![]() The end result is that I have more time to spend doing what I want to do (looking for interesting articles) and don't have to spend any time or mental energy on the boring, repetitive, easy-to-make-a-mistake parts. Not only does Keyboard Maestro do these s steps approximately 100 times faster than I could, it never accidentally misspells my email address, or hits the 'tab' key three times instead of two times, or forgets to check the box that says 'Yes, include the PDF in the email.' It even brings me back to the previous page so I can continue searching. With Keyboard Maestro, once I decide that I want to save an article, I simply press one keyboard combination, and it does all of the necessary steps. Once it is sent, I have to click 'Continue' to dismiss the alert that tells me the email was sent, and then I have to go back to the previous page in my browser history.Īll told there were twelve steps involved for each article, and some of those steps had multiple keystrokes involved, such as 'type my email address.' (Actually I was typing my Send To Dropbox email address, so the PDF and the email body with the citation would also get saved.) I have to type my email address, then I have to copy the title of the article into the Subject: line, then I have to check the box to say that I want the email to be "plain text plus the attachment", then I have to hit the 'Send' button. Each time I find an article I have to click on the 'email' button, which triggers some JavaScript which reveals a place where I can enter my email address. I recently discovered that if I email those articles to myself, the database will include all of the citation information necessary. Putting several steps togetherĪs I mentioned, the key (no pun intended) to using Keyboard Maestro is to start getting into the mindset of thinking "Could I automate this?" whenever you find yourself doing something repeatedly.įor example, I access a database of journal articles that are available to download as PDFs. With Keyboard Maestro, I can assign any keyboard combination I want, and if I accidentally use the same keyboard combination twice, Keyboard Maestro will pop up a menu and let me choose between the two of them. Mac OS X supports customizable keyboard shortcuts for menu items, but they have to include the Command key (⌘). When I am using Microsoft Word and have an open document, Keyboard Maestro automatically saves the file for me every 3 minutes, so I never have to worry about losing work. When SuperDuper quits, Keyboard Maestro unmounts the SuperDuper clone (otherwise Spotlight tends to find apps and files on both drives) and remounts my Time Machine drive. For example, when SuperDuper launches, Keyboard Maestro automatically unmounts my Time Machine backup (because I don't want Time Machine to interfere with SuperDuper). ![]() Keyboard Maestro can trigger events to happen when an app quits or when it launches. I once left iTunes running like that and went to lunch, letting Keyboard Maestro do the menial work for me. Keyboard Maestro can wait until iTunes asks and then answer for you. Each time iTunes finds a duplicate application, it will stop everything and ask if you want to replace the app until you press "OK" and then it will continue. I use Keyboard Maestro for more complicate situations.įor example, have you ever tried to add a bunch of iOS apps to an iTunes library, only to have iTunes warn you that some of the apps already exist? If you have, you know what follows. In fact, I prefer to use TextExpander for those sorts of uses. Some simple use cases for Keyboard MaestroĪt its simplest, Keyboard Maestro can do things like TextExpander where you type a few letters and have it expand to a much larger message, but that's really a narrow view of what it does. ![]() I think Keyboard Maestro is perhaps one of the more difficult apps to explain, because how I use it might vary greatly from how you use it, but once you get to know how it works and some of the things it can do, maybe you'll see how you might use it. Now that I have it, I keep finding new ways to use it. Keyboard Maestro always sounded like a useful app, but I wasn't sure how I would ever use it.
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