[Macro Group Activation] Multiple and Better Conditions?

[manavortex]

Hello There,

I'd like macro groups to conditionally (de)activate based on multiple conditions.

For example, Cmd+U will toggle dual mode in Total Finder and do nothing in regular Finder.

Disclaimer: I could probably get around my use case in some other way, however, I have a bunch more of these - so suggesting changes to my workflow won't help me.

I have:

I want:

... basically, I'd like the hotkey to register conditionally akin to AutoHotkey's #IfWinExist/#IfWinActive

1. I take it that this is not currently possible by default means?

2. What viable workarounds are there?
   2.1. I could run a macro or loop that checks if TotalFinder is active and launches it for me
   2.2. I could put the macro into the "active in Finder"-macro group, then do a conditional check if TotalFinder is active. If it is, then I could disable the macro for as long as it takes me to send Cmd+U through to the application, or have KeyboardMaestro trigger the menu entry "by hand".
   2.3. ...?

Suggestions...?

Feel free to disregard if not wanted...

1. Allow adding more condition blocks:
   
   

   
   
   
   
   1.1. Allow adding more conditions:
   
   
   

2. Allow nesting of groups
   
   

   
   
   
   ... depending on how it's implemented, this might be horrible?

Let Hotkey Pass Through

(Is this already possible?)

3. Don't swallow the hotkey, similarly to AutoHotkey's ~ modifier
   
   
   

Fine Tuning

It would be great if macro group conditions, macro conditions and if-conditionals would work the same way for the sake of persistence.

That would also let users (me) (dis)able macro groups by variable and allow greater flexibility.

Thank you for your consideration

[ccstone]

@manavortex

I'd like macro groups to conditionally (de)activate based on multiple conditions.

Hey @manavortex,

I'll bet there's not enough demand for that feature for Peter to consider it, but I think it's not a bad idea at all.

What viable workarounds are there?

Doable.

2.1. I could run a macro or loop that checks if TotalFinder is active and launches it for me

Doable.

2.2. I could put the macro into the "active in Finder"-macro group, then do a conditional check if TotalFinder is active. If it is, then I could disable the macro for as long as it takes me to send Cmd+U through to the application, or have KeyboardMaestro trigger the menu entry "by hand".

See this thread:

Allow a Macro to Pass Through its Hotkey (Keyboard Shortcut)

Here's the sort of method I would probably employ.

Conditional Execution Based On App-Running v2.00 (ccstone).kmmacros (7.4 KB)

And by preference I would have Keyboard Maestro select the menu item belonging to Cmd-U rather than sending the keystroke.

I would only send the actual keystroke if the Select or Show a Menu Item action didn't work with TotalFinder.

I don't use TotalFinder anymore, so I can't test myself.

-Chris

[manavortex]

Hey Chris,
Thank you, that's going to help me a lot.

I'll bet there's not enough demand for that feature for Peter to consider it, but I think it's not a bad idea at all.

Nonetheless, can/should I do anything to throw that his way, or will that happen automagically by being in this forum?

regards,

[ccstone]

@manavortex

Nonetheless, can/should I do anything to throw that his way, or will that happen automagically by being in this forum?

I think Peter scans through everything eventually, but it can take time – he's a one man show and quite busy.

You can call his attention by using his handle:

@peternlewis ⇢ Peter please note these feature requests.

Keep in mind that multiple questions or feature requests in the same thread tend to be too big a bite for most people to bother with.

It's better to present them one at a time in individual threads. This thread is relatively cohesive, but keep it in mind.

It's also a good idea when making feature requests to make a real case for why there's value in spending precious development time and effort on the feature.

It may be obvious to you, but Peter (and others) cannot read your mind – so the better case you make the more likely you'll get real consideration.

-Chris

[manavortex]

It's also a good idea when making feature requests to make a real case for why there's value in spending precious development time and effort on the feature.

It may be obvious to you, but Peter (and others) cannot read your mind – so the better case you make the more likely you'll get real consideration.

Affirmative - something that can't be said often enough. I'll edit the post for clarity.

[peternlewis]

There is too much traffic on the forum for me to read everything these days - I kept it up until late 2019, but the traffic volume is too high for me to read everything any more, so yes, you can tag me explicitly.

As Chris indicated, there gets a point where additional complexity is useful for too few folks to be worth the development time and complexity cost.

Essentially for such case you either need to use the tools to have Keyboard Maestro actively activate/deactivate the macro group as changes happen or have the actions deal with the different cases.

For example, you could have a global macro that triggers when the Finder activates or deactivates, or TotalFinder launches or quits, and have it determine the activation state desired and then activate or deactivate the macro group explicitly.