Is it possible to quickly find out which macro is associated with a specific keyboard shortcut? Sometimes I press a keyboard shortcut and something happens that I didn’t expect. Then I start digging through all of my macros (I have a lot) but finding the macro is difficult because ordering the list based on keyboard shortcuts isn’t really possible.
It is possible. Do this:
In the list of macro groups click on the “All Macros” smart group. That will result in all your macros being listed. Now click the downward pointing arrow at the top right of the macros list; as a result your macros will then be ordered by hot key.
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Hey Roel,
Switch to the Keyboard Maestro Editor and select "Last Used":
Alternatively – long-press the "Used" button in the Keyboard Maestro Editor:
Then of course you have many sorting options – as @tiffle has suggested:
And you can always search by HotKey in the Keyboard Maestro Editor:
Search: hotkey:⇧⌃s
I even have a global macro that reads the Keyboard Maestro Engine Log and ferrets out the last used macro, so I don't even have to think about it – just hit a hotkey.
-Chris
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@ccstone I'd be very interested to see how this "macro that reads the Keyboard Maestro Engine Log and ferrets out the last used macro" works as I'm trying to make a macro to enter a pressed keystroke combo into the search box after "hotkey:" to search for hotkeys to see if I might've already used them somewhere, or if I don't have anything assigned to them yet.
Step two will be figuring out how to capture the last pressed keystroke combination within a user input prompt. Guessing I may need to incorporate some applescript to accomplish this.
I am SO happy this question and answer were posted! I can't tell you the number of times I've suffered "spooky action at a distance" because of some macro I'd written in Keyboard Maestro and I was trying to use the same keystroke in another app. Thank you!!!
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It seems the solution posted by @ccstone no longer works. I’m using KM 11.0.4 and do not see the Select Macro menu item shown in the screenshot by @ccstone
Also, it seems only the first hotkey shows up in the macro list – so that means if the hotkey causing problems is the second one you wouldn’t see it in the sorted list. That’s exactly what happened to me as illustrated in my screen recording
Notice that I have an R key as a 2nd hotkey and it doesn’t show up. This was causing me headaches until I sorted it out. I also tried typing “hotkey:r” in the searchbar and that didn’t help
Which macro?
It has been renamed to Go to Macro since then.
Correct, only the first hot key shows up in the trigger. Or if it has not hot key, some other trigger may be listed there. It's a very limited space, so it cannot show much.
Why not, it should have shown you the macro. Also the macro would be at the top if sorted by Used Date, or in the Used menu.
@peternlewis Your pointing me to the View>Go To Macro answered my main question. But here are the smaller points:
- I sympathize with the “not enough space” issue for the many hotkeys, but on the other hand, it is really nice to have a full alphabetical list. When I searched through the alphabetical list and found nothing in the qrs area I concluded Keyboard Maestro must not be causing the problem. Ideally a menu could be used to show all hotkeys with cascading arrows to show multiple hotkeys, or at least an m or * to warn the user there’s more there
Easier to write than code, I’m sure.
- Regarding what you wrote here, I made a video to show you what I see when trying either hotkey:r or hotkey:R to find the problem macro. That macro is called: “QT step -10s (if 24fps)” and has the primary hotkey ⌥← and secondary hotkey r
The filter on your "all" Smart Group is global, so it only includes globally active Macro Groups. Your "QT" macro is in the "Quicktime" Group, which is only available when QuickTime is frontmost, so won't be included in the search.
At some stage you've delete the default "All Macros" Smart Group:
...and life will be easier if you recreate it and use that when searching across all your macros.
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@peternlewis Your pointing me to the View>Go To Macro answered my main question. But here are the smaller points:
- I sympathize with the “not enough space” issue for the many hotkeys, but on the other hand, it is really nice to have a full alphabetical list. When I searched through the alphabetical list and found nothing in the qrs area I concluded Keyboard Maestro must not be causing the problem. Ideally a menu could be used to show all hotkeys with cascading arrows to show multiple hotkeys, or at least an m or * to warn the user there’s more there
Easier to write than code, I’m sure.
- Regarding what you wrote here, I made a video to show you what I see when trying either hotkey:r or hotkey:R to find the problem macro. That macro is called: “QT step -10s (if 24fps)” and has the primary hotkey ⌥← and secondary hotkey r
I had no idea about this – and still feel a little unclear – but I changed it to only have “all:” (as shown below) which then included the problem macro in the hotkey:r search
That solves that mystery. Thanks again.
I’m a little puzzled by all the arrow keys being found by that search, and I assume it’s because the word arrow has an r in it… which is a little strange
Exactly right -- it's a search of all the hotkey triggers for the letter "r", so will also include "arrow", "Return", and so on.
AFAIK there's no "exactly matches", but don't forget that multiple search terms AND together and you can also negate terms, so
h:r -h:o -h:e
...will find "all hotkey triggers with an r but without an o or e". Be careful of that, though -- a macro with both ⌥R and Return hotkeys would be omitted from the results.
Have a look at the Wiki's "Search Strings" page for more info -- that page also shows the difference between all and global.
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At the end of the day, if your issue is: "Something unexpected is happening", then the solution is to use the Interactive Help, "Something unexpected is happening" and it will show you exactly which macro is the issue. There are also at least half a dozen other ways to find macros that have recently been triggered.
There is room only for one trigger in the trigger column, so only one trigger is shown. this is not going to change.