A shortcut would be awesome!
There are several threads already about this. Basically you get Keyboard Maestro to make use of the inbuilt Mac Shortcut ⇧⌘G in the Save As Dialog, which brings up a dialog that lets you insert the path to the folder you want. Keyboard Maestro types in the predefined path and you are taken to your folder.
My take on this is to also have the Macro check to see whether you are in a Save As Dialog or somewhere else, such as the Finder, meaning I can use the same shortcut to take me to the folder whatever I am doing.
(You need to have these Macros in a Group that is available to All Applications.)
At first I tried to have a unique shortcut for each folder. For example ⌃⌥⌘G for a folder called "Graphics", ⌃⌥⌘D for "Desktop" etc. But I quickly ran out of obvious letters. Then I realised it was fine to use the same shortcut for more than one folder as Keyboard Maestro has this really good feature called the Conflict Palette. So, if I use ⌃⌥⌘D for "Desktop" and for a folder called "Downloads" hitting ⌥⌘D causes this to pop up:
And I simply click on the Folder I want to go to. (Or in the above example type e or o)
And... whilst on the Conflict Palette... if you name a Macro with ↩ (the return symbol) at the front of its name or a "space" at the front of its name hitting Return or Space will open those Macros from the Conflict Palette. In other words, that way you can set a Default/Favorite.
I actually had problems with using ⇧⌘G. Navigation would hang and the macro would fail. You don't actually need it if you're using the typing action and your path begins with ~ or /. By all means use it, but if you run into trouble like I did, you have an alternative to try.
Weirdly enough just using ~ or / doesn't work anymore in Mac OS Monterey. Apple must have changed something. Even the Dialog that pops up is different. But ⇧⌘G does work in Monterey.
Thank you so much for your detailed reply! Can't wait to try it myself!
I just started using KM, so I'm sorry for still not being aware of all the threads on certain topics, but I will start doing my research as I can see this to be such a great tool and that will not only save me time, but allow me to feel more productive in terms of "mental sanity" haha
I've been using BetterTouchTool for a while (even though I'm not an expert), but that also has that "conflict" feature you mentioned. When I have more than one trigger with the same keyboard shortcut, I get to decide which one I pick.
Besides this forum, would you recommend any YouTube channel with great tips to learn KM? I'm ok with reading, but video is always that media type that can help understand everything a little bit better (when the creator is good enough on creating the content, of course).
Once again, I really appreciate your reply and precious help!
Thank you for the extra tip.
I just started exploring KM 2 days ago, so all this information is all very new to me.
Do you mind explaining what you mean with the workflow using the ~ or /?
Wouldn't all folders have a path that has one of those anyway?
Thanks!
@Zabobon -- the "/ or ~" trick still works for me in Monterey. I get the dialog you show (basically they've added an autocomplete list to the old version) but I can carry on typing to get where I want.
Don't forget that ⌘D will take you to your Desktop anyway, no need for a KM macro and one less conflict to worry about!
In any file dialog window (save/open, etc) hit ~ or / and you should see a path field appear, as though you had hit ⇧⌘G. I say "should" because @Zabobon seems to have a different experience.
Sidenote: I was wondering only yesterday how Default Folder X manages to immediately jump to paths (via shortcuts). Would be a handy thing to know, as I still have issues, even with ~ and /.
The macro A Few Favorites Macro can be called from any file dialog to list your favorite destination folders. It works much like the manual approach described above but saves you the trouble of typing the whole path.
It also handles favorite files, apps, URLs and email addresses.
Yes, it's odd. I thought it was Monterey but apparently not. Whatever - the ~ or / doesn't work for me when it's in a Macro. It seems to mess up the Save As name of the file (for me). Anyway, good thing is that either ~/ or ⇧⌘G should work for everyone.
I wish that were the case. I'd say both options fail about 40% of the time for me. I'm not sure if it's the way KM pauses, but I noticed when I was automating type-to-Siri that Siri's animation glitched and crawled onto the screen when called as part of a macro, and I have a feeling it's something to do with the pauses. Having said all that, I haven't heard of anyone else struggling so much with it, so maybe something's going on with my system. Just one more reason to do a clean install next time I upgrade my MBP!
15 years later since my first Mac, I'm still learning these hidden gems! Thank you so much for sharing that.
One thing I would love it was possible (if not already...) was for example if we hit a key and instead of the Go To Folder, we could start typing the name of a folder and it would show a list of possible choices, just like a Spotlight, but for folders. And then after a while, the most used ones would be at the top, so the OS would learn the folders you use the most.
But I'm loving KM so far and I'm only scratching the surface. Can't wait to start creating more complex and useful macros!
I think I just created a reply that mentions exactly this behavior (or at least it seems similar enough). I have to read your post there, because it seems very complex and as new user of KM, it's all very confusing, still.
On my reply what I mentioned was that it would be great if we could hit, for example, a key (let's say [ for example) and instead of the Go to Folder, we could start typing the name of a folder and just like Spotlight finds files and apps, we would see folders so we could pick the one we want to save our document to. And over time, the macOS would learn which folders we use the most and would start adding them to the top of the list.
It seems, from the quick glance at your post, that your macro works by you adding the favorites, correct?
Either way, I can see how helpful that will be. And I noticed that you can style the boxes using HMTL and CSS, right? If so, I'm quite comfortable with both and I can see how this will become part of my own project haha
He's a lovely guy isn't he. I emailed him to ask if AppTamer could stop runaway processes (pkd and lsd in my case) and within the day he'd written a function into the app and released an incremental update. Can't beat that!
You create lists of favorites for each kind of thing in text files. It's not the Favorites folder, just to be clear. A trigger also adds a selection to the appropriate file to make it easier to build your lists.
And there are two interfaces. One is the HTML/CSS interface and the other is a popup menu that behaves exactly as you describe (hit a key, start typing a name).
Yes, when I said "favorites" I was referring to a list of favorites, not the Favorites folder.
I will take a look at all of this tomorrow, then.
Thanks again for your help!
Hi @noisneil - Monterey no longer brings up a dialog with buttons when you press ⇧⌘G but in previous versions of macOS which do, I found that "pausing until a button named Go exists" worked better than a timed pause. Just a thought.
