Upgrading to Keyboard Maestro 10

I wasn’t expecting this, so a nice present for the end of the year. There is a new Keyboard Maestro 10 available, and I’ve wasted no time in upgrading.

When I purchased my license in 2019, I debated and wondered if I would really use Keyboard Maestro. I read one review after another, and while all of them had praise, they painted a different picture of what Keyboard Maestro could do and what it was used for.

With the trial version installed, I was presented with a tool that looked a lot like the built-in Automator. Familiar, yet powerful.

But, as I read the Wiki, and looked at some of the examples in the forums, I began to see the power and benefit of Keyboard Maestro. It took a little while for it all to click.

Yes, it could launch applications. Yes, it could record keyboard actions. Yes, it did have a clipboard manager. Yes, it could be used as a text expansion tool.

In fact, it could do hundreds of different things from the simple to incredibly complex. And not just within Keyboard Maestro. It was no problem to call out to AppleScript, JavaScript, Java, Python or the Shell.

Jumping ahead, I have Keyboard Maestro move files on a weekly basis. It processes the clipboard and removes tracking information from URLs. Macros are hooked into mouse buttons to enhance functionality such as paste and triple-click with a copy.

I have triggers for folder changes. I control application like Spektrel and Hallow’s Eve. I have small applets with decision making to perform routine tasks. I have it help fill out forms that web tools can’t work with.

In the two years I’ve had Keyboard Maestro installed, it shows I’ve saved 4 months. We can break that down into 120 days or 2880 hours.

That’s a rather impressive number. I’ve saved 2500+ hours by having Keyboard Maestro execute scripts for me. If we were to put a dollar amount on that, it would certainly be more than the cost of Keyboard Maestro as a tool. Not to mention the amount I’ve saved by not buying other software.

And I’m barely scratching the surface of what Keyboard Maestro can do. My macros are tiny, rather simple things, but, they’ve performed huge amounts of work.

Keyboard Maestro has been one of the best purchases I’ve made for my Mac. It’s an incredible tool with almost unlimited capabilities. It has so many benefits, I can’t imagine using a Mac without it.

Stairways Software releases Keyboard Maestro 10.0