Keyboard Maestro
Conduct your Mac Like a Pro!
Keyboard Maestro
Conduct your Mac Like a Pro!
Keyboard Maestro will take your Macintosh experience to a new level in ease of use. With Keyboard Maestro you can design or record your own macro shortcuts and activate them at any time, you can navigate through running applications and open windows, and you can work with an unlimited number of clipboards - all by pressing simple keystrokes.
Using Keyboard Maestro’s powerful Macros, you can control applications, windows, or menus; insert text; open documents, applications or URLs; execute scripts; control the system, iTunes or QuickTime Player; and more — all with the touch of a key, click of the mouse, periodically or at specific times, when an application is launched or running, or even over the Internet using Keyboard Maestro Control on your iPhone or iPod touch, or using a web browser to access Keyboard Maestro’s built-in web server.
Using Keyboard Maestro’s Program Switcher and Window Switcher you can cycle through applications or windows, closing, hiding, launching, and more. Keyboard Maestro can help you regain control of your crowded screen by letting you close or hide multiple windows or applications.
Using Keyboard Maestro’s Clipboard Switcher, you can select from a number of named clipboards, storing information away for later retrieval, or store the details you are working on and access them by name again and again.
Using Keyboard Maestro’s Clipboard History Switcher, you can access previous clipboards, so you will never lose your clipboard again. It also makes it easy to copy and paste multiple items such as username and password or serial number without having to switch back and forth between applications for each item.
You may try Keyboard Maestro for free for a few weeks, but then you must purchase a license to continue using it.
Keyboard Maestro 4 brings an entirely new and modernized user interface fit for Snow Leopard (while retaining compatibility with Leopard). The new interface draws on familiar Mac OS X applications to quickly get you devising your own macros.
If you have seen enough to convince you, Download Keyboard Maestro Now, otherwise continue on to Features or ask us whether Keyboard Maestro can solve your automation needs.
Keyboard Maestro is a productivity enhancer with four main functions, allowing you to record and design your own macro shortcuts and activate them at any time, navigate through running applications with Program Switcher and open windows with Window Switcher, work with an unlimited number of clipboards using Clipboard Switcher and with clipboard history using Clipboard History Switcher.
Keyboard Maestro is engineered by Stairways Software Pty Ltd and distributed by Kagi. Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per workstation basis (individuals can choose to license it on a per user basis).
New customers can purchase Keyboard Maestro for US$36 by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu or you can purchase multiple licenses from http://purchase.stairways.com/. A volume discount of 50% is available for purchases of 5 or more copies (the discount will be automatically applied by Kagi after you confirm your payment method).
Keyboard Maestro 4 is a paid upgrade from previous versions. Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro after 1 April 2009 have been issued a free upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 4. If you have not received your free license, you can claim your free upgrade by looking up your Keyboard Maestro license at http://enquiry.stairways.com/.
Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro prior to April 2009 can upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 4 for US$18 until 31 January 2010. If you have not received your instructions on how to upgrade, you can find details by looking up your Keyboard Maestro license at http://enquiry.stairways.com/.
Customers who have not disabled upgrade emails have been emailed with new license or upgrade instructions as appropriate. If you have not received your upgrade license or purchase instructions, let us know and we will look into why you did not receive your email.
It is our informal policy to have a paid major upgrade roughly once a year. This allows us to have a reasonably consistent revenue stream with which to fund development of Keyboard Maestro.
A fully-functional trial version of Keyboard Maestro is available for downloaded from http://download.stairways.com/.
For sales enquires, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, our current contact information is listed at http://contact.stairways.com/.
For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.
This is a very quick taste of Keyboard Maestro.
This demonstration will give you some idea of the power and versatility of Keyboard Maestro.
To start, launch Keyboard Maestro and it will display the Welcome window.
If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutororial and Keyboard Maestro will walk you through creating a simple macro.
Close the Welcome window to display the Macros window.
You can see some example Macros we have included for you.
Click the button under the Macro column to add a macro and display the Macro Editor window. We will now design quite a complex Macro that will allow you to save clippings to a text file. First, launch TextEdit and create a new empty document and save it to Clippings.rtf in your Documents folder.
Now to add a selection to the Clippings file, you would normally do this:
That is all very tedious, and probably explains why you do not bother doing it!
So lets define the whole sequence as a Macro.
Save the Macro and now any time you have some text you want to save, just select it and press F2!
Keyboard Maestro lets you create as many named clipboards as you want using the Clipboards preference pane.
You can save frequently used information like your company logo in named clipboards and then paste them whenever you want, or use a named clipboard to store current information, like the current customer or project.
Then you can cut, copy or paste from the named clipboards using the defined Hot Keys (by default, command-shift X, C and V respectively).
If you have a large enough screen, or a specific job that needs it, you can have the window stay open (by toggling the button) and copy or paste named clipboards easily.
For less permanent information, Keyboard Maestro automatically remembers your clipboard history, saving a copy of each new clipboard as you copy it. You can then paste any previous clipboard using the defined Hot Key (by default, command-control-shift-V).
If you have a large enough screen, or a specific job that needs it, you can have the window stay open (by toggling the button) and paste previous clipboards by simply double clicking.
You can also have your clipboard history saved across reboots by enabling the “Save Clipboard History” preference in the General preference pane.
At the end of the Macro we defined, we used the Switch To Last Application action to switch back to the program you were using before. Of course, most people use a lot more than one program and need to be able to switch between them. Keyboard Maestro not only lets you switch between applications, but also lets you define applications that always appear when you are switching so you can launch them quickly, and also Excluded Applications that never appear. As well, you can quit, hide or show applications. The Program Switcher is activated like any other macro, so you can find it in the Switcher Group in the Macros window. By triggering the Program Switcher macro (for example, by pressing option-Tab) you can display the Program Switcher window.
As of Keyboard Maestro 4, you can use command-Tab as the macro hot key if you like and replace the system program switcher.
Note the applications set to be launched or quit.
If you want to be able to launch a specific program with a keystroke, you can define a Macro to do that and assign a Hot Key Macro Trigger such as F3.
Keyboard Maestro also includes a Window Switcher. By triggering the Window Switcher macro (for example, by pressing control-Tab), the Window Switcher window appears showing the windows in the current application.
Note the windows set to be closed. This is a very useful way of cleaning up an application with a lot of open windows, especially prevalent in the Finder.
This is just a taste of what Keyboard Maestro can do for you. Isn’t it time you started getting the most from your Mac? Download Keyboard Maestro today and you can be working faster and smarter in no time.
Thanks to Dan Benjamin for doing the fantastic voice overs on these tutorial videos.
You can download Keyboard Maestro from http://download.stairways.com/.
You can purchase Keyboard Maestro at http://purchase.stairways.com/.
You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from http://enquiry.stairways.com/.
You can join the Keyboard Maestro User Group online community consisting of the developers and Keyboard Maestro users at http://user.keyboardmaestro.com/.
Documentation describing Keyboard Maestro is available at http://documentation.keyboardmaestro.com/.
For sales enquires, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, our current contact information is listed at http://contact.stairways.com/.
For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.
Keyboard Maestro is relatively easy to use once you understand how it operates. But it does take a few minutes to understand the way the Editor and Engine, Macro Groups and Macros, Triggers and Actions work together.
The Keyboard Maestro application is the editor, it lets you create and modify macros and configure preferences. You use it when you want to make changes and then you quit it. It does not always need to be running. Whenever you launch Keyboard Maestro, it also launches the Keyboard Maestro Engine which continues running until you log out (you can have the Keyboard Maestro Engine launched automatically when you login by enabling the
“Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane).
The Keyboard Maestro Engine is a background only application that enables all of Keyboard Maestro’s features. It responds to your Hot Key presses, watches the time, tracks applications and the clipboard, handles remote web and iPhone requests, and executes your Macro Actions. It should be running at all times, so it is a good idea to enable the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane.
Keyboard Maestro organizes your macros into Macro Groups which are like folders of macros. Each Macro Group controls when the macros it contains are active. A Macro Group can target or exclude specific applications, which means the macros it contains will only be active in those desired applications. For example, you can have macros which are active only in Mail.app. A Macro Group can also act as a container for specific-use macros which are enabled only after a Hot Key press or which are displayed as a palette of the macros. For example, you could create a Macro Group containing macros that resized or repositioned windows using the arrow keys, but those macros would only be active after the Hot Key was pressed so that the arrow keys could be used normally at other times. You create a Macro Group by clicking the button at the bottom of the Macro Groups list. You can disable or enable Macro Groups by clicking the button. You can configure a Macro Group by selecting it and clicking the Edit button.
Keyboard Maestro’s main purpose is to execute Macros. A Macro lives in a Macro Group and consists of a set of Triggers that determine when the macro is executed, together with a list of Actions that define what the macro does when it is executed. You create a Macro by clicking the button at the bottom of the Macros list. You can disable or enable Macro Groups by clicking the button - remember that a Macro can only be active when the Macro Group that contains it is active. You can edit a Macro by selecting it and clicking the Edit button.
A Trigger defines when a macro will be executed. There are a variety of Triggers available, the most common is the Hot Key trigger which executes the macro when a specified Hot Key is pressed. Similarly, you can use a typed trigger to execute a macro when you type some text (for example =addr=). Another common trigger is the Macro Palette which lets you trigger a macro by clicking on a context (front application) sensitive floating palette of macros. The Status Menu trigger displays the macro in the Status Menu. You can also trigger a macro when you login or when your Mac wakes from sleep, at a specific time or on a specific day, when an application launches, activates or quits, by executing a script, or remotely using a web browser or iPhone. A Trigger will only execute the macro if the Macro Group and Macro are enabled and currently active. You create Triggers by creating or editing a Macro and clicking the button at the bottom of the macro detail view.
When a Macro is Triggered it executes a list of Actions. Keyboard Maestro performs each of the Actions in order. There are a wide variety of Actions allowing you to control applications, simulate user interface events like key presses, mouse clicks and menu selections, open files, control your Mac or the clipboard, or display a variety of powerful switchers (Process, Window, Clipboard and Clipboard History Switchers). You can also execute a script (AppleScript, Shell Script or Automator Workflow). You create Actions by creating or editing a Macro and clicking the button to display available actions or by clicking on the Record button and performing the action while Keyboard Maestro records your actions to your Macro.
By using these six things (Editor and Engine, Macro Groups and Macros, Triggers and Actions) together, you can dramatically enhance your Mac user experience.
To install Keyboard Maestro, simply copy it to your Mac’s Applications folder (or anywhere you like).
When you launch Keyboard Maestro it launches an invisible “Keyboard Maestro Engine” that continues to run even after you quit Keyboard Maestro. The engine is the process that enables your Macros, Program Switcher, and Clipboard Switcher to work. This means that they will continue to work after you quit Keyboard Maestro, as long as the engine is still running.
You can quit or launch the engine manually using the File menu.
You should consider turning on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane to ensure all of Keyboard Maestro’s facilities are available to you as soon as you login or startup your Mac.
Keyboard Maestro includes an automatic upgrade mechanism, so to upgrade Keyboard Maestro once you are running version 3.0 or later, simply click the button when prompted.
To upgrade Keyboard Maestro manually, or from any version before 3.0, simply replace the Keyboard Maestro application in your Applications folder with the new one. Because the Keyboard Maestro Engine is probably running, the Finder may not let you replace the existing application with the new version, so the simplest process is to launch the new version (which quits any old engine and starts the new one), then move the new version in to the Applications folder, possibly replacing the old one.
Keyboard Maestro will automatically import your version 3 macros, clipboards and preferences. Your old macros will be saved in the ~/Library/Preference/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 3.plist in case you decide not to upgrade to version 4 for any reason.
If you are upgrading directly from an older version, you will get better results by upgrading to the last of each major version in turn, ie, run 2.1.3, then 3.5, then the current version.
If you have not done so already, you should consider turning on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane to ensure all of Keyboard Maestro’s facilities are available to you as soon as you login or startup your Mac.
New customers can purchase a new single user license of Keyboard Maestro for US$36 by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu or you can purchase multiple licenses from http://purchase.stairways.com/. We offer a 50% discount of orders of 5 licenses or more.
You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from http://enquiry.stairways.com/.
Thanks for supporting us and enabling us to continue work on Keyboard Maestro.
See also the Purchase section.
If you purchase Keyboard Maestro from within Keyboard Maestro by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu, it will automatically be registered.
Regardless of how you purchase Keyboard Maestro you will immediately be emailed your username (email address) and serial number in the “Thanks For Your Purchase” email. Although you can retrieve this information from us at any time in the future, it is a good idea to keep this safe.
If you do not receive your serial number promptly after purchasing, it may be that the email has not reached you, possibly due to spam filtering on your email service. In this case, try looking up your purchase at Kagi (click the Track Order link) or at http://enquiry.stairways.com/ (although that will email you your serial number which might again be lost to over-zealous spam filters).
Once you have your username (email address) and serial number, launch Keyboard Maestro and either immediately click the button or choose Register Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu. Now enter the username (email address) exactly as shown and the serial number exactly as shown and click the button. If you have any problems, recheck that the email address and serial number you are entering is exactly as shown (the serial number’s email address does not change even if you have changed your email address with us or Kagi) and also that your license matches the major version number (eg, a version 4 license will work with version 4.x of Keyboard Maestro).
The easiest way to get started is to use your Mac normally and keep an eye out for things you do repetitively. Things like:
When you notice something, consider making a Macro to do it and assigning it to a Hot Key or a Macro Palette or Status Menu trigger.
Try to be consistent with your Hot Keys, for example you might have a set of applications you open, using a function key for each, and a set of documents you open, using a control-function key combination for each of them, and a bunch of snippets of text your type, using control-letter for each of them (the letter could be a mnemonic to help you remember which one is which). Consider putting a sticker on your keyboard across the top of your function keys to help you remember which ones do which function. Remember that you can use the number pad keys as well.
Also, keep in mind common command keys and system defined hot keys and try to avoid conflicting with them.
See also the Tips section.
To create a Macro, launch Keyboard Maestro and click the button under the Macros list. Give the Macro a name, add one or more triggers, and one or more actions. The Macro is immediately active.
An easy way to generate macro actions is to turn on recording and proceed to show Keyboard Maestro what you want to do. Then turn recording back off and look through the actions — chances are you will want to delete or adjust some of the recorded actions to make a robust macro, but this will be much quicker than creating each macro manually.
You can insert plain text using the Text -> Insert Text action. If you want to insert styled text or images you can do so using a Named Clipboard. Here is how to create a Macro to insert styled text when you press a Hot Key (the same method would work for an image with minor changes).
Now whenever you trigger the macro you just created, your styled text or image will be pasted in.
You can create an action Clipboard -> Insert Text which includes tokens. There are some basic date format tokens, or you can use any ICU date format.
The Program Switcher (and all the switchers) are activated by macro actions. By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a “Switcher Group” Macro Group, and in there creates six macros. Each macro has a hot key trigger and a matching action which activates the appropriate switcher.
So to configure the Program Switcher, launch Keyboard Maestro, select the Switcher Group, and double click the Program Switcher macro. You can then configure the various Program Switcher parameters, such as style and icon size by configuring the Program Switcher action.
Launch Keyboard Maestro and ensure the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane is turned off. Then choose Quit Engine from the File menu to quit the engine, and then choose Quit Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu to quit the application. You can then trash the Keyboard Maestro application from your Applications folder.
Launch Keyboard Maestro and ensure the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane is turned off. Then choose Quit Engine from the File menu to quit the engine, and then choose Quit Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu to quit the application. You can then trash the Keyboard Maestro application from your Applications folder.
For version 2, open the ~/Library/Preference folder and the folder ~/Library/Preference/Keyboard Maestro/Saved Version 2 folder. Move the files from the latter folder into the former folder. Trash the ~/Library/Preference/Keyboard Maestro folder. Download Keyboard Maestro 2.1.3, if necessary, from http://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-213.dmg. Move Keyboard Maestro 2 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.
For version 3, open the ~/Library/Preference/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 3.plist
Download Keyboard Maestro 3.5, if necessary, from http://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-35.zip. Move Keyboard Maestro 3 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.
Macros, also known as Shortcuts, are a way of improving your productivity by allowing you to more quickly perform repetitive or frequently required actions, tailoring your Mac to your usage patterns. Each macro consists of a sequence of Macro Actions to be performed together with one or more possible Macro Triggers which define when the actions will be performed. Sets of Macros are collected together in to Macro Groups.
A Macro Group contains a set of Macros. Each Macro Group can be restricted to only a defined set of applications, so you can target particular Macros to particular applications and use the same Macro Triggers (often Hot Keys) in different applications to perform different actions.
To create a new Macro Group, first launch Keyboard Maestro.
Now click the button below the Macro Groups list.
Enter the name of your new Macro Group.
You can choose to target the macros in your Macro Group at specific applications.
By default, Macro Groups and their Macros are available in all applications, that is they are always ready to be triggered. These are especially useful for Macros that give you instant access to applications or documents, or type in globally applicable text. For example you might have a Macro to launch your email client or word processor, a Macro to open your financial accounts, and a macro to type your name or email address.
To have macros only active in specific applications, set the Macro Group to be “Available in the following applications” and add the desired applications to the list.
For example, you could have macros targeted at:
To have macros active everywhere except specific applications, set the Macro Group to be active in “Available except in the following applications” and add the desired applications to the list. For example, you could exclude macros from triggering in games. Also, if you have an application that uses lots of function keys for crucial tasks, you could exclude that application to allow you to use the functions keys for macros elsewhere without conflicting with that application.
You can also choose to activate the macros manually (either for a single macro, or toggled on and off) or display the macros is a floating macro palette. The options are:
To have the macros in a Macro Group always ready to be triggered, set the Macro Group to be “Always activated”.
To have macros that are active only immediately after you trigger the Macro Group, set the Macro Group to be activated “Activated for one action when”. The macros in the Macro Group will be enabled when you trigger the Macro Group and will remain enabled until either any macro is triggered or you press any other key. You could use this to create a set of related actions with easily remembered hot keys that will not conflict with normal use because they are not activated until you trigger the group. For example, you could have a group of macros to launch various applications so that command-control-L activated the group, and then a single letter press launched the application (eg M for Mail, S for Safari, F for Finder).
As with each of the following options, you can trigger the macro group by pressing a Hot Key, by selecting from the Status Menu, or by clicking on the global floating palette.
To have Macros that are active after you trigger the Macro Group, set the Macro Group to be “Activated/deactivated when”. The Macros in the Macro Group will be enabled when you trigger the Macro Group and will remain enabled until you trigger the Macro Group again. You could use this to create a set of related actions with easily remembered hot keys that will not conflict with normal use because they are not activated until you press the group Hot Key. For example, you could have a group of macros to move and resize windows and have command-control-W activate the group. Then a single arrow key press moves the front window. When the window is positioned, press command-control-W a second time to disable the macros.
To have Macros that are active and displayed only immediately after you trigger the Macro Group, set the Macro Group to “Shows a palette for one action when”. The Macros in the Macro Group will be displayed in a floating Macro Palette and enabled when you trigger the Macro Group and will remain displayed until either any macro is triggered or you press any other key. You could use this to create a set of related actions that do not even need a Hot Key. For example, you could have a group of macros to launch various applications like Mail, Safari and the Finder so when you press command-control-L, a palette of these macros is displayed and a single click will launch the application.
To have Macros that are active and displayed after you trigger the Macro Group, set the Macro Group to “Shows/hides a palette when”. The Macros in the Macro Group will be displayed in a floating Macro Palette and enabled when you trigger the Macro Group and will remain displayed until you trigger the Macro Group again. You could use this to create a set of related actions that do not even need a Hot Key. For example, you could have a group of macros to align objects in a CAD program, so when you press command-control-A, a palette of these macros is displayed and you can click various alignment options (distribute left-right, align top edges) and then close the palette by pressing command-control-A a second time.
To have Macros that are always active and displayed in a palette, set the Macro Group to “Shows a palette until”. The Macros in the Macro Group will be displayed in a floating Macro Palette and enabled. The palette will close when (if) you trigger the Macro Group and will remain closed (and the macros disabled) until you trigger the Macro Group again. You could use this to create a set of related actions that do not even need a Hot Key and that are available in a Macro Palette. You could make the Macro Group available only in a specific application so that it appears only in that application. For example, you could have a group of macros to align objects in a CAD program, and have the Macro Group available (and hence the palette displayed) only in the CAD program.
Even if the macros are displayed in a Palette, the macros can still have Hot Key (or any other kind of) triggers which will be available whenever the macro group is active (ie, whenever the palette is displayed).
You can disable or enable a macro group by selecting it and clicking the button at the bottom of the Groups list. If a Macro Group is disabled, all its contained Macros will be disabled. You can disable or enable a Macro Group from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" setMacroEnable "Macro Group Name or UID" with/without enable end tell
You can change the targeting of an existing group by selecting it in the Groups list and clicking the button or by double clicking it.
You can start editing a Macro or Macro Group from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" editMacro "Macro Group Name or UID" end tell
To delete a Macro Group, select the macro group and then press the Delete key or click the button at the bottom of the Groups list.
You cannot delete or rename or disable the Global Macro Group.
A Macro consists of a sequence of Macro Actions to be performed together with one or more possible Macro Triggers which define when the actions will be performed. A typical Macro consists of a single action, such as “open a particular file” together with a single Hot Key trigger, such as control-F1.
To create a Macro, first launch Keyboard Maestro, select the desired Macro Group to contain it, and then click the button below the Macros list. To edit a Macro, select it and click the button (or double click it). The Macro Editor window will be displayed.
Enter the name of your new Macro (you can skip this and it will be named for you based on the action you select).
You can create a new trigger by clicking on the green button. There are several Macro Triggers to choose from, the most common being the Hot Key which allows you to execute the Macro at the press of a key. You can define several different triggers and any of the triggers will execute the Macro Actions. You can delete a trigger by clicking the red button.
You can create a new action by clicking the button or the button at the bottom of the macro detail view to display the list of actions. There are many Macro Actions to choose from. The actions you include will be executed in order. You can reorder the actions by dragging them around. You can also drag actions between macros and copy them by option-dragging. You can also Copy and Paste actions You can delete an action by selecting it and pressing the Delete key. You can enable or disable actions by selecting them and clicking the button at the bottom of the macro detail view.
An easy way to generate macro actions is to turn on recording by clicking the button at the bottom of the macro detail view and proceed to show Keyboard Maestro what you want to do. Then turn recording back off and look through the actions - chances are you will need to delete or adjust some of the recorded actions to make a robust macro, but this will be much quicker than creating each macro action manually.
You can display more or less detail about some actions by clicking the disclosure triangle. While disclosed, you can try the action immediately by clicking the button at the top right of the action. You can disclose all the actions simultaneously by option clicking on the disclosure triangle.
You can try the actions immediately by selecting some or all of them and clicking the button at the bottom of the macro detail view.
Macros are continuously saved, so the macro is live as soon as it is created. It will be available immediately (subject to the restrictions of the Macro Group it is contained in).
You execute a macro’s action sequence by triggering the macro using any of the Macro Triggers you have defined.
If the web server is enabled for remote access, you can trigger a macro remotely after logging in using a web browser or the Keyboard Maestro Control iPhone application.
You can also trigger a macro using AppleScript or another scripting language (select the “Or by script” entry to display script code in various languages such as AppleScript or Perl).
Note that the web server needs to be separately enabled in the Web Server preference pane, and all macros are subject to the restrictions of the Macro Group they are contained in.
You can disable or enable a macro by selecting it and clicking the button at the bottom of the Macros list. You can disable or enable a Macro from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" setMacroEnable "Macro Name or UID" with/without enable end tell
You can start editing a Macro or Macro Group from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" editMacro "Macro Group Name or UID" end tell
See also the Macro Groups, Macro Actions, Macro Triggers and Recording sections.
A Macro executes a sequence of Macro Actions in order. There are many actions to choose from (detailed below), some simple actions, such as Sleep Computer, require no other information and simply do their job, while other more complex actions, such as Select Menu Item, require you to specify more information, such as a target application or menu name.
There are many powerful Macro Actions available for your use, and you can sequence them together to perform complex tasks.
Process Control actions allow your to switch, quit, or hide applications. The actions are:
Interface Control actions allow you to interact with the user interface, selecting menus, clicking buttons, simulating keystrokes and so forth. The actions are:
The Select Menu Item action lets you choose from all currently running applications and their menus.
The Select Menu and Press Button actions allow you to specify multiple options separated by a vertical bar (eg Show|Hide) to allow for toggling menus. They will also ignore the difference between three dots (...) and an ellipsis so you do not have to worry which one the menu uses.
The Select Menu and Press Button actions will, by default, abort the macro if the action is not successful (for example if the button or menu cannot be found or is disabled). The action can be configured to allow the macro to continue if the menu or button is not essential (such as “Mark As Read” which might be disabled if the item is already marked as read).
iTunes Control actions allow you to interact with iTunes, playing songs, stopping or pausing, rewinding or fast-forwarding. All actions will launch iTunes if it is not already running. The actions are:
QuickTime Player Control actions allow you to interact with QuickTime Player, playing movies, stopping or pausing, stepping forward or backward, or adjusting the volume. All actions will launch QuickTime Player if it is not already running. The actions are:
System Control allows you to control your Mac. Most are pretty self explanatory. The actions are:
Send a MIDI message:
The MIDI messages come from a device named “Keyboard Maestro” which will be created as soon as you add any MIDI action.
Open actions allow you to open files, folders, URLs or System Preference Panes. The actions are:
Execute actions let you execute AppleScripts, Shell scripts, Automator Workflows or another macro. Shell scripts can be any kind of script, sh, zsh, tcsh, perl, python, and so on. The actions are:
The results of an AppleScript os shell script can be ignored, or you can:
For example, you could have a shell script date display briefly in a HUD window every hour, or use a hot key to type the results directly into your text editor.
These powerful actions allow you to add any new facilities we have not provided for, stringing them together with other actions as desired.
You can also use the clipboard by piping from pbpaste and to pbcopy.
Shell scripts are executed in the background and will be abandonded after 20 seconds, allowed to continue running to completion but otherwise ignored.
AppleScripts are executed in the background via osascript. This means they are not allowed to do user interaction. You can work around this by asking an application like System Events to do the user interaction for you, for example:
tell application "System Events" activate display dialog "Hello" end tell
The Insert Text action allows you to insert specified text either by setting the system clipboard and pasting, or by simulating a sequence of keystrokes.
Tokens are provided to include such things as the time or date.
The Insert Text action can be very useful to insert standard text templates, such as your signature, address, copyright or other boilerplate text, and so on. If you ever get email from Peter, you will probably notice that many of his emails end with “Thanks for your kind words, Peter.” - with the amount of email he deals with, you don’t think he types that in every time do you?
Insert Text can expand various tokens, including dates in any ICU date format. For example, we use an Insert Text action to insert the copyright message at the top of code files:
/* * Created by %UserName% on %ICUDateTime%EEE d MMM yyyy%. * Copyright (c) %ICUDateTime%yyyy% Stairways Software. All rights reserved. */
Clipboard actions let you manipulate the system clipboard, Named Clipboards and cut, copy or paste clipboard items. The actions are:
Filter Clipboard can apply a number of possible transforms to the current system clipboard:
We will likely expand the list of possible filters, so if you have specific filtering needs that you think might be of general interest, please let us know. In the mean time, remember that you can apply scripted filters using an AppleScript or shell script, for example the shell script:
pbpaste | perl -pe 'tr/A-Z/a-z/' | pbcopy
is roughly equivalent to the Lowercase filter, except that it only works with ASCII characters.
Keyboard Maestro includes several powerful switchers, including Program Switcher, Window Switcher, and Copy, Cut and Paste Clipboard Switchers and Clipboard History Switcher.
Each of these switchers is actually just a macro action, triggered like any other macro. By default Keyboard Maestro creates a Macro Group called Switcher Group which includes the following macros:
You can create your own macros using these actions or adjust their triggers within the Switcher Group.
You may want to change the Activate Program Switcher trigger to command-Tab to replace the system Program Switcher.
Recording allows Keyboard Maestro to watch you as you perform a task and create the actions to produce a similar result.
Record Quick Macro is a variant of this that you can activate at any time without even launching Keyboard Maestro. You trigger the recording, and then perform a series of actions, and then turn off recording. Then press the associated hot key to replay the recording.
By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a macro triggered by control-F1 which executes the Record Quick Macro action with a hot key of option-F1. So for example, if you press control-F1 to start quick recording, type “hello” and then press control-F1 again to finish recording, then Keyboard Maestro will type “hello” each time you press option-F1.
Because you cannot see or edit the recorded actions, it is best to keep them very simple. A good rule of thumb would be not to touch the mouse, just use the keyboard.
For example, say you wanted to quote a dozen different words in a paragraph, you could click in the middle of the first word, press control-F1 to start quick recording, type option-left arrow, quote ("), option-right arrow, quote ("), and then control-F1 again to finish recording. Now click in the middle of each remaining word and press option-F1.
The Google action displays a HUD window you can enter a search query in to and this fires off the query in your web browser.
The Pause action lets you pause in the middle of a sequence of actions. You can use this to get a visual break in your sequence of actions (eg for a slideshow), or to allow time for the applications affected by previous actions to “catch up” before continuing.
The Growl action lets you display a message using the Growl notification system. The message can include tokens so you can display the current clipboard or the date or various other pieces of information.
Play a simple beep. This can be useful for debugging complex Macros or for alerting you when a long running macro is finished.
The Alert action lets you display a message as a system alert. The message can include tokens so you can display the current clipboard or the date or various other pieces of information. The alert includes two buttons, Continue and Stop. The macro continues when you click Continue, or stops if you click Stop.
The Comment action lets you store a comment in your Macro. It does nothing when executed. This can be useful for documenting complex macros.
The Cancel All Macros action stops all macros currently executing.
A Macro is executed when any of its Macro Triggers is activated. There are several triggers to choose from (detailed below), the most common being a Hot key, that is a Macro is executed in response to a keystroke, usually in conjunction with one or more modifier keys. You can also create a floating palette of macros, execute macros in response to applications launching or quitting, execute them remotely via the in-built web server, or at a particular time of day, as well as other possible events.
The most common Macro Trigger is the traditional Hot Key. You execute a Macro by pressing a key combination - a keyboard key like a letter, number, symbol or function key, often in combination with one or more modifiers (shift, control, option and/or command). Almost any key can be a trigger, and keep in mind the number pad counts as different keys to the numeric keys on the main keyboard.
The macro can execute when the hot key is pressed, released or continuously while it is held down. This allows you to do things like have a macro execute when the key is pressed, and then a second macro execute when the key is released, for example to toggle a setting on and then off again.
A common use for Hot Key triggers is to open applications or documents, insert text templates, or as a way of remapping command keys (although you can remap command keys in the System Preferences Keyboard preference settings).
Hot Keys suffer from the drawback that you need to remember a cryptic keystroke. This can be mitigated by selecting consistent keystrokes (such as control-letter to mean insert text and control-option-letter to mean launch an application). You can also use a tool like KeyCue to display command keys and macro hot keys.
If multiple macros are executed with the same hot key, the duplicate macros are displayed in a palette allowing you to select the desired macro. You could use this feature to allow a single hot key to do multiple user-selected actions. Pressing a number key will allow you to execute a macro without using the mouse, or press escape or take any other action to cancel.
The Typed String trigger lets you execute a macro in response to a sequence of keys.
Typed String triggers allow you to use more verbose (and hence descriptive) sequences of keys to trigger a macro. Because the keys first go through to the current application, the keys are usually deleted prior to executing the macro, although with this disabled you can use it in an application that largely ignores keys. For this reason, the allowed keys in a Typed String macro are limited to plain 7-bit ASCII characters.
To avoid macros firing unexpectedly it is a good idea to include a consistent prefix and/or suffix to your strings. For example, to insert your email address, rather than use just “em” (which would fire if you typed “them”, use something like “=em=” which you will not type accidentally.
You can have a Macro execute in response to an application event, such as when the specified application launches, quits, activates or deactivates. You can also have the Macro run periodically while an application is running or while it is at the front.
You could use a trigger like this to simulate workspaces by automatically setting up an application the way you want when you launch it, or you could clean up after an application when you quit.
As with all triggers, the trigger will fire only if the Macro Group that contains it is active, which is based on the current foreground application before the specified application launches, or after the specified application is deactivated or quits. In practice, this means the Macro Groups that contain this trigger should be targeted at All Applications.
You can use the Wake trigger to execute a macro when your Mac wakes from sleep.
You could use a trigger like this to set up your Mac environment, first determining your location and then taking appropriate action.
You can use the Login trigger to execute a macro when you login.
You could use a trigger like this to set up your Mac environment when you start your Mac.
You can use the Time trigger to execute a macro at a specific time, optionally restricted to certain days of the week.
You could use a trigger like this to set up your Mac environment before arriving at work, run periodic maintenance or backup scripts late on the weekend, or launch iChat for your weekly video conference.
You can use the While Logged In trigger to repeatedly execute a macro during a portion of the day, optionally restricted to certain days of the week.
You could use a trigger like this to run periodic maintenance or track changes.
You can have a macro execute when you click on it in a floating Macro Palette. Keyboard Maestro will only display the palette when there are active Macros, so if your Macros are restricted to particular applications, then the Macro Palette will only appear in those applications. This is particularly useful for less frequently used macros whose Hot Key you might forget, or for complex apps like Final Cut Pro that has so many different but frequently used keyboard shortcuts that you cannot memorize them all.
You could use a trigger like this to add an action palette to an application that does not have such a facility.
You can control the sorting order of macros by adding two characters and a closing braket (eg “01)My Macro”). The prefix will be removed before displaying in the macro palette.
You can edit a macro by holding down the option key and selecting it from the macro palette.
You can have a macro execute when you select it from the Keyboard Maestro Status Menu (on the right hand side of the menu bar). Keyboard Maestro will only display the Status Menu triggered macros that are active, so if your Macros are restricted to particular applications, then they will only appear in those applications. This is particularly useful for less frequently used macros whose Hot Key you might forget.
You could use a trigger like this to add custom facilities to applications, such as to open specific common files or set up windows in specific ways.
You can control the sorting order of macro groups and macros by adding two characters and a closing braket (eg “01)My Macro”). The prefix will be removed before displaying in the status menu.
You can edit a macro by holding down the option key and selecting it from the status menu.
Keyboard Maestro has an in-built web server. You can enable it in the Web Server preference pane. If enabled, and if you configure a username and password, you can connect to your Keyboard Maestro’s web server and login and then execute any macro you have defined. Also, if the web server is enabled, and if you have configured any Macro with a Public Web trigger, then anyone on the Internet can connect to your Mac and trigger Public Web macros.
Macros are only available if they are currently active (ie, they must not be disabled or in a Macro Group that is disabled, and their Macro Group must be currently active which depends on the current application).
For example, if you are running some sort of process on your Mac that occasionally fails, you could write a script to restart it and make it available as a Public Web triggered Macro, which you (or anyone else) could then execute to restart the process.
Clearly there are some serious security issues with this, so you should use a lot of caution when you allow any macro to be executed with a Public Web trigger.
This is an advanced trigger—generally you should use a Hot Key Trigger if possible.
Keyboard Maestro can trigger a macro when any device key is pressed—this includes modifier keys, mouse buttons, programable keyboards like P.I. Engineering’s X-Key, and even the brightness buttons on USB connected monitors.
The macro can be executed when the key is pressed, released or periodically while it is held down. The trigger can also optionally be restricted to when certain modifier keys are pressed.
For example, a macro could fire every five seconds while control-Mouse Button 3 is held down.
This trigger watches input devices at a low level, but it does not affect them, so any key presses continue to have their normal operation as well as triggering the macro. This is fine for modifiers, unused mouse buttons, programable keyboards and other unused buttons, but would likely be problematic for normal keystrokes which will continue to have some other probably unwanted affect.
Keyboard Maestro can trigger a macro when it recieves a MIDI note. You execute a Macro by pressing a key on a MIDI device like an electronic Keyboard.
The macro can execute when the MIDI note is pressed (note on), released (note off) or continuously while it is held down. This allows you to do things like have a macro execute when the key is pressed, and then a second macro execute when the key is released, for example to toggle a setting on and then off again.
A major feature of Keyboard Maestro is the ability to create macro action sequences by recording your actions.
For example, to create a macro that simulates keystrokes, rather than create each macro action individually, you can enable recording and then simply type the keystrokes.
Keyboard Maestro can record the following actions:
There are two ways you can use recording: when creating or editing a macro; or via a Record Quick Macro action.
When you are creating or editing a macro, with the Macro Editor window displayed, simply click the button to start recording. Then demonstrate the task you would like to perform using any of the above actions and Keyboard Maestro will record your actions as a sequence of Macro Actions. When you are finished, click the button again to stop recording.
While Keyboard Maestro is recording, it will display the Recording window.
You can stop all recording by clicking on the Recording window.
Typically you will need to make a few adjustments to the Macro Actions to ensure the macro will operate robustly when used. For example, you will likely have to switch applications immediately after clicking the button, and you may not want that recorded action. Generally, use recording to create a base sequence of actions and then adjust as necessary.
The other way to use recording is via a Record Quick Macro action. When triggered, the Record Quick Macro immediately starts recording your actions into a private macro. When you have demonstrated the sequence of actions you want, trigger the Record Quick Macro again. The sequence can now be executed via the specified Hot Key or the Status Menu or Macro Palette. For example, if the Record Quick Macro is triggered by pressing control-F1, and the specified Hot Key is option-F1, then if you typed:
control-F1, h, e, l, l, o, control-F1
Then each time you press option-F1, Keyboard Maestro will type “hello” for you. One common use for this is if you want to adjust a sequence of lines in a systematic way. For example, if you had a list of colors, and wanted to change them in to a list of constants, say from this:
color Red color Green color Blue
to
const int kRed = "Red"; const int kGreen = "Green"; const int kBlue = "kBlue";
You could do this with grep and regular expression, replacing “color (.*)” with “const int k\1 = "\1";”, which is fine if you can remember how to do grep with regular expressions, whether it is \1 or $1, and whether the application you are in supports regular expressions or not. But perhaps a simpler way is to just show Keyboard Maestro how to do the first line and then let it do the others with a single keystroke each.
So move the cursor to the start of the first line, press control-F1, then the sequence:
option-shift-right arrow, delete, forward delete, command-shift-right arrow, command-X, c, o, n, s, t, <space>, i, n, t, <space>, k, command-V, =, ", command-V, ", ;.
Finish with command-left arrow, down arrow to carefully put the cursor at the start of the next line. Now press control-F1 again to finish the recording, and option-F1 twice to translate the next two lines.
Record Quick Macros can record the same set of actions that normal recording can, however because you cannot see or edit the recorded actions it is wise to keep them simple, preferably just a sequence of keystrokes. Typically, recorded Quick Macros will be used immediately and not reused, but they are saved and remain available until you record over them.
Here are a number of example and suggestions for Macros to give you some ideas of how you can get the most out of Keyboard Maestro and your Mac. For tips on how to remember which Hot Key executes which action, see the Remembering Macro Hot Keys section.
Use function keys to launch or switch to your most used applications. For example, you probably often switch to the Finder, your Email client, your Web Browser, your Word Processor. Consider putting these and other frequently used applications on function keys.
Use control-function keys to open your most used documents. For example, you might have a documentation file or financial details file that you access frequently, consider putting these on control-function keys.
Use control-letter keys and the Insert Text action to type in text for you, such as your name, address, phone number, and so on. Consider restricting these to just the appropriate applications like your Email client or Word Processor by creating a Macro Group for them. Also consider using Typed String triggers for these sorts of macros, for example “=em=” for email address and “=addr=” for address.
If you keep your finances on your computer, then you probably need to open a document every time you enter a bill or receive a statement. By creating a Hot Key to open the document for you, you can save a few seconds every time - at least it might make receiving a bill slightly less unpleasant! If you have multiple accounts (eg personal, business, association) then this can be even more useful.
You could use Hot Keys to connect to your common servers. You might need to create a Bookmark file for the site and use the Open File Macro Action.
You could Use Hot Keys to Insert Text, Simulate Tab Press, Insert Text, Simulate Return Press to make effective bookmarks for applications that do not have an in-built bookmark system or to enter form data. While you could use this to enter usernames and passwords I would advise you use a tool like Web Confidential for such things as it will provide secure storage for your password.
If you find yourself pressing a command key in an application and expecting it to do something but it does not work (for example, command-T for “Replace and Find Again”), use a Macro to make the command key “do the right thing” in that application. Similarly, if you use a function in an application frequently, but it has a convoluted command key or no command key at all, define your own command key by using a Hot Key to select the menu item. Keep in mind that you can do some menu key remapping in the System Preferences Keyboard preference.
If you find yourself missing a feature in one application that you are used to in another application (perhaps you switched email clients and a feature is missing), see if you can simulate the feature with a sequence of commands and then use a Hot Key for that. For example, Close Window, Down Arrow, Return to move to next email message, or command-left arrow, shift-down arrow, command-C, down arrow, command-V to duplicate a line.
If you often type characters out of order, use a Hot Key to swap them by first placing the cursor between them and then executing:
If you often want to save snippets of text, you could create a Hot Key to save a clipping:
Setup a macro which simply pauses for twenty seconds and then clicks the mouse. Then when you need to print on to an envelope, go all the way through the process, position the mouse over the Print button, execute the Macro, walk over to the printer, insert an envelope and then take the printed envelope back with you.
If you regularly need to insert boilerplate text (eg copyright or file creation text), use an Insert Text macro to insert the text quickly and easily. It can even expand tokens to insert the date or other information.
If you are regularly translating text from one format to another in an automatic process, perhaps you can automate the whole thing with a Keyboard Maestro macro. For example, converting header functions into function entries. Using a shell script with pbcopy and pbpaste may also be useful for this purpose.
Create a macro to setup an application to your liking. For example, create multiple tabs in Terminal, each in its own directory, or open multiple documents in TextEdit, each positioned and sized appropriately.
If you always do a set of things every time you launch an application (eg arrange the windows in a particular way), use an application Macro Trigger to execute a Macro when you launch the application, then have the Macro do the work for you.
If you always do something after quitting an application (eg unmount a server or disconnect from the Internet), use an application Macro Trigger to execute a Macro when you quit the application. You might need to do a little AppleScripting to perform the action and then use the Execute AppleScript action.
A Macro can play a System Beep, but an alternative is to use an AppleScript or shell script to speak text (AppleScript say "hello").
You can also use the Alert action to display a window with specified text. This also allows you to stop the macro if you decide not to proceed.
Rakesh Kumar has created a pack to make life easier for Windows to Mac Switchers. It includes a set of macros for Mail, Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint as well as macros to map control-keys to command-keys for various common actions like Cut/Copy/Paste. It also includes a DefaultKeyBinding.dict for Mail to make it work more like Windows users expect.
Download Rakesh Kumar’s PC Switcher Pack and follow the instructions.
The Program Switcher is essentially a highly specialized macro action that enables you to launch, switch, hide, and quit applications. By triggering the macro, the Program Switcher enables you to switch between all running applications. Once the switching window appears, you may select the application to activate, and Program Switcher will take you to it.
The Program Switcher action lets you choose from three themes (vertical list, horizontal icons, or icon grid), as well as configure the icon size, color tint, and the sort order.
You can also choose to hide other applications when switching (Keyboard Maestro also has a preference in the General preference pane to always hide other applications when switching).
You can select various applications to always be displayed, even if they are not currently running, perfect for launching frequently used applications. In the Excluded preference pane, you can configure various applications to never be displayed.
While the Program Switcher window is displayed, you can perform various actions:
By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Program Switcher macro in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by option-Tab. You can disable this Macro by selecting the Switcher Group, then selecting the Program Switcher macro and clicking the button below the Macros list. You can edit this macro to change the trigger to command-Tab to replace the system program switcher, or you can change it to any other desired Hot Key.
Window Switcher is essentially a highly specialized macro action that enables you to show, hide, and minimize windows. By triggering the macro, Window Switcher enables you to switch between all open windows in the current application. Once the switching window appears, you may select the window to activate, and Window Switcher will bring it to the front.
While the Window Switcher window is displayed, you can perform various actions:
By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Window Switcher macro in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by control-Tab. You can disable this Macro by selecting the Switcher Group, then selecting the Window Switcher macro and and clicking the button below the Macros list.
Clipboard Switcher enables you to define any number of named clipboards which can be use to Cut or Copy into and Paste from in any application. To use Clipboard Switcher you simply trigger the Clipboard Switcher macro. Clipboard Switcher will present you with a window allowing you to select the named clipboard to use.
You can use type-ahead to select a named clipboard, and you can use the search field to filter the clipboards.
By default, Keyboard Maestro creates three Clipboard Switcher macros in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by command-shift-X, C and V (Cut, Copy and Paste). You can disable the Macros by selecting the Switcher Group, then selecting the macros and and clicking the button below the Macros list.
You can add or delete named clipboards in the Clipboards preference pane.
Clipboard History Switcher saves a copy of each clipboard every time you copy something. You can then paste any previous system clipboard by triggering the Clipboard History Switcher macro. Clipboard History Switcher will present you with a window allowing you to select any of the past clipboard and paste them.
You can use the search field to filter the clipboards.
By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Clipboard History Switcher macro in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by command-control-shift-V. You can disable the Macros by selecting them in the Macros window pane and clicking the button.
Keyboard Maestro also creates disabled macros for Paste Plain Text (command-shift-V) and Paste Previous Clipboard (command-control-V) in the “Global Macro Group” Macro Group. You can enable these by selecting the Global Macros Group, then selecting the macros and and clicking the button below the Macros list.
To configure Keyboard Maestro, first launch Keyboard Maestro and choose Preferences from the Keyboard Maestro menu.
The preferences are divided in to sections.
In the General preference pane you can:
In the Web Server preference pane you can:
The web server is disabled by default.
If the web server and web browsing is enabled, then anyone who can connect to your Mac can access any Public Web triggered macros.
If the web server and web browsing is enabled, and if you have configured a username and password, then anyone who can connect to your Mac and login with the specified username and password can access any of your macros.
If the web server and iPhone access is enabled, and if you have configured a username and password, then anyone who can connect to your Mac from an iPhone and login with the specified username and password can access any of your macros.
Macros are still only available when their containing macro group is active.
You can configure custom styles using the defaults write command to add a custom style, for example:
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor WebServerCustomStyles -string 'body { background: green; }'
This might be useful if you are controlling multiple Macs and want to differentiate them more clearly.
In the Clipboards preference pane you can add, remove and rename Named Clipboards.
Named Clipboards store snippets or text or images (or anything the clipboard can hold) and you can copy or paste from them using the Clipboard Switcher or using appropriate macro actions.
In the Excluded preference pane you can add and remove applications from the global excluded applications list. Excluded applications will not be shown in the Program Switcher, and are (optionally) not hidden or quit by the Hide All Applications or Quit All Applications actions.
You can configure various preferences using defaults write from the Mac OS X Terminal.
You can set the maximum number of items in the clipboard history (default 100)
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxClipboardHistory -int 100
You can set a delay between each action execution (default 0.0)
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine InterActionDelay -float 0.5
You can set the delay to wait after pasting before continuing to the next action (default 0.2)
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine ClipboardDelay -float 0.2
You can set the delay to wait after simulating a keystroke before continuing to the next action (default 0.01)
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine SimulateKeystrokeDelay -float 0.01
If the command key is down, the delay is stored in the SimulateKeystrokeCommandKeyDelay preference (default 0.15)
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine SimulateKeystrokeCommandKeyDelay -float 0.15
You can set the command line tool that is used to execute AppleScripts using:
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine OSAScriptCommand "/usr/bin/arch -i386 /usr/bin/osascript"
The primary scripting interface to Keyboard Maestro is the Keyboard Maestro Engine’s do script support. You can ask Keyboard Maestro to:
Note in most cases you must ask “Keyboard Maestro Engine”, not “Keyboard Maestro”.
The easiest way is to use the name, for example:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine" do script "Switch to Last Application" end tell
The macro must be defined and currently active.
If there is more than one macro with the same name, you will get an error, so you can use a UID instead of a name.
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine" do script "D0C150C7-8A0C-4837-918A-427E2BCFB6B9" end tell
The do script will not return until the macro is finished executing.
The easiest way to determine a macro’s UID is to edit the macro and select from the “Or by script” trigger to display some script code which includes the UID.
An even more powerful way to script Keyboard Maestro is to execute specific actions based on their XML code. This allows you to construct any action, including changing the action on the fly, without having to create a macro first. A simple example would be:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine" do script "<dict><key>MacroActionType</key><string>SwitchToLastApplication</string></dict>" end tell
The easiest way to determine the appropriate XML is to create an example action in an example macro and then export the macro.
You can disable or enable a Macro or Macro Group from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" setMacroEnable "Macro/Macro Group Group Name or UID" with/without enable end tell
This actually asks the editor to disable or enable the macro or macro group, so the change is both visible and permanent.
You can start editing a Macro or Macro Group from AppleScript with:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro" editMacro "Macro/Macro Group Name or UID" end tell
You can execute shells scripts, AppleScripts, Automator Workflows, or filter the clipboard using BBEdit Text Factories.
AppleScripts and shell scripts give you a powerful way of adding new facilities we have not specifically provided for, as well as controlling other applications.
The results of AppleScripts and shell scripts can be displayed, or they can be typed or pasted in to the current selection. This allows you to insert text that depends on many factors, such as date calculations, file listings, SQL queries, web pages, or anything else you can imagine.
You can also use the clipboard to pass data between actions. For example, a script can use pbpaste to read the current clipboard, and pbcopy to set the current clipboard. You can use the Set Clipboard to Past Clipboard action to restore the clipboard afterwards.
Shell scripts are executed in the background and will be abandonded after 20 seconds, allowed to continue running to completion but otherwise ignored.
AppleScripts are executed in the background via osascript. This means they are not allowed to do user interaction. You can work around this by asking an application like System Events to do the user interaction for you, for example:
tell application "System Events" activate display dialog "Hello" end tell
This window welcomes new users and gives you some options for learning about Keyboard Maestro.
If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutororial and Keyboard Maestro will walk you through creating a simple macro.
This window lets you manipulate Macros and Macro Groups, creating new ones, deleting old ones, enabling and disabling them, editing them and so on.
You get this window pane by launching Keyboard Maestro.
The window contains a list of Macro Groups and their associated Macros.
You can create a new Macro Group by clicking the button below the Groups list.
You can create a new Macro by selecting a macro group and then clicking the button below the Macros list.
You can see the selected Macro Group or Macro in the right hand column, and edit it by clicking the Edit button.
You can select the All Macros meta-Group to show all Macros, and you can use the search field to filter down the list of macros.
You can rename a Macro Group or Macro by double clicking it and changing the title.
You can delete a Macro Group by selecting it and clicking the button below the Groups list.
You can delete a Macro by selecting it and clicking the button below the Macros list.
Similarly, you can enable or disable Macro Groups or Macros by clicking their respective button.
You cannot delete, rename or modify the Global Macro Group.
See also the Macros and Macro Editor Window sections.
If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutororial by clicking the button in the Welcome window or by choosing Tutorial from the Help menu and Keyboard Maestro will walk you through creating a simple macro.
Follow the instructions. Keyboard Maestro will hilight the location of the various buttons to help you quickly create a macro. You can even use the tutorial as a wizard to create a hot key triggered macro to perform any of Keyboard Maestro’s many actions.
To edit a Macro Group, select it and click the Edit button. Its details will be shown in the right hand column. You can edit its name, control which applications it is available in, and how it will be activated.
Typically a group’s macros would be available everywhere (available in all applications), or it might be specific to a particular application (available in the following applications) in which case you might name the Macro Group after the application.
You can also configure the macro group to be activated only after a Hot Key press (either for a single use or toggled on and off), and whether to display the macros in a floating palette.
See also the Macros section.
To edit a Macro, select it and click the Edit button. Its details will be shown in the right hand column. You can edit its name, add or remove triggers, and configure its action list.
To add a trigger, click the green button and select the type of trigger. To remove a trigger, click the red button.
To see how to execute this macro via a script, select from the “Or by script”’ menu.
How you can execute the macro remotely is also displayed.
To add an action, click the New Action button, or equivalently the button below the detail view. This will show the lists of possible actions. Double click one of them to add it to the action list for this macro.
You can also Copy and Paste actions, as well as drag them around to rearrange them. Use the button and button to delete or enable/disable the selected actions.
You can try the selected actions by clicking the button.
You can click the button to record your actions.
To learn more about creating or editing Macros, see the Macros section.
This window shows you when Keyboard Maestro is recording your actions.
You get this window by clicking the button in the Macro Editor window or by triggering a Record Quick Macro action.
Clicking on this window will stop all recording.
To learn more about recording, see the Recording section.
This window lets you switch between active programs, as well as quit or hide programs or quickly launch frequently used programs.
You get this window by triggering the Program Switcher macro.
To learn more about the Program Switcher, see the Program Switcher section.
This window lets you switch between windows in the current application, as well as close or minimize windows.
You get this window by triggering the Window Switcher macro.
To learn more about the Window Switcher, see the Window Switcher section.
This window lets you select between named clipboards to Cut, Copy or Paste to/from.
You get this window by triggering one of the Clipboard Switcher macros.
Select something and select a named clipboard and click the button or button to cut/copy to a named clipboard. Select a named clipboard and click the button button to paste a named clipboard. Click the button to create a new named clipboards. Select a named clipboard and click the button to delete it.
Click the button to toggle whether the window show close after an action.
Use the search field to filter the named clipboards.
To learn more about the Clipboard Switcher, see the Clipboard Switcher section.
This window lets you paste from your clipboard history of items that you have previously cut or copied.
You get this window by triggering the Clipboard History Switcher macro.
Select something cut or copy and it will appear in this list. Select an item and click the button button to paste a named clipboard. Click the button to copy the current selection. Select an item and click the button to delete it (this is useful if you want to delete a password or other sensitive information).
Click the button to toggle whether the window show close after an action.
Use the search field to filter the named clipboards.
To learn more about the Clipboard History Switcher, see the Clipboard History Switcher section.
This window lets you configure Keyboard Maestro.
You get this window by launching Keyboard Maestro and choosing Preferences from the Keyboard Maestro menu.
To learn more about the Preferences, see the Preferences section.
This window pane lets you configure general preferences.
This window pane lets you configure the built-in web server which enables remote execution of macros.
This window pane lets you add, remove and rename Named Clipboards.
This window pane lets you add and remove applications from the global Excluded Applications list.
This window shows you the version of this copy of Keyboard Maestro, to whom it is registered, and allows you to visit the web site.
You get this window by launching Keyboard Maestro and clicking the About tab.
The Keyboard Maestro menu contains menu items relating to the Keyboard Maestro application as a whole.
The About Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu displays the About Keyboard Maestro window.
The Purchase Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu lets you purchase Keyboard Maestro online.
The Register Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu displays the serial number entry window allowing you to enter your username (email address) and serial number. Make sure you enter them exactly as sent to you.
The Check For Updates command in the Keyboard Maestro menu checks to see if there are any updates to Keyboard Maestro and offers to download and install them if there are.
The Preferences command in the Keyboard Maestro menu displays the Preferences window.
The Services command in the Keyboard Maestro menu is used to perform Mac OS X Services which are shared functions available across multiple applications. You can learn more about Mac OS X Services from your Mac OS X documentation, and you can install new services which will work with Keyboard Maestro. Keyboard Maestro includes full support for Services, so relevant Services on your system are available in Keyboard Maestro.
The Hide Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will hide the Keyboard Maestro application and all its windows. Click on Keyboard Maestro's Dock icon or choose Show All to show Keyboard Maestro again.
The Hide Others command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will hide all other applications. Choose Show All to show them again.
The Show All command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will show all hidden applications.
The Quit Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will Quit Keyboard Maestro. the Keyboard Maestro Engine will remain running and all enabled Keyboard Maestro features will continue to operate (unless you have specifically quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine).
The File menu is where you import or export Macros or launch or quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine.
The Close command in the File menu closes the front window.
The Export Macros command in the File menu exports the selected macros to a file that you can share with others. If you create any interesting macros please consider sending them to us and we will make them available on our web site.
The Import Macros command in the File menu lets you select a saved macro file and imports the macros it contains.
The Launch Engine command in the File menu lets you start the Keyboard Maestro Engine manually. The Keyboard Maestro Engine performs all the Macro, Program Switcher, Window Switcher and Clipboard Switcher functions even while Keyboard Maestro itself is not running. It is launched automatically as a Startup Item when you login (assuming you have not disabled that in the Preferences window) or any time you launch Keyboard Maestro. If it is not running for any reason you can start it manually with this command. This menu item only exists while the Keyboard Maestro Engine is not running.
The Quit Engine command in the File menu lets you quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine. The Keyboard Maestro Engine performs all the Macro, Program Switcher, Window Switcher and Clipboard Switcher functions even while Keyboard Maestro itself is not running. It is launched automatically as a Startup Item when you login (assuming you have enabled that in the Preferences window). If you quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine these functions will no longer operate. This menu item only exists while the Keyboard Maestro Engine is running.
The Edit menu contains menu items relating to text and selections.
The Undo command in the Edit menu undoes the previous command. Most operations in Keyboard Maestro cannot be undone, so use caution.
The Redo command in the Edit menu redoes the previous undone command. Most operations in Keyboard Maestro cannot be undone, so use caution.
The Cut command in the Edit menu copies the current selection to the system clipboard and then deletes the selection.
The Copy command in the Edit menu copies the current selection to the system clipboard.
The Paste command in the Edit menu pastes the current system clipboard into the current selection.
The Delete command in the Edit menu deletes the current selection.
The Select All command in the Edit menu selects all text or items.
The Duplicate command in the Edit menu selects all text or items.
The View menu contains menu items relating to display and actions.
The Sort by Macro Name command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by name.
The Sort by Macro Trigger command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by trigger. This is useful to see what hot keys are available, or to group all Typed String triggers together.
The Edit command in the View menu toggles Edit mode on and off. Edit mode allows you to modify macros and macro groups. You may prefer to leave it on permanently, or you may like to turn it off when you are not making changes to give a more concise and visually appealing view of the macros and macro groups.
The Show Actions command in the View menu shows the action list. It is available while editing a macro. Double click or drag actions from the action list to add them to your macro. This menu toggles to Hide Actions when the action list is already showing.
The Record command in the View menu toggles recording on and off. It is available while editing a macro.
The Window menu contains menu items relating to windows.
The Minimize command in the Window menu minimizes the front window.
The Zoom command in the Window menu zooms the front window.
The Bring All to Front command in the Window menu brings all Keyboard Maestro windows to the front.
The Help menu contains menu items relating to Help.
The Keyboard Maestro Help command in the Help menu takes you to Help Viewer (sorry) and displays the Keyboard Maestro local documentation.
The Keyboard Maestro Quick Start command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro quick start help, which quickly gets you up to speed in using Keyboard Maestro.
The Welcome to Keyboard Maestro command in the Help menu displays the Welcome message, giving you a quick overview of what support resources are available for helping you get started using Keyboard Maestro.
The Tutorial command in the Help menu starts the in-application tutorial. The tutorial will walk you through creating a simple macro. By varying the actions slightly, you can create a variety of macros that are triggered by hot keys and that open various documents.
The Videos command in the Help menu displays the videos that can help you learn to use Keyboard Maestro.
The Logs command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro Logs folder.
The Third Party Licenses command in the Help menu displays the licenses folder containing the third party licenses for code used in Keyboard Maestro.
The Online Documentation command in the Help menu takes you to the Keyboard Maestro web site and displays the documentation.
The Keyboard Maestro Web Site command in the Help menu takes you to the Keyboard Maestro web site.
The Stairways Software Web Site command in the Help menu takes you to the Stairways Software web site.
The Service and Support command in the Help menu displays the service and support details.
Hot Key Macros are only useful if you can remember which key does what.
Consider using mnemonic Macros. For example, in your email client, you might define a set of Macros to Insert Text, so use control-A for your Address, control-S for your Signature, control-N for your Name, and so on.
Be consistent in your choice of Hot Keys. For example, use function keys to launch applications, control-function keys to open documents, control-letter to Insert Text, and so on.
Keyboard Maestro also interoperates with KeyCue - if you use both programs and hold the control key down KeyCue will display all your active Hot Keys.
It is quite hard to come up with global Hot Keys that will not conflict with those keys used by any application (a conflict is not really a problem, the Macro Hot Key will simply override the application, but this is not always desirable). It is best to use function keys, especially in conjunction with modifiers, as global Hot Keys since they tend not to be used by most applications.
Remember that the number pad is available (and distinct from the numbers on the main keyboard).
The Macros/Switching was all working fine, but then I restarted or logged out and back in, and now they are not working any more, what’s wrong?
The actions are all enabled by the Keyboard Maestro Engine. You can start it by launching the Keyboard Maestro application, or have the engine start automatically by enabling the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane.
In order for macros that use actions like Select Menu Item or Manipulate Window to work you must enable access for assistive devices in the Universal Access system preference.
Also, check that the macro group that contains the macros is enabled for the application you are testing with.
And finally, check that the Keyboard Maestro Engine is running (the Keyboard Maestro icon should be in the menu bar unless you have turned that off or the engine is not running).
In order for the Window Switcher to work you must enable access for assistive devices in the Universal Access system preference.
The Hot Keys for the Program, Window, and Clipboard Switcher are all Macros in the Switcher Group, so if you have disabled this group (or restricted it to certain applications), that will affect the Switcher macros as well.
Also, ensure that the Switcher Group and the macros are enabled.
By default, Keyboard Maestro uses option-Tab for its Program Switcher to avoid overriding the system Program Switcher, but if you wish to use command-Tab you can do so.
Select the Switchers Group, then select the Program Switcher macro. Click the button to switch in to Edit mode if necessary. Click the Hot Key field and press command-Tab.
AppleScripts are executed via osascript, so they run in the background, do not lock up the engine, and cannot crash the engine. However this means that they cannot perform user interaction. If you need user interaction (such as display dialog), you can work around this by asking another application (usually System Events is a good choice) to perform the request. For example:
tell application "System Events" activate display dialog "Hello" end tell
See also the Scripting section.
In general, Keyboard Maestro’s Device trigger can work with all the P.I. Engineering’s X-Key or other programable keyboards.
To use a key, the key must act like a button, that is it must be a single switch that is pressed on/off. You cannot use jogs, shuttles, joysticks or (generally) switches as trigger buttons.
To detect a key, Keyboard Maestro must be able to see an individual key turn on and then turn off. If you are using a double key on your device, you must remove it and configure either of the single keys and then you can replace it - otherwise it will seem like you are pressing two keys and Keyboard Maestro will not know which to use.
Currently, Keyboard Maestro cannot recognise the left most column of the MWII Jog & Shuttle, the top two rows of the LCD No Reader, and the left most column of the 128-Key. We are working with P.I. Engineering to resolve these issues.
For more information about a specific Keyboard Maestro feature consult the Keyboard Maestro Documentation, post a question to the Keyboard Maestro User Group, visit the Keyboard Maestro web site or contact us.
We always respond to email, however email is no longer a guaranteed medium and spam filters can delete your message to us or our message to you. Messages sent using the feedback form will always get to us, emails sent to us will pretty much always get to us, but if you do not receive a response within one business day check your spam filters to see if they have trapped our reply. If you use the feedback form and want a reply, make sure you enter your email address!
For sales enquires, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, email us at support@stairways.com or use our Web Site Feedback Form.
You can join the Keyboard Maestro User Group online community consisting of the developers and Keyboard Maestro users.
For ideas, see the Macro Examples section.
You can download Keyboard Maestro from http://download.stairways.com/.
You can purchase Keyboard Maestro at http://purchase.stairways.com/.
You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from http://enquiry.stairways.com/.
For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.
Keyboard Maestro 4 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. 10.6 or later recommended.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.