Bicycle For Your Mind
KM Icon
Leader Key in Keyboard Maestro
LeaderKey.app is a good application. I loved trying it out.
I was wondering whether I could replicate its functionality with the tools I have already available on my machine. The obvious candidate was Keyboard Maestro. I found inspiration from Leader Launcher - Macro Library - Keyboard Maestro Discourse.
This was the result of the exercise.
Making a Launcher Group
I made a macro group, called Launcher. Assigned it a keyboard command of Hyper-O. The Hyper key is all of the modifier keys held together (⌃⇧⌥⌘). Difficult to do on a normal keyboard but my Moonlander has a custom key assigned to Hyper key.
Leader Key
Making Individual Launchers
I made a whole series of macros designed to launch particular programs. This is the one for Acorn.
Acorn Launch
I put the letter that was going to invoke the macro from the palette in front of the name. So this one was called a Acorn. Followed that with a whole slew of application launchers.
Problem With Multiple Applications With the Same Starting Letter
Very soon I ran into the need to have launchers for Emacs and EagleFiler. They share a common first letter. I solved this problem by assigning them both the same letter but naming them differently. So it was e1 Emacs and e2 EagleFiler
For Emacs:
Emacs
For EagleFiler:
EagleFiler
Now when I press ‘e’ I get the following palette:
Dupes
I can just press the relevant number and it launches the application assigned to that number.
Work Spaces
While working I notice that I have groups of applications open for particular tasks. For instance, first thing in the morning I have to open Mail and Chrome. Catch up on email and catch up on news. So I made a launcher which launched both of these.
Workspace
I have a similar one for when I am writing. Emacs, Dictionary and Chrome. That is assigned to a different Workspace.
This is how the Keyboard Maestro pallette looks when invoked with Hyper+O.
Launcher Palette
Conclusion
This was an interesting exercise, replicating most of the features of an application in Keyboard Maestro. I am amazed by what this little macro program is capable of. I have barely scratched the surface of its abilities. It makes my experience in macOS better.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie.