Suggested UI Change for Sharing (Uploading) Macros/Actions from KM Editor

Continuing the discussion from Macro: Get App Title, Window Name, Size, and Position:

I completely agree.

@peternlewis, please consider a change to the KM Editor UI for sharing, that works something like this mock-up:

image

Lots of users have found the current UI confusing, and don't understand how to upload their macros. I've had to explain it to many users.

I believe my suggested UI would be clear to everyone, and provide the best default settings so that all the user has to do is hit the "Upload" button.

I did remove the top part about API, since I don't understand it, have never needed to use it, and it just presents another question for the user, who can then enter bad data causing the upload to fail.

image .

Thanks.

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On the one hand this website is absolutely fabulous in so many ways. I could write a 500 line post about how good it is. However the uploading part is confusing to me, and I'm not entirely the dumbest kid on the block, even if I'm in the lower 50%.

JM's post seems to be a slight improvement to the uploading process.

I would prefer an overhaul to the uploading process. I'm not sure if this is even possible, but is it theoretically possible to modify the KM Editor so that dragging a macro onto a browser window results in a graphical (or KM-encoded actions) upload to the website? Ideally I would like CTRL-Click-Drag to upload an image of the indicated macro (or action), while Click-Drag would drag the macro (or action) in a form that can be downloaded. That may not be worded perfectly clearly.

LOL I thought it was just me! I thought I was dumb. I like @JMichaelTX's suggested UI changes a lot.

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Your requested process makes upload much more complex, and user's have to remember which modifier key does what.

With the minor UI changes I have suggested, the upload process is much, much simpler and easier for all, including brand new KM users.

I'm not objecting to your change.

As for my change, I guess I would remove the CTRL option and just upload both the image of the action followed by the "binary" of the KM action one after the other. If the user wanted to delete one of those, it's easy to do after the fact. Most users know how to "delete" things from a text window without "instructions." Good point.

Honestly I’m completely ignorant of those integrated upload features. I think, I tried them one or two times in the last years…

Why?

  • Usually I post-process the screenshot files (=macro image files) anyway, either to make them smaller, or to highlight some points, mostly both of that. So I can’t upload them via the integrated functions.

  • Exporting the macro file and then uploading it is a complete no-issue.

I’m not saying that this feature doesn’t has some value for new users, but I think that any resources from Peter’s side would be better spent elsewhere. (And, heck, no, this is no critics on KM. KM is fine, and Peter is doing a really great work, but there is always something to improve. I just think the time shouldn’t be spent on things like that.)

Your opinion is received, and is valid. And is nicely worded. And I think I agree with you. But Peter is the arbiter and I think he doesn't mind receiving well written suggestions. I've seen him refuse JM before.

Thanks.

I wouldn’t say this.

Why shouldn’t he refuse suggestions of Jim?

Done for the next major version.

It serves a purpose as described by clicking the Get button.

https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/about-the-apikey-category-18276354/1416

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Kinda related to all of this, the forum FAQ incorrectly states that images can't be pasted or dropped into posts. I'm not certain when things changed, but I've been performing both of those actions for years.

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@peternlewis - following the link you provided gives an error:

Oops! That page doesn’t exist or is private.

Sorry, it is supposed to be visible to logged in users only. You can try again now.

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Cheers and thanks!

The current Share function (10.2) appears to only support the uploading of a single macro. With a Macro Group selected, it seems, at least by the title provided, to upload only the first macro in the group.

Of course, one could make the assumption that anyone wanting to upload anything complex enough to require a macro group would also be conversant with the Forum enough to do it manually.

How so? You can select and share multiple macros, or a macro group with no macro selection will select the entire macro group.

Why would anyone do that, the Share option in the editor is the best way of sharing macros to the forum.

When more than one macro is selected for sharing KM uses the macro group for the name of the .kmmacros file:

Menu Glyphs Macros.kmmacros (3.5 KB)
Keyboard Maestro Export

I'm not sure this is obvious from the documentation, but it becomes clear pretty quickly if you test.

Thanks @ccstone Chris and @peternlewis Peter,

I have been trying to share a whole macro group. The manual simply says:

Share

The Share menu in the File menu lets you share the selected macro group...

But the upload has been consistently titled with the first macro in the list, giving me the idea that it only included that one macro. I didn't test what the upload actually included. I have been unable to select a macro group without selecting any macros, maybe I just haven't been clicking things in the right order.

It did not occur to me to select all the macros in the group before attempting to share it. I'll keep trying.

Thanks

Yes, it will only include an image that is displayed in the right hand column.

In non-edit mode, it will display multiple macros, so I'd suggest that might be an option in some cases.

I doubt there would be many cases where you want to upload an entire macro group and images of every macro. If you really did, you could share each one individually and save the image and cancel the topic pose, and then share the group, and paste in all the images that way. Tedious, but for such a weird use case, acceptable I think.

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