I absolutely love KeyBoard Maestro. Keyboard Maestro lets me automate just about anything that happens on my computer. I save incredible amounts of time using it to take care of many of my repetitive tasks. It’s well worth $36. If you’re not a Mac user, you’re out of luck.

I’ve published Keyboard Maestro scripts I use in tracking down scholarly information. As an aside A few folks told me the script I published specifically for Duke users didn’t work for them. I’ve updated it again. You can download the modified script here (for Dukies only). Once you’ve downloaded, import the script into KeyBoard Maestro (File:Import Macros…). It works for me, but let me know if you have trouble.

Unfortunately, I can’t always find full text articles at Duke. If not, my next goto site is Google Scholar. Since I do this so frequently, I decided to program a KeyBoard Maestro script.

Here is how it works:

Highlight any text (web page, PDF, Word Document, etc.) and hit Command-Shift-S
the script will copy the highlighted text
then it will launch Google Scholar (in Safari)
it will paste the copied text into the search field of the Google Scholar
and then submit the search.

A single key stroke does it all—automagically. I put a 2-second delay on pasting the clipboard into the search field. If text isn’t pasted into the text field, the load time probably took too long. You can either: 1. Go back to the original document and reinvoke the script, or 2. Just click in the Google Scholar Search box and paste (the script already has copied your text to the clipboard).

This macro works with any text I’ve highlighted, be it on the web, in the bibliography of a manuscript, or somewhere else.

You can download my Google Scholar script here. When you download the macro and before you import, you’ll have to remove the .txt at the end of the file (so it will be recognized as a Keyboard Maestro file).

Enjoy.

In my work at Duke University on simulation, games-based learning, and learning technology, I frequently read and write scientific information. I’ve developed a series of workflows to help me efficiently deal with information when writing papers and grants. In a previous entry I talked about how I try to batch operations, doing similar things at the same time. This entry will be about my workflow for reading scientific manuscripts.

I use Skim for scientific reading, typically using the bottom pane of the “Split PDF” feature to look at the title of references as I come across them in the body of the manuscript. On average, I’m interested in downloading about 10% of these references to my personal library.

Although I love Skim, one feature I have not been able to figure out is how to highlight items in the bottom split screen. Thus, I’ve created a workaround. Before I start reading an article in Skim, I create a note called “Get Manuscripts” As I’m reading, I merely record the references number of articles I want to fetch in my “Get References” note. Because I create this note first it’s always located at the top of my Skim Notes. When I’m done reading the current article and processing my annotations, I retrieve the supporting articles I identified while reading.

To do this, I use a phenomenal program called KeyBoard Maestro. Keyboard Maestro lets me type a single keyboard command to trigger an entire workflow. One by one, I work through my “Get References” numbers, highlighting the title of each corresponding article. After highlighting each title, Keyboard Maestro does the rest (invoked by Command-Option-R).

Keyboard Maestro automatically (1) copies my highlighted text, (2) surfs to the Duke Library literature search page, (3) pastes the text string into the appropriate field, and (4) submits the search. Thus, with a single key combination, I am able to download the full text of supporting literature. Once I find the full text I'm interested in (usually a PDF), I save it to my Download Folder, where Hazel takes over and imports the paper into my Papers Library.

If I'm not ready to retrieve the articles, I create an Omnifocus Action for each to be collected at a later time.

My macro is not limited to Skim, it works with any text I’ve highlighted, be it on the web, in a manuscript, or somewhere else. Here is a picture of the programming, but obviously, you’ll have to modify it for your own favorite full-text repository. Enjoy!

Maestro Automate Full Text Retrieval

Addendum (January 14, 2014): If you’re searching at Duke, you’ve probably noticed the library changed its search interface. I’ve updated the Keyboard Maestro Script accordingly. It’s only configured to search for peer-reviewed articles. Download the script and import it into Keyboard Maestro (will only work for Duke Libraries).