Keyboard maestro for mac6/18/2023 ![]() It’s one thing to write a script that copies a file to a remote server or API, but writing scripts that automate the UI of your computer can be fraught. Like having all your code in a single repo, another benefit of having all the automation scripts in one place is that you can see very clearly where a macro could be broken apart and used as the base subroutine for several macros which allows you to create a lot less bash/javascript/clicks. It’s really helpful and allows you to share some scripts and not share others. Some folders can be set specifically for a single application, other group folders can be set to only be active on one or more computers. Keyboard Maestro gives you the ability to group macros in to folders. Having all my scripts in one place has another side benefit, which is the kismet of “Oh wait, that script I wrote for work would also work really nicely on this project too!” When all of your scripts are in one place, it’s way more likely to have those little epiphanies. Scripts are embedded in to macros, macros can be scheduled, and it all syncs via your preferred file syncing solution. Keyboard Maestro has become a single place for all macOS automation scripts to live. Unix systems, such as macOS can use cron jobs, but they don’t sync or migrate to the next computer or are simply forgotten. Even if I was diligent about keeping everything in a single directory, over time and when switching hardware, some scripts are lost, some are kept, and some are kept but the context is lost. I’ve been writing little automation scripts for decades now and they have ended up any number of places over the years, like in Documents, or ~/bin, or in Automator, or a local git repo somewhere. Here are a few reasons, and after that I’ll run through a few of my favorite automations. Yes, on it’s face it’s a drag and drop way to create automations, making it the Mac automation Swiss Army knife, but even if you can code, it is extremely valuable. Why am I writing this? It turns out that I fell in love with Keyboard Maestro. So what changed? Nothing! I can still code and I still don’t want a bunch of little specialized apps running all the time…but I have seen the light on one automation app in particular. Why? Because I can code, dammit! I don’t need a menu bar filled with little icons that are the windows to little ram-munching services when I can just write a bash script or even my own Mac app to do what I need! There are countless apps and tools and plugins and widgets for this on the Mac and over my 20 years using the Mac I have ignored all of them. When this is all done, you can tap a button on the Touch Bar and fire any Keyboard Maestro macro you desire.You may have heard that I’ve been getting more in to automation recently, specifically automating more of my work and personal macOS environments. (While in Keyboard Maestro, be sure to set the trigger for the macro to be a script.) ![]() … and then paste it into BetterTouchTool. To get that, you will need to select “Copy as UUID” in Keyboard Maestro: Where I have that placeholder text, you’ll need to paste in the UUID of the Keyboard Maestro macro you want to execute. Osascript -e 'tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine" to do script "PLACEHOLDER"' The action you need to use is named “Execute Terminal Command (Async, non-blocking),” which makes the button fire off a script. Turns out, you can even have BetterTouchTool become a trigger for Keyboard Maestro.įirst, create a button in the Touch Bar section of BetterTouchTool, or a group that you can place buttons in, like I have: I then fired up BetterTouchTool, which among many other things, allows you to create custom UI elements on your notebook’s Touchbar, tying them to a wide range of actions. To re-use these macros on my MacBook Pro, I made a copy of them in Keyboard Maestro, which I have sync its data over Dropbox. Here’s what that looks like, with my secret URLs redacted:Īs you can see, on my Mac Pro, this is triggered by a specific button my Stream Deck, as pictured above. I’m doing this via with Keyboard Maestro, another incredibly flexible tool. The MPU page in Relay’s ad-tracking system.The Stream Deck is incredibly flexible, but one of my most common use cases is to tap a single button on it to open a bunch of related Safari tabs when it comes time to prepare for a show.įor example, if I press the button with the MPU logo, it opens these pages: As with most things, he was right about how much I would come to love it. As such, it seems wise to me to make it more useful.Ī little backstory first, though… earlier this year, David Sparks finally talked me into buying a Stream Deck to use at my desk. Love it or hate it, it seems that the Touch Bar is here to stay on the MacBook Pro.
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