I am new to KM and looking for some help.
I use three finger tap to call a pop-up dictionary for a word, and I can also select the word and option+esc to make it pronounced. I want it be automatically pronounced whenever I use three finger tap but I cannot find a trigger for that.
Thanks.
Please excuse me, my English is not the best @Alalalalaki.
I hope I understood you correctly and you just want to let me pronounce the word.
In my example you just have to move the cursor on the word or (magenta activated) in front of the word, then just the shortcut and voilĂ .
Speak.kmmacros (3,9 KB)
In this video you can see how it works.
I derived the actions to mark the word from this post:
Thanks very much for your help. Maybe my English is too bad that make you misunderstand what I want to do.
The thing is that whenever I do a three-finger tap on a word, OS automatically highlight the word and then pop up a window with the dictionary definition. But there is no speak function in this dictionary. And I know I can use option+esc to make OS speak the word, but I just want to save the shortcut action. So my ideal case is that I do only a three-finger tap on a word, the OS pop up the dictionary and speak it at the same time.
Many thanks for the explanation @Alalalalaki 
Except for your 3 finger tab with the trackpad you can also do this...
Tap and Speak.kmmacros (3,8 KB)
All you have to do is move the cursor on the word and then the shortcut.
So it looks then in action 
The 3 Finger Tab Gesture from the System Preferences - Trackpad you unfortunately can't assign KM macros to 
You could assign the macro to a Magic Trackpad gesture (here 3Finger Tap), but you need additional software like BetterTouchTool.
If you use this, please let me know. I will then show you how to use the macro without a shortcut.
Yes, I have BetterTouchTool. Please tell me the macro.
And I actually have an additional but related problem and I will be very appreciated if you can tell me it is solvable or not. The thing is that I usually use web browser like chrome to read pdf, and the three finger tap doesn't work on a pdf page in chrome. Is it possible to do the same job (dictionary and speak) through KM or BetterTouchTool in such cases?
Thanks.
I'll be back at the Mac in two hours and then I'll send it all in @Alalalalaki.
A short video will be available again at
I added the required AppleScript to the macro @Alalalalaki. Please leave it deactivated.
In the video you can find the instructions how to call the KM macro with a BetterTouchTool gesture...
Tap and Speak.kmmacros (5,4 KB)
Video tutorial:
In Keyboard Maestro you can define in which app a macro should work.
Please create a macro group in which you can integrate your macro.
The macro group will then only be assigned to certain apps in which the macro is allowed to work.
This makes it possible to use the identical touch gesture in several programs.
I would recommend you to execute the 3 Finger Touch gesture for the Dictionary macro together with the Command key and use the same gesture in Chrome together with the control or Option key (if not already assigned).
This is great. Now I learn how to use KM marco in BetterTouchTool. Really thanks for your help. You perfectly solved my problem. KM forum is really nice and helpful.
Thank you very much for your kind words. I can only agree with you The KM Forum is one of the best I know.
If you want to integrate a BTT action into a KM macro, please contact me.
For this there is also a AppleScriptđ
ist mir zu hoch - kannst du mir es auf deutsch sagen? LG Thomas
