The argument in one line.
Repetitive multi-step DaVinci Resolve actions — adding an effect, trimming to the playhead, inserting a title — can be collapsed into a single keyboard shortcut or mouse-button combo using free automation software, and a purpose-built plugin removes the need to write or understand the underlying code.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You edit video in DaVinci Resolve on a Mac and repeat the same 3-6 click sequence dozens of times per project (adding adjustment clips, blur effects, trims).
- You're comfortable installing a small free utility app and dragging files into a folder, even if you've never touched Lua or scripting before.
- You already use a mouse with extra programmable buttons, or are willing to get one, since several of the fastest macros are mouse-triggered.
- You're curious about macro/automation tools (Hammerspoon, Keyboard Maestro, AutoHotkey) but want a guided first setup rather than reading raw documentation.
SKIP IF…
- You edit on Windows — Hammerspoon is Mac-only (the video points Windows editors to a separate AutoHotkey tutorial).
- You're on DaVinci Resolve's free edition — the macro-builder plugin requires the paid Studio version because Blackmagic restricts scripting access on free.
- You're not using DaVinci Resolve at all — the macro templates are hardcoded to Resolve's search-effects bar and keyboard shortcuts.
The full version, fast.
A DaVinci Resolve editor demonstrates Hammerspoon, a free Mac automation app, as a way to compress repetitive editing actions into single keyboard or mouse-button triggers. He installs it, drops in his free Lua macro templates (adjustment clips, blade cuts, Gaussian blur, ripple trims, playhead-to-cursor), and explains how each macro's action sequence maps to Resolve's keyboard-customization settings. The second half demos his own no-code plugin: a form inside Resolve that builds new macros for effects, titles, or fully custom mouse/keyboard sequences without touching Lua code directly. The takeaway is that any multi-click Resolve action that repeats constantly is a candidate for a one-key macro, and a visual builder can generate the scripting for you.
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00:00 – 01:48
01 · Intro
Greg introduces himself, his main channel (Greg Edits Video), and frames this second-channel video as an in-depth follow-up tutorial to macros for editing faster.
01:48 – 03:59
02 · What are macros?
Defines a macro as a saved multi-step action fired by one trigger, and introduces the three competing apps: Hammerspoon (Mac, free), Keyboard Maestro (Mac, paid), AutoHotkey (Windows, free).
03:59 – 04:53
03 · Install & setup Hammerspoon
Downloads Hammerspoon from hammerspoon.org, drags it to Applications, and grants macOS accessibility permissions via Hammerspoon's preferences.
04:53 – 08:32
04 · What's in the free download
Tours the downloaded folder: per-app macro folders, the DaVinci-version-specific general macro templates, the presets-template macros, the init.lua file, and the macro-builder plugin folder.
08:32 – 12:24
05 · Setting up the general macros template
Navigates to the Hammerspoon config folder via Finder's Go To Folder, copies in the three template files, and explains how init.lua wires the other two files together.
12:24 – 16:52
06 · Adjustment Clip macro
Walks the first macro in full: snap playhead to cursor, open search-effects, type 'adjustment clip', select it, add it, snap playhead back — mapped line-by-line to the Lua code and to DaVinci's keyboard-customization settings.
16:52 – 18:22
07 · Blade Cut at Cursor macro
A single-key macro that toggles blade mode, clicks to cut, and returns to selection mode — letting the editor cut without first clicking the clip.
18:22 – 19:19
08 · Gaussian Blur macro
The simplest macro pattern (search, type, down, enter) applied to adding an effect to an already-selected clip via control+B.
19:19 – 20:36
09 · Playhead to Cursor macro
A mouse-button-triggered macro (control+middle-click) that fires the same playhead-snap command used inside other macros, standalone.
20:36 – 21:13
10 · Ripple Delete macro
Control+shift+middle-click sends Resolve's ripple-delete shortcut (shift+backspace) to delete a clip and close the gap.
21:13 – 23:37
11 · Trim macros (4 variants)
Covers trim-end-without-ripple, trim-end-with-ripple, trim-start-without-ripple, and trim-start-with-ripple, each bound to a different modifier+middle-click combo mapped to Resolve's bracket-key trim shortcuts.
23:37 – 26:08
12 · Macro Builder plugin intro
Introduces the free no-code plugin (Studio-only), installed into Resolve's own Fusion Scripts/Utility folder and launched from Resolve's Workspace menu.
26:08 – 29:49
13 · Building macros with the plugin
Demos creating an effects/transitions macro (Glow Pro on ctrl+shift+G), a titles/generators macro (Easy Lines on cmd+opt+middle-click), and explains the Resolve-21 down-arrow checkbox toggle.
29:49 – 34:48
14 · Custom macro builder (Circle Power Window)
Builds a fully custom macro from scratch: record cursor position, click the Windows tab at fixed screen coordinates (captured via Cmd+Shift+4), click to add a circle power window, recall the original cursor position.
34:48 – 37:05
15 · Other custom-macro options
Runs through additional builder options: keyboard-only shortcuts (e.g. cmd+A + delete), numpad key support, type-text steps, and handling duplicate-named effects with extra down-arrow steps.
37:05 – 38:33
16 · Building & testing the new macros
Hits 'Build All Macros,' reloads Hammerspoon's config, and tests all three newly created macros live inside DaVinci Resolve (effect, generator, color-page power window).
38:33 – 41:01
17 · Preset macros & sign-off
Shows 13 additional macros built specifically for his paid Essentials Preset Pack, flags the transition-snaps-to-nearest-edit-point Resolve quirk, and closes with a pitch for the preset pack.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A macro is just a saved sequence of keystrokes and clicks fired by one trigger — a 4-step 'add Gaussian blur' action becomes a single keypress.
- Hammerspoon is free and Mac-only; Keyboard Maestro is a paid Mac alternative; AutoHotkey is the free Windows equivalent.
- DaVinci Resolve's Mouse Pointer Shortcut and Search Effects features (both added in the Resolve 20.1 update) are the two commands almost every macro in this system depends on.
- Macros should be checked against your own DaVinci keyboard-customization settings first, since a macro assumes default shortcuts and silently breaks if you've remapped anything.
- DaVinci Resolve 21 auto-selects the top result in the effects search dropdown, which means older macros built around a 'down arrow then enter' sequence must drop the down-arrow step or they'll pick the wrong effect.
- A single macro can move the playhead before and after an action (e.g., snap to cursor, add a title, snap back to the title's start) purely to skip a manual repositioning step editors do out of habit.
- Ripple-trim and non-ripple-trim are separate macros because they map to different Resolve keyboard shortcuts (shift+bracket vs. shift+command+bracket), not different code logic.
- Adding a pause (e.g. 0.1 seconds) between macro steps fixes mis-fires that happen when Resolve's UI hasn't visually caught up to a rapid-fire click sequence.
- DaVinci Resolve always adds a transition to the clip nearest the playhead, not the clip you've selected — a documented Resolve quirk that breaks naive transition macros if the playhead and selection are in different places.
- A no-code macro-builder plugin (Lua script placed in Resolve's own Scripts/Utility folder) can generate the same macros a form UI, removing the need to hand-write Lua for the common effect/title/generator cases.
- The macro-builder's 'record/recall cursor position' feature lets a macro move the mouse to click multiple UI locations (e.g., a color-page power window) and then return the cursor to wherever the editor's hand actually was.
- Duplicate-named effects (e.g., three items all called the same title) require either extra down-arrow steps or exact-position handling, because the search bar always grabs from the top of the dropdown.
Any repeated multi-click editing action is a one-key macro waiting to happen
WHAT TO LEARN
The value isn't the specific software — it's recognizing that any sequence of clicks and keystrokes you repeat dozens of times a day can be collapsed into a single trigger, and that a visual builder can generate that automation without you writing code.
- A macro is nothing more than a saved sequence of keystrokes and clicks fired by one trigger — the automation layer sits on top of features the software already has, it doesn't add new capability.
- Always verify your own app's keyboard shortcuts before wiring a macro to them; a macro built around default shortcuts silently breaks the moment you've remapped anything.
- When an app updates its UI behavior (like a search dropdown auto-selecting the top result), every macro built around the old behavior needs a matching update — automation adds a maintenance cost, not just a speed gain.
- Adding deliberate short pauses between automated steps is a legitimate fix for race conditions where the interface hasn't visually caught up to a rapid input sequence.
- A 'record position, act, recall position' pattern lets an automated sequence interact with multiple points in an interface and still return control to wherever the human was working — useful for any multi-click automation, not just video editing.
- The most durable advice on adopting someone else's workflow tooling: use their setup to learn the system, then rebuild the triggers around what fits your own muscle memory, not theirs.
Terms worth knowing.
- Hammerspoon
- A free macOS automation app that runs Lua scripts to bind keyboard shortcuts and mouse-button combinations to sequences of simulated clicks and keystrokes.
- Macro
- A saved sequence of keystrokes and/or mouse actions that executes automatically when a single trigger (a key combo or mouse button) is pressed.
- Lua
- A lightweight scripting language; Hammerspoon macros and its config files are written in Lua.
- init.lua
- Hammerspoon's master settings file, loaded on startup, that also tells Hammerspoon which other macro-template files to load (via 'safe require' lines).
- Mouse Pointer Shortcut
- A DaVinci Resolve command (added in version 20.1) that snaps the timeline playhead to wherever the mouse cursor currently sits, without clicking.
- Search Effects
- DaVinci Resolve's in-timeline search bar (default trigger: shift+space) for typing an effect, title, generator, or transition name to add it directly, without browsing the effects library.
- Ripple trim/delete
- A trim or delete operation that also shifts every subsequent clip on the timeline to close the resulting gap, as opposed to leaving a blank space.
- Blade edit mode
- A DaVinci Resolve timeline mode where the cursor becomes a razor tool that cuts a clip at the click point, versus normal mode which selects/moves clips.
Things they pointed at.
00:00channelGreg Edits Video (main channel)
04:20toolKeyboard Maestro
04:22toolAutoHotKey
Lines you could clip.
16:42
“So the whole adjustment clip macro looks like this and this top bit is just my notes for you to see what the macro does and what the trigger is to activate it.”
32:45
“It's a much easier and quicker way of creating macros rather than having to do all of the coding inside of the Lua file.”
40:39
“My editing has sped up dramatically after I set these up. But I would highly encourage you not to just set these up how I have them, but set them up in the way that works for you.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
analogy
00:00In this video, I'm gonna show you exactly how to set up Hammerspoon to create macros to edit faster in DaVinci Resolve. And if this is your first time coming across me or this channel, then my name's Greg.
00:14I'm a professional video editor who's edited for worldwide brands like Rubix and YouTubers like Ed Lawrence from Filmbooth. And I run a YouTube channel called Greg Edits Video, which is all to do with how to edit faster, easier, and more professionally.
00:31This channel that you're watching right now is my second channel. It's called Greg edits extra, which is for more in-depth tutorials like this one.
00:40And one of the things that I always say in my videos is how much faster you can edit by using keyboard macros. So I created a whole instruction manual showing you how you can set up keyboard macros for three different programs, auto hotkey, keyboard maestro, and hammer spoon, along with my favorite macro templates and a DaVinci Resolve plugin that lets you create your own macros really easily and quickly.
01:07And I'm giving all of this away completely for free, and you can get it all in the description below. I made a whole video on my main YouTube channel about how I use these macros to speed up my editing and what these different apps are so that you can choose the right one for you. So I'd recommend going and watching that video, which I've put a link to in the description below, before watching this video as that video is basically the setup for this video.
01:33And then you can download my templates and the PDF and my DaVinci plugin and then come back and watch this video. So pause this video and check that out if you haven't already seen it.
01:44And if you have already seen it, then let's crack on with the tutorial. So a macro is a sequence of keystrokes and mouse clicks that can be triggered by just one keyboard shortcut. So for example, if you wanted to add a gaussian blur to your image, instead of hitting shift space, typing in Gaussian blur, hitting the down arrow, and then hitting enter, you could have a macro setup which is triggered by control b for example.
02:11And so you just hit control b and it does those four actions all in one go just like this. There's a few different apps that can do this, and Hammerspoon is one of them. Hammerspoon is a free app that only works on Mac, but there are other alternatives.
02:28There's also a paid app on Mac called Keyboard Maestro, and there's also a free app on Windows called AutoHotKey. I've made tutorials for both of these apps as well, so you can follow those videos instead if you prefer to use one of them.
02:42I'm not affiliated with any of these apps in any way. There's no affiliate links or anything like that. These are just the apps that I use and recommend.
02:52I'm giving away 22 of my most used macros that you can set up with any of these apps. So if you found this video on YouTube and haven't yet downloaded my shortcut templates, then you can use the link in the description below to do so.
03:06Along with the templates and tutorial videos, the download also includes PDF guides which walk you through how to set these macros up in whichever app you're using. So if you prefer to learn from a PDF, then check those out.
03:19And lastly, I've also made plugins for DaVinci Resolve that help you build these macros in the fastest possible way, so you don't need to learn exactly how to make them. This plugin will do it all for you.
03:32However, I would recommend following this video or the PDF just to understand how to do it yourself first, just so you know how it all works. This video is gonna be split up into four sections. How to set up Hammerspoon, how to import and use my general macros template, how to create your own macros with my free plugin, and how to import and use macros for my presets.
03:56So let's begin with setting up Hammerspoon. To start, you'll need to head to the Hammerspoon website. The link is in the PDF, but it's just www.hammerspoon.org.
04:08And then from here, you can click download at the top of the page, And then you want to download the latest version. So at the time of recording this, it's Hammerspoon one point one point one.
04:18So you can ignore these source code files. Just click on this one to download it. Next, unzip the zip file to reveal the Hammerspoon app, and then simply drag this app into your applications folder.
04:30Then run the Hammerspoon app and follow the prompts to enable accessibility access for the app. If you click on the Hammerspoon icon at the top here and open preferences, you'll either have this button grayed out with a green dot like mine, which means you've given it all of the accessibility permissions it needs, or you'll be able to press it and follow the on screen instructions.
04:51Now that you've got that set up, you can open up the folder that you've downloaded from me, and in here you'll see you've got different folders for the different apps I've made macros for. But since this video is for Hammerspoon, we're gonna open up the Hammerspoon folder. Inside of here, you'll see two more folders.
05:07One is called macro files and one is called build a script. The macro files contain the macro templates here. This is future Greg here.
05:16DaVinci Resolve recently released version 21, which meant that a couple of the macros have to be changed very slightly. So inside of the macro files folder, you'll now find two folders.
05:28One is called DaVinci Resolve version 21 plus, which is the macros for DaVinci Resolve version 21 and above. And then the other folder is called DaVinci Resolve versions before v 21, which has the versions of the macros for before DaVinci Resolve 21. So just pick whichever one matches the DaVinci version that you're currently on.
05:49You've got the general templates, which is some of my most used macros that I use for editing. And you've got the Greg's presets templates macros. Which are macros for quickly adding my DaVinci Resolve presets to the timeline.
06:02But you can modify these for any effects, titles, generators, and transitions. And you've also got this init dot lua file, which is basically like a master settings file.
06:12Over in the builder script folder, we've got the Hammerspoon macro builder. This is the plugin that I mentioned earlier, which is a quick way of creating macros without having to touch any code. But for now, we're gonna start off with the general macros file.
06:27Once you've installed Hammerspoon, you'll need to navigate to the folder where your Hammerspoon scripts live. The easiest way to do this is by opening up your finder and then hitting the keyboard shortcut shift command g.
06:39This will open up the go to folder search bar like this. Next, you'll need to type this command into the search bar, but change the name in the middle for the correct name that your Mac user account is called. So whatever this name is here in your users folder is the one you need.
06:56I'll leave a link in the description below or you can follow along in the PDF. So I'll paste this in here and hit enter, and it takes me to the correct Hammerspoon folder.
07:06Inside of this folder, you might already have a init dot lua file and a spoons folder. If you already have it init dot lua file, you can delete it. Next, we're gonna need to copy my templates into this folder.
07:19So open up the Hammerspoon folder that you downloaded from me, copy these three files, and paste them into the Hammerspoon folder that we just navigated to. So here's exactly what these three files do and why we're putting them in this folder.
07:32Think of the init dot lua file as kind of like a settings file. This contains a bunch of settings that the other two files will follow. Like for example, only being able to trigger the keyboard shortcuts when you're actively using DaVinci Resolve, so you don't accidentally fire any of them when you're using a different program.
07:50This file also allows the other files to work. So if you right click on the init file and open it with the basic text edit app, you'll see that there's a bunch of Lua code in there. But if you scroll down to the very bottom, you'll see it says safe require general da Vinci template macros and safe require Greg's presets templates macros.
08:11So this is basically saying that it's allowing these two other files to work. So bear this in mind, if you were to create your own extra files, you would just have to add another line at the bottom of this file with your new files name in its place. And speaking of these two other files, these contain my macro templates, which you can either start using straight away or modify to your needs.
08:33So if you open up the general file in a text editor, you can see that it includes macros for keyboard triggered and mouse triggered shortcuts for general DaVinci Resolve use.
08:44And the Greg's presets file is macros for quickly adding my presets if you've already purchased and installed them. My presets can be found at gregeditsvideo.com.
08:55They include 21 time saving effects, generators, transitions, and titles.
09:01And these Hammerspoon macros will enable you to add them to your timeline in under a second. This is the fastest possible way to edit videos. So in order for Hammerspoon to work, these files have to be in this folder.
09:15If you were to delete them from here, then the macros won't do anything. So just make sure you leave them here. So next, we're gonna have a look inside of the general macros file and see what it's doing.
09:26You don't have to open up the file if you don't want to, but this information is just good to know if you want to make changes. And it's also good to check that the keyboard shortcuts aren't conflicting with any of your general DaVinci Resolve shortcuts. So once you've got Hammerspoon installed and you have these files in the correct folder, double click on the app so that you have this icon at the top of your screen, and then right click it and select reload config.
09:50This just makes sure that all of the files are running their latest versions, basically like a refresh button. If you want Hammerspoon to automatically start every time you turn your Mac on, right click on the Hammerspoon icon at the top of your screen, click preferences, and make sure launch Hammerspoon at login is ticked.
10:09Now, right click on the general da Vinci templates dot lua file in your folder and select open with and then text edit app. You might have to click on other and then select text edit app from the list if it doesn't come up. And now you're inside of the file.
10:26This is all Hammerspoon Lua code. I know it looks a bit daunting, but you only need to know some basic knowledge of this to be able to make changes.
10:35At the start of each macro, you will see a little section that starts and ends with this. This is not part of the macro code. It's just me leaving a note about what the following macro does and what the trigger of the macro is gonna be, like option a for example.
10:52I've set these macros up with the assumption that you don't have a mouse that has extra buttons on it like mine. So the middle mouse button will be the trigger for a few of them, but with different combinations of modifier keys like control, shift, option, and command. However, if you have a mouse with extra buttons, and I would definitely recommend getting one if you don't, then you should check out a video I did where I show how I have my mouse set up with those extra buttons.
11:18I'll leave a link to that in the description below or you can find it in the PDF. I use a lot of these shortcuts with the extra buttons on my mouse. So for example, I'll ripple cut the ends of clips with command middle mouse button and I'll ripple cut the start with holding down command and hitting this top button on my mouse.
11:35I'll add text by holding down command and hitting the side button or add a black solid color by holding down option and hitting the same button. It opens up so many possibilities, so I would highly recommend it if you can.
11:49Now we're gonna go through each macro one at a time and set them up to work with your DaVinci Resolve setup. Also, just a side note, you absolutely do not have to set these up in the exact same way that I show in this video. The whole point of this is just to get you to a point where you can set things up for yourself and edit in the way that works best for you and your workflow.
12:11So one thing to remember with all of these macros is that the keyboard shortcuts that I've set up for them might conflict with yours if you've ever changed the default DaVinci shortcuts. So always double check that before you test them. So let's start with this macro here, adjustment clip.
12:27This macro is gonna add an adjustment clip straight to your cursor on your timeline by doing these six actions. First, it's gonna press the c key. This brings the playhead to the cursor position.
12:40Next, it's gonna press shift space, which opens the search bar. Then it's gonna type adjustment clip, which types adjustment clip, funny enough, into the search bar.
12:52Then it's gonna press down arrow to select adjustment clip in the drop down. But if you're using the macros for DaVinci Resolve version 21, then it won't have this down arrow because in this version of Resolve, it automatically selects the top name in the drop down menu.
13:07So the down arrow is not needed because it would then select the second one down, which we don't want. Then it presses enter which adds the adjustment clip to your timeline before lastly pressing c to bring the playhead back to the start of the clip. You can use the system for this macro to set up your own macros to add any titles or generators to your timeline.
13:28So when you add a title or a generator into DaVinci using the search effects box, it will move the playhead to the end of that title. I don't really like this because I always end up moving the playhead back to the start of the title so I can view it straight away.
13:42That's why I have it move the playhead at the start and the end of the macro. So it will add the title or generator directly to my mouse and then move the playhead to the start of the clip. This of course comes down to personal preference.
13:56So if you don't like that, then you can simply delete the c commands at the start and the end of the macro. It won't break it.
14:03So the whole adjustment clip macro looks like this and this top bit is just my notes for you to see what the macro does and what the trigger is to activate it, which in this case is option a. The first line is showing what the keyboard shortcut is to trigger the macro. In this case, it's alt which means the option key and then a, so option a is the trigger.
14:25And you can change this to any modifier key and any letter or symbol. So you can change this to shift or c m d for command or c t r l for control, but I'm just gonna leave it as alt for this demo. Then underneath that is each action of the macro in order from top to bottom.
14:44So you can see that it's gonna start off by tapping the letter c, which will activate the mouse pointer shortcut. This is gonna move the playhead directly to your mouse's location. The mouse pointer shortcut was added to DaVinci Resolve in the twenty point one update, And you can find it by opening up DaVinci Resolve and then open up the keyboard customization menu, which you can find in the top left corner of your screen here.
15:09And then inside of this menu, under all commands, click on playback and then go to, and then find the mouse pointer shortcut. Make sure this is set to c like this. After it's typed c, the macro is then gonna tap shift space, which is the keyboard shortcut for search effects.
15:28You'll need to double check that this is doing what it should be doing in the keyboard customization menu as well. So open that up in DaVinci, under all commands, click on edit, and then scroll down to search effects, and make sure that's set to shift space like this.
15:44The search effects feature is also one that was added in the twenty point one DaVinci update. Next, it's gonna type adjustment clip into the search bar. And under that, you can see it says HS timer u sleep 5,000.
15:59This just means that it's gonna do a very small pause before going on to the next part of the macro. You can add these pauses anywhere and also make them longer if you need to troubleshoot anything. The bigger the number, the longer the pause will be.
16:13After this, it then taps the down arrow to highlight it and then taps the enter or return key to select it, which adds the adjustment clip to your timeline. The last thing this macro does is it hits the c key again to move the cursor back to the start of the clip, so you don't have to manually move it back to the start. And this all happens in a split second.
16:35So if I come to my timeline here and hold down the option key and press a, it gets added to my timeline instantly. And you can see it'll always be added exactly where my cursor is. And that's the first macro.
16:48Once you understand this one, the rest of the macros will be a lot easier to understand. The second macro is blade cut at cursor location. This macro is gonna make a cut at the exact position of your playhead without having to left click to select the clip first.
17:04I have the trigger for this macro set up as this key on my keyboard. On my keyboard, this key is just above my tab button, so it's really easy for me to press. And now I have muscle memory from pressing it so many times that I can instantly press it with ease now.
17:19But you might not have this key on your keyboard, so I would recommend setting the trigger for this to something else on your keyboard if you don't have it. But just make sure it's not something that you would type in text boxes like letters or numbers for example.
17:31Otherwise, it will get triggered when you're typing. If you want to change the trigger to a different key, just simply change this key to something else like this. So what's basically happening in this macro is it's activating blade edit mode, which turns the cursor into a razor.
17:48It's then left clicking to make the cut and then switching back to the normal selection mode. Your da Vinci keyboard shortcuts to activate those two modes are likely to be the default b and a keys, unless you've previously changed them of course.
18:02So just check this in the da Vinci keyboard customization menu. Search for blade edit mode and make sure it's set to b, then search normal edit mode and make sure that's set to a. And then hover your mouse over a clip and without having to left click it first, just press the trigger that you set up and it will make a cut exactly where your cursor is.
18:23Now let's move on to the third macro called gaussian blur. This macro will add the gaussian blur effects to your selected clip just by hitting control b. So as you can see here, it says it's triggered by control b.
18:36And then below this, can see the four actions it's gonna do. It's gonna hit shift space, type in gaussian blur, hit down, and then hit enter. So this one's exactly the same as the adjustment clip one, but just without moving the playhead to the cursor.
18:53So again, this macro will hit shift space like this, type in the effect name, hit the down arrow, and then hit enter to add it to the selected clip, and it will do all of this within a split second like this.
19:07I've got loads of effects and transitions set up like this and lots of titles and generators set up with the adjustment clip method. And later on, I'll show you some of them that I've got set up with my presets. This next macro is a really simple one.
19:21It's just gonna bring the play head to your cursor. So the trigger for this one is control middle mouse button, meaning you would hold the control modifier key down and then press the middle mouse button and it will then activate this macro.
19:34And as you can see, this macro looks slightly different. This is because the trigger for this one includes the middle mouse button.
19:41So it has local playhead to cursor watcher equals bind modified mouse mouse l m resolve control two function brackets at the start to indicate that the control modifier needs to be held down and the two is for the middle mouse button.
19:58And then at the end of the macro, it needs to have play head to cursor watcher start bracket for the middle mouse button trigger to work. Everything else in between is the same as normal, which in this case is just tapping the letter c.
20:11We already set up the mouse pointer shortcut with the letter c in the adjustment clip macro. So this is just using what we already have set up there. This macro will then fire the c key and that's it.
20:23So now you can move your mouse to anywhere on the timeline. Hold down the control modifier and hit the middle mouse button and the playhead will jump straight to the cursor, which I find much more useful than having to press the c key on my keyboard. The next macro is ripple delete.
20:39This is a quick way of using your middle mouse button to ripple delete clips instead of having to use your keyboard. The trigger for this one is control shift middle mouse button. So all you have to do here is check-in DaVinci's keyboard customization menu that ripple delete is set to shift backspace.
20:57And then you'll see in the Hammerspoon file, it's just gonna send that shift backspace command. So you can select your clip, hold down control and shift, and press the middle mouse button, and it will ripple delete that clip, meaning that the rest of the timeline moves to the left by the amount that was deleted. The last four templates are all to do with being able to quickly trim your footage.
21:18So firstly, we have trim end to cursor without ripple. This is gonna trim the end of a clip straight to your cursor's location without having to even select the clip first. And the trigger for this one is option command middle mouse button.
21:33So the only thing to check for this one is that trim end is set to shift right square bracket. And while you're here, you might as well check the other three shortcuts as well. So make sure that trim star is set to shift left square bracket, and make sure enter playhead is set to shift command right square bracket and start to playhead is set to shift command left square bracket.
21:56Now that's sorted, you can see that on the macro, the first thing it's gonna do is left click and then it's gonna hit c to bring the playhead to the cursor. And then it's gonna do that shift right square bracket shortcut to trim the end of the clip off.
22:11So all in one go, it looks like this. And you can go around chopping the ends of clips off with ease just like this. And then the next macro is trim end to cursor with the ripple.
22:21And this is the same as the last one except it's gonna ripple trim instead of just trimming the end off. So it will look like this. The trigger for this is command middle mouse button.
22:31And again, it's gonna left click, hit c, and then do the shift command right square bracket shortcut to activate the enter play head shortcut in DaVinci. So it looks like this. This one is probably my most used macro when I'm cutting up a roll along with blade at cursor.
22:49It's just such a quick way of cutting footage up. The next macro is trim start to cursor without ripple. So this is exactly the same as the trim end without ripple, except it's chopping off the start of the clip instead of the end.
23:03And we've already set up the trim start shortcut in DaVinci, so we can just hold down control and option and then hit the middle mouse button and it will chop off the start of clips. And then the last macro is trim start to cursor with ripple. So again, this is the same as the previous one, but this time it's gonna cut the start of the clip off and ripple it down the timeline like this.
23:25We've already set up the start to play head command, so if you hold down the option key and hit the middle mouse button, it will chop off the start of the clip and ripple it down the timeline just like this. And that's the nine general macros complete. Now it's time to walk you through how to use my free plugin to create your own macros.
23:43Just bear in mind that this plugin only works if you're using the page studio version of DaVinci Resolve as they've blocked off this type of scripting for the free version annoyingly. In the build a script folder, you'll find this file here called Hammerspoon macro builder dot Lua.
23:59This is gonna live in your DaVinci Resolve scripts folder, so it can be found inside of DaVinci Resolve in this menu here. To do this, you'll need to open up your finder, do the keyboard shortcut shift command g, and then this will open up the go to folder bar. Delete anything that's in there if there's already a path there, and then you need to paste in this path.
24:19I'll leave this in the description below so you can just copy and paste it in, and then once that's pasted hit enter. So now copy the macro builder Lua file and paste it into this utility folder. Now in DaVinci Resolve, you should see this script here and then just left click it to open it up.
24:37This is my Hammerspoon macro builder. So this is used to create macros for adding effects, transitions, titles, and generators, and it will either create a new Lua file in your Hammerspoon folder, or it will add an existing one.
24:53And you can also create your own completely custom macros in here as well. So at the top here, you can decide where you want to save this file. So hopefully, it will have already defaulted to your Hammerspoon folder location.
25:05But if not, then you can hit browse and use the shift command g shortcut to open the finder search bar again and then put in your folder structure like before and hit open. And then on this drop down, you can either pick to create a new file which will create a brand new Lua file, or you can add it to an existing file if you like.
25:24So if there's already a file in that folder, then you can click on this drop down menu and select that file. This will then add these macros onto that existing file. So if I was to add to this existing file, then the new macros I created would appear at the bottom here.
25:39And if I create a new file, then it will add the name of that new file automatically to the init Lua file. But I'm just gonna leave it to create a new file for this demo.
25:48And then you can put in your file name here. So mine's gonna be Greg's demo templates. Next, you can pick the category.
25:55So you've either got effects and transitions, titles and generators, or custom macro.
26:01The effects and transitions and titles and generators options are basically my templates for adding these things. So the effects and transitions are gonna use the Gaussian blur template from earlier. So you would use this for adding effects or transitions because you wouldn't need the playhead to move to your cursor.
26:17You would just select your clip and then run this macro to add it. And the titles and generators are gonna use the adjustment layer template from earlier where it moves the playhead to the cursor at the start and the end of the macro and adds either your title or generator to the timeline. Future Greg here again, I've now also included this little checkbox on the macro builder.
26:39So if you're using DaVinci Resolve 21 and above, then make sure to tick this. If not, then leave it unticked as this will basically either use the template which includes the down arrow for before '21 or the template that doesn't have the down arrow for version 21 and above.
26:56The custom macro option is where you can create a complete custom macro with loads of different options in there, but I'll get to that in a little bit. So for my first macro, I'll keep it as effects and transitions.
27:09Then you need to write in the exact name of your macro. So if I just open up my effects tab here and open up the effects from my preset pack, let's say I want it to be the glow pro effect for example, I'll just type in glow pro here exactly how it is on the effect.
27:26If it's any different like this, then it won't work because the word here is what's gonna be typed into the search bar on the timeline. So it has to be exactly correct. Then you can pick if you want it to be triggered by a keyboard shortcut or with your middle mouse button.
27:42So for this one, I'll keep it as a keyboard shortcut and I'll type g in the box here. If your keyboard has a numpad on it and you wanted to use one of the keys from that, then you would type that in here. So I'm going to use numpad five for example, and then you would tick this checkbox here.
27:57So it knows you mean numpad five and not just a regular five. But for Glow Pro, I'm just gonna use g and then you can select which modifiers you want to use. So I'm going to go with control and shift.
28:09So this means that when I hit control shift g, it's gonna add the Glow Pro effect to my selected clip. So now I'll hit add to add to list, and that's now showing down here. Next, we'll do another one.
28:20So this time we'll do a generator. So we'll select titles and generators, type in easy lines, this is one of my generator presets in my pack, and then set the trigger to middle mouse button and the modifiers to command and option, and then add it to the list.
28:37Lastly, let's do a custom macro. So now that I've selected custom macro, you'll see that the exact name box is gone, and it's replaced with this create sequence button.
28:47And if you click on this, it will pop up with this box. This is where we're gonna build a completely custom macro that will fit whatever you need to do for your circumstance. So let's say we're on the color page and we like to use power windows.
29:02So normally, we would have to come up to the power window and then click on the circle window to add it. But if this is something that you're doing a lot, then you can save those clicks by having a keyboard shortcut do it for you. So at the top it says macro name.
29:15This isn't the same as before where you have to put in an effect's exact name. This is just so if you were to open up the Hammerspoon file, then you can see the name of this macro.
29:26So I'm gonna call this circle power window. Underneath that we have step one and this little drop down menu. So this is where we're gonna start building the macro.
29:34So step one will be the first action and then step two, the second action and so on. So if I open this up, you can see there's four options. Keyboard shortcut, pause, cursor, and type text.
29:48So for this macro, we want the mouse to click here and then click here. So we want to choose cursor.
29:54Now under cursor, you can see there's a few options. By default, it's set to left click and current position. So it will left click in the cursor's current position.
30:04But in here, can see there's a few options. We've got left click, right click, move cursor, and record slash recall position.
30:14So left click and right click are self explanatory, and move cursor is just gonna move the cursor without clicking it. And then what record and recall will do is basically if you're doing a macro where the mouse is moving around, but you want the mouse to then come back to the original position that it started in, then you would use this.
30:33And then you would put record at the very start of your macro, and then you would put recall at the very end because it's recalling the position that you recorded at the start. And you can see by this green text here that record is the one that is currently selected, or you can click recall and it changes it like that. But for this macro, want the mouse to move here, then here, and then back to the original position that the mouse was in.
30:57So I'm gonna hit record to record the position of the mouse when the macro gets activated. Next, we want the mouse to click on the Windows tab. Now the handy thing about DaVinci Resolve is that this Windows tab is nearly always gonna be in the exact same position.
31:13So if we set the mouse to click here, then we know it's always gonna be the Windows tab. So to add another step to the macro, we just hit add step.
31:22And now we have step two here. So I can come down to the cursor, keep it on left click, and then use this bottom drop down menu here to see these options.
31:32We can either click at the current position, move the cursor to specific coordinates on the screen, or we can offset by current position. So offset by current position basically means if your cursor is here, you can move it by a certain amount of pixels on the y or the x axis.
31:49So y being up and down and x being left and right. So if I type in 10 on the 10 axis, it will move 10 pixels to the right. And if I change this to minus 10, it would move 10 pixels to the left.
32:03With the y axis, 10 would be down and minus 10 would be up. And on computer screens, zero zero is the top left of the screen.
32:12So you've got zero to however many on the x axis up here and then zero to however many on the y axis down here, which leads us onto screen coordinates. This is where you can move the mouse to any specific coordinates on the screen.
32:27And luckily for us, on a Mac, it's really easy to get coordinates. All you have to do is hit shift command four and it will bring this up. This is normally used for taking screenshots of things, but it's also really handy for getting coordinates.
32:42So I'm gonna hit shift command four, bring my cursor over here, and I can see that the power window is six three zero on the x axis and six six four on the y axis. So I would type six thirty in the x box and six six four in the y box.
32:59And now we want it to click on the circle window here, so we'll add another step and go for the screen coordinates again. Use shift command four to grab the correct coordinates which are 45And822. And then after it's clicked here, we want it to go back to the starting position again.
33:16So we'll add another step. And with this UI box, I wasn't able to have it all on one scrollable page. So every three steps, it will create an extra page like this, which you can just go back and forth between with these buttons here.
33:29So on step four, we're gonna choose cursor again, and then record and recall, and then select recall. So this is gonna record the mouse's position at the time of running this macro.
33:39Left click here, left click here, and then move the mouse back to the original position. And that's it.
33:46The only thing you might have to do is sometimes add a pause in between mouse clicks. So I'm just gonna click add step here purely just to show you the pause option. So you can see here there's a box called seconds, and here you can type in the amount of seconds you want the macro to pause for.
34:02So one would be one second, meaning it would do the action before it, stop for a second, and then carry on with the macro. Or you can type in 0.1.
34:11So this would pause for zero point one of a second. So it just pauses for a split second, which is normally enough. It's just because sometimes the clicks will happen so fast that the screen hasn't actually caught up in time from the next click, and then it might look like it's missed something.
34:26So it might click here and then click here before the window menu has even come up. So that's just something to bear in mind. And as a good general rule for your macros, if you're having any issues with any of your custom macros, just add some pauses in between each action and you'll be able to see where it's going wrong.
34:43Because otherwise, everything's just going too fast for you to see. Alright. So I'm just gonna delete this pause at the end and then hit save sequence to save it.
34:52And then I'm gonna give it a keyboard shortcut like control shift w, w for window, and then add it to the list. So just to remind you, we've got one macro using the effects and transitions template, one using the titles and generators template, and one using the custom macro template.
35:11And you can add as many as you like to this list. And then when you're done, just hit build all macros. This should then pop up saying macro build successful.
35:21And then you can either open the folder where the file is or you can just hit close. So if I open the folder, I can see my new file here.
35:30And then if I open this up, I can see that these macros have been created exactly how I want them. So I can come to the Hammerspoon icon, right click it, and hit reload config. And now inside of DaVinci Resolve, I can select this clip and hit control shift g, and it's added my glow pro effect.
35:47And then if I hit command option middle mouse button, it's now added easy lines to my timeline. And then if I come to the color page and hit control shift w, it adds the circle power window onto my selected node like this.
36:01And I've now got these shortcuts set up to use whenever I want. It's a much easier and quicker way of creating macros rather than having to do all of the coding inside of the Lua file. You can just use this plug in and it does all of the hard work for you.
36:16And the custom macro part also has a few other options, So let me just run through this with you quickly. So inside of the keyboard shortcuts option, you've got the option for it to add a normal keyboard shortcut.
36:28So for example, I could set this to command a, and then this would do command a, which is select all on the timeline like this. And then if I add another step inside of this key drop down, you've got some other options. So you can do a space bar, you can do the enter key, delete, and then the up, down, left, and right arrows.
36:48So if I select delete and didn't add any modifiers to it, then this macro would essentially select everything on the timeline with command a and then delete it all. Bit of a risky macro to have, so I might not recommend that one. But you can see what it's doing.
37:03And then you've got pause and cursor, which I showed you earlier, and then type text at the bottom. So this is gonna type in whatever text you put in here.
37:12So for example, we could recreate what my effects and transitions template already do, which would be a space bar with the shift modifier and then typing in the name of an effect like this, and then doing a small pause for zero point zero zero five of a second, but it's just needed between the typing and the next action, which is going to be a down arrow and then it ends with hitting enter.
37:35So that's an example of building out a custom macro. But obviously, if you're adding effects and titles, then you would just use my templates over here instead.
37:44But I just thought it would be handy to show you that. One thing to watch out for is if you have multiple effects with the same name. So if I type in Greg edits title, these are some titles that I use for my YouTube channel that are branded to me.
37:56But you can see that the Greg edits title is actually the third one down. So if I was to run this preset, it would actually add this top one here as it does one down arrow and then hit enter. So if that happens with any of yours, just go into the Hammerspoon file and copy and paste the down arrow to the amount of them that you need.
38:15So for this one, I'll have three down arrows so that it selects the third one down. Or you could create the macro like I just did with the custom one and add three down arrow steps like this. Either way works.
38:28So the next part of this tutorial is setting up the macro templates for some of my presets in my essentials preset pack. I've got a pack of 21 time saving effects, generators, titles, and transitions that are all designed to make editing easier and make your edits look better while saving tons of time.
38:47So if you wanna check those out, then head over to greg edits video dot com and check them out there. I have all of my presets set up to keyboard shortcuts so I can add them to my timeline instantly. If I wanna animate something, I'll hit control shift a to add my animate a to b preset, then set my a and b controls and it's done.
39:07If I want to animate something in, I'll just hit alt shift t to add in my in and out transitions preset. Select scale in, and it's done. It scales in just like this.
39:18Or I can have it slide in instead. It's so easy. I've included 13 macros for some of my presets here.
39:25So if you have my pack installed, keep this file in your Hammerspoon folder here. So these all follow the same sequences as I showed you earlier with the Gaussian blur and the adjustment clip.
39:35All of the effects and transitions will add to the selected clip, and all of the titles and generators will add to the cursor's position. If you have a look at the PDF, that will go through what the trigger is for each of these macros and also what these individual presets do.
39:50Or you can simply go through them one by one here and see what the triggers are, and then you can use my app to add more of them as well. One thing I will point out is that when adding transitions using the search bar in DaVinci Resolve, it will add the transition to the nearest edit point to the playhead, not the clip you've selected.
40:08So if you selected this clip here, but the play head is all the way over here, then it will add the transition to this clip over here. And if you have multiple edit points on top of each other like this, it will always add it to the bottom one.
40:22This is something that I'm not able to get around and I'm hoping that DaVinci will just fix this in a future update because I don't think that it should work like that. But that's just something to bear in mind. So I hope you find tons of use out of these macros.
40:34My editing has sped up dramatically after I set these up. But I would highly encourage you not to just set these up how I have them, but set them up in the way that works for you.
40:45And if you want to speed up your editing even further, then head over to my website and check out my essentials preset pack. All 21 presets are built to save time and make editing easier.
40:57I honestly don't know where I'd be without them.
Named ideas worth stealing.
12:24model
The macro anatomy (trigger + action sequence)
- Trigger line (modifier + key/mouse button)
- Ordered action steps (keystroke, pause, click, or text)
- Optional pre/post playhead snap
Every Hammerspoon macro in the system follows the same shape: a one-line trigger declaration followed by a top-to-bottom list of simulated actions, with optional short pauses between steps for UI catch-up.
Steal forAny repetitive multi-click desktop workflow, not just DaVinci Resolve — the same trigger+steps model applies to any app with keyboard shortcuts.
26:08list
Four macro categories in the builder plugin
- Effects & Transitions (adds to selected clip)
- Titles & Generators (adds at playhead, with pre/post cursor snap)
- Custom macro (fully manual step builder)
- Preset macros (same templates, pointed at a specific paid preset pack)
The no-code builder buckets every macro into one of four templates so the user picks a category instead of writing logic.
Steal forDesigning any 'macro builder' UI — categorize by the underlying action pattern, not by what the button does cosmetically.
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
40:00product
“if you want to speed up your editing even further, then head over to my website and check out my essentials preset pack”
Soft, single CTA placed only at the very end after the full free tutorial is delivered — no mid-roll interruptions, and the free templates/plugin are given away in full before the paid pack is mentioned.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
