Another solid update. This time Peter has added a bunch of image manipulation actions and better mouse controls. Every time I build some elaborate solution with twine and tape, Peter comes along and embarrasses me with a new feature set in Keyboard Maestro.
From a recent Gruber link, ImageOptim optimizes images without dramatically changing the image quality. I did some testing and I can not see a difference in quality but the file sizes are typically 30-50% smaller.
I often feel guilty about the large images in some of my posts. I do little lightbox tweaks to only load a large version when it is clicked, but often I just scale the image down to 500px wide and embed it.
I use this macro to quickly center my mouse cursor on my main screen. I have two large monitors and embarrassingly, I lose my mouse cursor occasionally.
This macro is also a good demonstration of some of the calculations with Keyboard Maestro variables.
The macro is triggered by the option-shift left click-release mouse action. It simply moves the mouse to the exact center of the primary monitor.
I take advantage of some of the built in KM tokens in this macro.
Remember my homebrew macro for prepending a file with the current time stamp? Here's the old version with all of the shell scripting:
Here's the new version using the newly released Keyboard Maestro 5.2:
Here's a bonus for quickly putting the path of the currently selected files on the clipboard.
These macros will work on multiple selections too. A big update to Keyboard Maestro.
It just keeps getting better.
Full feature list here.
Serious upgrade in my opinion. The most significant are related to direct file manipulation actions. Even the small bits like "standardize path" and get the system idle time are great.
I keep a long list of macros that are in development. Many are on hold, waiting for features or me to write a shell script. This release will probably clear several out of the list.
I use the Omnifocus Clipper frequently and I wanted a similar tool to add notes to NVAlt.
I invoke the macro with my general Keyboard Maestro pallette (ctrl-space) and then hit “n”. Keyboard Maestro presents a simple (and AppleScript ugly) user input form.
After entering the basic note properties, a new note is created in my NVAlt note directory. The new note shows up instantly in NVAlt.
The macro is rather long because of multiple if-statements used to test the note tags.
I use several file naming schemes on my Mac. For screenshots I like to include a timestamp in the file name. If I am making several screenshots, I may want to prepend them with a sequence as well.
Keyboard Maestro makes this process very easy, with the new "For Each" conditional action. The macros shown all have the same core components with a few variations for formatting the new file name.
I have a Mac Mini that I use as a file server. One of it's jobs is to host a Drobo that I use as a backup drive. I have several macros and Hazel scripts that write files to the Drobo from my primary Mac. Occasionally the drive will unmount either through a restart or some other activity and my scripts and macros begin to fail.
I fixed the problem today with a Keyboard Maestro macro.
The new 5.1 update available today from Stairways software provides a new action. It’s an action I have desperately wanted. The “For Each” action looks mild-mannered enough but it provides an opportunity to drop a lot of custom scripting from my macros.
The action can grab the current Finder selections and pass each one as a file path to the subsequent actions for processing. Previously, I had to do this with a AppleScript, so this is going to save a bit of time.
Looks like a good update and some changes to get ready for Mountain Lion.
Get it at Stairways
Changes for 5.1
<li>Added For Each action allowing looping over a variety of collections.</li> <li>Added Developer ID Signing for Mountain Lion Gatekeeper.</li> <li>Added Percent Encode for URL filter (Clipboard & Variable).</li> <li>Added text token processing to button names in Prompt For User Input.</li> <li>Added text token processing to Open URL and Search & Replace actions.
