Keyboard shortcuts were often missed. For example, I tried this sequence many times.
0: (setup: text editor is scrolled to first line and cursor is at the beginning of the first line)
1: Click on text editor window to focus it.
2: press SHIFT-DownArrow to move cursor down one line and select the first line
3: press CMD-X to cut the line.
Automator never would capture those key strokes.
But today I has a break through. This sequence does work:
0: (setup: text editor is scrolled to bottom of the file and the cursor is placed below the last line.)
1: Click on text editor window to focus it.
2: press SHIFT-UpArror to move cursor up one line and select the last line.
3: press CMD-X to cut the line.
about 70% of the time this did get recorded correctly (I did maybe 3 recordings and one failed to select). Once it got recorded correctly it worked reliably.
So it seems to be able to capture some sequences but not others. Both sequences work very reliably when I type them but automator can only capture the last sequence.
Thanks for the suggestions. This tool is better than nothing but not anything I would recommend.