Hello everyone. I'm really excited about KM - literally discovered it last night and thinking about purchasing. I just have a question, what are the limits (if any) of using it to automate/mimic tasks that I do daily on the web? I mean, can I program it to open Chrome, go to my Wordpress website admin, login, and make changes to the site, all on its own? Or can I program this to login into my GoDaddy account, go into my cPanel admin, and create folders or run an installation?
Are these valid actions I can program using KM? Or is this mostly for on desktop-related actions mostly?
Thank you for your help. Look forward to hearing from you.
All of that is slightly harder because it's on the web, not native controls, but it can be done quite reliably with JavaScript from keyboard maestro. If you're willing to learn you'll definitely be able to automate your workflows.
All of that is definitely possible with KM, with the primary Action being Execute a JavaScript in Browser action.
If you know some JavaScript, then this might not be too hard -- but it really depends on each web page.
You might start with a simple task, such as "open Chrome, go to my Wordpress website admin, login".
If your Wordpress admin login has a specific URL, then it is very easy:
Rod, welcome to Keyboard Maestro (KM) and its Forum.
KM is one of the best Mac automation tools available, its Forum is one of the best and friendliest forums on the Internet. Whenever you reach a tough stumbling block trying to use KM, please feel free to post your question/problem here for help.
Thank you for this, also very helpful. I was able to do a lot of things with the browser yesterday, but I used AppleScript instead. I do know some Javascript, and since it's a more common language, I may just start using that instead. Most of my work is done on the web so mastering this type of automation will be extremely useful.
I will add that since I got Keyboard Maestro I found many uses that I didn't anticipate. I use it for text expansions for example. That isn't recommended if you have a great number of them, but mine are small enough to cause me no problems. I am a very basic user. I just didn't have the time or need to up my game here vastly and I have no scripting or coding knowledge. The app though is worth its weight in gold for the handful of macros I use. That is a surprising aspect of the app and one that is sometimes obscured by power user forums and so on.
Thanks for sharing that! I'm curious, can you share a few other examples of uses that you didn't anticipate, that've made your life easier? I'm still thinking about all the potential of this. Thanks
In fact all the ones I now use were not what I originally thought I would use Keyboard Maestro for I realized when I looked! Weird I know. Take care if you load my macros I am be no means a power user and I would take care with anything from me in case I have a glitch in it I am not aware of.
This is an example. It seems trivial it just moves the cursor via a keystroke instead of the usual way. But it is, for me, invaluable. It means I am mouse free while manipulating DEVONthink 3 and that matters to me in terms of time for actions I do over and over and over.
Other than this one I use palettes a lot and have various actions on Final Draft, a scriptwriting program, that is a bit old fashioned that again makes a lot of things available just from the keyboard, which matters to me a lot. This "move focus..." macro is idiosyncratic I know but makes Keyboard Maestro worth the cost in itself, not kidding. The palettes too. I can post one of them after this one if I can do it.
move focus to high left of screen mainly for DEVONthink 3 Macro (v9.0.5)
My own feeling is that Keyboard Maestro is so flexible that many users would basically have an unique app in a sense. Though I am not a tech whizz I do use, unusually for a newbie, if-then constructions and the dedicated action for that a lot. I was getting into regex as well but found I didn't need to. I am a fanboy obviously but this is an app I recommend without equivocation.
To be honest I have forgotten what I originally got Keyboard Maestro for. I think it was some kind of file manipulation that I no longer do or just do manually. So not only did I use it for unexpected thngs, I ONLY use it for the unexpected things! I had a lot of help from power users here I will confess. Peter himself. @JMichaelTX and @ccstone especially who are really very sharp coders I thnk and yet are patient with newbies and amateurs. I will take this opportunity to thank them. I am also going to recommend David Spark's Guide. I think I got one thing from it that was useful to me. But that made the price worth it. I really am pushing this point by the way on several fora at the moment regarding pricing. One has to look at it properly.
Here is my palette for Final Draft. I really suggest you try palettes, they are a much neglected feature and of real use to low tech users. I know you have scriping knowledge but palettes are easy, entry level stuff but really useful I find. I didn't anticipate but now I rely on them. This one takes care of changing views on Final Draft, which is industry standard scriptwriting program if you don't know about it, but needs a lot of 'mouse work'. The views menu is very important to me and I need to change them fast, this palette keeps me away from the mouse on the app for a good stretch and I find that really useful. Again alone worth the 40$ or whatever low price @peternlewis now charges for this powerful app.
It's the trivial macros that have the most impact because they get used so very often. Here are a few:
Shift/Delete deletes forward easily with one hand
Ctrl/Opt/Cmd and arrow keys toggle half and quarter screen displays
space/i/space automatically toggles correcting i to I
`/1 brings up a menu of all our email and physical addresses
`/2 types my main email address
`/3 types my wife's email address
Opt/= brings up the calculator. In Calculator I can do almost everything with one
finger while reciting the operations in my head. For example
3`4p5`6e performs 3.4 plus 5.6
Many macros inside my spreadsheet do things with one finger while reciting
qq executes cmd/tab to change the displayed app with one finger
I have not read the whole thread, just a few posts, and maybe the usable answer is already among the posts of this thread, but what e.g. vincent_ardern told you, made me a little bit angry because the thing is really sooo easy to achieve with Keyboard Maestro.
Long story short: send me the required data or the wanted task plan to perform your action and I'll create a macro and send you a screenshot of it.
at the top right of the Action, and select "Help"
