Sorry if this is a silly question, but how are group activation criteria deleted? For example, I added “Activated/Deactivated when”, but I now want to remove it.
I just upgraded to 7 a couple of days ago. I’m convinced I’ll never master my understand of the relationship between macro groups and palettes. But to answer your question, when you select the macro group from the list in the Editor, you should see the choice which you already activated when you chose it from the pop-up list (“Activated/Deactivated when”) at the right side of the window. You can’t actually remove it, you just have to decide what choice you would rather it be by clicking it then making a selection from the list that pops up, presumably the choice that existed for that option before you changed it.
I made a similar change to a palette macro group today (v7.0.3), and was completely bewildered as to why two palettes began appearing for the app (I had the macro group set to show up whenever a certain app was active). Apparently the palette created by the default “Always Activated” setting didn’t simply update it’s appearance status after I changed the option to “Shows Palette Until”, so two appeared. After I manually closed the original (extra) palette by clicking the X, it never reappeared and I was left with one palette, which is what I wanted, and what I would have expected to have seen immediately upon selecting the new option.
As @Lantro said, every Macro Group has some sort of activation setting. By default it is “Always Activated”, so simply select that if that is what you want.
If you can duplicate this I would like to know. There should only ever be one palette for one macro group (plus the Global Macro Palette and the Conflict Palettes). A Macro Group configured as “Always Activated” has no macro palette, so I don't really understand what you did and what happened. A bug report, with a reproducible case if possible, by email would probably be better.
As for understanding Macro Group and their activations, yes, it is not as clear as it should be, but there is a basic rule that should always be applied:
- If a Macro Group has a palette configured, then the palette should be visible if and only if the macro group is active (that is, if the macros are active at all, the palette is visible, and if the palette is not visible, then the macros are not active).
It should be impossible for a Macro Group to appear as two different palettes. That said, it is possible for a macro to appear in a Macro Group palette, the Global Macro Palette, and a Conflict Palette (potentially all three at the same time). The Macro Group would need to be configured to show a palette, and the macros it contains (which would be active definitely if the macro groups’s palette was visible) would show up in the Global Macro Palette if they had the Global Macro Palette trigger, and could also show up in a Conflict Palette if they had a conflicting hot key (or device key, etc) trigger that was pressed.
I think a bug report for this might be a bigger challenge than I’m willing to accept. I will say that my preferences specify the signpost theme for palettes, and the original palette (which returned until I dismissed it once after deleting caches with Cocktail), appeared with the KB logo as the default palette and the macro names didn’t appear until I moused over it. I don’t make extensive use of palettes in KB, because I’m still married to QuicKeys toolbars, which I have found worthwhile to find ways to keep working even since its obsolescence was established about 5 years ago. Thanks.
Laine Lee
What you describe sounds like the default Global Macro Palette, so my guess is that you have added the Macro Palette triggers to your macros as well as making your macro group appear as a palette.
Thanks, Peter. That’s awesome, but why wouldn’t KM7 know that I no longer wanted those macros in the global palette when I limited the scope of the macro group to one application? Each macro has the trigger, “The macro palette entry is clicked”, and the macro group parameters are ‘Available in these Applications: Microsoft Outlook”, “Available in all windows”, and "Shows palette until” with no boxes checked.
Laine Lee
It does. The Global Macro Palette lists only macros that:
a) Have the Macro Palette Trigger
and
b) Are currently active.
Thanks, Peter. In that case, I need to be able to assign a trigger for universally displaying/hiding the Global Macro Palette, at least until I can determent whether I can benefit from its current behavior. Is it possible to create such a trigger?
Toggle Global Macro Palette - got it. Sheesh - so many layers. Thanks.
If you don’t want the macros to appear in the Global Macro Palette, don’t include the Macro Palette trigger.
You do not need to have any trigger at all on the macro if you only want it to appear in the Macro Group palette.
Thanks. I still don’t have it. How can I, for example, have a Macro Palette that appears whenever and only whenever Finder is active, allows me to click to execute any macro in that Macro Palette when Finder is active, remains available after activating any macro listed in the palette by clicking that macro’s listing in the palette, yet never causes the Global Macro Palette to be displayed, and whose listed macros never appear in the Global Macro Palette if it is displayed by another action such as the Toggle Global Macro Palette macro?
Create a macro group, typically named "Finder"
Configure it to be active only in the Finder
Configure it to Show a macro palette until, and leave all the options off since you never want it to turn off in the Finder.
Put your macros in that macro group.
Do not add the Macro Palette trigger to any macro in that group.
Except for this part which I don't understand what you mean:
The palette will be shown whenever you are in the Finder. Clicking on the palette to trigger a macro will not affect the palette being shown. A macro continuing to run will not affect the palette being shown or keep it shown after you leave the Finder.
I just meant that it's visible all the time, even after clicking a macro. OK, it's good. However, it just seems unintuitive that the Macro Palette trigger for individual macros isn't needed except to include the macro in the Global Macro Palette. Is there any other use for it? When I see the choice for a Macro Palette trigger within New Trigger (because none of the possible triggers listed for the macro by default appears to be appropriate for inclusion in a Macro Palette), it's logical to me that it would be the only way to make the Macro be available in any palette. Is this because that was the case in earlier versions of KB? At any rate, I would still prefer that the inclusion of the macro in the Global Macro Palette be a modal switch that is clearly labeled to have that function. Thanks again.
I'm sorry you find that unintuitive. That is what the triggers are there for. Just like the Status Menu trigger, the trigger says "when this macro is active, have it appear in the Floating Palette (Status Menu respectively).
This feature predates Macro Group palettes which are another way to have macros appear in a palette, one per group.
That sort of special casing goes against the way that Keyboard Maestro works. Then there would be some sort of modal switch for the status menu too, and the Public Web, and probably other ways of having a macro listed somewhere as a triggering mechanism.