Keyboard Maestro IconKeyboard Maestro

Conduct your Mac Like a Pro!

Administrative Details

Requirements

Keyboard Maestro 4 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. 10.6 or later recommended.

Distribution

You may distribute this program in any way you wish as long as you only distribute the unmodified Keyboard Maestro package, as downloaded from www.stairways.com. You may not break Keyboard Maestro up into its component files and distribute parts of it separately.

History

Following on the success of Program Switcher for Classic Mac OS, Michael Kamprath wrote Keyboard Maestro for Mac OS X and released it in early 2002. Incorporating an impressively powerful hot key macro facility, as well as Program and Clipboard Switching facilities, it rapidly became an indispensable tool for many Mac OS X users, including us here at Stairways Software.

Development continued on version 1 through the end of 2002, and then work began on version 2. The first beta of 2.0 was released in early 2003 and development continued until the 2.0b6 beta released in May 2003. After that, life and work got in the way. Keyboard Maestro languished for over a year as Michael found that he did not have the time or energy to continue development.

Around May 2004, we contacted Michael as a concerned user to query the long delay in the eagerly awaited 2.0 release. When we learned that Michael was considering abandoning the program we offered to purchase it from him to ensure that we would not lose this valuable tool, as well as to continue the fine tradition that he had started.

On June 30, 2004 the deal was struck and Stairways Software acquired all the rights to Keyboard Maestro. Our aim was to resolve the outstanding issues with Keyboard Maestro and release 2.0 as soon as possible, which we did in September 2004. Keyboard Maestro 2 introduced many new Macro Triggers (such as Application, Time of Day, and so on), Macro Groups to allow easy control over when macros are active, and many new actions.

Development of Keyboard Maestro competed for resources with development of Interarchy until the latter was sold to lead developer Matthew Drayton in early 2007. After a short break, development on Keyboard Maestro 3 started in earnest and resulted in many new features, including improved and streamlined user interface, recording, new triggers, built-in web server, new actions, and numerous minor enhancements. Keyboard Maestro 3 was released in April 2008 followed by a succession of releases over the rest of 2008.

Development of Keyboard Maestro 4 began in earnest in late 2008 and was released in late 2009. Version 4 was a complete rewrite of the user interface, bringing with it a modern look and feel reminiscent of various modern Apple applications.

Going forward, we plan to develop Keyboard Maestro aggressively, bringing it to new levels of both power and ease of use in the long tradition of both Mac OS and Stairways Software.

Credits

Thanks to Michael Kamprath for all his work producing Keyboard Maestro.

Thanks to Alan Gentle for many example Macro ideas.

Thanks to Ken G. Brown for some great beta testing.

Thanks to Rakesh Kumar for the set of Switcher Macros.

Thanks to Sam Stephenson and the Prototype Core Team for the Prototype JavaScript Framework.

Thanks also to:

Thanks to Corentin, Philippe, Stephen and others for their great assistance with beta testing.

Thanks to Andy for great help editing this documentation.

Thanks also to the many others who have provided input and support over the past decade.

Warranty

This program should do what we have described in this document. If it does not, you can simply stop using it. If you purchase it, and within 30 days find that it does not do what we have described here, then you can request a refund and your money will be refunded and we will cancel your license.

Licenses

Keyboard Maestro is copyright 2009 Stairways Software Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. You may use this program for a short trial period and then you must purchase the program or stop using it.

Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per-Mac basis. You must purchase a license for each Mac you use it on. We offer steep volume discounts up to 65% off.

Individuals purchasing for non-commercial purposes may license it on a per-User basis.

Trademarks owned by Third Parties such as Mac, Mac OS X, and BBEdit, are owned by their respective owners and no license is granted for their use.

Fine Print

Keyboard Maestro, keyboardmaestro.com and stairways.com are the property of Stairways Software Pty Ltd. Stairways Software Pty Ltd hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Stairways Software Pty Ltd will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if Stairways Software Pty Ltd or an agent of theirs has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Stairways Software Pty Ltd be liable for any damages, regardless of the form of the claim. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software.

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Documentation

Old Documentation