Author: apblanshard

Hey everyone,

Sorry it’s been a while! My plan was to move from posting once a month to once every two months to give myself a bit more time to make the videos and write the blog posts while still working full time. Unfortunately, the last three months have been busier than expected, so that didn’t quite happen. So, we’re going to give it another go. Hopefully, from now on I’ll be posting every two months.

Anyway, I’ve just uploaded a new tutorial showing how to use a macro I made that cleans up Avid group names by removing the camera letter and the default group suffix.

A lot of editors prefer group names without the camera letter, but removing it from every group soon gets tedious. While Avid’s Find and Replace can help in some situations, it isn’t reliable when you’re dealing with things like American slating, where there are other letters in the group name that you don’t want to remove. This macro lets you rename each group with a single shortcut, removing just the camera letter and Avid’s default group suffix while leaving everything else untouched.

You can watch the tutorial on the Formatting Avid Group Names Macro page. If you’d like to check out more of my macros, head over to the I’ve Got a Macro for That page, where you’ll also find a contact form if there’s something you’d like help building.

And if this is your first time importing a macro into Keyboard Maestro and you’re not sure what to do, I’ve put together a simple guide you can follow here.

I’m also thinking about making a follow-up version of this macro. After speaking to a few other assistants, it turns out that while some editors want the camera letter removed completely from group names, others prefer the group name to include the letters of every camera in the group. That’s not something I’ve come across on a job myself, but if it’s as common as removing the camera letter, I’ll see if I can make a macro for that too!

Hey everyone,

I’ve just uploaded a new tutorial showing how to use a simple macro I made that types out the date in a year month day format.

As assistants, we are constantly adding dates into folder, bin and sequence names. This macro is designed for those moments where your mind is in twenty million places at once and you suddenly draw a blank on what the date actually is. Instead of breaking your flow to check your phone, computer or calendar, you can just trigger the macro and it will type it out for you.

It’s a really simple setup that works anywhere, whether that’s Avid, Finder, or wherever you’re working. You can trigger it however you like and there’s no extra setup needed.

You can watch the tutorial on the YYMMDD Date Macro page. If you want to check out more of my macros, head over to the I’ve Got a Macro for That page, where you’ll also find a contact form if there’s something you’d like help building.

And if this is your first time importing a macro for Keyboard Maestro and you’re not sure what to do, I’ve put together a simple guide you can follow here.

Hey everyone,

I’ve just uploaded a new tutorial showing how to use my Paperwork Organiser macro. This one is designed to sort and back up everything that comes through during the dailies process.

It’s mainly built for lab delivered editorial packages, where ALEs, sound, H264s and department paperwork arrive inside structured folders. Instead of manually creating folders across multiple backup locations and copying everything yourself, the macro reads the folder names, matches them to keywords, and sends the contents to the right destinations in just a couple of clicks.

In the video, I explain why the macro reads folders rather than individual files, and how that makes it easier to use across different shows with different naming conventions. I also show how the macro can adapt to however you name your block subfolders, whether that’s “B1”, “Block 1”, or something else entirely, and what happens if a subfolder can’t be found.

I also cover some optional features, including automatically creating empty folders across all your backup locations so you only have to type the folder name once, adding extra blocks to the drop down menu, and switching the action from Copy to Move.

You can watch the full walkthrough on the Paperwork Organiser page. If you want to check out more of my macros, head over to the I’ve Got a Macro for That page, where you’ll also find a contact form if there’s something you’d like help building.

And if this is your first time importing a macro for Keyboard Maestro and you’re not sure what to do, I’ve put together a simple guide you can follow here.