MACRO: [KMFAM] Favorite Actions and Macros v1.4 Released 2021-12-09

Out-freaking-standing! This had me laughing quite a bit :laughing: though I do miss the custom icons!

On a serious note... it looks like the version 1.3 variables were deleted upon install... but I'm not really certain. Does the macro installer delete all global variables that are no longer needed or do we need to delete them manually? As of right now the only kmfam variables I can see are the following:

I thought that was funny too. I'll put something together to let you get the icons back, if you want them.

It was supposed to delete them all. but I was bound to miss some. Go ahead and delete them yourself. I updated the installer so the next people who download it will get those 2 variables deleted also.

Here's the list of variables I'm now deleting, just in case you care: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

DND__kmfamWindowPosition
DND__kmfameWindowPosition
DND__kmfamsoWindowPosition
kmengineChooseFileResult
kmengineChooseFolderResult
kmengineHTMLResultButton
kmenginePromptResult
kmfam__Action Name
kmfam__Existing Action
kmfam__Keywords
kmfam__Update Image Only
kmfamActionImageFilePath
kmfamActionKeywords
kmfamActionName
kmfamActionNamesPickList
kmfamActionType
kmfamActions
kmfamcResult
kmfamErrorMessage
kmfameWindowHeight
kmfameWindowWidth
kmfamFavoriteActionDialogIsRunning
kmfamFrontWin
kmfamImageDPI
kmfamImageSize
kmfamInputText
kmfamLog
kmfamMacroNameFocused
kmfamNewUUID
kmfamOldClipboardSeed
kmfamOptions
kmfamPickListSize
kmfamPreferencesFolderName
kmfamPreferencesFolderPath
kmfamRequest
kmfamResponse
kmfamSelect_DontCleanup
kmfamSelectData
kmfamSemaphore
kmfamTask
kmfamUpdatedUsageData
kmfamUpdateImageOnly
kmfamWindowHeightWithoutPickList
minstInstallationInfo
minstVerifiedDestResourcesFolderPath

Not a big deal! But I'm not gonna say no haha.

My variable lacks the s at the end... in other words it's simply kmfamAction...

still safe to delete?

Absolutely. All those variables with "kmfam" in the front can go bye-bye.

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You can download the icons from a file I just added to the first post.

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Hey @DanThomas - thanks for the update which installed smoothly. I'm still using KMFAM in preference to the now native Favourites.

There's just one "improvement" I would like to see and it's to do with the dialogs that are shown. I see that in the [KMFAM] Select macro there's a note:

"This window does not save its position on the screen. However, there's a disabled purple action below named "Specify the Window Position". You can use this to specify X,Y coordinates of the window, if you want. Don't forget to enable it if you want to use it."

Following those instructions ensures the Select dialog open in my secondary display but such a thing doesn't seem to appear or apply to the other macros that show a dialog.

I run KM from my secondary display, so to have these dialogs open on my primary display is frustrating.

Is there something I've missed or that you can do?

Thanks!

You know, it's funny. I thought to myself "I should put this in the other dialogs". Then I thought "Who would ever need that?" Now I know. :laughing:

If you're using KM10, you can use "Set Next Engine Window Position". It works - I just tested it.

So either put one at the start of whichever macros you want to affect, or if you want to affect them all at once, put it at the start (or end) of "[kmfam]~Verify Paths (Sub-Macro)" because that gets called by all the macros.

Let me know how that works for you.

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There's always one...

That did the trick! Thanks so much Dan.

The problem is, I was an idiot. Normally in situations like that, I would have gone ahead and added it to the others. It wasn't much work. I think I had just been working on this too long, and wanted it to be over.

That did the trick! Thanks so much Dan.

Awesome! Glad it worked.

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I have just lost my favourites. I cleared my entire variables. Didnt know it depended on the variables list.
Is it really gone?

They shouldn't be gone. When you run the macro, it should ask you where the resources are. If not, set the variable "DND__kmfamResourcesFolderPath" to the full path of the resources folder.

I have a minor correction to this step of the installation instructions:

The macro installs as Enabled. It is the enclosing Macro Group that is Disabled and which needs to be changed.

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Wait a minute! Does this mean that KFAM is now obsolete?

No, it's not obsolete. It does things that KM's native favorites doesn't do, like favorite macros. But I suspect for a lot of people, KM's native favorites will do the trick for them, and they're faster.

Personally, I still use KMFAM. I tried KM's native favorites, and while they work fine, I missed having some of my favorite macros (which build actions on the fly based on prompts).

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Thanks for the clarification. In that case, I think that I'll start learning KMFAM.

The place I want to begin is to create a Favorite as a workaround template for the glitch that searching for an image in the front window does not always work with Chrome. The template would locate and measure the front window and then search within that defined area, working around the elusive Chrome glitch.

Found Images Suddenly Broken in Google Chrome

In that thread @ccstone shows a two-macro "idiom" for working around the Chrome issue. I would like to drop drop that whole idiom into my in-development macro with a click or two instead of having to build it every time.

Is that a better job for KMFAM (I think so) or the new, built-in Favorites?

Thanks.

If we're talking about the fact that Chromium browsers have a tendency not to be recognised as a front window, you can call this (or any action group) with either method. Personally, I have this saved as a Favourite.

Brave Found Image.kmactions (2.5 KB)

Screenshot

Banging around, trying to see how KMFAM works, I see that most basic macros are run with a F15 or a variant. But my built-in macbook pro keyboard stops at F12.

While looking for another F-key to use, I tried searching the KBM editor to see if F9 was used anywhere. (I use F10, F11, and F12 for volume control a lot, so I'd rather not change those.)

The search for F9 had results that make no sense to me, they don't use F9 or even have that string included in the macro:

@DanThomas, do you have any clue why your macro actions are being found in a search for F9? And do you have any suggestions for an alternative to F15 on the built-in keyboard?

Thanks.

Thanks, @noisneil Neil, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I'm still at the very-first-step stage of figuring out how to define that and save it as either a Favorite or a KBFAM favorite.

Try a search using the hotkey tag, for example:

hotkey: F9

Have you investigated palettes? They're a great way to avoid having to remember lots of hotkeys. Personally, I use a Stream Deck, but if I didn't, I'd be a heavy palette user for this reason.

Create a new macro and then double-click the action I posted above. It will be added as an action group into your new macro. From here, you can either save it to KMFAM using the designated hotkey, or save it as a KM Favourite via the Actions menu.

Thanks. That's very helpful

What does "Brave" mean in the macro name?