Request for macro sorting features such as sub-groups and re-ordering

I feel like I want to organize my macros in directories i.e. with subfolders. I also would welcome the ability to reorder my macros without needing to add characters to the beginning of their names.

I just keeping making more little useful macros as I get better and learn new things. But the more I make, the harder it is to find them and the less motivated I am to make more. I feel like this is an unnecessary limit.

I think the sub-folders request is more important imo.

Also, a smaller but relevant request is to make the Global Macro Group removable. I do not currently use it for anything, so it is necessarily in the way.

Thank you for considering.

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Quoted from (Feature Request: Folders Within Folders (Or, Groups Within Groups)).

Folders within Groups, or Groups within Folders, or Nested Folders/Groups is an occasionally asked for feature.

Obviously for most users, with even a hundred macros, this is overkill, so it is a feature largely appropriate more to serious power users than general Keyboard Maestro users (for myself, even with 70 groups and 1000 macros, I can’t remember ever wishing for another level of groups, although the group list is a little longer than practical).

The problem with the concept is largely the extra UI and cognitive complexity it entails. Currently Macro Groups have a very clear purpose centred around macro activation. Adding another level (or levels) complicates that concept dramatically. Does each level control activation. Is activation some sort of “and” condition of all the parent macro groups? Etc. Its not that it couldn’t be made to make sense, but it is a lot of complexity.

In any event, I have no plans for adding multiple levels of groups for Keyboard Maestro 8, so it’s not a solution that will help you any time in the next several years.

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Hello @Matthew16, I sort my actions / macros in a palette and then in sup-pallets. Thanks @DanThomas and its macro "Palette Organizer" I sort it individually then here a short video.

This arrangement I have created for each of my apps. Does this help you?

Please excuse my English ... Google Translate is my best friend :wink:

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In lieu of sub-groups, have you tried the various Macro search tools?
I have found that by using consistent keywords in my Macro titles I can quickly find the one I want by a search for macro name.

Macro Search Tools

  1. KM App/Editor Global Search -- press F
  • Then use the Search qualifiers, like n: to search for characters in the Macro Name.
  • Example: n:@pdf
    • I use text tags like "@PDF" in my macro names.
    • So this search would find all of my macros that contain "@PDF"
      .
  1. Macro Search Tool by @DanThomas:
    Go To Macro by Name (Spotlight)
    .
  2. Macro with KM Action "Trigger Macro by Name"
    .
  3. Macro to Trigger by Name by @DanThomas:
    Execute Macro by Name (Spotlight)
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@peternlewis I see where you are coming from. Thanks for being clear about your position on this. Personally I still would prefer to have this feature, but in the mean time I will manage.

@appleianer @JMichaelTX I'm happy to see that we have found other ways to adapt to large amounts of macros. I will definitely be looking into these ideas. appleianer, thanks very much for the video. It's so interesting to see how others have managed with large numbers of macros.

Last night I discovered another way to be more organized I'd like to share:

When you are creating hotkey macros for specific apps, don't make a group for each app. Rather, make a single group for all hotkeys. Each macro is for a single hotkey, and doesn't interfere with other apps that use the same key. This substantially reduced my number of groups. For example, two of my apps use a different emoji viewer so I needed to reroute the hotkey:

As you can see in the last three actions, even though this is a global macro it does not interfere with other apps :smirk:

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It's nice that the KM global search will return results from macro names, actions, notes, etc. If you include tags in a comment action you can use those to search too. Dan's Search tools only use the name, so both methods are useful.

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Is there a way to make a macro that opens a saved search in KM editor similar to the `editmacro “whatever”’ applescript command? Or can this be done with UI scripting?

Someone will probably provide a better solution, but you could always brute force it like this:

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It is not clear to me what you mean by "similar to the `editmacro "whatever"' applescript command".

However, as I stated above you can invoke the KM Editor global search using F.
You could build macros that do any of the following:

  1. Type the Global Search shortcut, followed by your specific saved search text
    OR
  2. Manually press the Global Search shortcut, THEN invoke any KM Macro you want (using typed string or hotkey) that inserts the saved search text.

I just tested #2 with this macro, and it seems to work well:

Of course, you can use any trigger you like.

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Sorry that was very unclear. Let me try again.

Is there a way to search for or open macro groups? Then again, if there isn't a built in way to do this, I suppose one workaround could be to create a macro with the same name of the group inside of each group.

Hey Matt,

Nothing built-in, but yet again @DanThomas comes to the rescue:

MACRO: Go To Group by Name (Spotlight)

-Chris

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