MACRO: Get Screen Rectangle v1.1

DanThomas · July 8, 2024, 12:38pm

MACRO: Get Screen Rectangle v1.1

Purpose:

To make it easy to grab the coordinates of a rectangle on the screen, optionally including the image inside the rectangle, and even saving the image to disk. A couple of utility macros can help you paste the results into a KM "Found Image" type of action.

Click to expand

Let's say that you want to capture the screen location of this button, and maybe an image of the button also:

Launch my macro, then drag a rubber-band selection rectangle around the button. Release the mouse, and a a semi-transparent window appears (you can change the colors):

You can move and resize the window:

When you're ready, press the Return key, and the coordinates are copied to the clipboard. Optionally, the image is also copied to the clipboard (and you can even save the image to a file):

It's easy to paste the image and location into a KM action, especially with a couple of helper macros I supply:

There's other features too, including a timer to delay the start of the macro, so be sure to check the "Documentation" section below.

VERSION HISTORY

1.1 - Added parameters "RelativeToFrontWindow" and "AbortIfNotInFrontWindow".
1.0 - Initial Release

INSTALLATION

Click to expand

UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS:

Delete the old macros, or just delete the entire group.

NOTE: If you modified the defaults in the "Get Screen Rectangle" macro, make sure to copy them somewhere, and paste them back into the new macro.

Install the new macros.

There should be no breaking changes.

Get Screen Rectangle.v1.1.kmmacros.zip (23.1 KB)

Download the macros, unzip them, and double-click the .kmmacros file. It will import these macros:

Get Screen Rectangle, which is the main macro. You can run it by itself, or as a subroutine so you can set the parameters.
Get Screen Rectangle Helper SubMacro, which is used internally.
1 - Paste Image and Pop and 2 - Paste 4 Coordinates Into Area Fields, which you should assign the same hotkey to so you can get them together in a conflict palette.
Show Palettes and View the Clipboard are simple helper macros, which you can delete if you don't want them.

DOCUMENTATION

I'm trying something new here. I normally include the documentation in a large Comments action in the macro. But it turns out that can significantly increase the size of the macros.

So for the macros with large documentation comments, I'm putting the documentation here, and the comments in the macros include a link to this page.

Get Screen Rectangle

Name: Get Screen Rectangle
Version: 1.1
Updated: 2024/07/09 05:55 PT
By: Dan Thomas

PURPOSE:

To make it easy to get the x, y, width, and height of a rectangle on the screen by displaying a semi-transparent window on the screen that you can drag around and resize.

NOTES:

You can run this macro directly if you want to use the default values. Or you can run this as a Subroutine if you want different values.
You can customize things like the window colors in the magenta "Defaults" action.
When the window is focused, it has a dashed border. If it's not focused, it has a solid border. So if you press Return or Escape (as explained below) and they don't do anything, click on the window to focus it.
If you're trying to capture the "front window", don't worry if the front window loses focus while setting up the rectangle - it will regain focus before the screenshot is taken.

USAGE:

Run this macro, and by default it will allow you to drag a rubber-band selection box on the screen. Release the mouse button, and a semi-transparent window will appear.
Drag the window around and resize it (resizing is easiest using the bottom-right corner) until you're at the place you want on the screen, then press the Return key.
When you press Return, "x,y,width,height" will be copied to the clipboard. Optionally the image can also be copied to the clipboard, and you can even save it to a file.
If you hover your mouse over the top-right corner of the window, an "X,Y" button will appear, and if you click it, the current coordinates and size will be displayed in the window. Click it again to hide the text.
You can press Escape to exit out of the window.
After pressing Return, you can use the "Paste 4 Coordinates Into Area Fields" or "Paste Image and Pop" macros, if you want. See them for more details.

RETURN VALUE:

Depending on the parameters (described below), if the image is saved to a file, the return value is the file path. Otherwise the return value is the rectangle coordinates (x,y,width,height).

PARAMETERS:

If you right-click this macro and select "Copy as Subroutine", you can paste it into another macro, and you can set these parameters:

Parameter	Description
CopyImageToClipboard	Set this to 1 if you want the image under the window to be copied to the clipboard. It will be copied after the coordinates and size.
SaveImageToFile	Set this to 1 if you want to save the image under the window to a file.
DefaultSaveImageToFileName	If "SaveImageToFile" is 1, you can specify the default file name here.
StartTimeInSeconds	If this is > 0, the macro will delay this many seconds before starting. This gives you a chance to setup the screen beforehand.
CountdownWindow	If "StartTimeInSeconds" is > 0, set this to 1 if you want a progress window to be displayed ticking down the seconds.
CountdownWindowPosition	If "StartTimeInSeconds" is > 0 and "CountdownWindow" is 1, you can use this to indicate where the countdown window should appear on screen. This should be in the format "x,y" (without the quotes), and each value can be any valid KM calculation. The default is: SCREENVISIBLE(Main, MidX),SCREENVISIBLE(Main, Top)
HideKMPalettes	Set this to 1 if you want to hide your KM palettes before selecting the window rectangle. The palettes will automatically be un-hidden when you're done - even if you cancel out, or there's an error.
RelativeToFrontWindow	Set this to 1 if you want the coordinates to be relative to the front window. Just be aware that the "front window" isn't necessarily the window under your cursor, so make sure to activate the correct window before launching this macro. Which is why I added the AbortIfNotInFrontWindow parameter
AbortIfNotInFrontWindow	If RelativeToFrontWindow is 1, then set this to 1 if you want the macro to abort if your rectangle wasn't over the front window. This is just a failsafe to help you make sure you had the correct window focused when you ran the macro.

VERSION HISTORY:
1.1 - Added parameters "RelativeToFrontWindow" and "AbortIfNotInFrontWindow".
1.0 - Initial version.

1 - Paste Image and Pop

Name: Paste Image and Pop
Version: 1.1
Updated: 2024/07/09 05:55 PT
By: Dan Thomas

PURPOSE:

A simple helper macro to paste what's on the top of the Clipboard stack, then delete it from the clipboard.

Although this macro says "Image" in its name, it can actually paste anything.

USAGE:

Click where you want the image pasted, then launch this macro.

NOTES:

This macro does NOT verify that the destination can take an Image, so make sure you're in the right place to paste the image. Especially since the image gets deleted from the clipboard, regardless of whether the paste succeeds or not.
I like to use the same hotkey trigger for this macro and "2 - Paste 4 Coordinates Into Area Fields", so when you use the hotkey, you get a palette that lets you choose either macro.

VERSION HISTORY:
1.1 - No Changes.
1.0 - Initial version.

2 - Paste 4 Coordinates Into Area Fields

Name: Paste 4 coordinates into fields
Version: 1.1
Updated: 2024/07/09 05:55 PT
By: Dan Thomas

PURPOSE:

A helper macro that takes a clipboard string like this "1196,229,158,30" and pastes it into the 4 "Area" fields in any KM Actions that use area fields.

USAGE:

Click in the first "Area" field, then launch this macro.

NOTES:

This macro does a "Select All" at the start, then verifies that what's selected is a number. This is to help make sure you ran this macro when the cursor is in an "Area" field.
Since that's not foolproof, you can press "Escape" to abort the macro, if you do it quickly enough.
And because of possibilities like the above, this macro does NOT delete the coordinates from the clipboard.
I like to use the same hotkey trigger for this macro and "1 - Paste Image and Pop", so when you use the hotkey, you get a palette that lets you choose either macro.

VERSION HISTORY:
1.1 - No Changes
1.0 - Initial version.

noisneil · July 9, 2024, 9:46am

This is great! I love the semi-transparent rectangle and the ability to resize it. Genius!

I made a bunch of much less elegant macros some time ago:

Display Mouse Coordinates (Front Window)
Get Relative Coordinates (Front Window / Screen / A→B)
Insert Action - Find Image (Area Around Image Capture)
Insert Action - Find Image (Custom Area)
Set Area Coordinates for Existing Action

KM - Get Coordinates.kmmacros (285.7 KB)

It would be great if you could incorporate the option to return the area coordinates relative to the front window, as yours is so much nicer to use!

DanThomas · July 9, 2024, 10:17am

Thanks! I've always wished that every tool that uses a rubber-band selection like this would let me resize it, so that's why I wrote it. Then, of course, I kept adding features because, well, that's what we do!

That sounds like something I could probably do. Let me look into it.

DanThomas · July 9, 2024, 7:13pm

OK, v1.1 has been uploaded, which supports coordinates to the front window. And whether it gets used or not, it was fun to add this.

_jims · July 12, 2024, 5:16pm

@DanThomas, man this is super cool. The way you leverage Keyboard Maestro is incredible. This macro is another immediate favorite!

Because of your attention to detail, I'm sure you'll want to know about two typos:

( expand / collapse )

Also, maybe I'm missing something, but if not, I have a suggestion...

I see that I can enable some actions to change the defaults in the subroutine. That's great, but to me, if the subroutine is called, it seems that the settings specified in the caller should override these customized subroutine defaults. Doesn't that provide the greatest flexibility?

Now for a challenge. Of course, no offense if you choose to ignore.

Have you ever seen the apps that provide a magnified section as you are moving the selection area? Please excuse the fact that this is from SnagIt (Windows), but here's an example.

2024-07-12 13.11.04@2x

That feature is great when one is trying to zero in on a selection.

DanThomas · July 12, 2024, 7:49pm

Thanks! I fixed the first one, but I'll leave the second one for when, or if I release a new version.

Yes, absolutely, and that's really what I meant. I just didn't feel like having a bunch of "if" actions in there. But maybe I should have.

Personally, I have this macro I use (which has a terrible name, but whatever):

Which does this:

I just find it more concise. But I didn't want to include another macro.

And now, of course, I've digressed! LOL.

I've used Snagit literally for decades. First on Windows, then on the Mac. I love it!

As for that feature, I'm actually using KM's native "Prompt for Screen Rectangle" action for the selection box. So if you can talk Peter into adding that option, I'll use it!

_jims · July 13, 2024, 5:02am

Hi, @DanThomas. I created this macro that calls Get Screen Rectangle. Others that use CleanShot X might find it useful, thus I thought I'd share it here...

MACRO: Get Screen Retangle -> CleanShot X All-In-One

Documentation

PURPOSE

I often use the macOS application CleanShot X. I particularly like the All-In-One mode, but it lacks one important feature: the Width and Height can be preciously set, but unlike the macro Get Screen Rectangle by @DanThomas, the X and Y cannot. Thus I created this macro that calls Get Screen Rectangle and uses its output to set the initial capture area for CleanShot X. It then opens CleanShot X in All-In-One mode.

DETAILS

Get Screen Rectangle is designed to select any area below the menubar. Since the menubar area is often relevant when I using CleanShot X, the coordinates returned by Get Screen Rectangle can be optionally adjusted by pressing Up Arrow (↑) when prompted:
1. Y(adjusted) = Y - SCREENVISIBLE(Front,Top)
2. Height(adjusted) = Height + SCREENVISIBLE(Front,Top)
Keyboard Maestro coordinate origin is the top-left, whereas with CleanShot X it is the bottom-left. The coordinates returned by Get Screen Rectangle are transformed before they are used for CleanShot X.
The coordinates used for CleanShot X are saved to a dictionary. For subsequent runs, if Shift (⇧) is included in the %TriggerValue% or if Shift is down when the macro is started, Get Screen Rectangle will be bypassed and the dictionary coordinates will be used for CleanShot X.

TESTED WITH

• Keyboard Maestro 11.0.3
• Sonoma 14.5 (23F79)/MacBookPro18,2
• Sonoma 14.5 (23F79)/VariableMacBookPro16,1
• Mojave 10.14.16/Macmini6,2
• High Sierra 10.13.6/iMac11,1445

VERSION HISTORY

1.0 initial version

Macro-Download

Download: Get Screen Retangle -> CleanShot X All-In-One.kmmacros (19 KB)

Macro-Image

noisneil · July 13, 2024, 6:30am

Thanks for drawing my attention to this action, which I was previously unaware of. It's allowed me to massively simplify my own area coordinate macros.

DanThomas · July 13, 2024, 9:16am

It was pure chance that I found it myself. I'm not even sure how I actually did find it. But yeah, it's a good one for sure!

MACRO: Get Screen Rectangle v1.1