Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
David Pogue on Macro programs
NY Times tech columnist David Pogue has done it again. I'll admit that more than once I've wondered about David after watching one of his whimsical video reports for the Times, but then he offers up a gem like the one in his latest column and I realize why he is a powerful tech columnist and I'm a lowly blogger.Pogue takes a look at several Macro programs for both Mac and PC (a Macro program is one that allows you to assign certain actions to corresponding key strokes. Launch an app with a push of a button, have a script fire off, things of that nature). He takes Keyboard Maestro, iKey, and QuicKeys for a spin on the Mac side. They all fare well, but QuicKeys is the one the gets the highest marks, and the one that spawned the tip which has me believing in Pogue all over again. QuicKeys allows you to remap the tilde key (pictured to the right) to any button you would like. David uses it as a left hand delete button so he doesn't have to move his hand off the mouse whilst editing. Brilliant.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stuart said 8:52AM on 8-23-2007
That's smart! I think instead of the ~ key I'd use a key I don't think I've ever touched, 'till now, the §/± key.
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Michael said 7:19AM on 8-23-2007
So what does he do, if he wants to type something that uses a tilde? Say, he wants to type --
Look in:
~/Library/Frameworks
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Mary said 7:30AM on 8-23-2007
How's this different to what you can do in QS?
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Jochen Wolters said 9:41AM on 8-23-2007
So what does he do, if he wants to type something that uses a tilde?
Type Alt-n, then . This also works with any letter that has a tilde on top, just like Alt-u (think "Umlaut") will add two dots to any vowel you type, e.g., "ü."
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Jochen Wolters said 9:54AM on 8-23-2007
Sorry, but that should have said "Type Alt-n, then SPACE".
(While I'm at it, I might as well put in a shameless plug for a recent blog post on just this subject: http://polytropia.com/musings/2007/06/theres-more-to-uis-than-whats-on-screen/)
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scorpan said 11:17AM on 8-23-2007
"They all fair well" --> "They all fare well"
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Peter Payne said 1:49PM on 8-23-2007
In other news, David Pogue is the author of Opera for Dummies. Did you know that? Well, now you do.
http://www.amazon.com/Opera-Dummies-Book-Audio-CD/dp/0764550101
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Shawn King said 2:54PM on 8-23-2007
And "Magic for Dummies". :)
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Fritz Laurel said 4:33PM on 8-23-2007
You must be from Windows-land, boy. We 'aint got no "alt" key on our 'puters. 'Round these parts, it's called the "option" key.
Cheers,
FL
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jack in the box said 2:26PM on 8-25-2007
It is funny how Mac combination "brings light" and the windows combination shuts the crying baby up.
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john Foster said 7:44PM on 8-23-2007
A really long time ago I was the product manager for QuicKeys. One of my jobs was to study if in fact a "macro" program made you work faster. My conclusion, that I ended up not sharing with the class, was no. In fact the macro "fiend" often worked much more slower then a normal tasked person. There are a bunch of reasons but the biggest one was "remembering the newly made short cut key took longer then selecting the same command using a mouse." When asked "how long did that take" nearly everyone in the study reported "instantly!"
I recorded sessions and the tapes showed a different story. There was as long as a 10-12 second delay during the learning phase of using the short cut. Yet the same command executed with a mouse always took between 2-4 seconds. Mouse tasked users reported this task, even though it was done quickly, as taking a long time. So what is going on? It's the difference between visualization based motor skills and a memory based motor skill. While the brain is engaging in trying to remember the key to press it is not perceiving time in any way. So it "seems" instant. This is exactly the opposite effect for mouse users. Visual stimuli is requires a different kind of engagement that also requires tracking time.
Users could learn some "macro tasks" to mastery. Once they did this the action was nearly always instant. More like a gesture then an action. Much like watching any user who is using their tools on a daily basis they work quickly and efficiently. Almost. What they have done more often it is get around software deficiencies by learning complex tasks.
Another crazy study I did was to task people to do a repetitive by-hand and with-macros. Almost every time a macro maker would lose out to the person that just did the task. With one exception: the same task(s) took longer then 20 minutes. This was the breaking point where you could futz with automation getting it to work then releasing the task on the pile of work. Without exception the macro makers work would be 100% correct while the do-ers work had to be rechecked as there would always be errors.
A macro programs real skillz comes from doing the simple simple. Like remapping a key to be something else (as noted), making a key do one thing over and over or mapping a function that didn't have a key (or had a stupid combo) to have one. It's a crazy fine line.
One things for sure about macro programs is that you have to pay attention to your workflow being always aware of what those keys can do for you. As we found that temporarily made key was the often the best way to go. You read that right, just one key that did one automation. Meaning there was no hesitation in selecting it after it was learned.
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Reg Muffet said 7:50PM on 8-23-2007
@Fritz > "You must be from Windows-land, boy. We 'aint got no "alt" key on our 'puters. 'Round these parts, it's called the "option" key."
I have a brand new Apple "aluminum" Keyboard (until Apple bring out a 30" iMac, that's the only component of the new iMac I'm getting) and the bottom leftmost keys read:
control
alt
option
command ⌘
(there's a symbol there which will only appear if TUAW's blog engine supports Unicode, which I doubt, so it should be the propeller thingie after command)
So, "alt" survives but the apple is no more. Kinda sad.
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Reg Muffet said 7:52PM on 8-23-2007
⌘ printed!
Cool.
☂ ☀ ☁ ☃
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Reg Muffet said 8:03PM on 8-23-2007
I agree with John's eloquent post.
Complex macros can be more trouble to use than the time they save, plus there is the time spent creating them in the first place.
It should be noted that Quickeys is more than just a macro program, it is a full GUI automation controller, superior in many ways to AppleScript, especially for controlling apps that don't have a comprehensive AppleScript dictionary.
In fact, many times I've simply given up trying to make AppleScript do things through the tortuous "GUI scriping" method and simply made a Quickeys sequence to do it.
One application that comes to mind is a "map extractor" - having Safari automatically scroll through large sections of JavaScript based maps (a la Google Maps), so they can be snapshotted, and later pieced together.
Trying to ApplsScript that is a nightmare. Quickeys made it simple.
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rabow said 11:41AM on 8-27-2007
Agreed on the QS comment. I was surprised that he didn't even bring it up, as you can program hotkeys in QS very easily.
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