I’m new to Keyboard Maestro, and hope to make several macros. While creating simple ones seems straightforward, I wonder if someone might help me with more involved ones. I’ve found a few posts, and even one that is very close to one macro I’d like to write. But I’m facing a pretty steep learning curve …
I’d love a macro for selected file that would apply a specific label and then change metadata (deselect compile, specific section type) for a file. I’m lost due to all the mouse coordinate issues, and lack of specific Scrivener keystrokes.
Go visit the Keyboard Maestro User Forum. There are many KM ninjas there who will happily help you, Search first, becasue often times someone has already solved the same problem and posted it on the forum.
Do be aware of the various keyboard shortcuts & menus for navigating the interface when building KM macros. For instance, if you ever need to move the focus to the inspector’s synopsis area, there’s a keyboard shortcut that will put you there for any text manipulation you might need. They maintain a list of shortcuts here:
Thank you both … I realize this was an overly-broad new user question, but wondered if Scrivener users might have extra insight into using KMB with the app … I’ll continue on …
It’s kind of a conundrum; on the one hand, you’re using a different company’s product, but on the other, it’s to interface with Scrivener specifically. I eventually got KM because or recommendations here, and it’s served me well for one-off needs (making systematic changes to large projects that require many steps).
SO! Perhaps instead of posting a topic that focuses on another company’s app, post something titled “Help automating the assignment of Statuses”, asking for alternative ways to assign statuses to binder items would get you the information you need to then build macros, or ask how to on the KM forums. I’m afraid that regulars may ignore this post because they don’t know KM, but those same folks might have a way to navigate Scrivener via the keyboard to accomplish what you’re after.
I’ve posted a short tip on how best to change the label and status on an item, in this thread.
As for “Include in Compile”, there are two places where that can be set, each with their own pros and cons:
Inspector: pretty straight-forward to trigger Navigate ▸ Inspect ▸ Metadata, and then use KM’s image recognition feature to click on the checkbox you need. The main drawback is whether the “General Metadata” section is ever collapsed in projects like this. Wouldn’t be too hard to solve that with more image recognition clicks though.
The icon on the far right hand side of the text editor footer bar can be easily clicked with image recognition. That one is very stable and easy, unless you intend to use this macro on stuff other than text files. Then you’d need to switch to text editing mode, and if you wanted to get really fancy, save the previous view mode state and restore it.
I think Section Type might work best from the inspector as well. Consider your image recognition needn’t include the dropdown itself. You just need to establish a point of reference and then have KM click somewhere based on that. Thus a screenshot snippet that includes a strip of stock UI text right above the Section Type dropdown would be a good place to start. Here for example is an image that will work if you click 10 units down from the found image’s bottom right corner:
And of course once you have the section type menu up, you can use my previously described trick for selecting a label/status.
