I am new to keyboard maestro and haven't seen a good thread like this so I am really curious to see how people use their macros. I suppose quite a lot of them will be personal and unique but I am really interested to see how other people use KM and what macros you guys use to automate and better your life.
Here is one macro that I made yesterday that I am quite happy with. I often do research with my browser and Ulysses open and this allows me to quickly paste highlighted text into an open Ulysses app. Here is the macro :
I didn't find a way to post the macro not as an image but it is pretty simple.
I really hope you guys will share some of the cool things you have built that you use very often. I have a lot of workflows in Alfred that I use every day but KM is new for me an I am looking for some inspiration.
My most used macro is a macro that files an email message away into my āReadā folder. I think I get too much email.
High use macros also include macros that fix the position of the Twitter window and hide it when its not at the front, and bring all the Finder windows to the front when the Finder activates (in other words, automatic macros that happen when applications are switching without me doing anything).
And then, unsurprisingly, my next most used macro is a text expansion from ākkmā to āKeyboard Maestroā.
I use the App key on a generic keyboard as a modifier for switching between applications. You can see how it works at the link below. I use it hundreds of times a day, at least.
I have a bunch of macros I use with Final Cut. I'm automating workflows that are insane, and I'm really proud of some of the macros. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people who would appreciate them. Still, here's part of my most-used macro:
This is the prompt that controls my most-used macro. It's for making a compound clip from the timeline, using a standard naming convention. Everything is driven by config files.
The prompt has a drop-down for the standard clip names I use, and an MRU of the last n names used (because the list is really long). I can add new names to the list. Add a prefix to the name, and do a Regex to add something else to the name (that won't get stored in the ClipNames).
The image above produces a clip name like this: "_ND01 Animals 720p _LOGO - Monkeys".
Then it causes Final Cut to slice and dice, creating a compound clip. It checks to make sure all expected conditions are there, by doing some Find Image actions. It's really pretty cool.
@nikivi, you inspired me to do a fairly exhaustive blog post of my most often used scripts and macros. Rather than paste it all back in here, go ahead to the blog and read it for yourself. Iām happy to post any of the macros that look interesting to you.
Really opened my eyes on how useful selection palette can be, especially your āPasteā palette seems really nice. I use quite a few similar macros myself but have them in Alfred.
I actually want to make my own sort of āsmart pasteā hotkey where if I do press it, it will give me my personalised palette of sorts according to what I have in the clipboard at that moment. Would be nice if you could share your āPasteā macros.
Thank you a lot for this blog post, was quite an informative read.
iNik - Thanks for your bog post. Iām getting ready to attempt a video tutorial that shows some of the benefits of KM for the average user, and some of your macro ideas will really help. Thanks!
Most of my Evernote scripts can be found on older blog posts. Like I said, so many of them donāt work that Iāve pretty well stopped trying. This should get you to them:
I have a 15-item clipboard stack that I use frequently. Configuration requires several steps and some of the subroutines may be obsolete with the current version of KM, but the solution includes macros to add to the stack, paste from top of stack with removing, paste from bottom of stack with removing, paste from top of stack without removing, paste from bottom of stack without removing, preserve preliminary existing clipboard, reinstate preserved clipboard, and empty contents of all stack items. Iāll try to provide the solution and instructions if there is any interest.
Mostly for the OP @nikivi. The simple ones are the most used (according to KMās sort), but are hardly the most valuable to me. Anyway:
Load LaunchBar to search Google with current clipboard
Delete all Junk Mail and empty Trash in Mail
Insert password I need to use a few times a day
Several boiler-plate text insertions
Many simple text insertions (emoticons, āāā„ā§āā ā¹ &c.)
Many other simple text insertions (application names, email addresses, dates in different formats, addresses, &c.)
STOP ALL MACROS
Sorting by time saved brings the hundreds of macros specific to my work to the top of the list. These are almost all to automate specific exact processes I had to repeat on different data. This is when I started to use, understand, and appreciate KM.
There is one other logical group that didnāt show up in either of two sets above: macros that help me set-up and run programs I use regularly, such as Aperture (now, alas, defunct).
And a set I donāt use: clipboard utilities. But that is only because I use LaunchBarās, and only because I used it first. Otherwise I would use KM clipboard utilities all day every day.
You say āSend to LaunchBar: For some of my most frequently used apps, I have an AppleScript that mimics LaunchBarās āinstant sendā feature and just places the file Iām working on into LaunchBar.ā What do these KMacros provide that LBās āInstant Sendā does not? That it gets the currently loaded file as a file, rather than a selection from the file?
Right. Itās like Instant Send from the Finder but for the document Iām working on, so I donāt have to switch apps.
Itās just a handful of little AppleScripts to get the current document path and then āopen with LaunchBarā KM action.
Unfortunately every app in the world seems to have its own nomenclature for the path of a document, so Iāve had to hand-craft macros for each individual application.
Iāve added the Clip Stack Macro group to the Macros category of the forum. Obviously, I didnāt correctly name the Macro group for the download file (itās currently āUntitledā), but when I tested the upload by installing on a clean Mac with no previous KM installation, the solution appeared to be working as expected. I discovered that the only preparatory actions needed (If you can live with the default triggers) after double-clicking the Macro group download to install are to
use Clipboards in KM preferences to change the contents of the new STACKEMPTY clipboard item to āSTACKEMPTYā (no quotes, of course), then to
press āāF9 to clear the rest of the Clipboard Stack.
I think the explanation Iāve included in the accompanying post is adequate, but I discovered that explaining the concept was tricky enough even for me that I had to make several edits before I was satisfied with it. So please donāt hesitate to make suggestions. Thanks.
That is really great, canāt think of any use cases for it right now but this does look really interesting. Iāll try to incorporate it into my workflow in some way. Thank you for sharing.
