HOME
TOPICS
ABOUT ME
MAIL

 
It is easier to use than QuicKeys, has more features and costs less than half as much.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T h e   R o a d   L e s s   T r a v e l e d
Keyboard Maestro takes the macro crown in OS X


Sept. 29, 2004


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard

   I'm hooked on macros, those little utility programs that press keys or activate menus for you. I must confess, however, that switching from Windows to Mac OS X two years ago left me without some of the macro features I'd been used to with my Windows shareware. Even QuicKeys, longtime holder of the Mac macro crown, couldn't match what I had been used to with Power Pro, my favorite Windows utility.
   But Keyboard Maestro, a competitor for QuicKeys, has given me new hope. It's easier to use than QuicKeys, has more features and costs one-fifth as much.
   Macros launch programs, insert text and help redefine keystrokes, so that Shift-F10, for example, can work as the "Save" command no matter what program I'm using. I even use macros to turn texts into HTML documents.
   But macros can do much more with the right software. Power Pro, the Windows macro program, was able to watch for certain windows and perform various operations on them, so that it could, for example, move a browser window out of the way automatically or launch a backup program when I exited from my word processor.
   I had all but given up hope of finding a macro utility for OS X that could do the same sort of thing. But when I got an e-mail telling me about the new capabilities of Keyboard Maestro, a program I'd reviewed with lukewarm praise a few years ago, I immediately downloaded the new version from www.keyboardmaestro.com and spent the next two hours reveling in macro heaven.
   Keyboard Maestro is everything QuicKeys should have been but isn't. It has all the features I've been missing. At last, OS X users have a macro program that takes full advantage of the elegant operating system running their computers. At a mere one-fifth the cost of QuicKeys ($20 for Keyboard Maestro vs. $99 for QuicKeys), it's a bargain, too.
   Keyboard Maestro could very well change your computing life. Here's a partial list of what it can do:
   Perform certain actions based on the time or on the presence on screen or in memory of a particular window (based on its window label) or a particular program.
   Launch applications or open documents with a user-definable keystroke or combination of keystrokes.
   Activate a group of macros based on what program is in the foreground, automatically.
   Control programs remotely. Control of iTunes is already programmed into Keyboard Maestro and it's a simple matter of following menus to add control of many other programs.
   Perform any macro function by using a Griffin PowerMate, an accessory knob that looks like a volume control but can do many other functions. Keyboard Maestro vastly extends the usefulness of the PowerMate. (For more on the PowerMate, go to www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate.)
   There are dozens of other primary functions and countless secondary ones. Among the other functions are multiple cut-and-paste controls, using any number of labeled clipboards. They can store permanent items such as your e-mail signature or a letterhead or they can work like the standard clipboard, storing the last item you cut or copied.
   Program windows can be controlled in many different ways, too. In addition to using specific windows as macro triggers, you can resize, close, zoom, move, minimize or bring to the foreground the current window or any designated window. You can also activate a menu item through a macro.
   Macro utilities can be hard to learn, but Keyboard Maestro provides an outstanding help menu in addition to step-by-step macro-creation menus. Of all the macro utilities I've used in the past 10 or 15 years, this one is the easiest to use. Macros are a snap to change, too. Revising a macro takes only a few seconds, and a tooltip pops up to show you what any macro does when you hover your mouse pointer over the list of macros in the Keyboard Maestro editor window.