Right click reorganizing

Questions & Suggestions
1

@peternlewis
Recently upgraded to 10.1.1 - totally love all the new features!!!

Love all the new right-click contextual offerings.

Once again porting design flow from Pro Tools and other apps over to KM, I'll show a few screengrabs:

Here is right-click KM macros:
right-click on macros

Here is right-click KM macro groups:
right-click on macro groups

Here is right-click Pro Tools tracks, including divider scheme:
right-click protools w dividers

The purpose of this post is to suggest that KM right-click menus could be reordered for hierarchical importance/safety and also to visually delineate with dividers.

***** Because there are no hierarchical folder organization for Macro Groups, we do a LOT of enabling/disabling, so it would be good to have the enable/disable positioned at the top of the right-click menu, and not buried in the hard-to-see contents of the middle of the menu.

****** along the same thinking, the contextual (menu text changes with situation/context) menu for enable/disable should have an across-the-board bulletproof keyboard-shortcut so that we can automate enable/disabling without having to guess/manage what the GUI is reporting to us as the available enable/disable options.

MACRO GROUPS could look like: (enable/disable divided out to top, delete split out to bottom)

Enable Macro Group

Cut Macro Group
Copy Macro Group
Copy as
Rename Macro Group
Duplicate Macro Group
Export Macro Group

Delete Macro Group

whereas Macros could look like:

Enable Macros **** no mention of singular/plural or number reporting

Cut Macros
Copy Macros
Duplicate Macros
Export Macros

Delete Macros

.
.
...... this would help those of us with 100+ macro groups and thousands of macros immensely.

Keeping Enable/Disable at the top of the right-click (and giving very-easy Enable/Disable menu options) allows us to cope with lack of hierarchical sorting/foldering.

Placing Delete at the bottom of the right-click prevents accidental erasures (we're all working very fast). Thankfully, KM has a robust undo/redo system, but you could still delete in a frenzy and not realize it.

Hope this helps. And I do mean to emphasize all the other ways the app is improving.

As Stream Deck takes hold in audio post circles (like the new generation never heard anything of QuicKeys etc), I've been extra missionary zeal/fanboy about KM.

Cheers
k

2

Noted. But I don't necessarily agree with all of what you are saying, and there are other reasons for the layout as is, so while I will look at it, it probably wont change.

You can create a hot key to enable/disable the selected macros or macro groups if rapid access is required for that facility. If the fact that the name changes causes problems in creating the hot key, that is actually discussed elsewhere on the forum as there are a number of ways to reference a menu item with a varying name with the Select a Menu Item action.

3

Thanks Peter.

Everything about KM is about speed/efficiency of workflow.

Minimally, I'd like to see Enable/Disable broken out with a dividing line at the top of the right-click list. And Delete broken out at the bottom. I suspect I'm not alone in wanting this. (Again, it's lack of an organizational hierarchy GUI that causes far more Enable/Disable than is necessary.) You can't really have Enable/Disable and Delete so close together, it's like laying the dinner table next to the toilet - not exactly dangerous, but a little bit dangerous. Would built confidence in workflow. When I'm scanning the right-click menu for the right option, I waste 1-1.5 seconds being sure I'm not deleting something I'm trying to enable.

I don't know why you'd chose contextual menu display for menu options when the whole point of KM is robust dependence on reliables.

At any rate, I'm about to make a feature request for something else and did notice you have lots of Enable/Disable functionality now. √

I would definitely cast my +1 for a global KM keybinding for Enable/Disable for the full enchilada (actions, macros, macrogroups). Asking users to create it for themselves is a bit inconsistent with the rest of the KM flavour.

4

Hi Peter.

Again this morning, I attempted to Disable a Macro Group and accidentally chose Delete Macro Group. Your undo seems robust but on bigger groups this easy slip puts your heart in your throat.

Big request for reorganize of right-click contextuals to:

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Enable/Disable Macro Group
Hide Disabled Macro Groups
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Cut Macro Group
Copy Macro Group
Copy as >
Rename Macro Group
Duplicate Macro Group
Export Macro Group
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Delete Macro Group
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

(I know you have a recent update which I haven't moved up to yet. So forgive me if anything here has already changed.)

5

Noted. But again, it follows the Edit menu, and the Edit menu structure is rigidly defined to start with Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete.

It should have some missing additions like Enable/Disable and Copy as ➤ Image.

But starting with Cut/Copy/Delete is probably not going to change.

1 Like
6

Thanks Peter.

OK this makes sense, I didn't understand that detail. I have taken a look, and you do have differences between the Edit menu and right-click menu. Leading with cut/copy/paste entirely makes sense, (even with undo/redo preceding it). I was only pushing for Delete and Enable to be separated out from the rest, and being separated at the bottom of the list would be totally fine.

My wagon is fixed here with a persistent, always-on, never-changing KM keybinding for globally enabling/disabling any selected item: Enable Macro Group/s / Disable Macro Group/s at minimum. Feels like this should be an inbuilt feature. ie. a dedicated keybinding for those [√] buttons.

All of this returns to the dire need for folderizing Macro Groups in a traditional directory hierarchy. With things in current state, there's a need for an always-works, don't-have-to--think-about-it Enable/Disable flow that doesn't risk nuking vital developments.

Appreciative and awed as always.

7

Which one, there are three.

I'm afraid in this case, your definition of “dire” and mine are quite different. I have no current plans to add folders to the Keyboard Maestro editor - the added complexity far outweighs the benefits for the vast majority of users. So I'm afraid I wouldn't be holding your breath for that to happen. It's not entirely impossible, but it is not likely either.

9

Here is a great solution to this by @gglick - one hotkey to enable/disable whatever is selected in Keyboard Maestro including multiple selection of Actions etc. It still works for KM10

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