Is there a hot key to expand the KBM palette?

Questions & Suggestions
1

Just to avoid having to click on the palette to expand it. thanks

2

If you mean palettes that are collapsed to an icon - no. You have to hover (not click) the mouse over the palette for it to expand.

You can configure the palette not to collapse if desired. The Global Floating Palette is configured in the Preferences. Macro Group palettes are configured in the macro group settings. Conflict Palettes never collapse.

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3

Thank you for your answer.
My mistake: hover, not click.
In terms of keyboard shortcuts and functionality . What would you think of:

  • a keyboard shortcut to expand the palette and activate it
  • the ability to choose whether a macro is visible both on the main palette and on the subpalette (macro group) or solely in a subgroup (to avoid overloading the global palette)
  • the ability to assign a digit (0 to 9) to each Show macro group in the palette, and to each macro displayed in a macro group.

For example, I could type the following in rapid sequence:

  • press a keyboard combination, for example Ctrl-Shift-$ to expand and focus on the palette
  • press 5 to show my Science macro Group palette
  • press 4 which would activate Reddit Physics Forum macro within my Science group which activates the macro to open the Reddit Physics Forum web page

thanks

4

Macro Palettes are floating, so they have no concept of being "active". They never have the keyboard focus, so they never steal keyboard focus from the target application, which limits what they can do. They don't have selections or respond to arrow keys for example.

You can't uncollapse a collapsed palette with a key because then as soon as you move the mouse it would recollapse.

Keeping in mind that Macro Groups control when their contained enabled macros are active, we have:

A macro is visible in the Global Floating Palette if and only if a) it is active, and b) it has the Macro Palette trigger.

A macro is visible in a Macro Group Palette if and only if the macro is active. If the Macro Group is configured to show a palette, then the macro group (and hence the macros it contains) are active if and only if the palette is displayed (or the reverse if you prefer, the palette is displayed if and only if the macro group is active).

So you can choose whether a macro ever shows up in the Global Floating Palette by including or not including the Macro Palette trigger. By definition, an enabled macro shows up in the Macro Group palette of the containing macro group.

I don't know what this means, but macros can have triggers of 0-9 if desired and they will be active if and only if the macro group is active, which in turn would be if and only if the macro group palette is displayed if the macro group is configured to show a palette.

Note that the collapsed or uncollapsed nature of a palette does not in any way affect whether a macro is active.

Create a Macro Group which shows its palette for one action when you press Ctrl-Shift-$.

Within it, create a macro Science with trigger "4" which has a single action Show Macro Group "Science" for one action.

In the Macro Group science, create a macro Open Reddit Physics Forum with trigger "5".

Alternatively, I would get rid of the first macro group and simply create a set of macros all with the hot key trigger Ctrl-Shift-$ and let Keyboard Maestro's conflict palette figure it out.

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5

Thank you very much Peter.
This weekend, I read through the help which is extremely well written.
My only suggestion would be to mention that the ‘Actions’ window search box is case sensitive which … took me a while to realize, as my searches did not yield any results.
As far as your comment above, I am going to start working on it now and will keep you posted.
thanks again very much

6

Create a Macro Group which shows its palette for one action when you press Ctrl-Shift-$.
Within it, create a macro Science with trigger “4” which has a single action Show Macro Group “Science” for one action.
In the Macro Group science, create a macro Open Reddit Physics Forum with trigger “5”.

I started working on it and everything works as you indicated.
I noticed that in practise, I tend to want to open more than one macro in sequence within a macro group. For example, I may want to press Ctrl-Shift-$, and then instead of only 5 (for example), I may want to press triggers 5 and 2 today, perhaps 1,4 and 6 tomorrow, and therefore also have a trigger to tell KBM 'OK, I am finished with this macro group’
The way my macro group and macros are created, I must first press Ctrl-Shift-$, and then have the choice of only one macro trigger. If I want another trigger, I must press Ctrl-Shift-$ again and then press the other trigger.
thanks again

7

If you want the macro group palette to stay open until you close it, configure it to Show its palette instead of Show its palette for one action.

Then you can either press Ctrl-Shift-$ again to close it, or you can have a macro within the macro group whose action is Deactivate Macro Group.

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8

Which search? Al the searches are case insensitive as far as I am aware.

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9

yes, you are right. The searches are not case sensitive.
I have no clue where I got this impression.
I will try cutting down the late night drinking to improve the quality of my posts.

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10

brilliant ! thank you very much

11

If I understand correctly, it would not be possible to:

  • show by pressing press Ctrl-Shift-$
  • close (deactivate) the palette by pressing escape. Just escape is faster (I can do it without looking at the keyboard), and I would use it to close all my macro group palettes
    thanks again
12

Include a macro in the palette:

Macro "ZZ)Escape"
Trigger: Hot Key Escape
Action: Deactivate Macro Group  "Whatever This Macro Group is Called"

The “ZZ)” will cause the macro to sort to the end of your macro group.

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13

Works perfectly. Thank you Peter

14

ESC is fast and easy, but I have some apps that use ESC for other purposes.

So, what I have done, is establish a KM Palette show/hide convention of using the hot key ⌃P. You could, of course, choose any hot key you like that would work across all/most apps.

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15

thank you. I will try to think of my own universal show/hide shortcut

16

Hey Ronald,

If you really like Esc you could use a chord like:

⌘⌥⌃⇧Esc

Or some variation of that.

-Chris

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