I know that this sounds blasphemous, but my global macro group palette macros are scattered into a gazillion groups. I would rather just preserve them as is in the global macro group palette and add a hot key trigger for each.
I would obviously toggle the global macro group palette (unless single use is possible) so my hot key trigger does not trigger the macro while in an editor
thanks in advance for your time and help
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I am not entirely following what you mean. If they are in the Global Macro Palette then they are active, so any trigger they have will be active. You just need to add whatever hot key you want to the macros.
You can option-click them in the palette to edit them and add a trigger.
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Thank you Peter for replying to my Post and thanks for the very useful tip to edit palette macros on the fly with opt-click
I think that I did not express myself correctly, but please keep in mind that āglobal macro paletteā contains the term global ie can be used at any time in any app.
Here is an example:
I created a DevonThink macro group palette (active only in DevonThink) macro which simply opens a DevonThink folder called Temp which I frequently access
If I want to add it to my global macro group palette, I have 2 choices
- Leave the macro in the DevonThink Group Palette, in which case I will not see the macro in the global macro group palette if the global macro group palette is triggered outside DevonThink
- Put the macro in the global macro group, but then I can't use a trigger because the macro would be triggered as I am typing text (I use single letter triggers).
In other words, I think that if I add the global macro group palette trigger (emphasis on global) to my macro, the trigger should override the limitation of DevonThink macro group palette active only in DevonThink (or I should have the option to).
All of this assuming of course that I toggle the global macro palette at which time I use the hotkey
Does this make sense ?
Thanks again.
Not following entirely.
You can create a macro Alias, and move this alias to a different group, ie from the DevonThink group to the Global Macro group.
You can also place your macros in separate Groups, and use the same Shortcut for each Macro if you want a Conflict Palette appear with all the āconflictingā macros.
Do you have a visual example? Ie using Paint or text.
Btw, appleianerās post are always chock full of Palette examples.
Edit: Do you mean assign a Shortcut to a single macro living inside the Global Macro group?
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OK, I'm still not clear on
- When you want the macro to appear in the Global Macro Palette?
- When you want the single letter trigger to be active?
For the former, the macro will appear in the Global Macro Palette whenever the macro is active.
For the latter, the single letter trigger for the macro will be active whenever the macro is active.
If you want them to be at two different times, then you'll need two different macros, and as @hello mentions, you can use an Alias macro, that is a macro that is just an Execute a Macro action to execute the other macro.
Note that if you drag a macro in to an action list it will create an alias Execute a Macro action for you.
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Thank you both @hello and @peternlewis very much for your replies and your patience.
I do understand and use aliases (āL, Menu Edit > Make Alias, Drag/Drop with āā„ to another Macro Group) stored in the global macro group.
The pros are obvious, which makes the solution to my question seem straightforward.
Please also consider the con, which is the doubling (original macro + alias) of an already huge number of macros and ending up with a huge difficult to visualize and manage global macro group where the aliases are stored. IMO this is a significant drawback.
Let's try to put practical "how to use aliases" considerations aside and consider the logic of my argumentation.
I am sure that I am wrong. I would like to understand why.
Peter suggested I detail my global macro palette workflow:
- Toggle Global Macro Group Palette ON with a global shortcut
- Press a single key shortcut corresponding to the macro I want to trigger
- Toggle Global Macro Group Palette OFF (ideally, I could configure the Global Macro Group Palette to trigger for one action which does not seem to be the case).
Now consider a simple scenario
- I have a DevonThink Macro Group Palette which is active only in DevonThink. It contains a macro which opens a folder called TEMP.
- Sometimes, I want to open the TEMP folder when I am outside DevonThink.
- I can't use the DevonThink macro which can only be triggered when DevonThink Macro Group Palette is enabled, ie within DevonThink
To trigger the DevonThink macro outside DevonThink with a single key shortcut, I must as you mention create an alias and put it in the global macro group palette.
I argue that logically, if I add Global Macro Group Palette as a trigger, the emphasis should be on the term global and that trigger should override the inherent locality of the macro for the time the Global Macro Group Palette in toggled ON or at least that keyboard maestro system pref should contain a setting to allow the user to do so.
I think (I could be wrong) that 95% of users use application specific macro group palettes. The added value of the Global Macro Group Palette is precisely to override the limitations of the application specific macro group palettes, hence the term global.
This doesn't make sense, since it is a Global palette.
If you want a palette you can toggle one and off, use a Macro Group Palette, or a Show Palette of Macros action.
If you want them all to have automatic single letter hot keys, and you toggle the palette on, given them all the same palette hot key trigger, and Keyboard Maestro will display a Conflict Palette.
But macros are either active or inactive, and if they are active and have a Hot Key trigger, that trigger is active, and if they are active and have a Global Macro Palette trigger then they appear in the Global Macro Palette, which is displayed when it contains any active macros.
If you want different activation, you have to have different macros, and if you want a palette that can be active some times and not others, then you can't use the Global Macro Palette.
Sorry, this does not make sense to me, the macros show up in the global macro palette only when they are active, so the palette is context sensitive, showing only the desired macros in any given situation, in a single palette.
No, the added value of the Global Macro Palette is that it is a single palette that contains whatever macros are appropriate in the current context, which are the macros that both have the trigger and are active at the current time.
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Thank you @peternlewis for the detailed answer.
You are obviously right on all points, and I now understand and have changed the way I see things.
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