Press Release for 19 Jul 2011
Stairways Software releases Keyboard Maestro 5.0.1
Perth, Western Australia - 19 July 2011 - Stairways Software Pty Ltd is pleased to announce Keyboard Maestro 5.0.1, the new version of its powerful productivity enhancer for Mac OS X.
Version 5.0.1 fixes a number of small issues in 5.0, as well as adding an example of how to store passwords in the Keychain, enhancing a number of actions, adding an Open Preferences Folder menu command (as Lion does not show the Library folder), and some minor changes related to the Mac App Store submission.
Version 5 takes the modern engine of Keyboard Maestro 3, the modern user interface of Keyboard Maestro 4 and adds to that base an incredible breadth and depth of power with almost no increase in complexity.
Keyboard Maestro 5 adds control flow such as While loops and If/Then/Else statements, as well as permanently stored variables and a complete calculation engine, all within the same familiar user interface.
Keyboard Maestro enhances the application switcher and window switcher, and includes the application launcher first featured in Switcher Maestro. The clipboard history is improved further with the addition of Favorites, Quick Look and the ability to send clipboards to another Mac.
Version 5 also includes an extensible library of pre-made macros, with a large variety of macros for you to build upon. Also new is Undo/Redo support and revisions so you can try out new macros with confidence.
Using Keyboard Maestro's powerful macros, you can control applications, windows, or menus; insert text; open documents, applications or URLs; execute scripts; control the system, iTunes or QuickTime Player; and more - all with the touch of a key, click of the mouse, periodically or at specific times, when an application is launched or running, or even over the Internet using Keyboard Maestro Control on your iPhone or iPod touch, or by using a web browser to access Keyboard Maestro's built-in web server.
Using Keyboard Maestro's Program Switcher and Window Switcher you can cycle through applications or windows, closing, hiding, launching, and more. Keyboard Maestro can help you regain control of your crowded screen by letting you close or hide multiple windows or applications.
Using Keyboard Maestro's Application Switcher and Window Switcher you can cycle through applications or windows, closing, hiding, launching, and more. Using Keyboard Maestro's Application Launcher, you can quickly launch applications. Keyboard Maestro can help you regain control of your crowded screen by letting you close or hide multiple windows or applications.
Using Keyboard Maestro's Clipboard History Switcher, you can access previous clipboards, so you will never lose your clipboard again. It also makes it easy to copy and paste multiple items such as username and password or serial number without having to switch back and forth between applications for each item. You can mark a clipboard as a favorite so it stays forever, or send it to another Mac running Keyboard Maestro.
Using Keyboard Maestro's Clipboard Switcher, you can select from a number of named clipboards, storing information away for later retrieval, or store the details you are working on and access them by name again and again.
Changes for 5.0.1:
- Added a macro library entry showing how to store passwords in the Keychain.
- Added Set Variable to Clipboard and Clipboard to Variable pseudo actions.
- Allow negative window indexes in Manipulate Window to count from the back.
- Added Help→Open Preferences Folder since Lion hides the Library folder.
- Moved the Keyboard Maestro preference folder to the Application Support folder.
- Ensure the log files are created.
- Added Command-Shift-Tab trigger to default Activate Application Switcher.
- Added display of nested actions for Repeat command in non-Edit mode.
- Changed the origin of Screen tokens to top left like other origins in Keyboard Maestro.
- Ignore bogus windows in Manipulate Window when considering indexes.
- Resolve alias files in Open File or Folder action.
- Just include one Quick Macro macro by default.
- Added documentation links for ICU Date Time format.
- Added token processing for most of the condition fields.
- "Save Clipboard History" appears on in the preferences whether it is on or off.
- Handle the case where the preferences folder is readonly.
- Execute Script, Save to Variable, changes to the variable name were not sticking.
- Fixed Text Factory clipboard filtering.
- Fixed a UI glitch for Variable Condition "Is Empty".
- Fixed Swap Characters library entry.
- Fixed some potential problems with clipboard syncronization (including CPU excess usage)
- Fixed an edge case for multiple overlapping typed string triggers.
- Fixed an issue editing macros containing Open URL or Open File or Folder actions.
- Fixed the weird behaviour with multiple Record Quick Macros and duplicate UIDs.
- Fixed a potential crash displaying titles of clipboards.
- Fixed the Pixel Color test condition testing the pixel at the wrong location.
- Fixed a potential crash in the Pixel Color test condition.
Major Changes for 5.0:
- Requires 10.6 and Intel.
- Control Flow - Pause Until, If/Then/Else, While, Until, Repeat with extensive conditional tests.
- Variables - permanently stored and accessible in a variety of ways.
- Calculations - based on variables or a variety of functions.
- Library of pre-built macros.
- Undo/Redo - finally!
- Enhanced Application Switcher with Cover Flow, Force Quit, Get Info, Reveal.
- Enhanced Window Switcher with Cover Flow of Applications, window depth sorting.
- Enhanced Clipboard History with Favorites, Quick Look, Send clipboards to another Mac.
- Application Launcher as first seen in Switcher Maestro.
Control Flow & Variables & Calculations
- New Control Flow actions Pause Until, If/Then/Else, While, Until, Repeat.
- Extensive conditional tests (Application, Window, Menu, Button, Modifiers, and many more).
- Permanently stored variables containing text, or arrays of numbers.
- Prompt For User Input action with text, passwords, popup menus and checkboxes.
- Most action fields can contain calculations (eg Pause 60*Time in Minutes).
- Set Variable to Text action with tokens.
- Set Variable to Calculation action with array access.
- Search & Replace Variable action with regex and tokens.
- Use Variable action to adjust mouse, windows, applications, and more.
- Filter Variable action.
Enhanced Clipboards
- Added Quick Look to Clipboard History and Named Clipboard Switchers.
- Added Favorites to Clipboard History.
- Send clipboards to other Macs.
- Delete Past Clipboard action.
- Search & Replace Clipboard action with regex and tokens.
General Improvements
- Favorites category in action list.
- Configurable timeouts for individual actions.
- Macro Revisions.
- Applications listed in Status Menu.
- Use regular expressions in menu or button name matching by prefixing with ^.
- Typed String triggers can ignore case, or remember case.
- Insert Text actions honour case of remember case typed string triggers.
- Allow triggering on "any" application activates, launches or quits.
New and Improved Actions
- Set Macro Enable action.
- Speak Text action.
- Play Sound action.
- Action to display text.
- Action to Show/Hide the global macros palette action.
- Manipulate window action can now operate on window with index N.
- Manipulate window action can now center a window at any point.
- Generalized Search Web action to allow any URL.
- Add Relaunch & Force Quit options to Quit action.
- Added "Current Application" option to Quit action.
- Open Finder Selection action optionally with a specific application.
- Add "with specific application" to Open File or Folder action.
- Add "with specific application" to Open URL action.
- Growl action uses our own HUD window if Growl is not available.
New Text Tokens
- Token for variables.
- Token for Named Clipboards.
- Tokens for Current Track name, album, artist, ratingstars, etc.
- Tokens for Current Application, Current Mouse, and Front Window details.
- Tokens for Screen Frame and System Volume.
- Tokens for Address Book Name, Email, etc.
- Tokens for Executing Macro and Macro Group name.
Enhanced Scripting
- Variables can be accessed or written via AppleScript
- Variables are available to Shell Scripts.
- Execute Script can store results in a variable.
- Support for AppleScript command to calculate expressions.
- Support for AppleScript command to process tokens.
- AppleScript command to reload the engine macros.
- AppleScript command to play sound.
Enhanced Application & Window Switcher & Application Launcher
- Added new Application Launcher.
- Applications listed in Status Menu (Running, Recent, Applications, Utilities).
- Added Force Quit (k twice).
- Added Get Info (i).
- Added Reveal in Finder (r).
- Added Relaunch (l). Eg k k l Force Quit & Relaunch.
- New icon badges.
- Mouse Rollover limited to when you change icons.
- Popup contextual menu in Application Switcher & Window Switcher.
- Option to disable mouse rollover in Application Switcher & Window Switcher.
- Control the opacity of Application Switcher & Window Switcher.
- Option to have Window Switcher sort by window depth.
- Allow switching through applications in Window Switcher.
- Added Cover Flow style to Application Switcher.
- Changed to using an alpha colour, removed the alpha slider, and honour the brightness.
In Detail for 5.0:
- Command-Option-Control-Shift-Click on Status Menu icon to cancel all macros.
- Support org.nspasteboard.TransientType (et al) and have the clipboard history ignore them.
- Support org.nspasteboard.AutoGeneratedType for Insert Text by Pasting.
- Up/Down arrow move clipboard selection when clipboard switcher search field is selected.
- Command-W closes palettes.
- The Recording window preserves its location.
- Import menu is properly grayed out only when it should be.
- Removed Key Repeat preference from Application/Window Switcher.
- Multiple Quick Macros would conflict because UIDs were not unique.
- Searching for Cut, Copy or Paste in the Action list would not find the actions.
- Allow the number pad keys to select duplicate macros from the duplicate macro palette.
- and more ...
Keyboard Maestro 5.x requires Mac OS X 10.6 or greater, including 10.7 Lion, and an Intel Mac, and is native 32 and 64 bit.
Keyboard Maestro is engineered by Stairways Software Pty Ltd and distributed by FastSpring. Keyboard Maestro is licensed on a per user basis, and an individual user can use it on five Macs.
New customers can purchase Keyboard Maestro from <http://purchase.keyboardmaestro.com/> for US$36.
Keyboard Maestro 5.0 is a paid upgrade from previous versions. Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro from us after 1 March 2011 have been issued a free upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 5. If you have not received your free license, you can claim your free upgrade by looking up your previous Keyboard Maestro purchase at <http://enquiry.stairways.com/>.
Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro 4 can upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 5 for US$18 until 31 August 2011. Customers can find details on upgrading by looking up your previous Keyboard Maestro purchase at <http://enquiry.stairways.com/>. Customers upgrading from older versions or after August 2011 can upgrade to Keyboard Maestro 5 for US$25.
Keyboard Maestro has been submitted to the Mac App Store and may become available at some date, but that is at Apple's discretion. Customers who purchased Keyboard Maestro from the Mac App Store will receive a free upgrade to version 5 when (and if) it is approved by Apple. There is no facility to transfer your license bought from us to or from the Mac App Store, nor any facility to purchase an upgrade to or on the Mac App Store.
A fully-functional unlicensed trial version of Keyboard Maestro can be downloaded from <http://download.stairways.com/>.
For sales enquires, volume purchases, customer service, technical support, or to contact project management, our current contact information is listed at <http://contact.stairways.com/>.
Extensive online documentation on Keyboard Maestro can be found at <http://documentation.keyboardmaestro.com/>.
A brief taste of Keyboard Maestro in action can be found at <http://screenshots.keyboardmaestro.com/>.
A more detailed tour to give you a better idea of Keyboard Maestro's power and versatility is available at <http://tour.keyboardmaestro.com/>.
Video examples and tutorials of Keyboard Maestro can be found at <http://movies.keyboardmaestro.com/>.
For more information about anything to do with Keyboard Maestro visit <http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/>.
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