Frustrated with KM and the KM Forum – Maybe I'm Missing Something

As I said, @noisneil has already solved it :clap:

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Nope - no exaggeration :slight_smile:

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Brilliant! Thank you

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@noisneil is one of the pros. And you're welcome, otherwise you'd probably still be wondering how to ask the question.

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"..., keeping its original file name extension."

While that last generally goes without saying, including it is a useful reminder to yourself when you come to write the macro that there is an extension (often forgotten, as it's hidden by default) and you need to do something about it rather than just use the subfolder name. You could hard-code it in the rename, but what if you change software? Future-proof your macro by getting the extension from the template and appending it during the rename.

You can rarely be too precise about the what's and why's -- it's the methods you need to take a step back from.

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Of course you know better, but I'm not sure if that's really true.

He made his wish clear with two lines and @noisneil understood it. He could also have written 200 lines. Would that have been better? Or would some not have read that at all?

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Absolutely. Getting bogged down in the how, before you firmly establish the what is a real problem.

There's a balance between too much information and too little.

A little too much info is better than a little too little... <pun intended>

As Michael alluded to earlier – I have often solved my own problem while breaking it into small enough organized steps to explain it to others in writing.

Such breakdowns have often given me ideas of what to search for in the Keyboard Maestro Editor, in the Keyboard Maestro Forum, in the Keyboard Maestro Wiki, and elsewhere.

After nearly 20 years of using Keyboard Maestro I can usually just start building a macro and move through a given task, but there are still times when design and complexity force me to be more formal in my process.

There are still times when I either don't know the requisite parts I need or my proficiency with them is low, and I have to do my research and test, test, test.

Now and then I still have to ask for help too.

:sunglasses:

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There's a difference between precision and verbosity -- I should, perhaps, have said "concisely precise". But the urging for precision is because there's often something that is so obvious to the poster that it isn't mentioned -- but is completely non-obvious to everyone else...

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OMG – isn't that the truth...

I can't tell you how many times I've recoiled from people's extremely poor descriptions of what they were trying to accomplish.

How many times have I spent significant time and effort solving the specific problem they requested to be solved – only to find out that they really wanted something entirely different – or that it was but a tiny piece of their puzzle – or that what they really wanted to do was easily solved by going in another direction.

What's really bad though (to me) is when that person doing the poor describing is me...

:wink:

I've had people ask me for more specificity and thought: "WTF! I already told them exactly what I needed – how could they be so dense..."

Then I went back and read my original posting and realized I definitely deserved my serving of crow.

It's made me continuously work to get better at all aspects of this game for several decades now.

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That would be the ideal case. But writing briefly and precisely is an art. Many can express themselves perfectly orally, but if they have to write it down and perhaps in the foreign language English ...

In this forum a lot seem to be educated above average. Nevertheless, not all here have a college degree, but still like to do something with KM. So the reason for inaccurate or deficient explanations does not necessarily have to be laziness or arrogance :slightly_smiling_face:

I know you are happy to help and I am sure everyone is happy to have your help. Since you are professionals you know exactly what to ask if something is not clear to you. So I take the liberty of thanking you all, on behalf of those who can't ask precise questions :pray: And remember, no one is forced to help. :smirk:

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I did not mention. Does it make any difference if folder and file on in a webdav mounted volume?

I don't know what that means, so maybe try it and see? :man_shrugging:t2:

For the first year the only Keyboard Maestro macros I used was a simple Check for Update for most of my apps using the apps menu selector.

I forget what it was that kicked my butt into finding out more how the app can work, and now over the last 7 years is the most important part of all my computer systems.

I think the best way to get started is just download a macro someone puts up here on the forum, look at how it's built, and tweak it as necessary. This will get you familiar with how macros are built and a place to experiment.

I've actually found this community to helpful if you have a specific issue you are trying to solve and upload your macro most of the time within the day an adjusted macro is posted for you to try.

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I find that when I write a question to the forum, 50% of the time the formulation of the question causes me to think about the problem differently and leads to a solution before I post the question. Sometimes five minutes after posing the question, which results in a crow sandwich for yours truly -- but I still solved the problem.

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Rubberducking!

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I've seen this too. I think it's a variation of what my late wife called the "Where's my ... HERE it is!" magic spell.

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I'm not a programmer (big surprise) so I've never heard of Rubberducking -- thanks for the link! Very interesting and useful.

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I agree. I try to lurk the forums every couple of days and borrow bits and pieces. From this forum I learn a lot not only about Keyboard Maestro but also AppleScript. I appreciate all the experts. Thanks!

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A few years ago I posted a bunch of AppleScripts and Macros I was using with Things 3 and about a year later one of our fourm experts tagged my original post as an example for someone who asked a question.

It was a big day for me, the first time I felt like I actually provided some help here after all the hours of help others have provided me.

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And on top of that:

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