Automators 31: Making Your ScreenFlow Flow and More with J.F. Brissette

Episodes
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Really liked the recommendation for the Taming The Terminal podcast. I use the terminal fairly regularly but definitely more in a “hacking” way. Looking forward to learning more about it.

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Another great episode!

It’s worth noting that the Expressions app that J.F. referenced is available on Setapp.

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Hi, and thanks for the shoutout, glad you enjoyed the show.

Allison and Bart are a delight to listen to, and I know you’ll learn a lot from this series.

I also mentioned Kevin Skoglund and cannot recommend his courses enough if you want to learn more about regular expressions, and one of my favourites Unix utilities: awk.

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Thank you, Tim!

That is where I discovered Expressions. I’ve enjoyed the way it’s laid out and its modern look.

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You’re very welcome. Setapp is a great place to discover new apps.

p.s. Thanks for everything you shared, @JFBmusic!

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Have been a long time MPU listener and love the automation focus here. Been a subscriber since Day 1.

Never posted but I thought I would share a Keyboard Maestro macro I created that saves me a bunch of time. Let’s say this and the HomeKit automation episode I listened to while cutting the grass got me motivated.

I use screenshots a lot in my day to day IT work. I send screenshots a lot to convey ideas. I also use iMessage with my international team every day, multiple times a day.

So with a quick Caps Lock + 4 (hat tip to Karabiner) will take a screenshot and put it to the clipboard. Then, KM takes over with a Caps Lock + M key (again thanks to Karabiner) and KM then:

  • Opens the Messages app
  • Presses CMD +N for a new message
  • .3 second pause
  • tab key
  • .1 second pause
  • tab key
  • .1 second pause --> these two tabs get us the message content field where you can type your message.
  • CMD+V for pasting from the clipboard.
  • SHIFT+Tab twice to go back to the To: field so that you can type in the recipients email address or phone number.

Your on your own to send with whatever keyboard shortcut you’d like. This is a hot off the press rev. 00001 so please take this as it is (it works) and have fun modifying it to suit your own needs.

I can see some combination of TextExpander’s scripting so that I could answer questions and form fill from a list of recent recipient addresses, etc. but for now, I have a working macro that fills the need.

If you like it, you can download it here:

In other news, I’m using my QNAP to run 3 containers (homebrige, home assistant, and pi-hole) and will be going through all the Automators content to get my HomeKit-fu up to speed. Done with Google and Amazon, and will be exclusively HomeKit going forward (maybe :grinning:)

Cheers,
//Shawn

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Hey Everyone,

Wanted to know if there are ScreenFlow Keyboard Maestro macros that have been shared? Macros that could be shared for everyone who uses KM and ScreenFlow?

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Hello @bocciaman, and sorry for the long, long delay in replying…let me know if this shared macro works for you. The following was posted as a reply to the latest episode of the show:

Thanks you @IanSC for the Twitter reminder about posting ScreenFlow-centric Keyboard Maestro macros. It’s been a while since Automators 31…and since Rose mentioned the episode, I thought it was time I shared this, the macro I used most often while editing in ScreenFlow:

Ripple Delete & Play

To all ScreenFlow users out there: what are some repetitive tasks you find yourself doing while using the app?

J.F.

P.S. Episode 50 was so fun! Congrats @RosemaryOrchard & @MacSparky on reaching that milestone!

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Hi again…another script I wanted to share today: a quick way to get to the Batch Export window in ScreenFlow, using AppleScript. My filter is always the same: Do I do this thing frequently enough to justify scripting it? Here, the answer is, again, “Yes!”

ScreenFlow_Open to Batch Export

There is not much to write home about here. I put comments in the script:

  • Since ScreenFlow is not addressable via AppleScript, I used the do shell script command to open the app.
  • I created a keyboard shortcut for the File > Batch Export… menu in ScreenFlow and used System Events to call it using keystroke
  • As mentioned in the comments, adjust that line of code to fit your desired keyboard shortcut. Since I set mine to Control-B, the line reads:
    keystroke "b" using control down

That’s it! Again…not your massive script here, but one I use a lot and that saves me a little time. If I can avoid driving the mouse on my screen, my life is better. :slight_smile:

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