Quickly Add ALL Menu Items From a Given Application

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently setting up Keyboard Maestro to control menu functionality in apps like Outlook/Excel/Word etc etc.

I'm currently adding menu items as I go, manually, and I was wondering whether there was a smarter way to achieve this? It would be great if I could somehow get Keyboard Maestro to automatically set up the facility to be able to <select menu> item for all menu items somehow.

I don't know if this is possible, or if I've explained it very well, but any advice appreciated!

Thanks so much.

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2

Hey Michael,

Welcome to the forum!  :sunglasses:

Can it be done?

Yes – for apps that use the normal macOS menu UI methods.

But... It's very complicated, and someone would have to be very motivated to do it.

-Chris

3

Thanks Chris, I'm LOVING Keyboard Maestro. I'm using it with a bunch of music production applications and it's incredible.

Is there any repository availble for downloading this sort of thing? It feels as though a lot of people are probably duplicating work, and I'd be happy to contribute (for example) a ready-made setup for Outlook or Excel or something that others could download, especially if I could piggy-back on the work of others as well - anything that lightens the load!

Thanks so much

Mike

4

Not anything organized like Git-Hub or suchlike – the Keyboard Maestro forum is the biggest knowledge base and repository of user-macros available.

Searching the forum for "select menu" will give you much food for contemplation.

  • Direct search using the Magnifying Glass icon in the upper right of the KM forum page.

Spend at least a little time familiarizing yourself with the Keyboard Maestro Editor – you'd be surprised at how many users completely miss that features they want already exist.

  • Look through all the menus – you won't remember everything, but your mind will establish a framework of what to look for and where.
  • Peek through the Keyboard Maestro Editor's preferences.
  • The Keyboard Maestro actions panel in the editor (Cmd-K), and its search field.
  • The “Insert …” menu items in the Keyboard Maestro Editor's Edit menu – especially the keyboard shortcuts for same.
    • These are very useful for inserting Actions, Text-Tokens, Functions(), Variables, and Date-Strings – and for searching for same.
  • Help is available for a startling number of things.
    • Press the Option key while looking through the menus – you'll find quick access to Help for given items.
    • Note that the Editor's Insert dialogs have a help a help link for the wiki page associated with that item.
    • Actions have a gear menu with options, and you can also right-click on the action to display the same contextual menu, and these contextual menus contain a help item.

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5

Thanks Chris, yeah, I'd seen the list (sure it's a bit dated, but there's useful stuff in there).
Never mind, I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and do the legwork.

Thanks for the help/thoughts

Very best

Mike

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