Macros are the heart, soul, and meat of Keyboard Maestro. See the Keyboard Maestro Documentation for a complete description.

Macros, also known as Shortcuts, are a way of improving your productivity by allowing you to perform repetitive or frequently required actions more quickly and accurately, tailoring your Mac to your usage patterns.

A macro is a process consisting of a series of steps, known as Macro Actions, that will be run (executed) when any of its Triggers are invoked (like pressing a Hotkey/shortcut) and the proper environment is present (like a certain app is running). Sets of Macros are collected together into a Macro Group, where you can define the required environment for the macros to be active (available) to run.

Macros can do almost anything you can do manually on your Mac, and much that you can't, like running scripts.
For a more detailed list of actions a Macro can do, see:

• Keyboard Maestro Home Page
• Macro Examples in the Documentation
• The Macro Library

In order to run (execute) a macro:

• One of its Triggers must be invoked
• It can only be triggered if it is active
• It can only be active if it meets all of the activation criteria, including being enabled
  • Activation/Deactivation is a dynamic process, automatically set by the Keyboard Maestro Engine as your Mac's environment changes in real time.

For details, see Macro Activation

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, double click it, or select it and press the Edit button. The Macro Editor window will be displayed. For complete, how-to details, see the Macros Section in the Keyboard Maestro Documentation

You may need to import Macro(s) you have downloaded from other sources, like the Keyboard Maestro Forum.
You may use any of the following to import the macro file (.kmmacros):

• Double-click on the macro file in the Mac Finder
• In the Keyboard Maestro app, goto File > Import Macros… and select the macro file
• In some browsers, click on the downloaded file icon at the bottom of the browser window

Note that the macro file (.kmmacros) may contain one or more macros, and will also create the Macro Group if it does not exist in your configuration. Otherwise, it will put the Macro in your existing Macro Group.

Although this is generally safe, you should be aware that, by default, the macros will be imported in the same state (enabled/disabled), triggers, and macro group that they were saved in. This could result in the imported Macro being triggered (executed) as soon as it is imported.

To import in safe mode, with the macro disabled, follow this procedure:

• TBD ( – this needs to be provided)
• (See Forum post: Imported macros are disabled if all modifers are held down.)

A typical simple Macro consists of a single Hot Key trigger, such as Control-A, together with a single action, such as the Insert Text by Typing Action that will “type my address” .

For some real examples, see:

• List of Example Macros
• Best Macro List
• Best Examples of Keyboard Maestro Macros
• Macro Library in Keyboard Maestro App (Window > Macro Library)

See also the Macro Groups, Macro Actions, Macro Triggers and Recording sections.

• Macros Section in Keyboard Maestro Documentation

• Macros Section where users have shared macros they have built.

• A Beginner's Guide to Automating Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro at LifeHacker.com.