Keyboard Maestro Wiki

Keyboard Maestro 8 User Manual

Table of Contents

Keyboard Maestro 8 User Manual

Overview

Keyboard Maestro will take your Macintosh experience to a new level. Keyboard Maestro enables you to create or record custom macro shortcuts that you can activate at any time. For example, your macros could help you navigate running applications or work with an unlimited number of clipboards. Best of all, every macro you create is available using simple keystrokes you choose or a variety of other triggers. The only limit to Keyboard Maestro is your imagination!

Using Keyboard Maestro’s powerful Macros, you can make your Mac behave the way you want it to behave – open documents when and where you want them, type sentences with the press of a key, expand abbreviations into entire paragraphs, control web applications, and much more. You simply define what you want your Mac to do and when you want it done.

Keyboard Maestro comes complete with a clipboard history, saving everything you copy for later use so you’ll never lose something on your clipboard again, as well as named clipboards where you can store commonly used images or text.

Keyboard Maestro also includes a powerful Application Switcher and Window Switcher so you can cycle through applications or windows, closing, hiding, launching, and more as well as an Application Launcher that lets you quickly launch applications.

Keyboard Maestro requires a Mac running OS X Yosemite 10.10.0 or later.

Keyboard Maestro is free to try with no limitations. Once the trial period ends, a license must be purchased to continue using it.

What’s New?

Keyboard Maestro 8 expands on the powerful base of previous versions, enhancing the editor, expanded MIDI support, adding comprehensive AppleScript support, revamped clipboard switchers, lots of new actions and additions to the engine. Keyboard Maestro 8 requires OS X 10.10.0 Yosemite or later (10.10.3 or later recommended).

8.2.4

  • Fix for Mojave to ensure macros work immediately after enabling Accessibility permissions.

8.2.3

  • Clarified text of “Save … Between Launches” preferences.
  • Adjusted sort order of hot keys to put function keys at the end of the alphabet.
  • Added “push” as a search synonym for Press a Button action.
  • Ensure View-Disable Macro Group is disabled for the Global Macro Group. (forum)
  • Resolved a case where the Clipboard Switcher could fail to open.
  • Fixed a crash in the editor related to cached compiled scripts.

8.2.2

  • Added some synonyms for “Highlight”.
  • Added Characters section to Insert Token by Name menu (forum).
  • Fixed the kmtrigger: URL handler when the value is explicitly empty (“value=”) (forum).
  • Fixed SystemVolume token to return 0 when muted.
  • Tweaked the Assistance Window text for “take some action that should trigger this macro” (forum).
  • Tweaked display of inline popup menus for Mojave.
  • Updated OpenCV resulting in a noticeable improvement in image matching performance.
  • Possibly resolve a crash on engine quit (MyDeviceData release).
  • Possibly resolve a crash involving capturing a window.
  • Adjust some things in the hope of resolving the engine crash in High Sierra.

8.2.1

  • Added created:1w, modified:1d, used:1h filters. (see Search Strings)
  • Added an option to omit the title bar from palette themes. (see Palettes)
  • Added USB Device Keys to the gethotkeys AppleScript results.
  • Added a few more locations to look for 1Password bookmarks.
  • Fixed a bug with USB Device Key triggers when changing pressed/release mode. (forum)
  • Fixed a bug with typing text into the columns field of the theme editor.
  • Fixed password variable names (not values!) showing up in the Variables preferences. (forum)
  • Fixed some sanitiser issues.
  • Fixed an issue with contextual menus.
  • Fixed an issue with Read File action menus occluding text fields.
  • Fixed an issue on some Macs with popup menus turning white on mouse over. (forum)
  • Fixed an issue with glitched display of text fields in some actions. (forum)
  • Fixed an issue with palette placement when the screen resolution changes.

8.2

  • Added a new Applications Palette which displays running applications.
  • Added Apply Modifiers to a Specific Application action (mimics the behaviour of Applications Palette).
  • Added Dragged File trigger to support dragging files to macros in macro palettes.
  • Added a Macro Library entry for an Application Palette group (a set of fixed applications displayed as a palette).
  • Warn about translocated applications when setting them in the Application popup menus.
  • Fixed an issue with Prompt With List (and other By Name windows) (forum).
  • Fixed i_displayWhat != NamedClipboardPopupMenuControllerDisplay::kUnknown assertion.
  • Fixed i_displayAttributedString assertion.
  • Fixed issue with Set File Attribute field kind mark and token insertion. (forum).
  • Fixed an issue with AppleScript creation of actions.

8.1.1

  • Fixed Append to File action. (forum)
  • Fixed AppleScript for creating dictionaries and dictionary keys. (forum)
  • Fixed an issue with Trigger Macro by Name. (forum)

8.1

  • Added initial search string to Prompt With List action. (forum)
  • Added title to Prompt With List action. (forum)
  • Added configurable width to Prompt With List action. (forum)
  • Added automatic width to Prompt With List action.
  • Write File trashes any pre-existing target file/directory before writing (rather than overwriting directories!). (forum)
  • Highlight undisclosed “(n actions)” when search matches within the actions. (forum)
  • Added parameter to Execute Macro action title (forum)
  • Added ApplicationBundleID token.
  • Changed “Assert unless” to “Assert that” which is more correct phrasing.
  • Fixed Prompt with List Prompt not being horizontally centered. (forum)
  • Fixed a possible crash with Custom HTML Prompt if JavaScript closes the window immediately. (forum).
  • Fixed bug with Find Image (et al) and local variables.
  • Fixed selecting New… in Named Clipboard popup menus. (forum)
  • Compiled with Xcode 9.2

8.0.5

  • Added support for frames in actions:Browser Form Actions.
  • Support local and instance variables in Calculate and ProcessTokens from Custom HTML Prompt actions.
  • Option-click the Favorites button in Clipboard History Switcher to toggle “Favorites Only”.
  • Fixed a problem with Clipboard History not showing after certain copied data.
  • Fixed the Switch action not processing text tokens.
  • Improved the unused variable warning for the For Each action.
  • Fixed MIDI trigger “increases” setting not sticking.
  • Fixed an issue with AppleScript editing a macro that was not visible to the current search filter.
  • Fixed an issue with latest version of Microsoft Word and restoring the clipboard.
  • Fixed a few typos.

8.0.4

  • Added “increases” and “decreases” options to MIDI controller change trigger (forum)
  • Support array index for many tokens (eg %TriggerValue[3]%).
    • FrontWindow*, Window*, Screen*.
    • SystemClipboard, PastClipboard, NamedClipboard, TriggerClipboard.
    • TriggerValue, CurrentMouse, FoundImage.
  • Added Search & Replace and Count/Find facility to Keyboard Maestro Engine AppleScript dictionary.
  • Added Report Updates Only When Editor Activates to General Preferences.
  • Added more clipboard flavor exclusions for Microsoft Word to yet again avoid the bookmark link issue.
  • Remember Clipboard Switcher Info button setting.
  • Worked around Chrome not liking certain characters in JavaScript strings (forum).
  • Detect case where either the Engine or editor is translocated (previously only detected case where both were).
  • Fixed an issue where you could not edit some fields in disabled actions (forum).
  • Fixed Dictionary Key condition field not saving when you typed in to it.
  • Fixed Command-K toggling the Action Selector.

8.0.3

  • Prompt For User Input supports Local/Instance variables (forum).
  • Custom HTML Prompt supports Local/Instance variables (forum).
  • Local/Instance varibles passed as environment variables to scripts (forum).
  • Allow reading and writing Local/Instance variables from AppleScripts (via KMINSTANCE environment variable).
  • Added KMWillCloseWindow() call when window will close in Custom HTML Prompt.
  • Added GetDictionary() and SetDictionary() in Custom HTML Prompt.
  • Corrected the spelling of “matches” in the Cron entry in the trigger menu.
  • Allow Split Path action to split just file names (parent path will be “/Nowhere”).
  • Added Edit ⇒ Automatic Completions toggle menu item.
  • Support Type Ahead in the Clipboard Switcher.
  • Fixed an issue with Search & Replace.
  • Added trigger to VoiceOver for macros.
  • Adjusted highlight color when Graphite highlight color is chosen.

8.0.2

  • Ensure changes are saved after selecting variable/function/tokens by name (forum).
  • Fixed the spelling of “Systen” in Write System Clipboard to File. (forum)
  • Set Clipboard to clipboard filters in the Clipboard Switcher were pasting. (forum)
  • Corrected the Tool Tip of the Action and Trigger warnings. (forum)
  • Avoid a crashing bug when renaming macros. (forum)
  • Forcibly remove any invalid variables from variable database. (forum)
  • Adjusted Play a Specific Tracklist to play more than the first track. (forum)
  • Fixed deactivating macro groups that are configured Always Activated. (forum)
  • Fixed issues with hot key errors.
  • Adjusted Local and Instance variables to not require the space (eg “LocalVar”).
  • Remove line endings from macro names.
  • Limit export file names to 200 characters.
  • Added more search keywords for Get File Action.
  • Reduced some debugging messages with Plug In Actions.
  • Removed some warnings related to unknown menus.
  • Reduced debugging related to invalid regular expressions.

8.0.1

  • Fixed a bug with non-matching capture groups in search & replace action.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause the engine crash when a palette closed.
  • Fixed an issue in 10.10 where “R” is removed from macro names!
  • Fixed a display issue with the Variable condition display.
  • Fixed the Run Macro menu always being disabled.
  • Fixed an issue with the Search & Replace action.
  • Fixed behaviour of “case must match” Typed String triggers.
  • Fixed Tool Tip of Info button in Clipboard Switcher
  • Possibly worked around High Sierra Color Picker crash when editor launches.
  • Removed double-struct L and I for Local and Instance variables.

8.0

Editor Improvements

  • Added new Assistance system to help novices trouble shoot any early issues.
  • Large Text size support in editor lists (Macros, Groups, Library, etc).
  • Added Machine Learning system to By Name selectors.
  • Support dragging macros and macro groups into the macro action list.
    • No modifiers: Execute the Macro / Show the Macro Group
    • Option: insert a copy of the macro’s actions
    • Command-Shift: Enable the Macro / Macro Group
    • Option-Shift: Mark the Macro
  • Added dragging of macros/macro groups to action macro selector popup menus.
  • Support dragging files in as macros or actions.
    • Applications as Activate Application action.
    • Scripts as the appropriate Execute Script action.
    • Other files as Open File actions.
  • Added basic Touch Bar support.
  • Added Actions menu.
  • Added Run Macro menu and toolbar item to run the currently selected macro.
  • Added Engroup Actions (into a new Group, Macro, For Each, While, etc) (forum).
  • Added Degroup Actions.
  • Added Paste Replacing for actions (forum).
  • Added Select Macro by Name.
  • Added Insert Function by Name.
  • Added Insert Token by Name.
  • Added Insert Variable by Name.
  • Added File ➤ Share menu.
  • Added Import Macros Disabled menu command.
  • Adjusted Import Macros menu command to require the Option key.
  • Added Edit ➤ Insert Token ➤ Named Clipboard hierarchical menu.
  • Added %Delete% to the Insert Token menu.
  • Show an indiciator of the kind (token, variable, calculation) of each field in the editor.
  • Support negation (-) in the search fields (forum).
  • Default to last used variable when creating new actions.
  • Support changing Safari actions to/from Google Chrome actions.
  • Support styled text in comments.
  • Added an option to hide disabled macro groups.
  • Added wiki search to Help menu.
  • Added Make Alias for macros (and command-option dragging macros to groups).
  • Play Sound supports sounds in ~/Library/Sounds and ~/Sounds.
  • Click on macro group label (top right) to select the enclosing macro group.
  • Adjusted the disclosure behaviour of Execute Macro action.
  • Added Space, Escape, and Help to the Hot Key selection menu.
  • Added a disabled color to the action color menu to indicate the color means a matched search.
  • Added Copy as XML to copy macro groups, macros or actions as XML (forum).
  • Added View ➤ Select Groups Column menu item.
  • Added View ➤ Select Macros Column menu item.
  • Added View ➤ Edit Name menu item.
  • Added View ➤ Reveal Parent Group menu item.
  • Added View ➤ Last Used, Last Edited, Previous Edited, Next Edited menu items (forum).
  • Added Select Macro option to macro selector popup menu.
  • Added Philippe Martin's Multiple Clipboards to the Macro Library.
  • Added Rename Finder Files to the Macro Library.
  • Show a warning on “Press and Hold” actions that are the last action of the macro.
  • Show a warning when using Open File to open applications with the Default Application.
  • Show a warning when an Application trigger cannot fire because of the macro group's settings.
  • Show a warning when a For Each action does not use its variable.
  • Show a warning when a string containing test looks like it should be a string matching test.
  • Support pasting XML actions (forum).
  • Changed to a patterned color for the search matching indicator (forum).
  • Color invalid Calculation conditions (forum).
  • Adjusted the appearance of disabled actions to make them more clearly disabled (forum).
  • Support quitting the editor by closing the editor window.
  • When showing a mapping from an empty variable show italic “empty”.
  • Show “No Forms Found” (etc) when Safari/Chrome popups cannot find any valid entries (forum).
  • Minor tweaks to the overall appearance.
  • Removed misleading “Matching” from Search & Replace “String” search.
  • Double clicking icon image wells opens and sets the Icon Chooser.
  • The Modifiers condition no longer allows setting a modifier to be both pressed and not pressed (forum).

Full AppleScript Support in the Editor

  • Macro Groups, Smart Groups, Macros, Triggers, Actions are all AppleScript OSA objects. Examples:
    • properties of smart group “Enabled”
    • make new smart group with properties {name:“Enabled”, search strings:{“enabled:yes”}}
    • set search strings of smart group “Test2” to {“ABC”, “DEF”}
    • set name of macro 1 to “Great!”
    • tell macro group “New Stuff” to make new macro
    • select action 1 through 3 of action 2 of macro “Working”
    • set enable of macro group “Turn Off” to false
    • set color of action 1 of macro “Bright” to “red”
    • set selection to global macro group
    • move first action of macro “Source Macro” to end of actions of macro “Dest Macro”
    • delete second action of macro “Target Macro”
    • duplicate every macro group whose name starts with “Test”
    • set m to duplicate action 1 of macro “Macro33” to after action 2 of macro “Macro32”
    • duplicate (selected macros) to macro group “Test4”

Revamp Clipboard History Switcher & Named Clipboard Switcher

  • New combined appearance.
  • Additional information (source, type, size, pixel size, time, index).
  • Drag Reordering.
  • Drag from the switcher to image or text fields.
  • Contextual menu to Paste, Paste Plain, or Paste Image, Duplicate.
  • Contextual menu to just set the current clipboard without pasting.
  • Large Text size support in Clipboard Switchers.
  • Support excluding applications from the clipboard history.

Expanded MIDI Support

  • Added MIDI Control Change trigger.
  • Added MIDI raw packet trigger (SysEx, HUI protocol, etc).
  • Support MIDI trigger recording when the text fields are focused in background.
  • Added Send MIDI raw packets so you can send any kind of MIDI packet.
  • Send MIDI action uses calculations so you can send varying notes and control changes.
  • Handle and split multiple MIDI packets received in a single system MIDI packet.

Added Local and Instance Variables

Added Dictionaries

  • Added the concept of dictionaries, mapping (case insensitively) a dictionary name and key name to a value.
  • Added Set Dictionary Value action.
  • Added %Dictionary[Dict,Key]% text token.
  • Added collection of Dictionaries and Keys in a Dictionary.
  • Added full AppleScript support for accessing Dictionaries.

New Triggers

  • Added Cron trigger.
  • Added Gesture triggers drawn with the trackpad or mouse.
  • Added Remote trigger via a Keyboard Maestro server.
  • Added Clipboard Filter trigger.
  • Added Audio Output Device Changed trigger.
  • Added Idle trigger (trigger after the Mac is idle for N minutes).
  • Added Export Trigger File which lets you trigger a macro by opening a file.

New Actions

New Conditions

  • Added <, <=, =, >=, >, != numeric conditions.
  • Added “starts with” and “ends with” to string conditions.
  • Added “is before” and “is after” to string conditions that were missing them.
  • Added Action Result condition.
  • Added Mouse Button condition.
  • Added “is hidden” et al to the Application condition.
  • Added Trigger Clipboard and Named Clipboard options to the Clipboard condition.

New Collections

New Tokens

New Functions

Engine Improvements

  • Added preference to show Conflict Palettes in the Touch Bar.
  • Support text with percent characters in text functions in token fields.
  • Only require Shift-Option-Control click on status menu to cancel all macros.
  • Added Machine Learning system to Trigger Macro by Name selector.
  • Added options to macro groups to be always active and show a palette sometimes.
  • Variables used in calculations can themselves contain calculations that are implicitly evaluated.
  • Support == as a synonym for = in calculations.
  • Support negative array indices for access from end of an array (calculation or Variable token).
  • Support 0 array indices for count of the elements in an array (calculation or Variable token).
  • Support executing an array of actions from AppleScript “do script” commands.
  • Restore front application before executing kmtrigger: macros (forum).
  • Display Text window closes immediately if Return is hit once (forum).
  • Added an option to turn off notifications of macro groups being activated/deactivated (forum).
  • Adjusted Typed String triggers with “affects actions” option to only uppercase the first letter.
  • Added “Activate Clipboard Switcher” to the Paste status menu.
  • Periodically write the clipboard history to disk.

Minor Improvements and Changes

  • Removed or renamed confusing use of “Default Clipboard”.
  • Prefer %SystemClipboard% over the older %CurrentClipboard%.
  • Support Home/End in Trigger Macro By Name and Add Action windows.
  • Adjusted the Select Menu action to return a failed ActionResult if the menu item is disabled.
  • Turning on/off the iOS web server preference properly changes the Rendezvous publications.
  • Changing any web browser settings kills all existing connections.
  • Added “disabled” option to importMacros AppleScript command.
  • Default to importing macros disabled unless the Option key is held down.
  • Adjusted a case where a “for one action” palette opens a Conflict Palette.
  • Adjusted the iTunes Control AppleScripts.
  • Added “exit”, “break”, “loop” as search strings to various actions.
  • Added “ask”, “input”, “InputBox” as search strings to prompt actions.
  • Added the Keyboard Maestro version number to the Share text.
  • Resolved display of executing macros for asynchronously executed macros (forum).
  • Improved error message for File Action.
  • Fixed Fast User Switch action.
  • Disallow return characters in macro/group names.
  • Updated Share to Forum category names to match forum changes.
  • Removed Growl support.
  • Removed Always Hide Other Applications support.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed behaviour of Close After Action when you Command-V in the Clipboard Switcher.
  • Fixed Corsair K95 RGB Gaming Keyboard Device Key name display.
  • Fixed width issue with various scrolling lists.
  • Fixed a possible crash with Folder change triggers.
  • Fixed an issue compiling scripts that reference Keyboard Maestro itself.
  • Fixed an issue cropping images with non-nominal (72) DPIs (forum).
  • Fixed an issue composing on to images with non-nominal (72) DPIs (forum).
  • Fixed an issue if macros hold multiple semaphore locks.
  • Fixed an issue with Set Network Location and non-ASCII names.
  • Fixed a possible issue with columns resizing unexpectedly.
  • Fixed consistency of arrows for meaning left, right, width, height in actions (forum).
  • Fixed unlocalized display of Focused Window trigger in non-edit mode.
  • Fixed issue with number steppers and empty fields (forum).
  • Fixed inconsistent “Exit From Loop” menu name to “Break From Loop”.
  • Fixed icon centering in Icon Chooser.
  • Fixed double clicking macro names to select the title field.
  • Fixed some cases where popup menus occluded text fields.

Download

Download Keyboard Maestro now to try all these great capabilities. Or keep reading for even more details about the Features of Keyboard Maestro.

Alternatively, you can contact us if you have a question about whether Keyboard Maestro can solve your automation needs. We want all our customers to be satisfied, so we are happy to help you understand how Keyboard Maestro can achieve your automation goals.

Features

Keyboard Maestro is a productivity enhancer with several main functions. It allows you to:

Macro Groups allow you to organize your macros. Think of them as folders of macros. Each Macro Group controls when the macros it contains are active. A Macro is made of two parts: a set of Triggers you choose to determine when the macro is executed and a list of Actions that define what the macro does when it is executed.

By creating macros, you can customize your Mac to suit your use, streamline tedious tasks, and remove opportunities for mistakes by automating repetitive jobs. Make stubbornly difficult applications behave the way you want them to; press a key and have the computer do the next minute worth of tedious tasks for you; type a few characters and have a page full of boilerplate text appear; and so much more. Soon you’ll wonder how you could have used your Mac without Keyboard Maestro.

Here are some of the primary features of Keyboard Maestro.

General

  • Sync your macros across multiple Macs using DropBox or other file sharing systems.
  • Trigger macros by key, typed string, menu, by name, remotely, via MIDI, and more.
  • Use the included Assistance system to help if you get stuck.
  • Use the included Macro Debugger for detailed control of your macros in action.

Macro Groups

  • Create Macro Groups, which contain Macros and control when they are active.
  • Macro Groups can be restricted to or excluded from specific applications.
  • Macro Groups can be restricted to or excluded from specific windows.
  • Macro Groups can be activated or deactivated with hot keys, or via the status menu or global macro palette.
  • Macro Groups can display a themed palette of contained macros.
  • Macro Groups can be enabled or disabled.
  • Customize the Macro Group icon by pasting an icon, or using the Icon Chooser and creator.
  • If you are syncing your macros, Macro Groups can be disabled on specific Macs.

Triggers

Actions

  • You can create Macro Actions manually or by recording them.
  • You can download or write your own Plug In Actions.
  • There are many, many actions covering a broad range of facilities, including:
    • Plug In Third Party Actions.
    • Application Control actions to launch, activate, quit, show, hide, etcetera, applications.
    • Clipboard actions to set, read, delete, style, filter, search, replace, etcetera clipboards.
    • Control Flow actions to pause, loop, test conditions, process sets of items, and more.
    • Debugger actions to breakpoint, pause, step over, step into, etcetera, while debugging macros.
    • Execute AppleScripts, shell scripts, JavaScript (for Automation or in Safari/Chrome) and more.
    • Read, write, trash, duplicate, append files, or get or set information about them.
    • Safari/Chrome actions to work with the front web page, filling forms.
    • Image actions to find, capture, read, write, crop, annotate, or display images.
    • Interface actions to move or resize windows, click the mouse, type keystrokes, press buttons, etcetera.
    • iTunes actions to play tracks, fast forward, rewind, change the volume and more.
    • Actions to control Keyboard Maestro itself, enabling or disabling macros, showing and hiding palettes, etcetera.
    • MIDI actions to send notes, control changes, or arbitrary packets.
    • Send notifications via email, SMS, iMessage, notification center, sounds, alerts, etcetera.
    • Open files, folders, URLs, system preferences, even 1Password bookmarks.
    • QuickTime player actions to play movies, step forward or backward and more.
    • Actions to launch applications, select windows, or switch clipboards.
    • Sleep, restart or shut down your Mac, Fast User Switch, log out, change brightness or volume, etcetera.
    • Type or paste strings, speak text, work with variables or dictionaries.
    • Perform calculations, prompt for information, read or write passwords from the Keychain and more.
    • Web actions to search the web, download files, remotely trigger actions, etcetera.

Basically, if you can do it yourself, Keyboard Maestro can probably do it for you.

Editor

  • Assistance system.
  • Large Text support.
  • Basic Touch Bar support.
  • Smart Groups
  • Select from recently triggered or edited macros.
  • Autocompletion.
  • Integrated access to wiki help.
  • Rename, color, group, and add notes to actions.
  • Palette Theme Editor.

Named and History Clipboard Switcher

  • Never lose your clipboard again.
  • Browse your past clipboards and paste any previous clipboard item.
  • An unlimited number of Named Clipboards.
  • Send clipboard entries to other Macs.
  • Clipboards display rich text and images.
  • Use Quick Look to view clipboard entries.
  • Apple Clipboard Filter triggered macros directly to selected clipboard entries.
  • Set clipboard entries as favorites so they are always available in your clipboard history.
  • Copy, Cut or Paste to/from Named Clipboards using a single keystroke.
  • Clipboard History is optionally saved across logins and restarts.
  • Named Clipboards are saved permanently.

Application and Window Launching and Switching

  • Display a Cover Flow view of available applications for quick launching.
  • Optionally replace the system Command-Tab application switcher.
  • Customize the switcher to match the look you want.
  • Switch to any application or window with a keystroke.
  • Switch to an application and hide all others.
  • Easily select the exact application or window you want.
  • Launch, hide, quit or force quit any application.
  • Close or minimize any window.
  • Quit (or force quit) and relaunch applications.
  • Get Info or reveal applications.
  • Choose the application ordering you want: alphabetically, by last use, or by launch order.
  • Sort windows alphabetically or by window depth order.
  • Optionally hide other applications.
  • Optionally always hide other applications.

Purchase

Keyboard Maestro is engineered by Stairways Software Pty Ltd and distributed by FastSpring. Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per-user basis and individual users may use it on up to five Macs.

New customers can purchase Keyboard Maestro for US$36 by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu. Customers with five or more users should contact us for a volume discount quote.

Keyboard Maestro 8 is a paid upgrade for most users of previous versions. Existing users are eligible for a discount and can purchase an upgrade by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro Upgrade from the Keyboard Maestro menu.

Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro after 1 March 2017 have been issued a free upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 8. If you have not received your free license, you can find your free license upgrade at https://enquiry.stairways.com/.

Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro 7 prior to March 2017 can upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 8 for US$18 until 19 November 2017. After that date, or customers who purchased older versions of Keyboard Maestro can upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 8 for US$25. If you have not received your instructions on how to upgrade, you can find details by looking up your Keyboard Maestro license at https://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 this email, please contact us so we can resolve this promptly.

It is our informal policy to have a paid major upgrade roughly once every 12 to 24 months. This allows us to have a reasonably consistent revenue stream with which to fund development of Keyboard Maestro, and ensures we are working as much for existing customers as to expand the customer base.

A fully-functional trial version of Keyboard Maestro is available for download from https://download.stairways.com/.

For sales enquires, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, our current contact information is listed at https://contact.stairways.com/.

For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro, visit https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.

Screenshots

Here is a quick taste of what Keyboard Maestro offers.

Macros Window

Macros Window

Macro Editor

Tutorial

Assistance

Assistance

Macro Library

Macro Library Window

Icon Chooser

Icon Chooser Window

Palette Theme Editor

Palette Theme Editor

Macro Debugger

Macro Debugger

Application Switcher Window

Application Switcher Window

Trigger Macro by Name

Trigger Macro by Name

Clipboard History Switcher Window

Clipboard History Switcher Window

Conflict Palette

Conflict Palette

Tour

This demonstration will begin to show you the power and versatility of Keyboard Maestro.

Getting Started

To start, launch Keyboard Maestro. It will initially display the Welcome window.

Welcome Window

If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutorial and Keyboard Maestro will show you how easy it is to create a macro.

Tutorial

Close the Welcome window to display the Macros window.

Macros Window

You can see some example Macros we have included for you.

Make New Macro

Click the + button under the Macro column to add a macro and display the Macro Editor window. We will now design a complex Macro enabling you to save clippings to a text file. First, launch TextEdit and create a new empty document. Save this blank document as Clippings.rtf in your Desktop folder.

Normally, to add a selection to the Clippings.rtf file, you would have to do all this:

  • Press Command-C to copy the selection in an application.
  • Go to the Finder, open your Desktop folder, then open the Clippings.rtf file.
  • Go to the end of the file in TextEdit.
  • Press the Return key and type a line of dashes and return to separate the clippings.
  • Press Command-V to paste the selection you made before.
  • Save the file and close the document.
  • Switch back to the application where you originally selected some text or a picture.

That is all very tedious, and probably explains why most people never even bother with such an operation.

So let’s define the whole sequence as a Macro.

Macro Editor Window

Now any time you have some text you want to save, just select it and press F2 (or Fn-F2 depending on the state of the Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys preference in the System Preferences). What used to be too much hassle to bother with is now done in seconds!

Clipboard History

Keyboard Maestro automatically remembers your clipboard history, saving a copy of each new clipboard item as you copy it. You can then paste any previous clipboard using the defined Hot Key (by default, Command-Control-Shift-V).

Clipboard History Switcher Window

Another advantage of the Clipboard History is you can leave the window open (by toggling the Close After Action (x) button) and paste previous clipboards by simply double clicking the desired item. This is particularly helpful when you need to copy many items in many places to be pasted into one application. Hold down the shift key to paste without styles.

Keyboard Maestro can even save your clipboard history across restarts and log outs. Just enable the “Save Clipboard History to Disk” preference in the General preference pane.

Named Clipboards

For more permanent information, Keyboard Maestro lets you create as many named clipboards as you want using the Clipboards preference pane.

Preferences Clipboards Pane

Named clipboards let you save frequently used information, like your company logo, timely information like a customer’s address, or your address so you never have to type it again. This allows you to paste the saved information whenever you want, wherever you want.

Then you can cut, copy or paste to/from the named clipboards using the defined Hot Keys (by default, Command-Shift-X, C and V respectively, but you can change them, too).

Named Clipboard Switcher Window

If you have a large screen, or a specific job that needs it, you can have the window stay open (by toggling the Close After Action (x) button) and copy or paste named clipboards easily.

Application Switcher

At the end of the Macro we defined, we used the Switch To Last Application action to switch back to the application you were using before. But most of us use a lot more than one application and we need to be able to switch between them, whether or not the application is already open. You can do more than just switch between applications with Keyboard Maestro: it lets you define applications that always appear when you are switching so you can launch them quickly, and also Excluded Applications that you never want to see. As well, you can quit, hide or show applications. The Application Switcher is activated like any other macro, so you can find it in the Switcher Group in the Macros window. By triggering the Application Switcher macro (for example by entering the default Command-Tab key trigger, though this can be changed) you can display the Application Switcher window.

Application Switcher Window

Note the applications set to be launched or quit.

If you want a specific keystroke to always launch a certain application, you can define a Macro to do that. For example, you could create a Macro with a Hot Key Trigger of F3 so it always activates Safari.

Window Switcher

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 all the windows of current application (in the current space).

Window Switcher Window

Note the windows set to be closed. This is a very useful way of cleaning up an application with a lot of open windows.

Conduct Your Mac Like a Pro!

This is just a taste of all that Keyboard Maestro can do for you. It’s time you started getting the most from your Mac? Download Keyboard Maestro today and you can be working faster and smarter in no time.

Download Keyboard Maestro from https://download.stairways.com/.

Purchase Keyboard Maestro at https://purchase.stairways.com/.

Look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from https://enquiry.stairways.com/.

Join the Keyboard Maestro Forum online community consisting of the developers and Keyboard Maestro users at https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/.

Documentation describing Keyboard Maestro is available at https://documentation.keyboardmaestro.com/.

A wiki containing additional information, macros and other resources for Keyboard Maestro is available at https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/.

For sales enquires, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, our current contact information is listed at https://contact.stairways.com/.

For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.

Quick Start

Keyboard Maestro is easy to use once you understand the way the Editor and Engine, Macro Groups and Macros, Triggers and Actions work together.

By using these six components together, you can dramatically enhance your Mac experience.

Just remember:

  • If you want to make changes, use the Editor.
  • If you want anything to work, make sure the Engine is running.
  • If you want to control when a Macro is active, configure the Macro Group.
  • If you want to control when a Macro is executed, configure its Triggers.
  • If you want to control what a Macro does, configure its Actions.

Keyboard Maestro editor

The Keyboard Maestro application is the editor. It lets you create and modify macros and configure preferences. You use it only 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, and should, have the Keyboard Maestro Engine launched automatically when you login by enabling the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane).

Keyboard Maestro Engine

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 maintains your clipboard history, handles remote web, iPhone requests and receiving clipboards, and, of course, executes your Macro Actions. It should be running at all times, so we recommend you enable the “Launch Engine at Login” preference in the General preference pane.

Macro Groups

Keyboard Maestro allow you to organize 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, or only in Mail.app when a compose window is open.

A Macro Group can also act as a container for specific-use macros which are enabled only when you specifically activate them. 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.

Macro Groups can be displayed as palettes, allowing you to create your own custom toolbars which can be configured with a variety of themes.

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, or by double-clicking on it.

You can also create Smart Groups, which are essentially saved searches and will show you any macros that match any of the set of search criteria.

Macros

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 Macros by clicking the ✓ button. Keep in mind 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, or by double-clicking on it.

Triggers

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 String trigger to execute a macro when you type some text (for example =addr=). Other common triggers are the Macro Palette which lets you trigger a macro by clicking on a context (front application or window) sensitive floating palette of macros and the Status Menu trigger which displays the macro in the Status Menu. You can trigger macros from the clipboard history (to apply to the clipboard entry), or by drawing a shape with the mouse or trackpad.

You can also trigger a macro when you login or when your Mac sleeps or wakes or goes idle, 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 or our trigger server. And you can trigger a macro when something changes, like a volume being mounted or unmounted, plugging in headphones, your wireless network connection changing, or a USB device being connected or disconnected.

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 green ⊕ button near the top of the macro detail view.

Actions

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, work with files or images, control your Mac or the clipboard, or display a variety of powerful switchers (Application, Window, Clipboard and Clipboard History Switchers). You can also execute a script (AppleScript, Java, Swift, shell Script or Automator Workflow) or even download or create your own custom plug in actions. There are many, many more actions, so if you can do it yourself, Keyboard Maestro can probably do it for you. 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.

Assistance

If you have any problems writing macros, you can get help from a number of places.

  • The User Manual describes the basics of using the Keyboard Maestro editor.
  • The Tutorial will show you how to create a simple macros. You can start the Tutorial by choosing Tutorial from the Help menu.
  • The Quick Start describes the components of Keyboard Maestro and how they work together, and it is important to understand these basics to get the most out of Keyboard Maestro.
  • The Wiki includes lots of information on all aspects of Keyboard Maestro.
  • The Forum is a great place to ask for help with macros.
  • Each action in Keyboard Maestro includes an Help option in the ⚙ menu at the top right of the action.
  • Holding down the option key while choosing from any of the Insert menus in the Edit menu will get you help on actions, functions, or tokens.
  • Holding down the option key while choosing from the trigger menu will get you help on the triggers.

And last but not least, you can ask Keyboard Maestro itself for assistance by choosing Assistance from the Help menu.

In particular, the Assistance window can help you:

  • if something is happening that you do not expect, Keyboard Maestro can show you what it is doing.
  • if a macro is not doing anything, Keyboard Maestro can help you to learn why.

How do I ...?

How do I install Keyboard Maestro?

To install Keyboard Maestro, simply copy it to your Mac’s Applications folder (or anywhere you like).
Note: You must use the Finder to do this will turn off Apple's App Translocation security feature when you move the application with the Finder.

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, Application Switcher, and Clipboard History 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.

How do I upgrade Keyboard Maestro?

Keyboard Maestro includes an automatic upgrade mechanism, so to upgrade Keyboard Maestro simply click the Install Update button when prompted.

To upgrade Keyboard Maestro manually, quit the engine by choosing Quit Engine from the File menu and the editor, and replace the Keyboard Maestro application in your Applications folder with the new one. Finally, launch Keyboard Maestro to restart the engine.

Keyboard Maestro will automatically import your previous version macros, clipboards and preferences. Your old macros will be saved in the ~/Library/Preferences/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 7.plist in case you wish to revert to version 7 for any reason.

If you are upgrading directly from a much 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 4.3.2, then 5.3.2, then 6.4.8, then 7.3.1, then the current version. You can download old versions from our file archive.

How do I purchase Keyboard Maestro?

New customers can purchase Keyboard Maestro for US$36 by choosing Purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu. Customers with five or more users should contact us for a volume discount quote.

You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from https://enquiry.stairways.com/.

Thanks for supporting us and enabling us to continue work on Keyboard Maestro.

See also the Purchase section.

Can I purchase Keyboard Maestro from the Mac App Store?

Keyboard Maestro will not be available on the Mac App Store. Apple requires applications on the Mac App Store to be  Sandboxed, and workflow applications like Keyboard Maestro cannot be sandboxed so it is excluded from the Mac App Store.

See also the Purchase section.

How do I register Keyboard Maestro?

When you purchase Keyboard Maestro you will be given a serial number, and will also promptly 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 https://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 Use Existing License button or choose Register Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu and then enter the username (email address) exactly as shown and the serial number exactly as shown and click the OK button. If you have any problems, recheck that the email address and serial number you are entering are exactly as shown (the serial number’s email address does not change even if you have changed your email address with us) and also that your license matches the major version number (eg, a version 8 license will work with version 8.x of Keyboard Maestro). If you are already registered, the Register Keyboard Maestro menu will show you the registration details in the About Keyboard Maestro window.

How do I get started?

The first thing to do is to read the Quick Start and do the tutorial by choosing Tutorial from the Help menu. You may also want to subscribe to our Getting Started emails (Keyboard Maestro will ask you to subscribe or you can do that at your customer database page on our web site).

After that, use your Mac normally and keep an eye out for things you do repetitively. Things like:

  • launch or switch to a particular application.
  • open a particular document.
  • type a specific string of text (eg your name, address, etc).

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.

How do I create a new Macro?

If you have not done so, use the tutorial by choosing Tutorial from the Help menu to lead you through the process of creating a simple macro.

To create a Macro, launch Keyboard Maestro and select the Global Macro Group, then 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 — you do not need to stop editing, quit the editor or anything else.

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 give you a quick start on creating the macro.

How do I find a Macro I've used or modified recently?

You can sort the macros by name, by trigger, by date created, modified or used. So if you launch Keyboard Maestro, select the All Macros pseudo group, and then choose Sort Macros by Date Modified from the View menu (or choose Sort Macros by Date Used from the View menu) to sort the recently modified (or used) macros to the top.

You can also click the ◷ button above the macro editor pane to select from recently modified macros, or use the ⌘ button to select from recently used macros.

How do I cancel a running Macro?

You can cancel all running macros by holding all the modifiers (Control, Option, Shift and optionally Command) and clicking on the Keyboard Maestro Status Menu Icon.

You can cancel a specific macro by choosing Cancel from the Status Menu menu and selecting the macro. This is also a useful way of seeing what macros are currently running, if any.

You can also see and cancel macros by choosing Start Debugging from the Status Menu menu.

And finally, you can use the Cancel All Macros, Cancel Other Macros, Cancel This Macro, or Cancel Just This Macro actions.

In desperation, you can quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine from the status menu, and you can launch the editor while holding all the modifiers down to quit all running engines and not launch the engine.

How can I get the mouse coordinates on the screen or in a window?

If possible, you should avoid using mouse click actions. They tend to be very fragile, easily broken by subtle changes to the system or applications. And they also require the screen to be in the expected state, so you usually need to add a Pause action before them to ensure the item they are clicking on is where it is expected to be.

That said, you can use the Mouse Display window by choosing Mouse Display from the Window menu which will let you see the mouse coordinates relative to the window or main screen. Click the lock button to lock the display after a few seconds, and then put your mouse over the desired location. You can then change the relative corner, and click the Clipboard buttons to copy the coordinates.

Alternatively, you can simply record the click. Turn on recording in Keyboard Maestro, go to where you want to be, wait a couple seconds for the screen to be stabilised so the click will be relative to the front window, and click. Turn off recording, delete any extraneously recorded actions and you have your coordinates. Immediately after recording you can adjust the relative corner of the window or screen, and the recorded coordinates will adjust to match.

Remember that offsets are always to positive to the right and positive down, so if you are making a mouse click up from bottom edge of a window or screen, or left from the right edge of a window or screen, you will need to use negative coordinates.

How do I insert styled/colored text or images?

You can use the Insert Text action to insert styled text by pasting.

You can insert an image by copying it to the clipboard and then pasting it in using the Paste action (which just types the Command-V keystroke).

You can get your image from a Named Clipboard, or by reading an image file.

Here is how to create a Macro to insert an image when you press a Hot Key.

Name the macro, and assign it whatever trigger you desire.

Now whenever you trigger the macro you just created, your image will be pasted in.

How do I Insert the current date?

You can insert text using the Insert Text action, and it processes Tokens. There are some basic date format tokens (such as %LongDate%), or you can use the %ICUDateTime% Token with any ICU date format.

How do I get more than one Macro Palette (Toolbar)?

There are three kinds of palettes in Keyboard Maestro:

  • There is one “Global Macro Palette” which includes any active macro that has the Macro Palette trigger. It appears whenever there is any active macro with the Macro Palette trigger. It shrinks to the size of an icon until you hover over it and then it expands to display the currently active macros with Macro Palette triggers. You can show and hide it using specific Macro Palette actions.
  • Each Macro Group can be displayed as a palette. The macro group can be global to all applications, or specific to any subset of applications. It can be toggled on and off with a hot key (or a status menu selection or from the Global Macro Palette) or it can be displayed for a single action. Actions can hide or show the macro group palettes.
  • When a hot key (or typed string or device key) conflicts (ie, triggers more than one macro), the Conflict Palette appears which lets you select from the conflicting macros. This can be an easy way to allow a single hot key to offer a multitude of similar actions. You can then use number keys or the mouse to select the desired hot key, or can use other keys to filter the palette until only one macro remains.

So to have more than one macro palette, create a macro group for each desired palette and configure it to show a palette as desired. Put your macros in there. Create as many of these as you like.The macros in such a macro group are only active while the palette is displayed, so if you only display it occasionally, especially only for one action, then they can have very simple hot keys (like plain letters for example).

You can control the order of macros in a macro palette (or the status menu) by prefixing their name with two characters and a closing parenthesis (eg “01)” - two characters and a closing bracket). The macros will be sorted based on the code, but the code will be stripped off before display in the palette (or status menu).

How do I use a multiple keystroke trigger?

You can assign the same hot key to multiple macros, and Keyboard Maestro will display a palette of the conflicting macros when you press that hot key allowing you to select the desired macro. You can select a macro from the palette using either number keys, or by typing the first distinct character to filter the macros down until only one is left. This is especially useful when you have a variety of similar or related tasks. You can also assign a hot key to a macro group which can activate it for one action (with or without a palette), and the contained macros can have whatever ”second” hot key you desire.

But Keyboard Maestro does not directly support assigning a two-keystroke hot key to a trigger. The problem with multiple keystroke triggers like Option-F R is what to do if you type Option-F A? Logic dictates that the Option-F A should go through to the system unimpeded, but Option-F R should be swallowed entirely. But this is impossible. The only way to do it would be to swallow the Option-F key, and then swallow the second key and then resubmit the Option F and the second key unless it matches Option-F R.

However, that is fraught with peril and cannot work robustly in the presence of other applications placing things on the keyboard event queue (or even a sufficiently fast typist).

For example, suppose you quickly typed Option-F A B. Keyboard Maestro would have swallowed the Option F and then the A, and then resubmitted it to the event queue, resulting in the stream of characters B, Option-F, A. There is no way to avoid this race condition, and as such Keyboard Maestro does not support any such mechanism.

As described above, Keyboard Maestro has a variety of ways you can use Option-F as a hot key that allows a second key to be used to select a macro. However in all cases it is clear that the Option-F has been used and there is no concept that the Option-F might come back later to do something else.

How do I configure the Application Switcher?

The Application Switcher (and all the switchers) are activated by macro actions. Keyboard Maestro creates a default “Switcher Group” Macro Group containing several macros, each macro has a hot key trigger and a matching action which activates the appropriate switcher.

So to configure the Application Switcher, launch Keyboard Maestro, select the Switcher Group, and double click the Activate Application Switcher macro. You can then configure the various Application Switcher parameters, such as style and icon size by configuring the Application Switcher action. You can also configure the hot key used to activate the switcher, or disable the switcher.

How do I backup / transfer my installation to another Mac?

If you are going to continue using both Macs, you should use Macro Syncing rather than transferring your information. And indeed you can use Macro Syncing to transfer to a new Mac (even if both Macs wont be on at the same time as long as you preserve the sync file).

To transfer all your information to a new Mac you can copy the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder and optionally the ~/Library/Preferences/com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.* files to your new Mac. You can get to ~/Library in the Finder by holding down the shift (or option) key and selecting Library from the Go menu.

Make sure that Keyboard Maestro and Keyboard Maestro Engine are not running on the source or target Mac when you transfer the folder. And make sure the resulting files and folders have the correct ownership and permissions.

If you copy the com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.* files, the new Mac will have the same MacUUID token and be considered the same Mac for syncing purposes, so you should not do this if you intend to continue using the old Mac.

Alternatively, to just transfer the macros, you can turn on Macro Syncing and save the macro sync file anywhere. Transfer it to the new Mac, install Keyboard Maestro as normal, and then turn on macro syncing and select the transferred file to replace your macros. Then turn off macro syncing. This will transfer just the macros, not any settings, variables, or clipboards or the like.

How do I uninstall Keyboard Maestro?

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, as well as the preferences in the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder and ~/Library/Preferences/com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.* files and logs in the ~/Library/Logs/Keyboard Maestro folder.

How do I revert to a previous version of Keyboard Maestro?

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/Preferences folder and the folder ~/Library/Preferences/Keyboard Maestro/Saved Version 2 folder. Move the files from the latter folder into the former folder. Trash the ~/Library/Preferences/Keyboard Maestro folder. Download Keyboard Maestro 2.1.3, if necessary, from https://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/Preferences/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 6.plist. Download Keyboard Maestro 3.5, if necessary, from https://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.

For version 4, open the ~/Library/Preferences/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 6.plist. Download Keyboard Maestro 4.3.2, if necessary, from https://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-432.zip. Move Keyboard Maestro 4 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.

For version 5, open the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 6.plist. Download Keyboard Maestro 5.3.2, if necessary, from https://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-532.zip. Move Keyboard Maestro 5 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.

For version 6, open the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 6.plist. Download Keyboard Maestro 6.4.8, if necessary, from https://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-648.zip. Move Keyboard Maestro 6 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.

For version 7, open the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro folder. Trash the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist and replace it with the Keyboard Maestro Macros Saved Version 7.plist. Download Keyboard Maestro 7.3.1, if necessary, from https://files.stairways.com/keyboardmaestro/keyboardmaestro-731.zip. Move Keyboard Maestro 7 to the Applications folder and launch it. Turn on the “Launch Engine at Login” preference if desired.

Macro Groups

Keyboard Maestro organizes your macros into Macro Groups which are like folders of macros. Each Macro Group contains a number of macros and controls when those macros 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 or when those applications are running. For example, you can have macros which are active only in Mail.app. It can also be active only in specific windows. So for example, you can have macros which are active only in Mail.app, or only in Mail.app when a compose window is open.

A Macro Group can also act as a container for specific-use macros which are enabled only when you specifically activate them. 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.

Macro Groups can be displayed as palettes, allowing you to create your own custom toolbars which can be configured with a variety of themes and to appear under the mouse.

If you are syncing your macros with another Mac, Macro Groups can be disabled specifically on this Mac.

To create a new Macro Group, first launch Keyboard Maestro.

Macros Window

Now click the + button below the Macro Groups list.

Macro Group Editor

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:

  • Mail.app that insert common text messages.
  • BBEdit and Xcode that insert code chunks or duplicate lines or add #include headers.
  • Safari that configure windows or enter information.
  • Photoshop or Acorn that arrange items or script guides.

To have macros active everywhere except specific applications, set the Macro Group to be “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 function keys for macros elsewhere without conflicting with that application.

You can restrict a macro to be active only in certain windows based on the window title.

You can also choose to activate the macros manually or display the macros in a floating macro palette. The options are:

  • Always activated.
  • Activated for one action when:
  • Activated/deactivated when:
  • Shows a palette for one action when:
  • Shows/hides a palette when:
  • Shows a palette until:
  • Always activated and shows a palette for one action when:
  • Always activated and shows/hides a palette when:
  • Always activated and shows a palette until:

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 with no visible palette, 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 activates 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 remain 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 dismiss the Macro Group by repeating the trigger. 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 in a macro palette 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 on the desired application will launch the application.

To have Macros that are active and displayed in a macro palette 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 application, 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 initially 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 application, and have the Macro Group available (and hence the palette displayed) only in the CAD application.

Whether the macros are displayed in a Palette or not, the macros can still have Hot Key (or any other kind of) triggers which will be available whenever the macro group is active.

With the previous three settings, the macros are active if and only if the palette is displayed. The final three options are the same except that the macros are always active, so they are always available to be triggered by another means, and sometimes by the palette.

You can change the targeting of an existing group by selecting it in the Groups list and ensuring you are in Edit mode by clicking the Edit button, or by double clicking the macro group.

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 or inactive for any reason, all its contained Macros will be inactive. You can disable or enable a Macro Group using the Set Macro Enable action, you can show in a palette or activate a Macro Group using the Show Macro Group or Activate Macro Group actions.

Disabled Macro Groups can optionally be hidden using the choosing Hide Disabled Macro Groups from the View menu

The Keyboard Maestro editor has full AppleScript support so you can manipulate macro groups in many ways via AppleScript. See Scripting the Keyboard Maestro editor

To delete a Macro Group, select the macro group and then press Command-Delete or click the - button at the bottom of the Groups list.

You cannot delete or rename or disable the Global Macro Group. If you want to control when some of the macros within the Global Macro Group are active, make a new macro group and drag those macros to it.

Smart Groups

You can create Smart Groups which let you see macros matching certain criteria by clicking the ⊕ button button at the bottom of the Groups column, and you can edit a smart group selecting it in the Groups list and clicking the Edit button, or by double clicking the Smart Group.

A Smart Group consists of a set of Search Strings, and any macro that matches any of the search strings will be listed in the Smart Group.

Macros

Macros are used to automate your workflow, procedure, or process on your Mac. 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 consists of:

Macros are contained in Macro Groups, much like files are contained in folders. The Macro Group determines when the Macro is Active (available to be triggered). Macro Groups control such things as which applications the Macro will be active in.

A simple example of a Macro is one which has:

  • A Single Hot Key trigger, such as ⌃E
  • A single action like Insert Text by Pasting the text “SomeName@SomeDomain.com”
  • Is in the “Global Macro Group”, making it available to all applications.

Macros can do almost anything you can do manually on your Mac, and much that you can't, like running scripts.

How To Create a Macro

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 ensure the Edit button is pressed. The Macro Editor window will be displayed.

Macro Editor Window

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 trigger 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 add a new action by clicking the New Action button or the + button at the bottom of the macro detail view to display the list of actions or by choosing Insert Action By Name from the Edit menu or choosing Insert Action from the Edit menu. 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 copy actions by Option-Dragging or by using Copy and Paste. 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 Record button at the bottom of the macro detail view and proceeding 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 quicker than creating each action manually.

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). There is no need to turn off editing, switch to a different macro, or quit the editor (although quitting the editor after you have finished editing all your macros is a good idea).

You can select a recently triggered macro by clicking on the ⌘ toolbar button to select it or select from recently modified macros by clicking the ◷ toolbar button.

You can share a macro to the Keyboard Maestro Forum, or to a friend via Mail or Messages using the sharing button at the top of the Macros window.

You can disable or enable a macro by selecting it and clicking the ✓ button at the bottom of the Macros list. You can also disable or enable a Macro using the Set Macro Enable action, or from AppleScript with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro"
	set enabled of macro group "Macro Name" to true
end tell

You can start editing a Macro from AppleScript with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro"
  editMacro "Macro Name or UID"
end tell

The Keyboard Maestro editor has full AppleScript support so you can manipulate macros in many ways via AppleScript.

How to Edit a Macro

You edit a macro by selecting it and ensure you are in Edit mode. Double clicking on the macro will turn on Edit mode.

You can select a macro by name by choosing Select Macro By Name from the View menu

How to Run a Macro

In order to run (execute or trigger) a macro must be active:

  • It is enabled
  • It’s containing Macro Group is enabled
  • It’s containing Macro Group meets all its activation criteria.

Activation/Deactivation or a Macro Group 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

You can try out a macro from the Keyboard Maestro by clicking the ▶︎ Run button at the top of the editor window. Of course, macros are often sensitive to the context, so it may not be appropriate to run them directly from the editor.

Generally, you run a macro by invoking one of its triggers.

You execute a macro’s action sequence by invoking one of its Macro Triggers that you have defined (such as pressing a hot key if you have configured a hot key trigger). For some triggers, no action is required on your part. For example, the macro could be triggered at a specific time, or what a specific USB device is attached.

You can also trigger macros by name using the Trigger Macro by Name action, which in turn can be in a macro and triggered any way you desire.

You can trigger a macro using the kmtrigger: scheme with a URL like kmtrigger://macro=MacroName&value=Value (the value is accessible via the %TriggerValue% Text Token).

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. If the Macro Group is not enabled and active, the macro will not be available.

How to Import Macros

You may want 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.

Import Macros Safely

⚠️ You should be aware that the macros will be imported in the same state, triggers, and macro group that they were saved in. By default, macros are imported disabled unless you hold the Option key down. This could result in the imported Macro being triggered (executed) as soon as it is imported. If you are at all uncertain about the source of the macros, ensure you import the macros disabled or hold choose choose Import Macros Disabled from the File menu.

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

Macro Triggers

A Macro is executed when any of its Macro Triggers is activated. There are several triggers to choose from, 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 trigger a macro by typing a string. Or you can display a Macro Group as a floating palette, or execute macros remotely.

Hold the option key down while adding a new trigger to get help on that trigger.

You can also trigger macros by name using the Trigger Macro by Name action, which in turn can be in a macro and triggered any way you desire.

The Hot Key trigger is perhaps the most common and most basic of all triggers. When you press the configured keyboard key, the system swallows the keystroke, and Keyboard Maestro executes the macro.

The Typed String trigger is also very common, it lets you execute a macro in response to a sequence of keys like an abbreviation.

The Global Macro Palette trigger lets you add your macro to a floating palette, so you can trigger it by clicking on the macro name in the palette.

The Status Menu trigger lets you add your macro to the Keyboard Maestro status menu so you can trigger it by selecting the macro name from the status menu.

There are many more triggers, and you can learn more about them on the wiki Triggers page.

Macro Actions

A Macro executes a sequence of Macro Actions in order. There are many actions to choose from. 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. You do this by editing the values for the action.
Keyboard Maestro actions have two very distinct types of fields: text token fields and numeric calculation fields. You can learn more on the wiki Text Fields page.

There are many powerful Macro Actions available for your use, and you can sequence them together to perform complex tasks.

To add an action, edit your macro, click the New Action button, or equivalently the + button below the detail view. This will show the lists of possible actions.

To see all actions, select the All Actions category. To select just your favorite actions, select the Favorites category. You can drag actions into your Favorites category. To see plug in actions that you have added to Keyboard Maestro, select the Third Party Plug Ins category.

Double click or drag one or more of the actions to add them to the action list for the currently edited macro.

Alternatively, choose Insert Action by Name from the Edit menu and quickly search for and add an action by name, or select an action from the Insert Action command in the Edit menu.

You can drag Macro Groups or Macros into the action list. With no modifiers, this will create an Execute Macro Action or Show Macro Group action. With the Option key, this will copy in the macro's actions. With Command-Shift, this will create an Enable Macro Group or Macro action. With Option-Shift, this will create a Mark the Macro action.

You can drag a file into the action list. This will create an Activate Application, Execute Script, or Open File action.

You can use the Engroup or Degroup from the Actions menu to enclose actions in other containers (or remove them from containers).

You can enable or disable actions by selecting them and clicking the ✓ button at the bottom of the macro detail view. You can set the timeout or other options on an action clicking the ⚙ menu at the top right of the action and selecting an option.

You can display more or less detail about some actions by clicking the disclosure triangle. You can disclose all the actions (in a sublist) simultaneously by option clicking on the disclosure triangle.

You can try the action immediately by clicking the ⚙ button at the top right of the action and selecting Try. Alternatively, you can try the selected actions immediately by clicking the Try button at the bottom of the macro detail view.

You can control or right-click on an action to act on it, including pasting other actions above or below it.

You can configure the action using the various menus and text fields, as well as by clicking the ⚙ button and using the action menu. This allows you to rename actions, color them, add notes, configure their time out and failure behaviour and more.

The action menu also allows you to get help on the specific action.

You can share an action sequence to the Keyboard Maestro Forum, or to a friend via Mail or Messages using the sharing button at the top of the Macros window.

You can learn more about the available actions on the wiki Actions page.

Macro Syncing

Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per user basis on up to five Macs, so if you use it on two or more Macs you may want to transfer some of your macros from one to the other. You can do this by selecting the desired macros and choosing Export Macros from the File menu to export your macros, and then importing them on the target Mac.

Alternatively, you may want (almost) all your macros on both Macs, in which case you can set up your macros to sync between them. This means any change you make on one Mac will be mirrored on the other and vice versa, although you generally should not edit your macros simultaneously on both Macs.

NOTE: You can only sync between identical versions of Keyboard Maestro. If the sync file is newer than the current version, you will be warned to upgrade, turn off syncing, or live dangerously (which temporarily disables syncing and allows you to make changes that will likely cause trouble later).

To do this, you need a file location that is mirrored on both Macs. DropBox or a similar service is good for this, or you can use a shared file server, although you must ensure it is available at all times to both Macs.

You are then ready to start syncing your macros.

WARNING: Syncing macros is an all or nothing affair, so any macros on the target Mac before you start syncing will be lost.

WARNING: If you make changes on one Mac, and then make changes on the other Mac before syncing has taken place, you may lose one or other changes. Be especially careful if you are working with your Mac when offline.

NOTE: Keyboard Maestro references to files or applications that exist on one Mac and not the other will likely cause problems, so you should ensure any application you reference on one Mac is available at the same path on both Macs.

On the Mac that currently has your macros, choose Start Syncing Macros from the File menu. Read the text carefully, and then click the Create New button. Save your existing macros in the macro sync file in your shared location. From now on, Keyboard Maestro will sync any changes to/from that file.

Wait for the file to be mirrored to the second/target Mac. On that second Mac, choose Start Syncing Macros from the File menu. Again, Read the text carefully, and then click the Open Existing button.

WARNING: All of the existing macros on this second Mac will be destroyed if you continue. If you have any macros on the second Mac that you wish to preserve, export them first, and then after syncing is enabled, import them (and they will then be synced to your other Macs).

Select the mirrored sync file. Your existing macros will be replaced with the macros from your first Mac.

Repeat the process for any other Macs.

If there are some macros you do not want active on a Mac, you can configure any given Macro Group to be disabled on that particular Mac by turning on the Disabled on this Mac setting in that Macro Group.

DropBox may keep backup versions, and Keyboard Maestro keeps backup revisions (in the Revert Macros command in the File menu), so you should be able to recover from any conflicts that happen. DropBox may notice a conflict if you edit your macros on both Macs simultaneously. As a general rule this should not be an issue, though you may lose a change if you make changes on both Macs quickly (and note that quitting the Keyboard Maestro editor is considered a change).

Since your two Macs will likely not be identical, you may have to adjust your macros to work properly on both Macs. Using the various Tokens and Functions can help. For example the %MacUUID% token is a unique ID for each Mac, and can be used to test which Mac the macro is running on. Other functions, like the SCREEN function can be used to ensure your macro behaves appropriately regardless of the details of the Mac.

Note: Only your macros are synced. None of your preferences, clipboards or variables are synced.

Macro Debugger

Keyboard Maestro includes a built-in macro debugger which you can turn on by choosing Start Debugging from the Status Menu menu or by using one of the Debugger actions. This will display the Macro Debugger window.

Macro Debugger

Once debugging, you can control whether new macros start paused or start running.

The macro debugger shows all running macros, and what action they are currently executing (including showing nested actions).

Using the associated buttons, you can:

  • Continue the macro – allowing it to run until completion, or until it hits a Debugger Breakpoint action.
  • Pause the macro.
  • Step Over the current action, including any subactions.
  • Step In To the current action, stepping in to any included subaction.
  • Step Out Of the current action and any other actions at the same level.
  • Cancel the macro.

For detailed instructions, see How to debug a macro.

All the debugger actions can also be done via the Debugger actions.

Keep in mind that once a macro has started executing, the engine has taken a copy of the macro to execute, so any changes you make in the editor will not affect the execution of the macro (although any changes you make to a sub macro that has not yet started executing would apply).

Also keep in mind that macros can often be time sensitive, so if you find your macro runs fine when stepped through in the debugger, but not when run normally, the issue is probably that the macro is executing actions like click actions before the system has caught up and the screen is stable. Add an appropriate Pause action if that is the case.

If you close the debugger window, the paused macros will resume their normal operation.

Variables

Like most programming languages, Keyboard Maestro allows you, the Macro builder, to create Variables to store data for use later on in the same Macro, or in other Macros. So, your use of Variables can include the following:

Scope

Keyboard Maestro includes variables with three different scopes of allowed access, in order of scope, with broadest scope first:

Scope Availability
Global, Permanent variables • Available Everywhere, including Scripts and Preferences.
Password, Permanent variables • Available to macros but not displayed.
• Not directly accessible via AppleScript.
Displayed in password fields in Prompt For User Input actions.
Instance Variables (v8+) • Restricted to a specific execution sequence.
• Available to the Macro where it was created AND Sub-Macros of that Macro, for a given execution instance of the main macro.
• So these Variables are private to each execution of the same Macro, even when running simultaneously.
• Available to Prompt For User Input
• As of v8.0.3, is available to scripts (when used in an Execute Script Action), HTML Prompt
Local Variables (v8+) • Restricted to Macro where it was created
• Not Available to any of its Sub-Macros
• Available to Prompt For User Input
• As of v8.0.3, is available to scripts (when used in an Execute Script Action), HTML Prompt
Dictionary, Permanent, global in scope. • Available Almost Everywhere, including Scripts, but not Preferences.
• Dictionaries consist of the Dictionary Name, One or more pairs of Key Name, and Value
• Although Dictionaries are like Variables, they are kept in a separate category called Dictionaries.

Macros can create or read existing variables, which persist and are permanently stored (except Local and Instance variables which are transient).

Variables contain only plain un-styled text and may be used in any text field in an action, as well as in Calculations in a numerical field, or within the in Calculate Token. Variable may be used in Calculations if they contain a valid number or expression.

Kinds of Variable

Global Variables

Global Variables are permanently stored on your Mac drive (like a file), and are available for read/write in any Macro or Action, not just the Macro where the Variable was created. These variables persist between logins and restarts of your Mac.

Variable names must start with a letter, and then can contain letters, numbers, spaces, or underscores. Variable names are case insensitive, but their case is remembered. Variable names should not include a function or operator name with spaces around it (eg “ MOD ” , so “A MOD B” would not be a valid variable, although “MODULE” would be fine).

Password Variables

Variables with names that start or end with “Password” or “PW” are considered passwords – their values will not be stored (except in memory) and they cannot be read directly by shell scripts or AppleScripts, though their consequences can easily be extracted, eg with the Set Clipboard to Text action, so you should clear them as soon as they have served their purpose. The Prompt For User Input dialog will display such variables in a password field.

Instance Variables (v8+)

Variables with names that start with “Instance” (trailing space not necessary) are considered private to a specific execution sequence. Each time the macro is run, they will start empty but their value can be seen and changed by other macros within the same execution sequence (for example, if you execute a macro using the Execute Macro action, that macro can see and change the instance variable). Since two instances of a macro can be running at the same time, this is useful to ensure they each have their own version of the variable.

Since Local and Instance variables are transient, they are not shown in the Variables preferences pane.

Local Variables (v8+)

Variables with names that start with “Local” (trailing space not necessary) are considered local to a specific execution of a specific macro. Each time the macro is run, they will start empty and no other macro will see or be able to change values.

Note that Local and Instance Variables are available in scripts only when the script is called in an Execute Script Action.

For a good discussion on the new Version 8 Local and Instance Variables, see this Forum topic:
KM8: Local and Instance Variables

Setting Variables

Variables are usually created and set by Macro Actions, but can also be set by scripts. The Action that sets a variable will create it if need be. Variables do not need to be declared in any way.

The most direction Action to set a variable is the Set Variable to Text action.

This action processes the tokens and backslashed characters in the text and sets the variable. As will all text fields, if you wish to use another variable in the text you must use the %Variable% token, eg The value is %Variable%VarName%.

You can also use the Set_Variable_to_Calculation action. This action evaluates the numeric expression and then sets the variable to the result. As with all numeric fields, if you wish to use another variable in the calculation, you use the variable unadorned, eg VarName * 3.

There are many other actions that set variables.

Using Variables

There are many Macro Actions that can use variables. Some of these explicitly provide for entry of the variable name, but most provide for a more general text entry that accepts either token text or a numeric expression.
When editing a field:

  • Fields that expect text tokens show a small T.
  • Fields that expect calculations show a small C.
  • Fields that expect just a variable name show a small V.

Variables in Text Fields

Variables can be used in text fields using the %Variable% token. The %Variable%<VariableName>% token allows you to include a variable in the text, where <VariableName> is the name of the variable, and this is replaced by the value of the variable.

For Example, using the Insert Text Action:

You can also use a short form of just %Variable Name% to include variables as long as the variable exists and has a value and there is no corresponding text token, although generally it is better and clearer to use the longer form %Variable%Variable Name%.

Variable Arrays

While technically all Variables are just strings, you can access a variable as if it were an array (v7.2+) by setting the Variable to a delimited list of text, and then using the following notation:

%Variable%<VariableName>[<IndexNumber>]%

where

  • “<VariableName>” is any valid Keyboard Maestro Variable with a delimited set of values.
    • By default the comma , is the delimiter (see below for setting a custom delimiter).
  • “<IndexNumber>” is an integer indicating the index (starting with 1) of the array value within the Variable Array.
    • This index can be determined using any Calculation, including simply a Variable Name, like i.
    • Examples:
      • %Variable%myList[i]%
      • %Variable%myList[3 * i + 2]%

How to Use Custom Array Delimiter

Place the custom delimiter after the closing bracket ].

  • For Example: %Variable%myList1[i]:%, where the colon : is the delimiter used in the Variable Array.
  • Of course, the Variable Array, myList1 in this case, must use the same custom delimiter.

Simple Example of Variable Array

Example of Variable Array Using a Variable for the Index

For a real-world example, see this Forum post: Combine Two Lists Using KM Variable Array

Variables in Calculation Fields

Variables can be used in calculations if their value holds a number or a numeric expression that can be evaluated. Variables are used unadorned in calculations, for example My Variable * 7.
You can also access variables in a token field numerically using the %Calculate% token. It is important to note that calculations can contain only numeric values. When you use the %Calculate% token to reference a variable or variable array element, it will convert the element to a number.

Variable Dot Notation

In a Calculation field you can reference the numbers in a variable (which is always a string) using dot notation:

Variable.x x coordinate
Variable.y y coordinate
Variable.left the left coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.top the top coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.right the right coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.bottom the right coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.width the width of a rectangle or size
Variable.height the height of a rectangle or size
Variable.fuzz the fuzz of an image match (rectangle,fuzz)
Variable.MidX the horizontal middle of a rectangle
Variable.MidY the vertical middle of a rectangle

The Variable Name and Dot reference are case insensitive.

Using Variables in Scripts

Variables values can be accessed from scripts you execute with Keyboard Maestro via environment variables, and from AppleScript using AppleScript commands to the Keyboard Maestro Engine, and from web browser JavaScript you execute with Keyboard Maestro via the document.kmvar dictionary, see the Scripting section for more details.

You can get and set Keyboard Maestro Variables (Global, Local, and Instance) in these types of scripts:

And you can generally access Keyboard Maestro variables anywhere else via AppleScript from whatever language you want to use.

Deleting Variables

  • Global Variables, including Password Variables, continue to exist (remained stored) until their value is set to "", the empty string.
    • Setting a Variable to %Delete% does not technically delete it. It continues to exist. It is just hidden from view in all of the Variable lists and in the Preferences.
    • However, a Variable set to %Delete% will behave as if it does not exist in most Actions, like a If Then Else Action using a Variable Condition comparing to exists.
  • Dictionaries continue to exist as long as there is at least one Key that has a value that is not "".
  • Dictionary Keys continue to exist until their value is set to "".

It may be a good idea to set a Variable to "" do if you no longer need it, or if it contains sensitive information (like a password) or a large value (like a file or web page contents).

Perhaps the best way to avoid variable clutter and eliminate sensitive and/or large values is to use either Local or Instance Variables when you do not need the Variable after completion of the Macro in which the Variable is used.

Inserting In Actions

You can add a variable to an action using the Insert Variable menu in the Edit menu or Variable menu in the Insert Function sub-menu in the Edit menu or Variable menu in the Insert Token sub-menu in the Edit menu, or by selecting from the popup menu next to some variable fields.

Fields that expect just a variable show a small V in the field while editing it, and you can use Type Completion to complete variable names in such fields.

View Your Entire List of Variables

You can add, delete, see or change global variables in the Variables preference pane that have been created by your macros and scripts. There are no variable preferences to be set here. This is sometimes called the “Variables Panel” or “Variables Tab” in Keyboard Maestro Preferences.

Local and Instance Variables are not accessible from either the Preferences Window or from Scripting.

Tokens

Tokens allow you to add textual information to token text fields. You can tell that a field accepts tokens because a small T shows in the field while editing it.

You can insert tokens into a field using the Insert Token popup near the field or by choosing Insert Token from the Edit menu. You can also start typing a token and use type completion to complete the token. You can insert a token by name by choosing Insert Token by Name from the Edit menu.

The available tokens are listed on the wiki Tokens page.

Text token fields also process %NN% or %NNNN% as arbitrary hex unicode characters (eg %41% is an A), and (except for regular expression fields) process backslashed characters \a,\b,\e,\f,\t,\r,\n (bell,backspace,escape,form feed,tab,return,line feed).

To include a percent in your text, simply double the percent (%%). To include a backslash \ in your text, double the backslash (\\).

With tokens that commonly contain arrays of information, you can easily access the individual parts using the token array notation, eg %TriggerValue[3]% will be the third comma-separated value, and %TriggerValue[3];% will be the third semicolon-separated value, and %TriggerValue[3] % (note the space between the ] and the %) will be the third space-separated value (8.0.4+). This currently works with the following tokens:

Many actions allow you to turn off tokens or backslash character processing if you need to use text that has percent or backslash characters.

Calculations

Overview

Keyboard Maestro supports calculations in almost any numeric text fields. For example you can Pause for “60*Time in Minutes”. Calculations can also use comma separated lists of numbers as arrays, and can return such arrays, so you can operate on frames and points. Numeric fields often start small with up/down step arrows, but if you type anything other than a number they will expand to allow a more complex expression to be entered. You can tell that a field accepts calculations because a small C shows in the field while editing it.

Examples

For example:

Calculation example

will result in the mouse being placed at the center of the front window.

Note: You must use commas for this purpose, and full stops (.) for decimal numbers, and never use any thousands separators, regardless of your desired language.

Expressions

Keyboard Maestro’s expressions include precedence, nested bracketed expressions, many built-in functions, various numeric bases, so you should be able to write almost any expressions you might like to use, as well as use it as a general purpose calculator if desired.

Operators

Operators based on precedence from lowest to highest are:

Array Separator (,) Allows a text Variable, which has comma separated values, to work somewhat like an Array.
Assume MyKMVariable contains “value1,value2,value3”.
Then MyKMVariable[2] returns “value2”.
Ternary Operator (?) a=b ? 3 : 4
Bitwise OR (|), Bitwise AND (&) and Bitwise XOR operators
Comparison Operators (<, ≤, =, >, ≥, ≠) compare for (in)equality and return 0 or 1
Shift Operators (≪, ≫) shift a number left or right
Arithmetic Operators
  • Add (+)
  • Subtract (-)
  • Multiply (*)
  • Divide (/) 		A mathematical function that takes two operands and performs a calculation on them.
Modulo (i MOD n) The remainder of the division of i by n.
Both values (i, n) must be an integer in Keyboard Maestro.
Power Operator (^) exponentiation
Unary Prefix Operators (√, -, ( ) ) square root, negation, sub-expressions
Functions a large variety of functions
Numbers and Variables or Array Accesses (5,$5A,0x50,8#007,Variable,Variable[5]) identifiers and values
Unary Postfix Operators (!,%,°)) factorial, percent, degrees

Numbers are in decimal by default, but may use base 16 if they start with $ or 0x (eg $5A or 0x5A), or may start with a specific base followed by a # (eg 8#007).

Variables can be used if they contain numeric expressions, including an array of numbers separated by commas, in which case you can use an array index to select the desired number.

You can use either = or == (v8+) for testing for equality.

Operators and functions must be in uppercase to minimize conflict with variables.

Functions

The available functions are listed on the wiki Functions page.

You can insert a function by name by choosing Insert Function by Name from the Edit menu.

Variables

In numeric calculation fields, Variable Names are used without the % that are used in text token fields. Do not try to use tokens (like %Variable%MyVar%) in numeric calculation fields, just use MyVar by itself. The variable must contain a valid numeric value, or an expression (v8+) that evaluates to a valid numeric value. So for example, if MyVar contains a text value of 2*3, then the calculation 4*MyVar will return 24.

Screen Coordinates

Keyboard Maestro refers to screen coordinates as two or four comma separated numbers in the text of a Keyboard Maestro Variable (which is always a string).

  • Screen object points, like the left,top position of a window, have two values, like 12,34
  • Screen object rectangles, like the frame of a window, have four values 12,34,56,78 (with a fifth value for fuzz in some instances).
    * You can reference these values by position in the string, as it the Variable were an array:
  • For example:
    if the Variable myWindow is “12,34,56,78”
    then all of these forms of reference will provide a value of 34 in a Calculation field:
    • myWindow[2]
    • myWindow.y
    • myWindow.Top

Variable Array Access

If a variable contains a sequence of numbers separated by comma (,) then you can access that variable using array notation (eg MyVar[5]). So if variable MyVar has a text value of 10,20,30,40,50,60, MyVar[5] will return 50.

The index is itself an expression, so it can be arbitrarily complex.

Indices are 1-based, so MyVar[1] is the first element. If the index is 0, the size of the array is returned (so MyVar[0] would be 6). If the index is less than zero, the array is indexed from the end (so MyVar[-5] would be 20).

Variable Dot Notation

In a Calculation field you can reference the numbers in a Keyboard Maestro Variable (which is always a string) using dot notation:

Variable.x x coordinate
Variable.y y coordinate
Variable.left the left coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.top the top coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.right the right coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.bottom the right coordinate of a rectangle
Variable.width the width of a rectangle or size
Variable.height the height of a rectangle or size
Variable.fuzz the fuzz of an image match (rectangle,fuzz)
Variable.MidX the horizontal middle of a rectangle
Variable.MidY the vertical middle of a rectangle

The Variable Name and Dot reference are case insensitive.

Text Fields

In calculation fields, you can express a calculation as you would normally write an expression, for example: 

3 * Count + 7

However in a text field, since any text is allowed, you must use percent encoded tokens to indicate where more processing is required. You can include a variable in the text by using the %Variable% token, or you can use a calculation by using the %Calculate% token, or any number of other Tokens. 

The result is %Calculate%3 * Count + 7%.

Examples of Variable Data Reference

Macro Actions

Example Results

Some example expressions might be: 

Amount in Dollars * 100
MJD() > 55928
NOW() > TIME(2012,3,23,12,2,1)
DOW(TIME(2012,4,4)) = 4
Radius*SIN(20°),Radius*COS(20°)
Window Frame[1]+Window Frame[3]/2,Window Frame.MidY
MOUSEBUTTON() + 2 * MOUSEBUTTON(4)
SCREEN(Internal,Left,10%)

KeyWords: MOD, Modulo

Conditions

Keyboard Maestro includes a variety of control flow actions which perform actions depending on a set of conditions.

The condition clause of the flow control actions can be any of:

  • Any of the following are true – at least one condition must be true.
  • All of the following are true – every condition must be true.
  • None of the following are true – no condition is true.
  • Not all of the following are true – at least one condition must be false.

This is followed by a set of specific conditions. If there are no conditions in the set at all, the action will not execute anything except the Until action which will execute the actions once. Neither side of the If Then Else will execute.

The available conditions are listed on the wiki Conditions page.

See also the Variables and Calculations sections.

Collections

Keyboard Maestro includes a For Each action which perform a sequence of actions repeatedly, once for each element of a collection.

Any time you have to deal with a set of things (lines, files, numbers, etc), you are probably thinking of a collection for which the For Each action is the answer.

The available collections are listed on the wiki Collections page.

Filters

Keyboard Maestro includes a variety of filters that can be applied to either the system clipboard, Named Clipboards, or variables. For clipboards, the filters preserve style information to whatever degree is possible. Use the Filter action to apply filters.

The filters are:

  • Remove Styles (ie, make the clipboard plain text – not applicable to variables).
  • Set line endings to Mac, Unix or Windows/DOS.
  • Trim Whitespace.
  • Hard wrap or unwrap paragraphs.
  • Lowercase (all characters), Lowercase First (just the first character).
  • Uppercase (all characters), Uppercase First (just the first character).
  • Capitalize (all words) or Title Case (intelligently uppercase certain first letters).
  • Change quotes to Smart, Dumb or French quotation marks.
  • Encode HTML or non-ASCII HTML entities.
  • Decode HTML entities.
  • Generate an HTML list.
  • Percent Encode or Decode a URL.
  • Quote for AppleScript, JavaScript, Shell (bash) Script, or Swift.
  • Get or delete the last path component or the path extension.
  • Get the basename of the path (ie the name without directory or extension).
  • Expand tilde (~) paths, or abbreviate with a tilde.
  • Resolve symlinks, or standardize the path.
  • Delete or bullet (•) control characters.
  • Calculate an expression and return the result, see the Calculations section.
  • Process Tokens and return the result, see the Tokens section.
  • Get the value of a named variable or named clipboard.
  • Count the characters, words or lines and return the result.

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.

Dictionaries

Keyboard Maestro includes permanently stored dictionaries that you can use or set.

A dictionary is a named set of mappings from a key name to a value. You can have multiple dictionaries, each with their own name (so really, it is a set of mappings from a dictionary name and a key name to a value).

Dictionary names start with a alphabetic character, followed by any number of alphanumeric, space or underscores. Dictionary names are case insensitive.

Key names can be anything, although leading and trailing white space is stripped off. Key names are case insensitive.

Dictionary values are plain text and can include leading or trailing white space.

For example, you might have a dictionary named “Shop Prices”, with keys being the item names and values being the cost of the item.

DictionaryNameValue
Shop Prices
Shop Prices
Shop Prices		 Coffee
Cake
Drink		 3.45
5.35
2.50

Setting Dictionary Values

Use the Set Dictionary Value action to set a dictionary value.

Accessing Dictionary Values

You can use the %Dictionary% token to access Dictionary values.

You can list the dictionaries with the Dictionaries collection, and you can list all the keys within a dictionary with the Dictionary Keys collection.

AppleScript

You can read and write dictionary values from AppleScript.

snippet.applescript
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
	name of dictionaries
end tell
snippet.applescript
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
	dictionary keys of dictionary "First Names"
end tell
snippet.applescript
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
	set value of dictionary key "P" of dictionary "First Names" to "Fred"
end tell

See Also

See also the Set Dictionary Value action, the %Dictionary% token and the Dictionaries and Dictionary Keys collections.

Search Strings

Search Strings are filters which, in addition to the text you type, can include qualifiers that may be applied to searches for Macros and Actions in:

  1. Keyboard Maestro Editor, Search field
  2. Keyboard Maestro Editor, Smart Group
  3. Trigger Macro by Name Action

Keyboard Maestro will search for the text you type, and all of the below qualifiers that you specify, for matches in your list of macros. Each word is searched for separately (and in any order) unless you quote a phrase.

Note that the Trigger Macro by Name Action only searches among active macros.

Search Qualifiers:

The qualifier can generally be shorted to its shortest unique name, as shown in the Short Form column.

Qualifier Short form Definition Example
all: al: Match everything al:
(Otherwise the empty search string matches nothing)
group: gr: Match any macro within the named macro group
(Use quotes if Name contains spaces) 		gr:"Forum Examples"
global: gl: Match any macro within any macro group that is globally active gl:
(aka universal:)
application ap: Match any macro that is specific to (or excluded from) the specified application ap:Finder
enabled: e: Match any macro that is enabled e:
(not necessarily active)
disabled: d: Match any macro that is disabled d:
trigger: t: Match any macro that has a trigger matching the specified string t:;sig
(Typed String of “;sig”)
hotkey: h: Match any macro with specified HotKey
Match any macro with any HotKey if no HotKey is specified.
Modifier Keys must be one of these: ⌃⌥⇧⌘ 		h:⌘⌃C
(CMD CTRL C)

h:
(Matches any HotKey)
name: n: Match any macro that has a name matching the specified string n:PDF
created: cre: Match any macro that was created less that the specified time ago (v8.2.1+) cre:1w
modified: mod: Match any macro that was modified less that the specified time ago (v8.2.1+) mod:1d
used: use: Match any macro that was used less that the specified time ago (v8.2.1+) use:1m

For the created:, modified:, used:, the parameter is a number followed by a letter (s for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours, d for days, or w for weeks).

You can use a negative sign (-) to negate any match (for example, “-name:PDF”).

Palettes

Keyboard Maestro can display a number of Palettes (or Toolbars).

There are three types of palettes:

  1. Global Macro Palette
  2. Macro Group palettes
  3. Conflict Palette.

Global Macro Palette

Any macro with the Global Macro Palette trigger will be displayed in the Global Floating Palette. This palette appears whenever there is one or more active macros with this trigger, so it may appear and disappear depending on which macros are active (remember that Macro Groups control when a macro is active).

Macro Group Palette

Any Macro Group can be configured to display as a palette. Since Macro Groups can be active in specific applications, this can be used for application-specific palettes.

Conflict Palette

When you use a trigger (hot key, device key, or typed string trigger) that is assigned to more than one macro, and all of these macros are active, then Keyboard Maestro will display the Conflict Palette listing the triggered macros and let you select the desired macro, either by clicking on it or by typing a letter that narrows that palette down until only one macro remains at which point that macro is triggered. You can use the Conflict Palette to limit the number of hot keys you need to remember by give a bunch of similar or related macros the same hot key and then selecting the desired macro with a further keystroke based on the now visible palette.

Controlling The Display of Palettes

By using the Show Macro Group or Show Macro Group for One Action actions, you can display a macro group as a palette. This allows you to build nested palettes. For example, a palette could contain a number of macros that simply show different macro groups.

By using the Mark or Unmark Macro action, you can have macros shown in macro palettes appear ticked to indicate some state (for example an application dock that marks or unmarks the macro as the application launches or quits). Alternatively, you can enable and disable macros to have them appear or disappear from a macro palette. Either of these techniques will allow some level of dynamic behaviour of palettes.

You can control the appearance of the palettes in the Palettes preference pane or in the macro group configuration. You can choose the style, the opacity of the palette, the size of the entries, the number of columns, whether the entries include the icon, the text and/or the trigger, the title bar (v8.2.1+), and whether the palette shrinks when the mouse is not over it. You can use the styling to build palettes that just display their icon for example, and combined with custom icons for your macros this can create a nice looking icon palette.

Recording

Keyboard Maestro has 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:

  • Moving a window
  • Resizing a window
  • Miniaturizing a window
  • Clicking the mouse
  • Typing a Keystroke
  • Moving the scroll wheel
  • Selecting a menu
  • Activating an application
  • Quitting an application

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 Record button. After a short pause for you to get ready, recording will begin. To avoid the pause, hold the option key down while clicking the Record button).

Once recording starts, demonstrate the task you would like to perform using any of the above actions and Keyboard Maestro will record your actions directly into your macro.

While Keyboard Maestro is recording, it will display the Recording window.

Recording Window

While you are recording, you can pause the recording by clicking the Pause button in the recording window, and you can add a 0.25 second pause to your macro by clicking the Clock button.

When you are finished, click the Record button again to stop recording, or 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. 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 action 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.

Macro Library

The macro library is a place where we can provide you with a variety of ready-made macros for optional addition to your macro collection. You can download new potential macros from us or from friends or colleagues or the forum. You can also share your own macros with other Keyboard Maestro users by exporting your clever macros as a library item.

Keep in mind that macros can do practically anything on your Mac, including cause a huge amount of damage, so you should never execute a macro without verifying the source and better yet, checking exactly what it does.

To use the library, choose Macro Library from the Window menu to display the macro library. You can then look through the available macros and insert any you'd like to use into your macros. You can then use them as is, or configure the new macros, perhaps changing the hot keys or adjusting the macros to your liking.

Each macro comes with a short description to tell you what it does, so scroll through them to see all the possibilities, and click on them to get more details.

You can export a set of macros to a macro library file, which you can share with others, and you can import .kmlibrary files into your macro library. Note that currently there is no way to delete imported macro library entries from your Macro Library except by quitting Keyboard Maestro and Keyboard Maestro Engine and removing the files from the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Libraries folder.

For some other example macros, you can also look at the Macro Library on the wiki.

Macro Examples

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 the forum topics:

You can also use the Macro Library by choosing Macro Library from the Window menu to see some build in examples.

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.

Launch Your Most Used Applications

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.

Open Your Most Used Documents

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.

Insert Text Templates

Use Control-Letter 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. The text you insert can be typed, pasted as plain text, or can be fully styled text.

Use Hot Keys to Open Financial Accounts

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.

Use Hot Keys to Connect to SSH or FTP sites

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 a File action Open File.

Simulate Bookmarks

Use the Click Browser Link and Browser Form Actions to open web pages, fill in fields, submit forms, follow links. For example, you could use this to log in to the city library for all the members of your family, one in each tab, to easily check what books are due back.

If you are going to use this to enter passwords, use the Set Variable to Keychain Password action to retrieve the password so that it is not stored in plain text in the Keyboard Maestro macros.

Remap Command Keys

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.

Simulate Missing Features

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.

Swap Characters

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:

  • Simulate Keystroke Shift-Right Arrow
  • Cut to Named Clipboard “Temp”
  • Simulate Keystroke Left Arrow
  • Paste from Named Clipboard “Temp”

Save a Text Clipping

If you often want to save snippets of text, you could create a Hot Key to save a clipping:

  • Copy
  • Open File “Clippings.rtf”
  • Simulate Keystroke Command-Down Arrow
  • Insert Text “== %LongDate% %ShortTime% ==<return>” by Typing
  • Paste
  • Simulate Keystroke Return
  • Simulate Keystroke Return
  • Select Menu Item File » Save
  • Manipulate Window Close Front Window
  • Switch to Last Application (or Quit Specific Application or Command-Q)

Delayed Click

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.

Insert Boilerplate Text

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.

Apply Text Conversions

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 function declaration in a header file into function definition.

Simulate Workspaces

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.

Setup an Application When Launched

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.

Clean Up After Using an Application

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 an AppleScript action.

Launch Scanner Application When Scanner is Connected

Set up a macro that automatically launches your scanner application when your scanner is connected, and quits it again when the scanner is disconnected. This works brilliantly with the ScanSnap scanners – open the lid and the scanner software launches, close it and the scanner software disappears.

Switch Network Location When You Connect

Set up a macro that automatically changes your Network Location when you connect to your home or work wireless network.

Feedback During Macro Execution

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’s PC Switcher’s Pack

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.

Icon Chooser

Keyboard Maestro includes an Icon Chooser and creator to allow you to select custom icons for your macro groups and macros.

You can display the Icon Chooser by choosing Icon Chooser from the Window menu.

Icon Chooser Window

Click on an image well for a macro or macro group (in Edit mode), and then click on an icon in the Icon Chooser to select it.

The Icon Chooser includes three panes with different icons:

  • Internal – all the icons Keyboard Maestro normally uses.
  • Applications – all the icons Keyboard Maestro can find on your Mac.
  • Character – icons you create based on a character.

The Character Icon Choose pane allows you to create your own custom icons by setting a few simple parameters.

Icon Chooser Window

You can set the background and foreground color, shape, and an optional character:

Icon Chooser Window

When you have a Macro or Macro Group icon well selected, and you make any change in the Icon Chooser, or if you click the icon in the Icon Chooser, then the icon for the Macro/Macro Group will be set.

To load the Icon Chooser from an existing Macro or Macro Group, select the icon well of the Macro/Macro Group and then open the Icon Chooser (close it first if necessary).

If an icon well is not selected when you open the Icon Chooser, then it will retain the settings that were last used.

Note that icons configured from the Icon Chooser will be very small in storage size in your macros. ⚠️ Icons set any other way (including copy & paste from another icon) will be much larger.

To transfer an Icon Chooser created icon from one macro to another, use this process:

  • Double click the source icon well.
  • The Icon Chooser will open and take on the characteristics of the source icon.
  • Select the target icon well.
  • Click on the icon in the Icon Chooser.

Application Launcher

The Activate Application Launcher action is essentially a highly specialized macro action that enables you to launch applications. By triggering the macro, the Application Launcher enables you to launch any applications in your Applications or Utilities folder, as well as any recently running applications. Once the launching window appears, you may select the application to launch, and Application Launcher will launch it for you.

The applications are also listed in the Status Menu, so you can launch applications that way if you prefer.

By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Activate Application Launcher macro in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by Command-Control-Tab. You can disable this Macro by selecting the Switcher Group, then selecting the Activate Application Switcher macro and clicking the ✓ button below the Macros list. You can edit this macro to change the trigger to any other desired Hot Key.

Application Switcher

The Activate Application Switcher action is essentially a highly specialized macro action that enables you to launch, switch, hide, and quit applications. By triggering the macro, the Application Switcher enables you to switch between all running applications. Once the switching window appears, you may select the application to activate, and Application Switcher will take you to it.

The Activate Application 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 Application Switcher window is displayed, you can perform various actions:

  • Press “q” to mark (or unmark) an application to be quit.
  • Press “k” twice to mark an application to be force quit.
  • Press “s” or “h” to mark (or unmark) an application to be hidden.
  • Press “l” or “z” to mark (or unmark) an application to be launched.
  • Press “a” to hide (or show) “always included” applications.
  • Press “e” to show (or hide) “always ignored” applications.
  • Press “j” to show (or hide) “recently quit” applications.
  • Press “c” to select the current application.
  • Press “f” to select the Finder.
  • Press “d” to switch directly to the current application and hide other applications.
  • Press “i” to Get Info on the current application.
  • Press “r” to reveal the current application in the Finder.

If you click and hold down on any icon, a menu with these options will appear. Using the menu, you can also configure the switcher to:

  • switch just the front window instead of all windows.
  • reopen windows when switching.

Application Switcher Window

By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Activate Application Switcher macro in the “Switcher Group” Macro Group, triggered by Command-Tab. You can disable this Macro by selecting the Switcher Group, then selecting the Activate Application Switcher macro and clicking the ✓ button below the Macros list. You can edit this macro to change the trigger to to any other desired Hot Key avoid replacing the system application switcher.

Window Switcher

Activate 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:

  • Press “q” to mark (or unmark) a window to be closed.
  • Press “s” to mark (or unmark) a window to be minimized.
  • Press left or right arrow keys to scroll through applications.

Window Switcher Window

By default, Keyboard Maestro creates a Activate 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 History Switcher

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.

Clipboard History Switcher Window

You can press arrow keys to scroll through the clipboard entries, and return/enter to paste in an entry. Hold the Shift key while pressing return or double clicking to paste as plain text. You can also drag items around - if a new item becomes the first item, then it will replace the current System Clipboard - and you can drag text and images out from the clipboard switcher to other applications.

You can include information about the clipboard entry (index, time copied, size) by toggling the i button. Whether the switcher closes when you paste something is controlled by the x button. The switcher honours the text size setting in the Preferences.

You can mark entries as favorites, in which case they will never be removed from the clipboard history. You can toggle a filter to show only the favorites in the search field (top right), or by option clicking on the favorites button.

You can use the search field to filter the clipboards.

In the ⚙ menu in each clipboard entry, you can Paste the item or use it Set the System Clipboard, optionally removing styles or forcing it as an image. You can also Favorite, Send or Delete the item.

Any active macros that have the Clipboard Filter trigger will be displayed in the ⚙ menu. They can use the Trigger Clipboard facility to operate on the selected clipboard, allowing you to make macros that apply to any selected clipboard (for example, save the clipboard to disk, or uppercase it).

Clipboard entries that resemble passwords are obscured, deleted after they reach position ten in the clipboard history, and not saved to disk. You can option click on an obscured password to reveal it.

You can send clipboards to another Mac running Keyboard Maestro. The received clipboard entries will appear in the clipboard history (assuming the Keyboard Maestro Web Server is enabled on the destination Mac).

Keyboard Maestro keeps a copy of everything you copy automatically each time you copy something. You can exclude certain applications (for example, badly behaved applications or applications that often have very large clipboards) using the Keyboard Maestro Excluded Preferences.

You can toggle to the Named Clipboards by clicking on the 🕘 button.

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 has many macros in the Macro Library, such as macros for Paste Plain Text (Command-Shift-V) and Paste Previous Clipboard (Command-Control-V).

Named Clipboard Switcher

The Named 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 the Named Clipboard Switcher you simply trigger the Named Clipboard Switcher macro. The Named Clipboard Switcher will present you with a window allowing you to select the named clipboard to use.

Clipboard Switcher Window

You can press arrow keys to scroll through the clipboard entries, or you can use type-ahead to select a named clipboard, and you can use the search field to filter the clipboards.

You can cut or copy the current selection into the selected clipboard, or paste the selected clipboard into the current selection (hold down the shift key to paste as plain text).

You can drag text and images out from the clipboard switcher to other applications.

You can include information about the clipboard entry (index, time copied, size) by toggling the i button. Whether the switcher closes when you paste something is controlled by the x button. The switcher honours the text size setting in the Preferences.

In the ⚙ menu in each clipboard entry, you can Cut, Copy or Paste to/from the item or use it Set the System Clipboard, optionally removing styles or forcing it as an image. You can also Rename or Delete the item.

Any active macros that have the Clipboard Filter trigger will be displayed in the ⚙ menu. They can use the Trigger Clipboard facility to operate on the selected clipboard, allowing you to make macros that apply to any selected clipboard (for example, save the clipboard to disk, or uppercase it).

You can toggle to the Clipboard History by clicking on the 🕘 button.

By default, Keyboard Maestro creates three Named 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.

Preferences

To configure Keyboard Maestro, first launch Keyboard Maestro and choose Preferences from the Keyboard Maestro menu.

Preferences General Pane

The preferences are divided into sections.

General Preferences

In the General preference pane you can:

  • enable or disable launching the Keyboard Maestro Engine at Login.
  • enable or disable macro syncing.
  • Show or hide the Applications Palette.
  • configure whether to detect clipboards that resemble passwords and obscure them.
  • configure the default text size used in various places.
  • configure whether and how to show the status menu.
  • configure the style of the status menu.
  • configure whether to include pasting clipboards in the status menu.
  • configure whether to include applications in the status menu.
  • configure whether to save the recent applications between logins.
  • configure whether to save the clipboard history between logins.
  • configure whether to only notify about updates when the editor launches.
  • configure whether to send diagnostics (crash reports).

Palettes Preferences

In the Palettes preference pane you can adjust the style of the default palette, the Global Macro Palette, the Applications Palette, and the Conflict Palette.

You can configure the Conflict Palette to be placed under the mouse or to have it remain where you place it.

You can configure the Conflict Palette to include entries in the Touch Bar.

Web Server Preferences

In the Web Server preference pane you can:

  • enable or disable the web server.
  • configure the username, password and port of the web server.
  • enable or disable web browser access.
  • enable or disable iPhone access.
  • enable or disable receiving clipboard entries.
  • enable or disable replacing the current clipboard.
  • access the web server in your default browser by clicking on Connect.

The web server is disabled by default.

If the web server and web browsing are enabled, then anyone who can connect to your Mac can execute any macro that has a Public Web trigger.

If the web server and web browsing are 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 execute any of your macros.

If the web server and iPhone access are 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 execute any of your macros.

If the web server and receiving clipboard are enabled, then anyone can send you clipboards which will appear in your clipboard history. By default they do not overwrite the current clipboard, but you can enable that to allow the current clipboard to be directly written remotely.

Macros are still only available when they are enabled and their containing macro group is enabled and 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.

Clipboards Preferences

In the Clipboards preference pane you can add, remove and rename Named Clipboards and see and change their values.

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.

You can paste an image into a Named Clipboard by selecting it in the list and pasting an image (if you select part of the text, it will paste the image into the styled text, which works but is probably not what you want).

Variables Preferences

In the Variables preference pane you can add and remove variables and see and change their values.

Excluded Preferences

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 Application Switcher, and are (optionally) not hidden or quit by the Hide All Applications or Quit All Applications actions.

You can add and remove applications from the Applications Palette exclusion list. Excluded applications will not appear in the Applications Palette. You can also exclude applications by control or right clicking on them in the Applications Palette and selecting Exclude from Applications Palette.

You can also add and remove applications from the clipboard history exclusion list. When an excluded application is at the front, Keyboard Maestro will not automatically record the clipboard history each time it changes. It will still read the current System Clipboard if you explicitly ask for it in a macro or open the Clipboard History Switcher.

Other Hidden Preferences

You can configure various preferences using defaults write from the Mac OS X Terminal. Some preferences will take effect immediately, but others may require the editor or engine to be relaunched.

You can set the maximum number of items in the clipboard history (default 200) 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxClipboardHistory -int 200

You can set the maximum position of concealed (password) items in the clipboard history (default 10) 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxConcealedPosition -int 10

You can set the maximum clipboard flavor size (default 100MB) 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine ClipboardFlavorMaximumSize -int 100000000

You can set a regular expression which matches text you think should or should not be concealed as passwords. 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine LooksLikePassword -string "^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$"
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine LooksLikeNotPassword -string "^[a-zA-Z0-9]+$"

You can set the command line tool that is used to execute AppleScripts 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine OSAScriptCommand -string "/usr/bin/arch -i386 /usr/bin/osascript"

You can set the AppleScript name of the Safari application, as well as the name of the Safari browser shown in applications: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine AppleScriptSafariBundleID -string "com.apple.SafariTechnologyPreview"
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine BrowserSafariName -string "Safari Tech"

or 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine AppleScriptSafariName -string "com.apple.Safari"

Similarly for Google Chrome: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine AppleScriptGoogleChromeBundleID -string "com.google.Chrome.canary"
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine BrowserGoogleChromeName -string "Chrome Canary"

The AppleScript name is used in AppleScript's which control the respective browser in the form of tell app “<browser name>”. Note that the Safari browser must still behave like Safari, and the Chrome browser must behave like Chrome, or the actions will not work. Do not bother trying to set them to Firefox or something like that as it will not work. All this allows you to do is select a specific version of Safari or Chrome respectively.

You can disable Shift-Space from clearing the Typed String buffer 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine TypedStringResetWithShiftSpace -bool NO

and you can disable clicks from clearing the Typed String buffer 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine TypedStringClearWithMouse -bool NO

and you can set the idle time for clearing the Typed String buffer (default 5 seconds) 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine TypedStringClearTime -float 5.0

You can set the maximum key down trigger time for Hot Key triggers (default 10 seconds) 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxKeyRepeatTime -float 10.0

You can disable all animation in the editor with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor DisableAnimation -bool YES

or the engine with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine DisableAnimation -bool YES

You can silence the clipboard transfer sounds with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine SilenceClipboardSounds -bool YES

And you can silence the recording sounds with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine SilenceRecordingSounds -bool YES

You can adjust the recording delay with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine RecordingCountDown -int 5

Note: you can option click the Record button to avoid the delay.

You can adjust the get mouse location delay with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor MouseGetCountdown -int 5

You can have the conflict palette use sequential hot keys from the first letter with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine SequentialConflictPalette -bool YES

You can configure the timing of a “tap” (Hot Key and USB Device Key triggers) with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxTapDownTime -float 1.0
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine MaxTapUpTime -float 1.0

The default allowable down time is the double click interval, and the default allowable up time is twice the double click interval.

You can set configure whether the Status Menu includes the Paste submenu and how many items it includes with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine StatusMenuIncludePaste -bool NO
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine StatusMenuPasteCount -int 30

You can set configure Display Large text color and display period with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine DisplayLargeTextColor -string "502033"
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine DisplayLargeTextDisplayPeriod -float 5.0

You can configure a custom palette theme color style with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine CustomPaletteTheme -string "0,90,74, 110,90,74, 256,90,74"

The style includes 3 or 6 HSB colors (being background, text, highlighted letter, selected background, selected text, selected highlight letter) each specified as hue,saturation,brightness. The background brightness is dropped by 33%, but if there are only three colors, then the selected background color is the background without the 33% drop. You can select the Custom style in the Theme Editor.

By default recorded clicks do not restore the mouse location, but you can change that with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine RecordedClickRestoresMouseLocation -bool NO

You can control which notifications are displayed with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine "Notification-Information" -bool NO
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine "Notification-MacroExecution" -bool NO
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine "Notification-MacroCancelled" -bool YES
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine "Notification-ActionFailed" -bool YES
defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine "Notification-ReceivedClipboard" -bool YES

You can have new versions reported only when the editor activates with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine ReportUpdatesWhenEditorActivates -bool YES

You can adjust the spelling of Favorites with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor FavoritesDisplayName -string "Favourites"

You can turn off automatic completion (autocomplete) with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor AutomaticCompletion -bool NO

You can limit the maximum undo stack size in the editor with (default 200MB): 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor MaximumUndoSize -int 200000000

You can add some custom styling to the detail view displays with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor DetailDisplayExtraStyle -string 'div.ActionComment div.UserText { font-family:"Monaco"; }'

You can set your preferred first day of the week (1=Sunday, 7=Saturday): 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor FirstDayOfWeek -int 2

You can enable the WebKit inspector with: 

defaults write com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.engine WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool YES

Then you can control-click on elements and use Inspect Element and get an inspector window, including a Console tab.

Scripting

Executing Scripts

The following Execute Script Actions are provided to execute a variety of script languages:

You can specify the script to be executed either by reference to a file or as text entered directly in the Execute Action. After pasting or typing script text into the Execute Script Action, press the Enter key to compile and format the script.

For example, the Execute_an_AppleScript Action:

There are two setup options:

Setup Option Choices
(Default shown first)
Script location Execute text script (type or paste script into Action text field)
Execute script file (This is faster if it is a compiled script file .scpt)
Script Results Ignored.
Displayed in a floating window.
Displayed briefly in a Notification.
Typed in the current text field that has focus.
Pasted in text field that has focus.
Saved to a Keyboard Maestro Variable.
Saved to the System or Named Clipboard.
Ignore Results and run Asynchronously (the script runs while the macro continues on to the next Action.)

Getting Script Results

The results of scripts can be displayed, or they can be typed or pasted in to the current application document, or saved into a Keyboard Maestro Variable or the System Clipboard. 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. Alternatively, the results can be displayed in Notification Center, in a window, or in large type across the screen. Or you can ignore the results, or execute the script asynchronously, leaving it running in the background.

Using the Clipboard

You can also read and set the clipboard in a script, although the easiest way to set the clipboard to the results of a script is to select the Execute Script Action option to “save results to clipboard”. This works only for plain text returned by the script. For more complex formats, you will need to set the Clipboard directly in the script.

For more information about using the Clipboard in scripts, see:

Automating Applications and Adding Functionality to Keyboard Maestro

AppleScripts, JavaScript for Automation scripts, Shell scripts, and Swift scripts, give you a powerful way of adding new facilities we have not specifically provided for, as well as controlling other applications.

Web Page Interactions

The Execute a JavaScript in Browser actions enables deep control over a web page, as well as extracting specific data from both the page contents and HTML.

Shell Scripts

Shell scripts can execute any installed scripting language, such as perl, python, ruby or whatever. Be aware that because shell scripts are executed in a non-interactive shell, typically none of the shell configuration files (like .login or .profile) will be executed, which may change the way the shell script behaves.

Variables can be accessed from shell scripts via the environment variables in the form $KMVAR_Variable_Name where KMVAR_ is prefixed, and spaces are converted to underscores. AppleScripts can also access the environment variables using the system attribute command, but note that system attribute is not safe for international characters.

Note that the total size of the variables stored in the environment is limited to 100K, so larger variables may be excluded to ensure the variables do not take up excessive amounts of environment space since this is limited by the system.

Variables whose names start with “ENV_” override regular environment variables (eg “ENV_PATH” overrides the regular “PATH” environment variable).

AppleScript

AppleScripts can perform many tasks on the Mac and control many applications.

You can read and write variables, dictionaries and control the Keyboard Maestro engine with AppleScript: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
  set calcResult to getvariable "Calculation Result"
  -- If the Keyboard Maestro Variable does not exist, the AppleScript Variable will be set to empty string
 
  setvariable "Calculation Result" to (calcResult + 10)
  -- If the Keyboard Maestro Variable does not exist, it will be created
end tell

For AppleScripts compatible with prior versions of Keyboard Maestro, see Using AppleScript prior to version 7.1.

JXA

JavaScript for Automation (JXA) can access Variables with: 

var kme = Application("Keyboard Maestro Engine");
var oldValue = kme.getvariable('Calculation Result');
kme.setvariable('Calculation Result', { to: 10 });

For details on JXA, see JavaScript for Automation. This provides an introduction to JXA and comparison with AppleScript.

JavaScript

JavaScript in web browsers can access the variable values by using the document.kmvar dictionary, like document.kmvar.Variable_Name (spaces are converted to underscores), but they have no way to write values back to variables, except by returning a result from the script.

User Interaction

AppleScripts and JavaScript For Automation scripts 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 osascript tool will execute in 64-bit mode, which may be a problem if you have old versions of AppleScript extensions installed. However, you can set the command line tool that is used to execute AppleScripts as described in Other Hidden Preferences.

See also the Variables section.

Controlling Keyboard Maestro Engine via Scripting

The primary scripting interface to Keyboard Maestro Engine is the Keyboard Maestro Engine’s do script support. You can ask Keyboard Maestro Engine to:

  • execute a macro by name
  • execute a macro by unique ID
  • execute an action given its XML code

Note in most cases you must tell “Keyboard Maestro Engine”, not “Keyboard Maestro”.

The easiest way is to use the name, for example: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
  do script "[Name of Your Macro]"
end tell

The macro must be defined and enabled, and the macro group must be enabled 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.

You can pass an optional parameter using the with parameter clause, which you can read in the macro as the %TriggerValue% token.

You can determine a macro’s UID by selecting it and choosing Copy UID command in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu.

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 choose Copy as XML in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu.

You can read information about the existing macros using the gethotkeys and getmacros commands. See the Keyboard Maestro Engine AppleScript dictionary for more information.

Using Keyboard Maestro Facilities from AppleScript

Keyboard Maestro Engine makes several of its facilities available to AppleScript.

You can ask it to play a sound with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
  play sound alias "Harddisk:System:Library:Sounds:Glass.aiff"
end tell

You can ask Keyboard Maestro Engine to perform a calculation for you with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
  set n to calculate "JULIANDATE()"
end tell

You can ask Keyboard Maestro Engine to find strings in other scripts: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
   count found in "The Source" for ".e" with regex
end tell

And you can search and replace with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
	search "3+4" for "(\\d+)" replace "%CalculateFormat%CALCULATE(\\1)%Currency%" with regex and process tokens
end tell

Controlling Keyboard Maestro via Scripting

Macro Groups, Smart Groups, Macros, Triggers, Actions are all available via AppleScript. So you have deep control over controlling the Keyboard Maestro editor itself, allowing you to automate creating macros in a variety of different ways.

You can disable or enable a Macro Group (or similarly Macro) from AppleScript with: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro"
  set enabled of macro group "Macro Group Group Name or UID" to true/false
end tell

Alternatively you can use the Set Macro Enable action.

You can rename, create, delete, duplicate macro groups and macros. You can add and remove actions. You can get or set the selection.

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

See the Keyboard Maestro AppleScript dictionary for more information.

URL Schemes

Editor

Another way you can control Keyboard Maestro editor is using the “keyboardmaestro” URL scheme, which supports the following formats:

Example Editor URL Command Description
keyboardmaestro://u=support%40stairways.com/s=ABCDEFGH0123456789 enter your username/serial number.
keyboardmaestro://m=Activate%20Application%20Switcher
keyboardmaestro://m=D2F427A1-51E3-4719-820B-4C25B6FF7329 		edit a specific macro or macro group.
You may used either the Macro Name, or UUID.
keyboardmaestro://q=Activate filter macros with this keyword.
keyboardmaestro://g=All%20Macros/q=Activate select a macro group and filter macros with this keyword.
keyboardmaestro://a=Execute filter actions with this keyword.
keyboardmaestro://c=All%20Actions/a=Execute select action category and filter actions with this keyword.

Triggers

You can trigger a macro (that is Active and Enabled) using the “kmtrigger” URL scheme. The URL uses this format:

kmtrigger://macro=<Macro Name or UUID>[&<Trigger Value>]

where

  • <Macro Name or UUID> is either the Macro Name, OR, its UUID
  • <Trigger Value> is the optional Trigger Value
  • [ ] are not included. Used only to show optional parameters
  • & must precede the Trigger Value, if it is provided.

Note both Macro Name and Trigger Value must be URL encoded.

You can easily get the Trigger URL by clicking on the “Or by Script” Trigger option, and selecting “Or by URL”.

Example Trigger URL Command Description
kmtrigger://macro=Your%20Macro%20Name Using the Macro Name
kmtrigger://macro=224AA8CB-07EB-4C92-8201-68FED82B6E9F Using the Macro UUID
kmtrigger://macro=Your%20Macro%20Name&value=Your%20Trigger%20Value Using Macro Name with Trigger Value
kmtrigger://macro=224AA8CB-07EB-4C92-8201-68FED82B6E9F&value=Your%20Trigger%20Value Using Macro UUID with Trigger Value

Status Menu Icons

Keyboard Maestro allows you to select the status menu icon.

The current lovely status menu icons were done by Iconaholic, and you can also use the Classic finger tapping icons. As well as that, you can get more status menu icons from our web site or the forum and you can create and optionally contribute your own versions. You can drop a new status menu icon .zip archive on the Keyboard Maestro application dock icon to install it.

The format is fairly simple, you need a folder with the name of the icon (which must be unique relative to other contributed icons), and in that folder you have a sequence of files named StatusItem and then then the animated sequence StatusItem1, StatusItem2, etc. You can have as many as you like. If the icon is a template icon (black and clear only), then add the word “Template” to the name. And finally the extension can be either .tiff or .png. The file should be either a 16×16 icon, or ideally a retina tiff file with both a 16×16 and 32×32 at 144dpi (you can create the retina-ready tiff files using tiffutil -cathidpicheck, or you can use a tool like Opacity.app).

The two default icon folder structures look like this:

  • Classic
    • StatusItem.tiff
    • StatusItem1.tiff
    • StatusItem2.tiff
    • StatusItem3.tiff
    • StatusItem4.tiff
    • StatusItem5.tiff
    • StatusItem6.tiff
  • Iconaholic
    • StatusItemTemplate.tiff
    • StatusItem1Template.tiff
    • StatusItem2Template.tiff
    • StatusItem3Template.tiff
    • StatusItem4Template.tiff

Note that the “Template” appears at the end, after the animation index, and there are no spaces anywhere. You can have spaces in the folder name.

Then you archive the folder into a zip file named NameStatusMenuIcon.zip (eg ClassicStatusMenuIcon.zip) and drop it on the Keyboard Maestro application dock icon or email it to us with a cover letter indicating your permission for it to be distributed, as well as your name to be published with an optional URL if desired.

Plug In Actions

Keyboard Maestro has support for user written and contributable plug in actions. You can get more plug in actions from our web site or the forum and you can create and optionally contribute your own. You can drop a new plug in action .zip archive on the Keyboard Maestro application dock icon to install it (note that to update a plug in action you must manually remove it from the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Actions folder before re-installing it).

A Third Party Plug In Action consists of a folder with a name (which should generally closely match the action name), and must be made up of only ASCII alphanumerics, underscores and spaces. The folder name must be unique among all plug in actions. The folder name is stored in the Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist to reference the plugin action.

The folder contains a set of files, including:

  • Keyboard Maestro Action.plist – an XML file describing the action.
  • A script file whose name must be made up of only ASCII alphanumerics or underscores, plus an ASCII alphanumeric extension. It may be a shell script or an AppleScript. If it is a shell script, it will be made executable automatically.
  • An optional 64×64 png icon.

The format of the Keyboard Maestro Action.plist is a Cocoa property list containing a dictionary with the following keys and values:

Name the name of the action (which appears in the Category/Actions list)
Script the name of the script, made up of only ASCII alphanumerics or underscores, plus an ASCII alphanumeric extension
Icon [optional] the name of the icon png file, made up of only ASCII alphanumerics or underscores plus .png
Title [optional] the title displayed on the action, which can include %Param%XYZ% tokens. It should usually not include other tokens. If it is missing, the Name will be used
Timeout [optional number] the default timeout in seconds. Set it to 0 if the action needs no timeout. The default is 99 hours
Author [optional] the author of this action
URL [optional] a URL for the author or this action
Help [optional] a short (Tool Tip) explanation of this action
Results [optional] what to do with the output of the script if any. Possible Values: None, Window, Briefly, Typing, Pasting, Variable, Clipboard – multiple values can be used, seperated by a bar (|), the first specified value is the default
Parameters [optional] an array of parameters to the script, each entry is a dictionary as described below

Each parameter in the Parameters array is a dictionary with the following keys:

Label the name of the parameter. The same rules as Keyboard Maestro Variable Names apply. The label is displayed to the user and used to pass the parameter to the script. Obviously, the label must be unique amongst all parameters
Type the type of the parameter. Possible Values: String (single line), TokenString, Calculation, Text (multi-line), TokenText, Checkbox (0 or 1), PopupMenu or Hidden. The Type specifies how the value is displayed to the user and what processing is applied before it is passed to the script. Hidden types are text token processed, but are not displayed in the editor
Default [optional] the default value when the action is created
Menu [required if Type is PopupMenu] the values of the popup menu, separated by |

Warning: Keys are case sensitive.

Parameters are passed to the script via environment variables with names starting with KMPARAM_ similar to how variables are passed to shell scripts with the Execute Script action. So a parameter named “My Text” would be in an environment variable KMPARAM_My_Text. You can access the envirnment variables from AppleScript with system attribute “KMPARAM_My_Text”. Note that AppleScript’s system attribute is not safe for international characters, although can use code like: 

set myText to do shell script "echo $KMPARAM_My_Text"

In normal use, once a plug in action is read, it will stay in memory and changes will not be noticed (although the script will be executed each time, so changes to that will be noticed). To cause the editor and/or engine to notice changes to the plug while in development, use AppleScript to reload the macros: 

tell application "Keyboard Maestro" to reload
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine" to reload

Keyboard Maestro Plug In Actions go in the ~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Maestro/Keyboard Maestro Actions folder.

Windows

Welcome Window

This window welcomes new users and gives you some options for learning about Keyboard Maestro.

Welcome Window

If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutorial and Keyboard Maestro will walk you through creating a simple macro.

Macros Window

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.

Macros Window

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 Macro Groups, Macros and Macro Editor Window sections.

Tutorial

If you are new to Keyboard Maestro, start the tutorial by clicking the Start Tutorial button in the Welcome window or by choosing Tutorial from the Help menu and Keyboard Maestro will walk you through creating a simple macro.

Tutorial

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.

Macro Group Editor

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.

Macro Group Editor

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.

Macro Editor Window

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.

Macro Editor Window

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 or more of them to add actions 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 Try button.

You can click the Record button to record your actions.

To learn more about creating or editing Macros, see the Macros section.

Macro Inspector Window

This window shows you information about the selected macro or macro group.

You get this window by choosing Macro Inspector from the Window menu.

Macro Inspector Window

Mouse Display Window

This window shows you the mouse location relative to any corner of the main screen or front window.

You get this window by choosing Mouse Display from the Window menu.

Mouse Display Window

You can click the 🔒 button and then five seconds later Keyboard Maestro will lock the coordinates. You can click the 📋 button to copy the values, and you can change the relative corner even while the display is locked.

Macro Library Window

This window contains example and template macros you can add to your macro collection. You can use the macros as is, or edit them to customize them for your particular needs.

You get this window by choosing Macro Library from the Window menu.

Macro Library Window

Each entry represents one or more macros, usually in a single macro group, but occasionally in more than one macro group. You can learn about them by selecting them, and then you can insert them into your macros by clicking the Insert button or by dragging them to a particular macro group (dragging is not available if the library entry represents more than one macro group as you can't drag to two macro groups).

You can add macros to your library by choosing Export as Macro Library from the File menu and selecting the Add to My Macro Library checkbox. You can get Macro Library entries from us or from other Keyboard Maestro users and add them to you library by double clicking them or by choosing Import to Macro Library from the File menu.

Remember to use caution when installing a macro or macro library from anyone – macros can potentially do a lot of damage and compromise the security of your Mac, so only install macros from trusted sources. When importing macros from a file they will be imported disabled (either the parent macro group will be disabled, or if it exists already, the macros themselves will be disabled) unless you hold the Option key down.

Palette Theme Editor

This window allows you to configure the appearance of the various macro palette.

You can choose a style, the opacity of the palette, the size of the entries, the number of columns, whether the entries include the icon, the text and/or the trigger, and whether the palette shrinks when the mouse is not over it.

Palette Theme Editor

Icon Chooser Window

This window contains icons you can use to customize your macro and macro groups. You can click on an icon well in the macro or macro group editor and then show this window and select or create an icon for it.

You get this window by choosing Icon Chooser from the Window menu.

There are three types of icons available. Internal Keyboard Maestro icons:

Icon Chooser Window

application icons available on your Mac:

Icon Chooser Window

and icons you create by choosing a shape, color and optional character:

Icon Chooser Window

When creating icons, you can reference lots of characters:

Icon Chooser Window

Alternatively, you can copy an image from anywhere and paste it in to the icon well (although Keyboard Maestro stores a small reference to the Icon Chooser icons, so that is much more efficient that storing the image in your macros as copy & paste will).

Recording Window

This window shows you when Keyboard Maestro is recording your actions.

You get this window by clicking the Record button in the Macro Editor window or by triggering a Record Quick Macro action.

Recording Window

Clicking on this window will stop all recording, or you can pause recording, or add a 1 second Pause action to the current recording.

To learn more about recording, see the Recording section.

Macro Debugger

You get this window by choosing Start Debugging from the Status Menu menu by triggering a Debugger Start action.

Macro Debugger

To learn more about debugging, see the Macro Debugger section.

Conflict Palette

You get a conflict palette when a Hot Key would trigger two or more actions.

Conflict Palette

Note how the distinguisihing characters are highlighted – pressing those keys will select the desired trigger, or filter the list so that only those macros remain:

Conflict Palette

this continues until only one macro remains which is immediately executed.

Trigger Macro by Name

You get this window by executing the Trigger Macro by Name action.

Trigger Macro by Name

Type a string to filter the macros.

Note that the filtering is not just by macro name.

Application Launcher Window

This window lets you launch applications.

You get this window by triggering the Activate Application Launcher macro.

Application Launcher Window

To learn more about the Application Launcher, see the Application Launcher section.

Application Switcher Window

This window lets you switch between active applications, as well as quit or hide applications or quickly launch frequently used applications.

You get this window by triggering the Activate Application Switcher macro.

Application Switcher Window

To learn more about the Application Switcher, see the Application Switcher section.

Window Switcher Window

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 Activate Window Switcher macro.

Window Switcher Window

To learn more about the Window Switcher, see the Window Switcher section.

Clipboard Switcher Window

This window lets you select between named clipboards to Cut, Copy or Paste to/from.

You get this window by triggering one of the Activate Clipboard Switcher macros.

Named Clipboard Switcher Window

Select something and select a named clipboard and click the Cut button or Copy button to cut/copy to a named clipboard. Select a named clipboard and click the Paste button button to paste a named clipboard. Click the + button to create a new named clipboard. Select a named clipboard and click the Quick Look button to view it. Select a named clipboard and click the - button to delete it.

Click the x button to toggle whether the window should close after an action.

Use the search field to filter the named clipboards.

To learn more about the Clipboard Switcher, see the Named Clipboard Switcher section.

Clipboard History Switcher Window

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.

Clipboard History Switcher Window

Cut or copy something and it will appear in this list. Select an item and click the Paste button button to paste a named clipboard. Select an item and click the ★ button (or press Command-L) to mark it as a favorite, or click the ✉ button (or press Command-S) to send it to another Mac. Select an item and click the - button to delete it (this is useful if you want to delete a password or other sensitive information).

To view an item more fully, select it and click the Quick Look button (or press Space) to display the Quick Look window.

Clipboard History Switcher Window

To send a clipboard to another Mac running Keyboard Maestro, click the ✉ button to display the sending window.

Clipboard History Switcher Window

Select the desired local destination, or type a host:port destination to send it to a remote Mac, and click the send button. Keyboard Maestro will keep trying to send to the Mac even if it can't connect right now, so as long as both Macs are connected to the Internet eventually, the clipboard should get through. While a clipboard is being sent, it is marked with a progress icon. If a clipboard is marked to be sent in the future, it is marked with a ➹. Once it has been successfully sent, it is marked with a ➚. If it fails to be sent, and Keyboard Maestro has given up, it is marked with a !. Clipboards that have been received are marked with a ✉.

Click the x button to toggle whether the window should 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.

Preferences Window

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.

Preferences General Pane

This window pane lets you configure general preferences.

Preferences General Pane

Preferences Palettes Pane

This window pane lets you configure the default palettes style, as well as the global and conflict palette styles.

You can also configure whether the conflict palette appears under the mouse.

Preferences Palettes Pane

Preferences Web Server Pane

This window pane lets you configure the built-in web server which enables remote execution of macros.

Preferences Web Server Pane

Preferences Clipboards Pane

This window pane lets you add, remove and rename Named Clipboards and see and change their values.

Preferences Clipboards Pane

Preferences Variables Pane

This window pane lets you add and remove variables, and see and change their values.

Preferences Variables Pane

Example

Preferences Exclude Pane

This window pane lets you add and remove applications from the global Excluded Applications list.

Preferences Exclude Pane

About Window Pane

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 choosing About Keyboard Maestro from the Keyboard Maestro menu.

About Window Pane

Keyboard Maestro App Menus

Below is a complete list of all menus. Note that in some cases you must hold down the Option Key ⌥ (or Alt or Opt) to see the menu item. For example, the “Expand All Actions” item in the Actions menu.

Keyboard Maestro

The Keyboard Maestro menu contains menu items relating to the Keyboard Maestro application as a whole.

About Keyboard Maestro

The About Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu displays the About Keyboard Maestro window.

Purchase Keyboard Maestro

The Purchase Keyboard Maestro command in the Keyboard Maestro menu lets you purchase Keyboard Maestro online.

Purchase Keyboard Maestro Upgrade

The Purchase Keyboard Maestro Upgrade command in the Keyboard Maestro menu lets you purchase an upgrade to Keyboard Maestro online.

Register Keyboard Maestro

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.

Check For Update

The Check For Update 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.

Preferences

The Preferences command in the Keyboard Maestro menu displays the Preferences window.

Services

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.

Hide 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. Note that generally you should just quit the Keyboard Maestro editor when you are not modifying your macros.

Hide Others

The Hide Others command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will hide all other applications. Choose Show All to show them again.

Show All

The Show All command in the Keyboard Maestro menu will show all hidden applications.

Quit Keyboard Maestro

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).

File

The File menu is where you import or export Macros or launch or quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine.

New Smart Group

The New Smart Group command in the File menu creates and starts editing a new smart group.

New Macro Group

The New Macro Group command in the File menu creates and starts editing a new macro group.

New Macro

The New Macro command in the File menu creates and starts editing a new macro.

Close

The Close command in the File menu closes the front window.

Run Macro

The Run Macro command in the File menu runs the currently selected macro.

Share

The Share menu in the File menu lets you share the selected macro group, macro or actions with any appropriate sharing service on your Mac, including sharing to the forum. If you hold the Shift key down before starting your menu selection you can share just an image of the selection, which will allow you to share to services that only allow selection of images.

Export Actions

The Export Actions command in the File menu exports the selected actions to a file that you can import later or on another Mac or send to others.

Export Macros

The Export Macros command in the File menu exports the selected macros to a file that you can import on another Mac. This is one way to transfered macros from one Mac to another.

Export as Macro Library

The Export as Macro Library command in the File menu exports the selected macros to a library 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 or in a future version of Keyboard Maestro.

See also the Macro Library section.

Note that you should generally only export as library if you want to import the macros multiple times. Otherwise just exporting the macros is sufficient.

Export as Trigger File

The * Export as Trigger File* command in the File menu lets you save a file that will trigger a macro when opened (that is, a file you can open in the Finder to trigger a macro).

Import Actions

The Import Actions command in the File menu lets you select a saved action file and imports the actions it contains into the current macro.

Import Macros Disabled

The Import Macros Disabled command in the File menu lets you select a saved macro file and imports the macros it contains, disabling them (either disabling created macro groups, or disabling the contained macros as appropriate).

If you do not completely trust the source of the macros, you should import them disabled.

Import Macros

The Import Macros command in the File menu lets you select a saved macro file and imports the macros it contains. Hold the Option key down to select this menu item. Macros imported this way could trigger immediately, so import the macros disabled unless you completely trust the source of the macros.

Import to Macro Library

The Import to Macro Library command in the File menu lets you import a shared macro library file into your macro library. Macros in your library are not active, but can be added into one or more macro groups to become active.

See also the Macro Library section.

Revert Macros

The Revert Macros command in the File menu lets you revert to a previous version of your macros. If you find you have really messed up your macros, you can revert to how they were when you first launched Keyboard Maestro, or how they were yesterday or even several days ago.

Keywords: @Restore @Macros @Version

Start Syncing Macros

The Start Syncing Macros command in the File menu lets you start syncing your macros with another Mac.

See also the Macro Syncing section.

Reveal Macro Sync File

The Reveal Macro Sync File command in the File menu lets you see where your macro sync file is.

See also the Macro Syncing section.

Stop Syncing Macros

The Stop Syncing Macros command in the File menu lets you stop syncing your macros.

See also the Macro Syncing section.

Launch Engine

The Launch Engine command in the File menu lets you start the Keyboard Maestro Engine manually. The Keyboard Maestro Engine performs all the Macro, Application 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.

Quit Engine

The Quit Engine command in the File menu lets you quit the Keyboard Maestro Engine. The Keyboard Maestro Engine performs all the Macro, Application 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.

Edit

The Edit menu contains menu items relating to text and selections.

Undo

The Undo command in the Edit menu undoes the previous command.

Redo

The Redo command in the Edit menu redoes the previous undone command.

Cut

The Cut command in the Edit menu copies the current selection to the system clipboard and then deletes the selection.

Copy

The Copy command in the Edit menu copies the current selection to the system clipboard.

Copy as

The Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu menu allows you to copy the selection in a variety of formats.

Copy as Text

The Copy as Text command in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu menu allows you to copy the selected macro or actions as styled text.

Copy as Image

The Copy as Image command in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu menu allows you to copy the selected macro or actions as an image.

Copy as XML

The Copy as XML command in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu menu allows you to copy the selected macro or actions as XML.

Copy UID

The Copy UID command in the Copy as sub-menu in the Edit menu menu allows you to copy the selected macro or macro group’s UID.

Paste

The Paste command in the Edit menu pastes the current system clipboard into the current selection.

Delete

The Delete command in the Edit menu deletes the current selection.

Select All

The Select All command in the Edit menu selects all text or items.

Deselect All

The Deselect All command in the Edit menu deselects all text or items.

Duplicate

The Duplicate command in the Edit menu duplicates the selected items.

Make Alias

The Make Alias command in the Edit menu makes an alias to the selected macros. It creates a new macro that just executes the original macro.

You may also use ⌘L or Drag/Drop with ⌘⌥ to another Macro Group.

Insert Action

The Insert Action command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many actions available in Keyboard Maestro.

Insert Action by Name

The Insert Action by Name command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many actions available in Keyboard Maestro by name.

Insert Function

The Insert Function sub-menu in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many functions available in Keyboard Maestro. The functions will be inserted, together with an example of any parameters it takes.

Most numeric fields in Keyboard Maestro can process an expression containing these functions. These fields are indicated either by having up/down steppers, or a C in the field while editing.

Insert Function by Name

The Insert Function by Name command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many functions available in Keyboard Maestro by name.

Insert Token

The Insert Token sub-menu in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many Tokens available in Keyboard Maestro. The token will be inserted, together with an example format of any parameters it takes.

Most text fields in Keyboard Maestro can process Tokens. These fields are indicated by having a T in the field while editing.

Insert Function by Name

The Insert Function by Name command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of the many functions available in Keyboard Maestro by name.

Insert Variable

The Insert Variable command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of your variables.

Insert Variable by Name

The Insert Variable by Name command in the Edit menu lets you insert any of your variables by name.

Automatic Completions

The Automatic Completions command in the Edit menu lets you toggle automatic text completion. When off, you can still complete variables, tokes, and functions by pressing F5.

View

The View menu contains menu items relating to display and actions.

Sort Macros by Name

The Sort Macros by Name command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by name.

Sort Macros by Trigger

The Sort Macros by 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.

Sort Macros by Date Created

The Sort Macros by Date Created command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by the date created.

Sort Macros by Date Modified

The Sort Macros by Date Modified command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by the date modified (most recently modified at the top). This is useful to see what macros you have recently modified. You can also use the ◷ button at the top of the macro editor to show the recently modified macros.

Sort Macros by Date Used

The Sort Macros by Date Used command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by date used (most recently executed at the top). This is useful to see what macros you have recently executed, especially if you think one might have been executed inadvertently. You can also use the ⌘ button at the top of the macro editor to show the recently used macros.

Sort Macros by Use Count

The Sort Macros by Use Count command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by use count (most used macros at the top).

Sort Macros by Time Saved

The Sort Macros by Time Saved command in the View menu sorts the macros in the main window by time saved (most time saved at the top).

Select Groups Column

The Select Groups Column command in the View menu focuses on the Macro Groups column.

Select Macros Column

The Select Group Column command in the View menu focuses on the Macros column.

Select Macro

The Select Macro menu in the View menu lets you select a recently edited or used macro.

Select Macro by Name

The Select Macro by Name menu in the View menu lets you select a macro by name.

Reveal Parent Group

The Reveal Parent Group command in the View menu selects the parent macro group of the currently selected macros. If you are editing a macro and the parent macro group is not the only selected macro group, then the parent macro groups’s name is shown in the top right corner of the window. Clicking on this name will also reveal the parent macro group.

Show Disabled Macro Groups

The Show Disabled Macro Groups command in the View menu shows all macro groups (enabled or disabled) in the Macro Groups column. You can hide all the disabled Macro Groups with the Hide Disabled Macro Groups command.

Hide Disabled Macro Groups

The Hide Disabled Macro Groups command in the View menu hides all disabled macro groups in the Macro Groups column. Instead, a single placeholder group is shown that “contains” all the disabled Macro Groups. You can double click the Disabled Macro Groups placeholder to temporarily reveal the disabled macro groups. You can show all the disabled Macro Groups with the Show Disabled Macro Groups command.

Enable

The Enable command in the View menu enables Macro Groups, Macros or Actions as appropriate.

Disable

The Disable command in the View menu disables Macro Groups, Macros or Actions as appropriate.

Start Editing Macros

The Start Editing Macros command in the View menu turns on edit mode. 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.

Stop Editing Macros

The Stop Editing Macros command in the View menu turns off edit mode.

Edit Name

The Edit Name command in the View menu edits the name of the currently selected Macro Group or Macro.

Record

The Record command in the View menu toggles recording on and off. It is available while editing a macro. Hold the option key down to record without a delay.

Record Without Delay

The Record Without Delay command in the View menu toggles recording on and off immediately (without the normal short countdown). It is available while editing a macro. Hold the option key down to select the menu.

Actions

The Actions menu contains menu items relating to actions. These items have analogs in the action gear ⚙ menu and contextual menu for actions, and some menu items appear only in the appropriate menu.

Show Actions

The Show Actions command in the Actions 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. You alternatively also choose Insert Action by Name from the Edit menu to insert actions by name or use the Insert Action menu in the Edit to select actions.

Try

The Try command in the Actions menu tries the selected actions. It is available while editing a macro.

Enable

The Enable command in the Actions menu enables actions.

Disable

The Disable command in the Actions menu disables actions.

Rename

The Rename command in the Actions menu renames actions.

Set Color

The Set Color menu in the Actions menu sets the color of actions.

Set Note

The Set Note command in the Actions menu sets the notes of actions.

Copy as Text

The Copy as Text command in the Actions menu copies the selected actions as text.

Copy as Image

The Copy as Image command in the Actions menu copies the selected actions as an image.

Copy as XML

The Copy as XML command in the Actions menu copies the selected actions as XML.

Paste Above

The Paste Above command in the Actions menu pastes previously copied actions above the selected actions.

Paste Below

The Paste Below command in the Actions menu pastes previously copied actions below the selected actions.

Paste Replacing

The Paste Replacing command in the Actions menu pastes previously copied actions, replacing the selected actions.

Duplicate

The Duplicate command in the the Actions menu duplicates the selected actions.

Engroup

The Engroup menu in the Actions lets you enclose the selected actions within a container action such as a Group, Repeat, If Then Else or other control flow action. You can also turn the selected macros into a sub-macro.

Degroup

The Degroup command in the Actions removes the selected actions from their parent container action, and removes the container action if it is now empty.

Set Action Timeout

The Set Action Timeout command in the Actions menu sets the timeout for the selected action.

Timeout Aborts Macro

The Timeout Aborts Macro command in the Actions menu controls whether the macro is aborted if the action is timed out.

Notify on Timeout

The Notify on Timeout command in the Actions menu controls whether you are notified if the action is timed out.

Failure Aborts Macro

The Failure Aborts Macro command in the Actions menu controls whether the macro is aborted if the action fails.

Notify on Failure

The Notify on Failure command in the Actions menu controls whether you are notified if the action fails.

Expand Action

The Expand Action command in the View menu expands (discloses) the selected actions. Hold the option key down to expand all actions in a given sublist.

Expand All Actions

The Expand All Actions command in the View menu expands (discloses) the selected actions and all other actions in the same sublist. Hold the option key down to select this command.

Collapse Action

The Collapse Action command in the View menu collapses the selected actions. Hold the option key down to collapse all actions in a given sublist.

Collapse All Actions

The Collapse All Actions command in the View menu collapses the selected actions and all other actions in the same sublist. Hold the option key down to select this command.

Parent Action

The Parent Action command in the View menu moves the selection to the containing action.

Enter Action

The Enter Action command in the View menu moves the selection to the contained action.

Help

The Help command in the View menu displays the wiki help for the selected action.

Window

The Window menu contains menu items relating to windows.

Minimize

The Minimize command in the Window menu minimizes the front window.

Zoom

The Zoom command in the Window menu zooms the front window.

Keyboard Maestro Editor

The Keyboard Maestro Editor command in the Window menu brings the main Keyboard Maestro macro editing window to the front.

Macro Library

The Macro Library command in the Window menu shows or hides the macro library.

See also the Macro Library section.

Icon Chooser

The Icon Chooser command in the Window menu shows or hides the Icon Chooser.

See also the Icon Chooser section.

Macro Inspector

The Macro Inspector command in the Window menu shows or hides the Macro Inspector.

See also the Macro Inspector Window section.

Mouse Display

The Mouse Display command in the Window menu shows or hides the Mouse Display.

See also the Mouse Display Window section.

Bring All to Front

The Bring All to Front command in the Window menu brings all Keyboard Maestro windows to the front.

Help

The Help menu contains menu items relating to Help. You can also use the search field in this menu to find help on the wiki.

Keyboard Maestro Documentation

The Keyboard Maestro Documentation command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro documentation web site.

Keyboard Maestro Quick Start

The Keyboard Maestro Quick Start command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro quick start help web page, which quickly gets you up to speed in using Keyboard Maestro.

Welcome to 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.

Keyboard Maestro Web Site

The Keyboard Maestro Web Site command in the Help menu takes you to the Keyboard Maestro web site.

Keyboard Maestro Wiki

The Keyboard Maestro Wiki command in the Help menu takes you to the Keyboard Maestro wiki.

Keyboard Maestro Forum

The Keyboard Maestro Forum command in the Help menu takes you to the Keyboard Maestro forum.

Stairways Software Web Site

The Stairways Software Web Site command in the Help menu takes you to the Stairways Software web site.

Tutorial

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.

Assistance

The Assistance command in the Help menu starts the in-application assistance system. If you're having trouble with something not working the way you expect, this system may help you find out where the problem is, or offer suggestions for other sources os assistance.

Practice Gestures

The Practice Gestures command in the Help menu starts the gesture system and lets you practice gestures, to ensure you can reliably trigger Gesture triggered macros.

ICU Date Format References

The ICU Date Format References command in the Help menu takes you to the ICU Date Format References web site.

ICU Regular Expression References

The ICU Regular Expression References command in the Help menu takes you to the ICU Regular Expression References web site.

Regular Expression Unicode Properties

The Regular Expression Unicode Properties command in the Help menu takes you to the Regular Expression Unicode Properties web site.

Third Party Licenses

The Third Party Licenses command in the Help menu displays the licenses folder containing the third party licenses for code used in Keyboard Maestro.

Open Logs Folder

The Open Logs Folder command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro Logs folder.

Open Preferences Folder

The Open Preferences Folder command in the Help menu displays the Keyboard Maestro Preferences folder.

Report Bugs or Feature Requests

The Report Bugs or Feature Requests command in the Help menu allows you to report any bugs you find or and features you would like implemented (hat tip to the wonderful image editor, Acorn).

Service and Support

The Service and Support command in the Help menu displays the service and support details, including how to contact us and where you can get more assistance.

Status Menu

The Status Menu menu appears on the right side of the menu bar showing (by default) the Keyboard Maestro icon (although you can control the icon in the General preference pane). It is generally visible any time the Keyboard Maestro Engine is running (unless you turn it off in the General preference pane). You use it to control the Keyboard Maestro Engine, to execute your Status Menu triggered macros, and to switch to applications.

Launch Keyboard Maestro Editor

The Launch Keyboard Maestro Editor command in the Status Menu menu launches Keyboard Maestro so you can edit your macros. You can also edit your macros directly by holding down the option key while choosing them in the Status Menu menu or in a palette.

Paste

The Paste menu in the Status Menu menu includes the recent text items in the clipboard history so you can easily paste in past items using this menu.

Hold the Shift key down to paste as plain text, and the Option key down to just set the clipboard without pasting.

Activate Clipboard History Switcher

The Activate Clipboard History Switcher command in the Paste menu in the Status Menu menu lets you activate the Clipboard History Switcher.

Your Macros

Your macros that include the Status Menu Trigger and that are currently active will be listed in this menu. You can select them to trigger them.

This is great for less frequently used macros that you will not remember a hot key or other trigger, as well as for macros that feel like they should be menu commands, such as actions that perform a complicated task.

Recent

The Recent menu in the Status Menu menu contains a list of all recently quit applications.

Running

The Running menu in the Status Menu menu contains a list of all running applications.

Applications

The Applications menu in the Status Menu menu contains a list of all applications.

Utilities

The Utilities menu in the Status Menu menu contains a list of all utility applications.

Cancel

The Cancel command in the Status Menu menu contains a list of all currently running macros and allows you to cancel them.

You can also cancel all currently running macros by holding all the modifiers (Command, Control, Option, Shift) down and clicking on the Status Menu menu.

Start Debugging

The Start Debugging command in the Status Menu menu opens the macrodebugger window and starts debugging.

See also the Macro Debugger section.

Quit Keyboard Maestro Engine

The Quit Keyboard Maestro Engine command in the Status Menu menu quits the Keyboard Maestro Engine.

Tips

Remembering Macro Hot Keys

Hot Key triggers are only useful if you can remember which key does what.

Consider using mnemonic keys. For example, in your email client, you might define a set of Macros to Insert Text action, 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.

Consider using a single hot key for a set of related functionality. Keyboard Maestro will display a conflict palette and let you select from the choices.

Keyboard Maestro also interoperates with KeyCue – if you use both applications and hold the control key down KeyCue will display all your active Hot Keys.

Use the Conflict Palette

If you have two or more macros with the same Hot Key, pressing that key will display the conflict palette, listing all the conflicting macros. You can then press further keys to filter the list until one remains which is then immediately executed.

Use the Trigger Macro by Name Action

Another way to reduce having to remember Hot Keys is to use the Trigger Macro by Name action to trigger macros based on their name.

Use the Insert Menus

In the editor, there are menus in the Edit menu to inserting actions, functions and text tokens and variables. These can be very useful for both learning about what is available and quickly inserting elements. You can also use text completions to insert functions in numeric fields and tokens and text token fields.

If you hold down the Option key while selecting from these menus you can get help on any of the actions, functions or tokens.

There are also By Name versions to quickly insert actions, functions, tokens or variables by name.

Pay Attention to the Gear Icon

The gear ⚙ menu in the top right of the menu shows you a variety of different things depending on exactly how it looks.

If the action has a timeout, then a clock face will appear in the middle of the gear. If the timeout has been left as the default, the time will be three o'clock, otherwise the time will be an impossible 4.5 o'clock.

If the action has extra configuration options, the gear menu will have a blue center.

The gear menu itself also shows you whether the item has notes, and whether it will abort or notify you if the action fails.

And finally, the gear menu includes a Help command which will take you to the wiki help on the action.

Use Function Keys for Global 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.

Use the Number Pad

Remember that the number pad is available (and distinct from the numbers on the main keyboard).

Troubleshooting

See the wiki Troubleshooting page for how to resolve any problems we have anticipated.

In-built Assistance

If you are finding a macro is not firing when you expect it to, or something weird is happening when you don't expect it to, or choose Assistance from the Help menu) to bring up an interactive assistance system which might help you narrow down the problem.

How do I get more help?

For more information about a specific Keyboard Maestro feature consult the Keyboard Maestro User Manual, post a question to the Keyboard Maestro Forum, visit the Keyboard Maestro web site or the Keyboard Maestro Wiki 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!

Support

For sales enquiries, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, email us at support@stairways.com or use our Web Site Feedback Form.

Extensive online documentation on Keyboard Maestro can be found at Keyboard Maestro Documentation and on the wiki at Keyboard Maestro Wiki.

You can join the Keyboard Maestro Forum online community consisting of the developers and Keyboard Maestro users.

For ideas, see the Macro Examples section, or the Macro Library section of the Keyboard Maestro Wiki.

You can download Keyboard Maestro from https://download.stairways.com/. You can download old versions of our applications from the archive site at https://files.stairways.com/.

You can purchase Keyboard Maestro at https://purchase.stairways.com/.

You can look up your current or previous license status and serial numbers, and get information about discounted upgrades from https://enquiry.stairways.com/.

For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/.

Glossary

Collection An ordered sequence of strings that you can iterate through using the For Each action
Clipboard The system clipboard is where you store items when you Copy and Paste. When you Copy an item, it is temporarily stored in the Clipboard and when you Paste, the item is copied from the Clipboard into your currently selection
Clipboard History Normally the system stores only one clipboard. Keyboard Maestro keeps a history of your system clipboard, ensuring you never lose data on the clipboard and allowing you to copy and paste multiple items,
Clipboard Switcher is a feature of Keyboard Maestro that allows you to copy or paste to/from a set of Named Clipboards
Excluded Applications is the set of applications that should not appear in the Application Switcher list, allowing you to hide applications you rarely want to switch to. These applications are also ignored when hiding other applications
Global Macro Group a predefined Macro Group that always exists and is the default location for new Macros
Growl a system extension that lets Mac OS X applications unobtrusively tell you when things happen (more info)
GUID see UUID
Hot Key A keystroke that acts as a Macro Trigger to start the execution of Macro Actions in a Macro
KeyCue software from ergonis that displays command keys and can also display Keyboard Maestro Hot Keys (more info)
Keyboard Maestro Engine The process that enables your Macros, Application Switcher, Window Switcher, Named Clipboard Switcher and web server to work even after you quit Keyboard Maestro
Mac OS X Apple’s operating system versions 10.0 and up
Mac OS Apple’s operating system we’ve all come to know and mostly love
Macro Macros are used to automate your workflow, procedure, or process on your Mac. A Macro consists of
  • A set of steps called Actions.
  • One or more Triggers to execute the Macro, if it is Active.
Macro Action an action you wish to perform, such as opening a file, typing some text, controlling iTunes, and so on
Macro Group a set of Macros which can be restricted to only a defined set of applications
Macro Palette a floating palette containing any active Macros that have a Macro Palette trigger. The palette only appears in applications with at least once active Macro Palette triggered Macro
Macro Trigger an event, such as a Hot Key, application launch, time of day, that starts the execution of a Macro
Michael Kamprath the original developer of Application Switcher and Keyboard Maestro
Named Clipboard Keyboard Maestro provides a set of named clipboards where you can permanently store information (text, logos, graphics, etc)
Notification Center Mac OS X Mountain Lion introduced a system wide notification center which shows you alerts in the upper-right corner of your screen, without interrupting what you're doing
Palette a floating window containing macros that you can trigger. There are several different kinds of palettes and you can style them in various ways
Program Switcher the premier application management utility for Classic Mac OS, written by Michael Kamprath it was in part the inspiration for Keyboard Maestro and forms one of the components of Keyboard Maestro
Quick Macro a macro recorded on the fly in another application. see the Recording section
Record Quick Macro the action that when triggered records a Quick Macro. see the Recording section
Regular Expression aka RegEx, a way of matching strings based on patterns. When Keyboard Maestro refers to “matching” it means by regular expression, in particular ICU Regular Expressions
Sandboxed an Apple technology that limits what an application can do and how it can interface with the rest of the system and other applications. This is great for security for applications that work with just their own data, but is impossible with workflow applications like Keyboard Maestro, Automator and AppleScript Editor
Shortcut a Shortcut is another name for a Macro (it is also another name for an Alias but that is a different context to the normal Keyboard Maestro Macro context)
Smart Group a saved search set of Macros
Sorting Characters You can control the sorting order of macros by prefixing two characters and a closing parenthesis to the name, eg “01)My Macro”. The prefix will be removed before displaying in the macro palette or status menu, but will be used to control the order of the macros shown.
Status Menu the icon menus at the right of your menu bar
Text Tokens See Tokens
Tokens tokens allow you to insert dynamic text, such as the current date or time, into various text fields, see the Tokens section
Tokenized see Tokens
Toolbar see Palette
UID see UUID
UUID a Universally Unique IDentifier for Macros and Macro Groups and other purposes that remains the same even if you rename or modify a macro or macro group, or import a Macro built on another Mac. Also known as a GUID.
Z-order refers to the order of windows from frontmost to furthest back

Administrative Details

Requirements

Keyboard Maestro 8 requires OS X 10.10.0 or later (10.10.3 or later recommended).

Distribution

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

History

Following on the success of Application 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 Application 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 application 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 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. Further minor releases were made through 2010, followed by the initial release of Keyboard Maestro’s baby brother Switcher Maestro and the Mac App Store version in January 2011.

By that point, development of Keyboard Maestro 5 was well under way and was released in July 2011. Keyboard Maestro 5 built on the solid user interface of version 4, but added depth and breadth of power with almost no addition of complexity. Keyboard Maestro added such powerful features as control flow, conditions, variables, and calculations as well as many new actions, and enhancements to the application and clipboard history switchers. Further minor releases were made over the next year, adding things like a For Each action, File actions and Image actions.

Development of Keyboard Maestro 6 began in mid 2012 and was released in May 2013. Version 6 kept the user interface largely unchanged, while adding significant new features, including macro syncing, macro debugging, plug in actions, full support for styled text, support for controlling Safari and Google Chrome web browsers, trigger by name facility. Keyboard Maestro 6 also sported a stylish new icon from Iconaholic as well as customizable status menu icons and full Retina graphic support. It was followed by a succession of releases throughout 2013 and 2014.

Development of Keyboard Maestro 7 began in late 2014 was was released in July 2015. Version 7 concentrated on streamlining the editor, adding things like Smart Groups, auto-completion, Insert Action by name and menu, disclosure folding for sub-action lists, renaming, coloring, and adding notes to actions and more. Version 7 also added themed palettes, and the usual plethora of new actions and triggers. Macro Groups could now be targeted at specific windows, and macros could be triggered by window, folder or clipboard changes. It was followed by a succession of releases throughout 2016.

Development of Keyboard Maestro 8 began in late 2016. Version 8 concentrated on further refinements to the editor, including AppleScript support, in-built assistance, variable text sizes, machine learning, dragging, Touch Bar support, expansion of various action menus and more. Also new is enhanced MIDI support, Local/Instance variables, Dictionaries, Gesture, Cron and Remote triggers, and a bunch of new actions, conditions, collections and tokens.

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

Credits

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

Thanks to Alan Gentle for many example Macro ideas.

Thanks to Philippe Martin for some great beta testing.

Thanks to Dan Benjamin for doing the voice overs on the tutorial videos.

Thanks to Noah Kadner the voice overs on the intro video.

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 to Jono Hunt for the brilliant Iconaholic icon and other help.

Thanks also to:

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

Thanks to Jim Underwood for outstanding assistance on the forum and wiki.

Thanks to Christopher Stone and ComplexPoint and many others for their great help on the forum.

Thanks to Andy for great help editing this documentation.

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

Warranty

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

Licenses

Keyboard Maestro is copyright 2017 Stairways Software Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved. You may use this application for a short trial period and then you must purchase the application or stop using it.

Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per user basis and individual users may use it on up to five Macs. You must purchase a license for each user using Keyboard Maestro.

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

Fine Print

Keyboard Maestro, keyboardmaestro.com and stairways.com are the property of Stairways Software Pty Ltd. Macros can be dangerous if misused, either accidentally or maliciously, especially if you install a third-party macro. You are entirely responsible for the consequences of any macro execution, no matter what its source, even if it was included with Keyboard Maestro or comes from any Stairways Software web site including the wiki and forum. 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.

To be entirely clear, this software is provided “AS IS”. You waive the implied warranty of infringement. Stairways Software's liability to you for costs, damages, or other losses arising from your use of the software - including third-party claims against you - is limited to a refund of your license fee. Stairways Software may not be held liable for any consequential damages related to your use of the software.

Stairways Software can terminate your license by refunding your license fee.