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Show HN: Macro – Keyboard Shortcuts for the web

91 points by andyzg 9y ago

andyzg 9y ago
Macro is a Chrome extension that makes users more productive on the web through keyboard shortcuts. Macro offers powerful website-specific shortcuts and instant keyboard shortcut discovery across many websites. Think Vimium and Reddit Enhancement Suite in one. Learning one website's shortcuts means you won’t have to learn it again for a new website. Let me know your thoughts or comments!
- jonathanpoulter 9y ago
  Does this play well with the likes of Vimium? It seems to steal some of Vimium's most common bindings.
  - andyzg 9y ago
    We've implemented this with inputs and other Chrome extensions in mind, so it should work with Vimium. Our shortcuts mostly use modifier keys so that it doesn't interfere with anything else.
duck 9y ago
Not to be that guy, but it seems like you should disclose you're using Google Analytics[0]. It seems like every extension/cli tool that isn't upfront about these sort of things always get called out for it and the negative attention that brings. 0: https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/master/chrome-extension/js/analytics.js https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/mast...
- andyzg 9y ago
  Here's the data policy we just made: https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/master/data-policy.md https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/mast...
  - LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
    why does a keyboard shortcuts extension need to collect any data in the first place?
    - mcjiggerlog 9y ago
      I assume the same reason any app has analytics - so you can work out how users are using it and improve the app based on that information
    - salvar 9y ago
      If you're developing a keyboard shortcuts extension, would you rather have an idea about how the product is being used or stay completely in the dark? Which do you think would help you more in developing new features?
      - LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
        If you care about having users at all, it would be wiser not to antagonize them by send their information to third parties.
        salvar 9y ago
        So you would rather know nothing about how users are using your product, rather than risk offending the subset of users that are vehemently against telemetry?
        LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
        There's a simple and polite way to learn that - just ask some of them. I don't think very many users would go out of their way to be vehemently pro-telemetry either. It's indistinguishable from spying. Most people just shrug off their own inability to counter it and carry on with their lives, that's why marketers and other scum are able to get away with it. But it's certainly not in the users' best interest - I sincerely hope you have that interest at heart.
- andyzg 9y ago
  EDIT: Updated about with a disclosure: https://usemacro.github.io/#about https://usemacro.github.io/#about Thanks for letting us know about this issue! We'll look into a way to be more clear about analytics.
  - tzahola 9y ago
    Or maybe stop doing it.
    - salvar 9y ago
      Is using Google Analytics unethical now?
kentt 9y ago
Can anyone compare this to using vimium. I've been using that for a while and an mostly pretty happy.
- andyzg 9y ago
  Creator here. Vimium provides mostly generic shortcuts for all websites. We find that there's a huge potential for better shortcuts on popular websites like Messenger and Google that are tailored towards the app. For example, Cmd+Enter sends an emoji, whereas there's no alternative on Vimium iirc.
- andyzg 9y ago
  We also help users discover shortcuts that are already on the app, and centralize all of these shortcuts in our panel which can be accessed by Alt+/
Cub3 9y ago
I've been using vimium for years now, the biggest problem I find is it only works 90% of the time. Will try this out for a bit to see if it bridges that gap
- andyzg 9y ago
  I agree, it seems like a generic solution that doesn't work for specific problems. Macro tackles the problem first, and aims to provide a really good experience for specific websites .
- always_good 9y ago
  Having `d` (close tab) work on all pages except special ones puts you in a place where you might as well just use `cmd-w` (browser default) to close tabs because it actually works all the time. That experience repeating with a few more critical vimium features and I ended up uninstalling it. Firefox's vimperator, on the other hand, was just great. Though I haven't found a replacement since Quantum.
  - bovine3dom 9y ago
    There's Vim-Vixen [1] and Tridactyl [2] for Firefox Quantum. Both suffer from "you can't use the extension on all pages"-itis, and Tridactyl even manages to break a handful of web pages, but for me it was good enough to stop using Firefox ESR and Vimperator. Disclaimer: a lot of Tridactyl's jank is due to me. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-vixen/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-vixen/ [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim...
Willamin 9y ago
"Try Macro now for free." makes me think that at some point you'll be charging for the Macro. Are there any plans to monetize in the future?
- andyzg 9y ago
  Thanks for mentioning that. I'm going to remove "for free", no plans to monetize.
- andyzg 9y ago
  Removed.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
arvindravi 9y ago
Nice work! I made something similar sometime back: http://shortkits.com http://shortkits.com Although, people weren’t interested enough or I couldn’t get people to use it enough. Goodluck with Macro!
- andyzg 9y ago
  That looks awesome! Really similar to what we want to build for our users. Thanks for sharing!
AlphaWeaver 9y ago
Have you considered Firefox support? Since there are only minor differences in the underlying API nowadays, it isn't hard to build an extension for both browsers from the same source! Source: currently maintaining a production extension for both Chrome and Firefox out of the same codebase
- andyzg 9y ago
  Not yet, since we're first focused on an MVP. It's something we do have in mind for our roadmap! How difficult is it to maintain both browsers compared to only one?
  - AlphaWeaver 9y ago
    Not particularly challenging. There's a couple small things you have to add to the manifest usually, but no big deal. I might actually submit a PR for Firefox support in a day or two if I get around to it.
    - andyzg 9y ago
      that would be awesome! Let us know if you have any questions, happy to help you get onboarded.
Pwneed 9y ago
Can't open "alt + /" on german QWERTZ keyboard.
- philfrasty 9y ago
  Literally have this problem all the time with Mac + German Keyboard...50% of shortcuts in menus (e.g. Atom editor) don't work...
- dgellow 9y ago
  Same issue, using a custom layout.
- laurent123456 9y ago
  Same problem with French AZERTY keyboard. Also clicking on "Add to Chrome" does nothing.
mraxilus 9y ago
I think it only works on google.com, I feel the other Google TLDs don't differ enough to not enable it.
- andyzg 9y ago
  Fixed!
mariushop 9y ago
I like this. Plans to make it work with https://eddtor.com/editor https://eddtor.com/editor ? :D
perlpimp 9y ago
I use other keyboard extensions why isn't there a full list of available shortcuts provided on the page? Just so I can see without installing the extension.
joshstrange 9y ago
I would love if this would be like greasemonkey but for shortcuts where I could create custom ones for my favorite sites and share the scripts.
ax0ar 9y ago
I believe that focusing on individual pages will slow down the pace at which you can advance. Every user may have tens of pages which he/she visits every day. I reckon that supporting thousands of different pages would be a burden and it would be nearly impossible to please every user. Instead, I would recommend aiming to develop a rock solid swiss knife for online keyboard shortcuts in the long term as an alternative to vimium with some fine tuning for the most visited 100 websites for instance. I would probably not feel the need to have an extra layer on top of vimium otherwise.
- andyzg 9y ago
  I agree, we're aiming to optimize for the most popular websites first. No plans for supporting ALL websites.

91 points by andyzg 9y ago

Macro is a Chrome extension that makes users more productive on the web through keyboard shortcuts. Macro offers powerful website-specific shortcuts and instant keyboard shortcut discovery across many websites. Think Vimium and Reddit Enhancement Suite in one. Learning one website's shortcuts means you won’t have to learn it again for a new website. Let me know your thoughts or comments!

jonathanpoulter 9y ago
Does this play well with the likes of Vimium? It seems to steal some of Vimium's most common bindings.
- andyzg 9y ago
  We've implemented this with inputs and other Chrome extensions in mind, so it should work with Vimium. Our shortcuts mostly use modifier keys so that it doesn't interfere with anything else.

duck 9y ago

Not to be that guy, but it seems like you should disclose you're using Google Analytics[0]. It seems like every extension/cli tool that isn't upfront about these sort of things always get called out for it and the negative attention that brings. 0: https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/master/chrome-extension/js/analytics.js https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/mast...

andyzg 9y ago
Here's the data policy we just made: https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/master/data-policy.md https://github.com/UseMacro/macro-chrome-extension/blob/mast...
- LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
  why does a keyboard shortcuts extension need to collect any data in the first place?
  - mcjiggerlog 9y ago
    I assume the same reason any app has analytics - so you can work out how users are using it and improve the app based on that information
  - salvar 9y ago
    If you're developing a keyboard shortcuts extension, would you rather have an idea about how the product is being used or stay completely in the dark? Which do you think would help you more in developing new features?
    - LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
      If you care about having users at all, it would be wiser not to antagonize them by send their information to third parties.
      - salvar 9y ago
        So you would rather know nothing about how users are using your product, rather than risk offending the subset of users that are vehemently against telemetry?
        LfLxfxxLxfxx 9y ago
        There's a simple and polite way to learn that - just ask some of them. I don't think very many users would go out of their way to be vehemently pro-telemetry either. It's indistinguishable from spying. Most people just shrug off their own inability to counter it and carry on with their lives, that's why marketers and other scum are able to get away with it. But it's certainly not in the users' best interest - I sincerely hope you have that interest at heart.
andyzg 9y ago
EDIT: Updated about with a disclosure: https://usemacro.github.io/#about https://usemacro.github.io/#about Thanks for letting us know about this issue! We'll look into a way to be more clear about analytics.
- tzahola 9y ago
  Or maybe stop doing it.
  - salvar 9y ago
    Is using Google Analytics unethical now?

kentt 9y ago

Can anyone compare this to using vimium. I've been using that for a while and an mostly pretty happy.

andyzg 9y ago
Creator here. Vimium provides mostly generic shortcuts for all websites. We find that there's a huge potential for better shortcuts on popular websites like Messenger and Google that are tailored towards the app. For example, Cmd+Enter sends an emoji, whereas there's no alternative on Vimium iirc.
andyzg 9y ago
We also help users discover shortcuts that are already on the app, and centralize all of these shortcuts in our panel which can be accessed by Alt+/

Cub3 9y ago

I've been using vimium for years now, the biggest problem I find is it only works 90% of the time. Will try this out for a bit to see if it bridges that gap

andyzg 9y ago
I agree, it seems like a generic solution that doesn't work for specific problems. Macro tackles the problem first, and aims to provide a really good experience for specific websites .
always_good 9y ago
Having `d` (close tab) work on all pages except special ones puts you in a place where you might as well just use `cmd-w` (browser default) to close tabs because it actually works all the time. That experience repeating with a few more critical vimium features and I ended up uninstalling it. Firefox's vimperator, on the other hand, was just great. Though I haven't found a replacement since Quantum.
- bovine3dom 9y ago
  There's Vim-Vixen [1] and Tridactyl [2] for Firefox Quantum. Both suffer from "you can't use the extension on all pages"-itis, and Tridactyl even manages to break a handful of web pages, but for me it was good enough to stop using Firefox ESR and Vimperator. Disclaimer: a lot of Tridactyl's jank is due to me. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-vixen/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vim-vixen/ [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim...

Willamin 9y ago

"Try Macro now for free." makes me think that at some point you'll be charging for the Macro. Are there any plans to monetize in the future?

andyzg 9y ago
Thanks for mentioning that. I'm going to remove "for free", no plans to monetize.
andyzg 9y ago
Removed.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

arvindravi 9y ago

Nice work! I made something similar sometime back: http://shortkits.com http://shortkits.com Although, people weren’t interested enough or I couldn’t get people to use it enough. Goodluck with Macro!

andyzg 9y ago
That looks awesome! Really similar to what we want to build for our users. Thanks for sharing!

AlphaWeaver 9y ago

Have you considered Firefox support? Since there are only minor differences in the underlying API nowadays, it isn't hard to build an extension for both browsers from the same source! Source: currently maintaining a production extension for both Chrome and Firefox out of the same codebase

andyzg 9y ago
Not yet, since we're first focused on an MVP. It's something we do have in mind for our roadmap! How difficult is it to maintain both browsers compared to only one?
- AlphaWeaver 9y ago
  Not particularly challenging. There's a couple small things you have to add to the manifest usually, but no big deal. I might actually submit a PR for Firefox support in a day or two if I get around to it.
  - andyzg 9y ago
    that would be awesome! Let us know if you have any questions, happy to help you get onboarded.

Pwneed 9y ago

Can't open "alt + /" on german QWERTZ keyboard.

philfrasty 9y ago
Literally have this problem all the time with Mac + German Keyboard...50% of shortcuts in menus (e.g. Atom editor) don't work...
dgellow 9y ago
Same issue, using a custom layout.
laurent123456 9y ago
Same problem with French AZERTY keyboard. Also clicking on "Add to Chrome" does nothing.

mraxilus 9y ago

I think it only works on google.com, I feel the other Google TLDs don't differ enough to not enable it.

andyzg 9y ago
Fixed!

mariushop 9y ago

I like this. Plans to make it work with https://eddtor.com/editor https://eddtor.com/editor ? :D

perlpimp 9y ago

I use other keyboard extensions why isn't there a full list of available shortcuts provided on the page? Just so I can see without installing the extension.

joshstrange 9y ago

I would love if this would be like greasemonkey but for shortcuts where I could create custom ones for my favorite sites and share the scripts.

ax0ar 9y ago

I believe that focusing on individual pages will slow down the pace at which you can advance. Every user may have tens of pages which he/she visits every day. I reckon that supporting thousands of different pages would be a burden and it would be nearly impossible to please every user. Instead, I would recommend aiming to develop a rock solid swiss knife for online keyboard shortcuts in the long term as an alternative to vimium with some fine tuning for the most visited 100 websites for instance. I would probably not feel the need to have an extra layer on top of vimium otherwise.

andyzg 9y ago
I agree, we're aiming to optimize for the most popular websites first. No plans for supporting ALL websites.