Help! (Finale) Macros Will Not Trigger

[Joseph_Williams]

Thanks Zab,

Here is a macro image & one of the enabled macros as well.

I've wondered if the macros could somehow be the problem? But I figured since, (as far as I've been able to determine), these are the same macros Finale users have utilized for 2 or 3 years—since Finale v.25 (which I use)—that I'd think they should work for me. (Ultimately, I've been unable to find anything pointing to or announcing changes or updates to the 487 KM plug-ins for Finale.)

To Review:
• I've tried to set up & use HotKeys on these Finale KM macros, to no avail...
• I was able to set up & successfully trigger an "About Finale" macro as you suggested, using a HotKey.
• Non-Finale macros work fine. But the only way I've been able to trigger KM "Finale" macros, is by following the menu path seen in the action pane & manually re-selecting the JetStream Finale Controller (which resides specifically in the JW Lua plug-in suite). Then, if I click the Try (or Run) button twice, & then click the Finale window in the background, the 4-digit macro code is entered & the macro successfully fires. However, I've been unable to get anything to happen with Finale directly in the foreground. Of course, this is all too cumbersome for practical use.

BTW, ultimately, I'd like to use the Elgato Streamdeck, also recently bought for use in my work with Finale. It will fire non-KM Finale plug-ins & tool selections, but nothing happens with the KM macros, and this is the case whether I've tried using the "original" KM plug-in for the Elgato, or the newer & highly touted KM Link plug-in.

Thanks again for wading through all this! Hopefully, someone will be able to wrap their mind around & solve the problem. Here's both an Image of and an actual KM Finale macro itself...

0020 Dynamics ⇤ sfz.kmmacros (46.1 KB)

[Zabobon]

Great. I think I see the problem.

You have not set a hot key - you have set a typed string trigger.

A typed string trigger has to be typed into a text field... [EDIT @ccstone has corrected my on this - see post below] ... It is usually used to fire Macros where you want to replace a short bit of text with a longer piece of text.

Change the typed string trigger to a hot key trigger and I suspect the Macro will launch in Finale.

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/Triggers#dokuwiki__content

[ccstone]

@Zabobon

A typed string trigger has to be typed into a text field.

Not so.

But – typed string triggers not used in this way can be problematic and have unintended consequences...

[Zabobon]

@ccstone

@Zabobon

A typed string trigger has to be typed into a text field.

Not so.

But – typed string triggers not used in this way can be problematic and have unintended consequences...

Thanks @ccstone - I never realised it was even possible to use a Typed String Trigger when not actually typing some visible text.

@Joseph_Williams - Hopefully changing from a Typed String Trigger to a Hot Key will launch your Macro. If it does and you have lots of these Macros for Finale, you might be worried how you could remember lots of different hot keys. A good solution to that is to make use of Keyboard Maestro’s Palettes so you can see your list of Finale Macros when in Finale. But that is jumping ahead…

[Zabobon]

@Zabobon

Change the typed string trigger to a hot key trigger and I suspect the Macro will launch in Finale.

If this still doesn't work - i.e. setting a hot key instead of typed string trigger still doesn't have the Macro do anything in Finale... the problem could be with this action:

For this Action to do anything, that exact menu item must exist in your copy of Finale.

You can test for that in the same way you made the "About Finale" test Macro that worked. Click on the gear menu on the right of the Action and Navigate to that Menu Item in Finale:

If you don't have exactly the same Menu Item and path to it in your copy of Finale, this Action won't do anything.

[Joseph_Williams]

Thanks Zabobon,

I've tried editing the macros with hotkeys repeatedly and have also checked & rechecked the menu path as you suggested. Neither has had any effect. I can't imagine what would be defusing this as the core developer's who have made these KM Finale macros available say that they are compatible with both my OS & Finale v.25

[Zabobon]

@Joseph_Williams

I've tried editing the macros with hotkeys repeatedly and have also checked & rechecked the menu path as you suggested. Neither has had any effect.

Okay. Here's another way to check what's going on. I've re-uploaded your Macro here with some debugging steps added in. Basically it steps through the same Macro you uploaded until one of the steps fails. If you download the file and double-cllick it, it will be added to your Keyboard Maestro Library. The Group and Macro itself might come in disabled so, you need to check each one is enabled:

This in the Group:

And this in the Macro itself:

Run this Macro from within Finale, by pressing the hot key ⌃⌥⌘D (or set the hot key to something else).

A User Prompt will pop up as each stage of your original Macro completes. Press OK to go to the next step.

If the Macro fails at a certain point a User Prompt will tell you like this:

From running this we should at least know at what point the Macro is failing.

Let me know what the result is! And Happy New Year by the way!

0020 Dynamics BASIC DEBUG.kmmacros (57.0 KB)

Screenshot of DEBUG Macro

[Joseph_Williams]

Hi Zababon,

I installed, then enabled both the group & macro & tried triggering the hotkey you programmed with Finale as the front application. Nothing at all happens. I then tried to test using the "Try" button in KM and a window pops up saying that Finale is not the frontmost application. (Also, nothing happed when trying to trigger using the Elgato Stream Deck.)

*The simple "About Finale" test macro still triggers fine within Finale as well as from the Stream Deck.

[Zabobon]

Ah... I think I've just spotted something in your setup - from the Example Macro your uploaded (the one called "0020 Dynamics ⇤ sfz")

In its Group settings, the Group was set up like this:

Change this setting to this:

"Always activated and shows/hides a palette when:"

I'm confident this will do it

(As it was set up, no Macro would work until the Palette was showing.)

If (hopefully) this solves the activation of the Macros problem, you can put the setting back to how it was (Shows/hides a palette when) but you will have to remember to press ⌥F4 (or whatever hot key you set) to activate the Palette to use any of the Macros. It is possible that the original developer of the Macros intended it to work that way - maybe there are different Groups of Palettes for doing different tasks? In fact, I suspect the original Macros have no hot keys and you are supposed to activate them by clicking on the floating Palette - which would make sense if there are a lot of them. And there would be a different floating Palette depending on what task you want to do.

[Joseph_Williams]

Greetings Zababon et al,

On the final eve of the Twilight Zone marathon, unfolding strangely over my shoulder, I can report that an apparent solution–or workaround to my KM Finale macro mystery has been uncovered.

The "Always activated and shows/hides a palette when” menu selection didn’t have the intended, or any effect.

However, after reading your personal email to me which included the suggestion of setting up one of the Finale macros in a new Group test folder using the same basic hotkey scenario as the “About Finale” macro which you also had recently advised… Well, at first it didn’t work. But then, I remembered that I may need to actually re-establish the path to the "Finale JetSteam Controller" nestled plug-in as I’ve previously described… Skip ahead—It Worked!

And not only by bringing up a palette within Finale via hotkey, but by using the Elgato StreamDeck!

While I’m not a full-time computer savant, I’m often tenacious when faced with a problem. And, while not exactly non-technical, I seem to make up for lapses in knowledge by relying on a restless intuition, where Reason meets the Twilight Zone…

Still, I’m not sure if I would ever have uncovered a solution to what has been a frustrating barrier without your having taken an interest & ownership of all this. So, many thanks to you, along with Sleepy, ccstone, Dan Thomas & others who have reached beyond the Twilight to help me arrive at a solution here in the real world, where macros are igniting like fireworks!

Thanks & Happy New Year!

BTW, for the interest of anyone who utilizes the Elgato StreamDeck in triggering KM macros, there is a new(er?) KM plug-in for the StreamDeck called KM Link. I’m sure other users here are aware of this plug-in. If not, KM Link allows you to assign enabled macros to the StreamDeck's buttons by selecting them from a flip-down menu. There is no need to remember hotkeys when using KM Link, meaning that… well, no longer is there a need to probe one's intuition for remote & forgotten hotkeys! KM Link can be found in the Store panel accessed from the Stream Deck configuration window.

[Zabobon]

@Joseph_Williams

Still, I’m not sure if I would ever have uncovered a solution to what has been a frustrating barrier without your having taken an interest & ownership of all this. So, many thanks to you, along with Sleepy, ccstone, Dan Thomas & others who have reached beyond the Twilight to help me arrive at a solution

Glad you got it working in the end! I know how frustrating it can be when something in computers should work and it doesn't and the solution is just out of reach

[Joseph_Williams]

Yes, that's true. I learned early on with computers that they can be surprisingly humanlike in their idiosyncratic behavior!

Thanks again—you helped keep me going & checking in for messages on the board, which ultimately led to a solution. I'm sure that being new w// KM, I'll be in & may even be able to help somebody else along the way.