Can I accomplish similar functionality to Windows Auto Hot Key (AHK) on macOS Sonoma?

Question

I switched recently to an Macbook Pro with an M3 Pro chip after using Windows for a lifetime. I am trying to make a a shortcut which can trigger many different actions and in my case all the actions lead to different text outputs.

For example by hitting Option and - the keyboard listens to the following inputs, so if I press the letter p it directly pastes specific text depending on what key I hit after using my hotkey. This wouldn't have been an issue for me on Windows since I used AutoHotkey (AHK) for Automation commands of this nature but now on mac I am struggling with the lightest tasks.

I already tried to get the job done with Apple's Automator and the Shortcuts app but the hotkeys don't even trigger, that's why I am trying to get help here. AppleScript etc. is completely new for me and I have no idea what to do in order to get the code that I want since I only know AHK for Automation.

Specific shortcut f.e. Option and Minus trigger the keyboard to listen to the next inputs like some specific selected letters. Pressing on each of them will paste different code. This mode can be exited by the same shortcut or different ones so that the keyboard can be used normally for texting again.

I am looking for any good alternatives for AHK which also have this freedom if being able to really customize the triggers and outputs.

How can I get this done on macos 14.2 without AHK?

Answer 1

It is not entirely clear what you are trying to accomplish, so this answer may be off the mark ...

I am not familiar with AutoHotkey, but perhaps Keyboard Maestro's conflict pallet would provide similar functionality?

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/Conflict_Palette

With Keyboard Maestro you can set up multiple macros with the same keyboard shortcuts, and a pallet will be displayed with options to select.

If on the other hand is all you are looking for it to paste predetermined text then a text expansion tool may be what you are looking for. I use Typinator, but there are others.

Answer 2

You can do this natively with the typing replacer in System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements…

I've used a clean Mac here to show you how it looks initially [my own has reams of these of varying complexity]. It gives you one for starters, if you type 'omw' followed by punctuation or a space, it will replace it with 'On my way!'

Rather than triggering with a separate key command, you just use the input 'word' itself. I use mnemonics, 'nc' [which stands for note card, which is how I used to store all these], 'k' for keyboard markdown, or 'my' for personal data, phone, email, snail mail address etc. This ensures my triggers are memorable, but don't exist as regular words I might type in other contexts.
You can type simple replacements directly into the pref pane; like an email address or a bit of markdown - eg 'kcmd' will generate <kbd> Cmd ⌘ </kbd> which in markdown will give Cmd ⌘ but if you need anything more complex, multi-line text etc, then it's easier to type it in TextEdit and copy paste across. Multi-line text doesn't show in the panel [because any Return character makes second & subsequent lines vanish from the one line input bar], but it does work as a replacement.

That way you could have 'ncmary' type:-

Mary had a little lamb 🐑
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went… etc, etc

It doesn't include font information etc, it uses plaintext - but can type emojis & complex Unicode too.
The trigger has to be a single 'word', no spaces, but can include most things alphanumeric, such as §123.