Am I the only one who has started having dropdown menus "stick" during arrow navigation in Prompt for User Input actions? Up/down arrows will display the dropdown, but will then get stuck (and won't move through the choices), requiring Esc, after which arrow navigation works properly. It started happening at about the same time on my iMac and my MacBook Pro, so I was thinking maybe a KM update was involved. I haven't been able to find any macros that could be conflicting with the arrow key navigation. Prompt with List works as expected, but that's not an ideal workaround when multiple variables must be loaded.
Further testing has made me realize that the problem occurs only:
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if the KM Editor is running, or
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if the Prompt for User Input is invoked for the first time AFTER quitting the KM Editor. Subsequent invocations work, as long as the KM Editor is not started or running.
That is very interesting.
@peternlewis, perhaps that will give you a clue as to what is causing this behavior and a way to correct it. As we have discussed several times before, I don't see this behavior with a popup menu in any other apps.
I cannot duplicate any such connection.
With System Preferences, Keyboard, Shortcuts “Use keyboard navigation” enabled so the popup menu is selected in a Prompt for User Input action, the arrow keys do not work reliably regardless of whether the editor is running.
This is with a trivial Prompt action:
I believe you. However, in my experience, the only times that arrow-key navigation is NOT reliable is in KM dropdowns. To add to the mystery, having KM Editor running only SOMETIMES locks up the dropdowns. When it does lock the dropdowns, so far it has always been fixed by quitting KM Editor.
I think I am seeing this same basic behavior.
But I don't see any difference whether the KM Editor app is running or not.
So, the workaround is:
Try this procedure to use arrow keys:
1. Trigger Macro
2. Select the Popup if not selected
3. Press UP or DOWN arrow key
4. The popup will display
5. Press the first typing the first letter of one of the popup menu items. Sometimes you have to press the letter twice to move the selection.
1. If this does not work, as is often the first time the Macro is triggered, THEN:
2. Press ESC to close the popup
3. Press UP/DOWN arrow key
4. Now pressing a letter should work.
6. Then the arrow keys will work.
Example Macro
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MACRO: Prompt for User Input Popup Menu (Dropdown list) @TEST
-~~~ VER: 1.0 2020-07-12 ~~~
Requires: KM 8.2.4+ macOS 10.11 (El Capitan)+
(Macro was written & tested using KM 9.0+ on macOS 10.14.5 (Mojave))
DOWNLOAD Macro File:
Prompt for User Input Popup Menu (Drowdown list) @TEST.kmmacros
Note: This Macro was uploaded in a DISABLED state. You must enable before it can be triggered.
I agree with this, I have not seen it anywhere else.
I just don't have the slightest idea what the cause is - the system controls the behaviour of menus and handles the keys, I have no code at all related to that, so I have no way to figure out why it is misbehaving.
I don't doubt that it is some feature of the Keyboard Maestro Engine that induces this buggy behaviour - I just don't have any way to determine why or what or how, and thus no ability to make any change (presuming the change is even possible).
I have no idea why the editor running might be related, and I have never heard of any connection between the two before, so if someone else can duplicate your experience that would be very interesting, although probably still not entirely constructive as far as finding a solution.
In these days, I had a same problem.
According to the content of the link above, you could use the conflict palette.
Hoping for more solutions.
https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/autofocus-for-select-in-custom-html-prompt-action-v9-0-2/
According to the link above, it seems that you are looking for a fast way to choose a option for a select or a dropdown.