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

I fell into that myself just a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to change some formatting values in an RTF file from TextEdit. My first version used Execute Shell Script to run the SED stream editor on the file. When I asked a question, I found out about using Search and Replace in File using Regular Expressions, to do exactly what I wanted with KBM taking care of all the housekeeping instead of me doing it in my shell script just to be able to use SED to do the search and replace.

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Humans (maybe all vertebrates ?) seem to be wired to zoom in more than they step back ...

Zooming in comes naturally,
stepping back takes practice.

( worth practicing though, helps us stay out of traps :slight_smile: )

Actually, the matter is quite simple. KM is the project of its developer. He works alone and develops what he wants, when he wants. He is allowed to do that and has never made a secret of the fact that he will continue to do it that way in the future. Nobody is forced to buy or use KM. And no one has a right to fully understand KM, to get a solution for every problem, or to be served a manual "Γ  la carte". If there were ten other apps that could do what KM does, you could switch to another product that might offer what some users want. But guess what? Those apps don't exist. :joy:

So what is to be done? Take it as it is! If you can't do something yourself, don't be afraid to just ask. There are no stupid questions. There are only frustrated user who don't dare to ask what they don't know. I could list ten people who are very patient, knowledgeable and friendly in helping everyone. Of course, there is no right to get help here either. Just as no one is forced to help. But if you are reasonably communicative, can write some English and know how to behave, in my experience you will always get help in the KM forum.

So guys, relax, accept the help of others and enjoy what KM has to offer. :man_shrugging: :grinning:

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I agree it can feel overwhelming at times, but keep going, it’s a good app and very useful.

My suggestion: I’d start small and simple, automate little things here and there.

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I bought the Keyboard Maestro Field Guide shortly after buying KM. My experience was it helped me flatten the learning curve somewhat at the beginning and I felt like I was able to follow some of the examples and make KM useful initially. Now I use the WIKI and forum for the answer to all my questions.

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Well, THANK ALL OF YOU who responded.

I was sort of at the ends of my rope when I wrote that post.

One thing I have to admit is I thought the KM forum and Wiki were one in the same. I KNEW I was missing something big. There was so much additional helpful information in the post I am bookmarking it for eternal reference.

I will also buy the manuals that were mention to get a kick start in KM. I'm a big reader, so seeing it and referring back to it on a page is how I learn new things. I just KNEW somewhere somehow someone wrote down the basis in a manual.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this post, there are a lot of useful tips and resources to get into.

I also want to note that Peter Lewis has been VERY helpful, every time I posted a question. I was in no way criticizing his app development skills or his ability to run the forum.

I think the app and the forum are great my criticism was about the layout of the forum and vast amount of content, and how easy it was FOR ME to get lost in everything before finding an answer to my original question.

I think the WIKI and in app HELP articles PLUS all the other suggestions you've all made have boosted my KM confidence level to a whole new level.

THANKS for pointing out the big things I was missing in a friendly way.

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Another tip: anytime you get stuck when trying to do something and it’s taking more than 30 minutes to do, I’d suggest instead to post a question in the forum.

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Totally get it. Sometimes I struggle to formulate the question. In a part becuase I already have in my head one way of tackling the problem whereas there is a much simpler solution that I don't even know about.

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@michael_gilbert Don't think too much. :slightly_smiling_face:

Ask yourself: What do I want to achieve? Then write it down. The shorter the better.

The pros here are more than smart enough to understand you. And if they really don't understand you, they'll ask. Don't worry about it. :smirk:

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Cheers Frank. Am discovering as well that the more I understand my own question the easier it gets.

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What can be complicated is the solution. Sometimes it's not the solution itself, but more the ability to see it.

What should be simple, on the other hand, is to describe what you want. "I want this to happen, in this situation, when I do that."

What I mean is, explain the goal. The way to the goal is shown to you by pros. Anyway, that's how I see it. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Like this? "Whenever a new subfolderB is created in FolderA I want a template fileC in FolderA to be copied into subfolderB and renamed with name of subfolderB."

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Haha, you're exaggerating on purpose. But yes, exactly in this manner.

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Assuming that's something you actually want to do:

Copy File to New SubFolder at Path.kmmacros (23 KB)

Macro screenshot

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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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