Hi there . This is my first post . I’m trying to learn KM and need some help . Could someone please post and example of a macro that I could press a key and have zoom open up and login in as a host and start a meeting. Thanks.
Welcome, christian_lee!
This is actually a tricker example than you might think.
For example, you could try to launch the app, type your username, then move to the password field, type your password, then try to navigate the main Zoom window.
Keyboard Maestro could do that, but it's going to be tricky for several reasons, including the fact that the Zoom app is not particularly "friendly" when it comes to automation. For example, if you have recently used the Zoom app, you may not need to enter your username and password, so you'd have to add another part of the macro that checks to see if you need to or not.
A much better and more reliable approach would be to create a macro that will open a Zoom URL in the Zoom app when you press a button.
For example, this macro will start a specific meeting when I press ⇧⌘Z
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The first step makes sure that the Zoom app (technically named 'zoom.us') is running. If it isn't, it will launch it.
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The second step pauses to wait until the app is running.
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The third step (open URL) will open the URL to the meeting. (Obviously, that's not a real Zoom link.)
That is going to be a much more reliable way of launching the meeting in question. It will not, however, automate the logging-in process, if you need to log in. Frankly, that's not recommended, because it would usually require putting your Zoom password in Keyboard Maestro, where it would be stored in plain text.
Here is the actual macro file for the above, which should help you get started. You'll just need to put the actual URL in step 3. Oh, and you can also change the keyboard shortcut, if you want.
Start My Zoom Meeting.kmmacros (37.4 KB)
If you have additional questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks for the quick reply. That example helps a lot. I still would like to figure out a way to do the login part mainly because I have three different zoom accounts I have to login in throughout the week. One is my personal and another is our church personal and another is and older friend I help out with hosting. I also have a 32 key stream deck that I Manage to put zoom controls onto . I was hoping to have 3 buttons with the three zoom accounts that would automatically login in and start a meeting. I tried mouse click points actions and image click actions I can’t get it to see the sign in button. Any other ideas would be great. Thanks again.
Hey there, I too use Zoom and have a macro setup to launch the meeting(s). I also use it in conjunction with a Stream Deck XL.
That being said, what @tjluoma said is true, that Zoom is not very friendly when it comes to Keyboard Maestro or AppleScript. A fair amount of my Keyboard Maestro/Stream Deck integration comes from global hotkeys and found images. The absolute best way to start a meeting is using the URL method already mentioned. I would like to add however, that you do not need to launch Zoom before the url, as clicking on the allow button once the url page loads will launch Zoom (at least it does for me). Either way, once the launch meeting page opens, and the "allow this page to open zoom.us" box appears, depending on your browser, you may be able to use "click (browser) link" to have it click the allow link and launch Zoom. However, I have only tried this in Safari and it does not work. So you would have to click the allow link by using a found image, that when done properly can be quite reliable.
However, the other issue is still the login. There's really no fancy way around this. The only option I could see would be to use a series of found images and inserting text for your UN and PW. However, that's a lot of steps that could fail if not done just right.
I know that's probably not the answer you wanted to hear, but it's the unfortunate reality of Zoom. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions about Zoom and Keyboard Maestro integration, or Stream Deck for that matter as I've been using Keyboard Maestro and Zoom for over a year and a half almost on a daily basis.
EDIT: I just saw that this was your first post, welcome!
Thanks for your reply . That has also given me a few ideas .I’ll try a few things and see what works.I’m excited to get this all working. I’ve only just gotten started. The support here is super.
You're very welcome. Glad to hear you've got some new ideas. The longer you use Keyboard Maestro the more brainstorming you'll do and the crazier ideas you'll come up with haha. And yes, the support here is top-notch. One of the best forums I've ever been a part of.
I don't know but it's possible this post won't be allowed because it does allow the very bad practice of putting your zoom password into a macro, but I think as consenting adults, we can decide when a situation is safe or not. For example, I did this when I was tech support for a conference over 3 days and then removed my passwords from KM.
This example is very simple, you would need to adjust all of the images and pixel numbers yourself, but very useful here is the 'Get' button, which reads where the mouse is after a small delay, the 'Display' checkbox, which show what KM is looking at and recognising, and the slider to the left of the Display button, which adjusts how picky KM is (there's probably a better way of describing that). Basically, move it towards the 'fuzzy' image if it' not working, but not too far or it will think everything is your found image!
Other possible issues - you want zoom to open the same size every time preferably, so the images are the same size, so you could add an action for that. I've left this macro so I manually hit the final button myself, in case something goes wrong. Also zoom leaves the last user name, so I delete that.
Apologies if the password thing offends. Hope that helps your own efforts, good luck and welcome!
EDIT: Just tried this, another issue, dark mode can also mess with your found images! There's a bit of trial and error, but it made me happy for those three days.
You can always use a password in the Apple Keychain and give Keyboard Maestro permission to access it.
That keeps it from being entirely in the clear, although you may have to clean up after yourself by deleting the clipboard or any relevant variables as necessary.
See the ⇢ Set Variable to Keychain Password Action
-Chris
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On your example . In the first image it clicks on. where is the search box from exactly. I’ve got the rest of it .
Not sure I 100% understand the question, but in my version of zoom, the search box is in the top right, just to the left of the profile icon, which you need to click on to be able to select ‘Change user’. You’ll notice the action clicks 100 pixels or so to the right of the found image if I recall correctly.
You can choose any constant reference point. You can use a shift window action to put the zoom window in the same place and then click using co-ordinates. I chose the search box because the profile icon changed depending on the user, so it was constant.
If you’re still stuck, tomorrow I can make a screen shot, but I’m on my phone right now! Hope that helps.
Thanks. I understand now. I finally got it working . Next I’ll figure out the keychain password stuff and see if I can make it more safe. I’ve learned a lot from everyone’s ideas .
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