Help creating macros in MS Excel and Square for first time Keyboard Maestro user

[mikewkemp]

Hey everyone,

I am brand new to Keyboard Maestro. A friend of mine recommended it to me as a way of increasing productivity by reducing frequently used repeatable actions into a single keystroke. Sounds good to me. After opening the program, finishing with the initial "get started" tutorial, and looking at some topics in the user guide, I realized I am in way over my head. I get the basic idea - create a trigger and assign it to perform certain actions. I guess I'm having a difficult time understanding the various actions and which actions will work for what I'm trying to accomplish. I am more of a hands-on learner so I'm hoping that if someone could help me create a macro or two, that will help me get off to a more confident start.

Here is one specific task I would like to program into a single step (this is something I do regularly in order to keep track of my wife's inventory for her jewelry business):

1. I import an image of an inventory item into a specific cell in Excel from the downloads folder (I give the image the temporary file name "1" so it shows up at the top of the downloads folder.)
2. I reformat the image size to 1”x1” to fit the cell size.
3. I reformat the image property to “move and size with cells” so that if/when I move the row, the pictures stays with it.

The next task I do is copy the information from her inventory into her Point of Sale app (currently Square) for each item. So from Square's dashboard the specific steps would be as follows:

1. Select the "Items" menu.
2. Click "Create an Item."
3. Copy & Paste the name of the item from Excel to Square in the "Name" field.
4. Copy & Paste the price from Excel to Square in the "Price" field.
5. Copy & Paste the SKU from Excel to Square in the "SKU" field.
6. Insert the same image from the downloads folder that I inserted into Excel. This steps include the following actions:
   a. Click on "Edit."
   b. Click on "Add Image."
   c. Select the image (titled "1") from the downloads folder.
   d. Click "Done."
   e. Click "Save."

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much in advance.

-Michael

[JMichaelTX]

@mikewkemp

Here is one specific task I would like to program into a single step (this is something I do regularly in order to keep track of my wife's inventory for her jewelry business):

1. I import an image of an inventory item into a specific cell in Excel from the downloads folder (I give the image the temporary file name "1" so it shows up at the top of the downloads folder.)
2. I reformat the image size to 1”x1” to fit the cell size.
3. I reformat the image property to “move and size with cells” so that if/when I move the row, the pictures stays with it.

KM does not have any Excel specific Actions, but it can easily use AppleScript.
So, you could write an AppleScript to perform those actions.

However, since all actions are within Excel, I would use Excel VBA.
You can easily get started by simply recording an Excel macro and do the steps manually you want to automate. Then edit the Excel macro to tweak and finalize.

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@mikewkemp

The next task I do is copy the information from her inventory into her Point of Sale app (currently Square) for each item

Your two tasks appear to be unrelated. So the best thing to do is to create a new KM forum topic for the second task. Please edit your post, cut the text about the second task, and post it in a new topic.