Differences

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--- Frequently_Asked_Questions [2022/01/07 00:09]
peternlewis [People have suggested I use regular expressions to solve a problem, but how?]
+++ Frequently_Asked_Questions [2024/12/27 22:48] (current)
peternlewis [Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Sonoma?]
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==== How do I get started? ====
-* Read the Quick Start (Help ➤ Quick Start) which will get you familiar with Keyboard Maestro terminology.
+* Read the [[manual:Quick_Start|Quick Start]] (Help ➤ Quick Start) which will get you familiar with Keyboard Maestro terminology.
 * Do the Tutorial (Help ➤ Tutorial).  Now you know the basics of creating a macro.
 * When Keyboard Maestro asks, sign up for the Getting Started email series.
 * Watch the [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHazZsl2tCEcSyFu1NbhHoA|Keyboard Maestro Videos]].
-* Follow [@keyboardmastro on Twitter](http://twitter.com/keyboardmaestro) or [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Keyboard-Maestro/117589644919387) or [the Stairways link blog](http://blog.stairways.com) to see lots of third party ideas for using Keyboard Maestro.
+* Follow [@KeyboardMaestro@mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social/@KeyboardMaestro).
 * Join the [Keyboard Maestro Forum](http://forum.keyboardmaestro.com) and ask questions there.
 * Consider enrolling in David Spark’s [[https://learn.macsparky.com/p/km|Keyboard Maestro Field Guide]].
-* Contact [support@stairways.com](mailto:support@stairways.com) if you have any problems.
+* Contact [support@stairways.com](mailto:support@stairways.com) if you have any problems using Keyboard Maestro.
 ==== What is the upgrade price? ====
-* If you purchased Keyboard Maestro directly after 1 March 2021 you have received a free upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 10.
+* If you purchased Keyboard Maestro after 1 March 2023 you have received a free upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 11.
 * If you own any previous version of Keyboard Maestro, you can upgrade for $25.
 * Otherwise you can purchase a new version for $36.
-Applicable taxes will be added to the purchase price.
+Prices are in US$ and applicable taxes will be added to the purchase price.
 You can get your license and upgrade details from [the Keyboard Maestro web site](http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/form/enquiry?upgrade=keyboardmaestro).
@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Yosemite? ====
-No, Keyboard Maestro 10 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 8.2.4]] was the last version compatible with Yosemite.
+No, Keyboard Maestro 11 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 8.2.4]] was the last version compatible with Yosemite.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with El Capitan? ====
-No, Keyboard Maestro 10 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 9.2]] was the last version compatible with El Capitan.
+No, Keyboard Maestro 11 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 9.2]] was the last version compatible with El Capitan.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Sierra? ====
-No, Keyboard Maestro 10 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 9.2]] was the last version compatible with Sierra. Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 2.x still work fine on Yosemite.
+No, Keyboard Maestro 11 requires 10.13 High Sierra or later. [[https://download.stairways.com/|Version 9.2]] was the last version compatible with Sierra. Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 2.x still work fine on Yosemite.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with High Sierra? ====
-Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 10 is fully compatible with High Sierra, however for some very small set of people the Keyboard Maestro Engine can sometimes crash after sleep.  This crash is caused by a very low level bug in the system software, resolved in 10.14 Mojave.  Relaunching the Keyboard Maestro Engine (by launching Keyboard Maestro or by selecting File ➤ Launch Engine) will restart the engine and allow the macros to be processed.
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with High Sierra, however for some very small set of people the Keyboard Maestro Engine can sometimes crash after sleep.  This crash is caused by a very low level bug in the system software, resolved in 10.14 Mojave.  Relaunching the Keyboard Maestro Engine (by launching Keyboard Maestro or by selecting File ➤ Launch Engine) will restart the engine and allow the macros to be processed.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Mojave? ====
-Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 10 is fully compatible with Mojave. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 2.x still work fine on Mojave.
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Mojave. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 2.x still work fine on Mojave.
 Mojave has bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Mojave. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Catalina? ====
-Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 10 is fully compatible with Catalina. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Mojave. Versions of Keyboard Maestro prior to version 4.0 will no longer run on Catalina due to it dropping support for 32-bit applications.
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Catalina. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Catalina. Versions of Keyboard Maestro prior to version 4.0 will no longer run on Catalina due to it dropping support for 32-bit applications.
-Catalina appears to continue with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
+Catalina continues with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
-Note that Mojave adds lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
+Note that Mojave and later add lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Big Sur? ====
-Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 10 is fully compatible with Big Sur. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Mojave.
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Big Sur. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Big Sur.
-Big Sur appears to continue with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
+Big Sur continues with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
-Note that Mojave adds lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
+Note that Mojave and later add lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
 ==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Monterey? ====
-Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 10 is fully compatible with Monterey. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Mojave.
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Monterey. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Monterey.
-Monterey appears to continue with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
+Monterey continues with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
+Note that Mojave and later add lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
+==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Ventura? ====
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Ventura. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Ventura.
+Ventura continues with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave which may require toggling the Accessibility permissions of Keyboard Maestro Engine off and on again, and/or deleting the Keyboard Maestro Engine preference from the Accessibility system and having it re-added.  Generally this is only required once when upgrading to Catalina. See the [[assistance:Accessibility_Permission_Problem|Accessibility Permission Problem assistance]] for more information.
+Note that Mojave and later add lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
+==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Sonoma? ====
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Sonoma. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Sonoma.
+However the initial version of Sonoma has a bug where the menu selection API succeeds but then reports an error which will result in the [[action:Select_or_Show_a_Menu_Item|Select a Menu Item]] action notifies of the failure and aborting the macro unless you turn off notifying and aborting. Hopefully Apple will resolve this in upcoming versions of Sonoma.
+Also, Sonoma restricts access to the wireless information unless you grant the application Location security permissions, but unfortunately Apple do not request those security permissions when the API is used, and there is no way to manually add Location permissions. In Keyboard Maestro version 11 you can poke the system to request this permission by executing the [[action:Get_Location|Get Location]] action once. Hopefully Apple will resolve this in upcoming versions of Sonoma.
+Sonoma may continue with the bugs with its Accessibility System Preferences introduced in Mojave - we will see as more people use Sonoma.
+Note that Mojave and later add lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
+==== Is Keyboard Maestro compatible with Sequoia? ====
+Yes, Keyboard Maestro version 11 is fully compatible with Sequoia. In fact, Keyboard Maestro versions going back as far as version 4.x still work fine on Sequoia.
+The Tesseract OCR library that Keyboard Maestro uses frequently fails with a memory corruption in Sequoia. It is unlikely we will be able to fix this, however the Apple Text Recognition supported by recent versions of Keyboard Maestro generally works better in most cases. Note that it currently supports English-only, so if you use OCR on non-English text, this may be a problem for you.
+Similar to previous versions there are endless little niggles in the security system which may cause issues when first getting Keyboard Maestro permission.
+Also, Sequoia tends to re-request Screen Monitoring permissions periodically which may be a nuisance, and for headless or unattended Macs may be a serious problem.
-Note that Mojave adds lots of nagging for security permissions that can be tedious when first using Keyboard Maestro or when first controlling a specific facility or application.
 ==== Reporting a bug ====
@@ Line 84: / Line 115: @@
 * What happened that appears incorrect.
 * How to reproduce the problem.
+* What version of Keyboard Maestro and macOS you are using.
 The more explicit you are, the easier it will be to either explain the problem or correct any issue.
@@ Line 91: / Line 123: @@
 Keyboard Maestro (v6+) includes built in support for syncing via Dropbox , iCloud Drive or the like.
-First, all except the first Mac will have their macros entirely replaced, so if you have different macros on each Mac you should export any unique macros for latter import after you have set up syncing.
+See the [[manual:Macro_Syncing|Macro Syncing]] user manual section for more information.
-* On one Mac, select Start Syncing from the File menu, select Create New, and save your macros to your Dropbox (or other) shared folder.
-* Wait for Dropbox to do its magic.
-* On each other Mac, select Start Syncing, select Open Existing, **read the dialog**, then select the sync file in your Dropbox folder - **this will destroy your macros on the target Mac**.
-* Finally, reimport any unique macros you saved from earlier.
-Macro syncing is all or nothing, so all your macros will be on all your Macs, and you can edit them on any Mac.  You can set a Macro Group to be disabled specifically on this Mac by editing it in the editor.
-As long as you don’t make changes on two Macs faster than Dropbox syncs you will not get any conflicts, but if you do, Dropbox will save a conflict file and one or other change will be lost.  You will probably need to periodically delete any conflict files Dropbox generates.
 ==== How can I transfer my macros to a new Mac? ====
@@ Line 119: / Line 142: @@
 ```
-Otherwise the two Macs will be considered the same Mac for several purposes which may cause problems with [[trigger:Remote|Remote]] triggers and [[manual:Macro_Syncing|Macro Syncing]].
+and then quit and relaunch the Keyboard Maestro Engine and editor. Otherwise the two Macs will be considered the same Mac for several purposes which may cause problems with [[trigger:Remote|Remote]] triggers and [[manual:Macro_Syncing|Macro Syncing]].
 ==== Does/will Keyboard Maestro support the Touch Bar? ====
@@ Line 125: / Line 148: @@
 The API for the Touch Bar does not appear to allow non-front applications to affect the Touch Bar, except that Apple does this themselves in Xcode and Screen Capture and the like.  So Apple knows and understands the need, but have not made the facility available for Third Party macro trigger style applications.
-The Keyboard Maestro (v8+) editor supports the Touch Bar in the future for use within the editor.
+The Keyboard Maestro (v8+) editor supports the Touch Bar for use within the editor.
 Keyboard Maestro (v8+) includes some Touch Bar actions ([[action:Show_Palette_of_Macros|Show Palette of Macros]] action and [[action:Get_Touch_Bar_Selection|Get Touch Bar Selection]] action) and allows you to have Conflict Palettes show up in the Touch Bar (though the limited space may make this impractical in practice).
@@ Line 261: / Line 284: @@
 So you could use all the function keys (with associated modifiers) on both Macs using a device key trigger.  But you could not use, for example, the "a" key on a second keyboard without also typing an "a" (or swallowing both a's if you used a hot key).
-An alternative is to use a non-keyboard keyboard, something like an [XK-24](http://xkeys.com/xkeys/xk24.php) or the like, that does not perform any normal function.  You can use device key triggers with that kind of keyboard. Note that the XK devices do not work with Keyboard Maestro in Big Sur or later due to firmware issues.
+An alternative is to use a non-keyboard keyboard, something like an [XK-24](http://xkeys.com/xkeys/xk24.php) or the like, that does not perform any normal function.  You can use device key triggers with that kind of keyboard. Note that the XK devices may need a firmware upgrade to work with Keyboard Maestro in Big Sur or later.
 Also, with version 9, Keyboard Maestro adds direct support for the [[Stream Deck]], including the ability to trigger macros as well as control the image and title of the buttons.
@@ Line 309: / Line 332: @@
 ==== How should I name my variables? ====
-Keyboard Maestro 5 introduced [[manual:Variables|Variables]] to its set of features. These variables are really great for scripters. They are implemented in a way that a variable can be initialized from within a Keyboard Maestro macro (A Prompt for User Input, Set Variable to Text, or a Set Variable to Calculation action.), which can then be used in other actions, including Shell and AppleScript scripts.
+Keyboard Maestro 5 introduced [[manual:Variables|Variables]] to its set of features. Variables can be initialised in a wide variety of ways, including by asking you for values using actions like [[action:Prompt_for_User_Input|Prompt for User Input]], [[action:Set_Variable_to_Text|Set Variable to Text]] or [[action:Set_Variable_to_Calculation|Calculation]] and can then be used in other actions, including [[action:Execute_a_Shell_Script|Shell]] and [[action:Execute_an_AppleScript|AppleScript]] scripts.
-Variables can be used with the [[token:Variable|%Variable%]] token syntax in Text Fields. [[manual:Calculations|Calculations]] , such as screen coordinates and frames, whether the Mac is online, Safari tabs, etc, can also be used for some nifty things, and they can set variables. There’s a lot to check out with calculations. Calculations, can even have two elements, in which case the variables can be accessed as array. (eg, ''%Calculate%variable name[2]''). In Shell and AppleScript’s this looks similar. Please refer to the [[manual:Variables|Variables]] user manual section for more information. A [[action:Execute_a_Shell_Script|Execute a Shell Script]] action can access variables like so: ''$KMVAR‗variable‗name'' or so ''$_ENV["KMVAR‗variable‗name"]''.
+Almost every field in Keyboard Maestro actions can optionally include a variable. In [[/Text_Fields|Text Fields]], variables can be used with the [[token:Variable|%Variable%]] token, while in [[/Text_Fields|Numeric Fields]], calculations can be used containing variables directly.
+[[manual:Variables|Variables]] can also include an array of elements.
 Which brings us to the point of this article: *naming best practices*.
-Variables that start with "Local " (v8+) will be local to the macro in question, and that start with "Instance " will be local to the macro instance (ie, that macro and all the macros that it executes).  Consider availing yourself of these local variables if appropriate.
+Variables that start with "Local" (v8+) will be local to the macro in question, and that start with "Instance" will be local to the macro instance (ie, that macro and all the macros that it executes).  Consider availing yourself of these local variables when appropriate.
+Other variables are global and so can be used between different macros and retain their values over time, thus allowing you to store information for later use.
 Keyboard Maestro variables can have whitespace characters in their name. This is good for human readability. It also makes for better user experience in User Input dialogs. Whitespace characters are converted to underscores in scripts.
@@ Line 445: / Line 472: @@
 ==== Should I buy from the Mac App Store or Buy Direct? ====
 Keyboard Maestro is no longer available from the Mac App Store, so you cannot buy from the Mac App Store.
 You could never buy any version from version 6 onwards from the Mac App Store.

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