stevecasper Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Now that I have started using Wait for Text Playback rather than delays or just assuming that the macro will complete the command before moving on (which was a false assumption, it turns out), I'm getting annoyed by just how often I have to hunt down Wait for Text Playback. Ok, so I only have to hunt it out once, and then just Copy the command, after I've finished building the macro, and paste it throughout where needed. Still, I think it would be logical to have a "Wait for Text Playback" checkbox within the Text Type Command window. Am I alone on this, or does anybody else think this would be a worthwhile addition? I'm going to sumbit the feature request anyway, but I thought I'd get a sounding from other posters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Cleveland Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Scasper, First, thanks for pointing out "Wait for Text Playback". I had not noticed that command. It may have been added in a later beta release. Yes, I feel it would be a nice addition to Text Type and other similar commands, particularly if I could set that as the default. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 How about using the Options->Customize Favorites menu choice to add it to your Favorites list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 How about using the Options->Customize Favorites menu choice to add it to your Favorites list? Steve: I have this in my Favourites list as Joe suggests. And also paired with a Wait in Snippets. But I think the current organisation of commands could be improved. It seems that for ME Pro the questionable decision was made to assign commands uniquely to just one category. In ME 3 some commands like Text Type and Keyboard Repeat Speed were repeated in several categories, like KEYBOARD, TEXT and TIMING. That was better IMO, because sometimes the thought process when accessing a command differs, depending on the situation. I might be thinking 'TEXT' one time and 'TIMING' another time. Nor am I happy with the unexpected loss of the TEXT category. Until I placed them in Favourites, I was initially sometimes hunting around for several commonplace commands like Text Type, Text Box Display, Wait for Text, Wait for Key Press, etc. So I'd like to see these and others duplicated, as in ME 3. If you agree, perhaps you could include that in your feature request please, or I'll raise a separate one. BTW, have you had any more interesting results since the discussion we had in http://pgmacros.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=3577 please? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acantor Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 I have taken a rather different approach to organizing commands. There are about 14 commands (or command categories) that I use regularly. These include: Text Type Repeat Mouse If Else etc. These fourteen cover about 95% of my needs. So over a period of a few hours, I created fourteen hotkey macros that directly activate the commands or command categories that I constantly use. As I access these commands all the time, I memorized the hotkeys quickly. Each macro navigates through the Scripting Editor user interface to insert the desired command, or to place focus in the desired category so that a command can be chosen by keyboard (or mouse, if you prefer). Of course, you can use any hotkeys you want, but for this set, I use Shift + Alt + something, e.g., Shift + Alt + T = Text Type Shift + Alt + R = Repeat Shift + Alt + M = Mouse Shift + Alt + I = If Else All macros have Scope = Window = Scripting Editor. All fourteen macros have two parts: 1. A set of commands that reliably puts focus at the start of the "All Commands" tree view. For the way that I have configured Macro Express, the key sequence is this: Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ALT>n Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <TAB> Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ARROW LEFT><ARROW LEFT><ARROW LEFT><ARROW LEFT><ARROW LEFT><ARROW LEFT> Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <TAB><TAB> Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): ca Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <TAB> I implemented the above as a macro nicknamed "Prepare to Search for Command" that all other scripts call: Macro Run: Prepare to Search for Command 2. The second part of the macro consists of specific keystrokes to activate the desired command, or navigate to a set of commands. I worked out the key sequences through a little trial-and-error experimentation. Undoubtedly there are more elegant ways, but here are examples of key sequences that work on my machine: "Text Type" (Command) Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): k<ARROW RIGHT>t<ENTER> "Repeat" (Category) Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): s<ARROW UP><ARROW RIGHT> Repeat Start (Repeat 6 times) Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ARROW DOWN> End Repeat "Mouse" (Category) Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): mo<ARROW RIGHT> Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN><ARROW DOWN> Obviously there are limits to this technique -- most people will not want to memorize dozens of hotkeys. But for the finite number of commands that I use constantly, I find this technique very convenient. It's using Macro Express to make it easier to use Macro Express! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevecasper Posted February 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Thanks for all the replies. Adding it to my favorites, or setting up a text-type/wait for playback snippet are options to keep me from having to hunt the playback out. Or even reorganizing my categories to have wait for playback next to text-type would be fine. My goal, however, was to clean up the scripting editor, so that instead of having some sections of macro that look like this: Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Wait for Text Playback Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Wait for Text Playback Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Wait for Text Playback Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Wait for Text Playback They would look like this: Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait This is an exaggeration, but it expresses the idea clearly. I submitted a feature request, and they're going to look into it; but it's obviously a low priority, which I'm fine with. Too many bugs to really worry about something cosmetic like this right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Thanks for all the replies. Adding it to my favorites, or setting up a text-type/wait for playback snippet are options to keep me from having to hunt the playback out. Or even reorganizing my categories to have wait for playback next to text-type would be fine. My goal, however, was to clean up the scripting editor, so that instead of having some sections of macro that look like this: <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="Type this and wait"/> <COMMENT Value="Some other commands"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="Type another line and wait again"/> <COMMENT Value="Some other commands"/> <MACRO RETURN/> Then I used Find/Replace, set to Regular Expressions, with the following strings in the Find and Replace boxes: FIND: (<TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text=)(.*) REPLACE WITH: \1\2\n<WAIT FOR TEXT PLAYBACK Indefinite="TRUE" Hours="0" Minutes="0" Seconds="0"/> The result in TextPad, and in ME Pro's Direc Editor after pasting it back in, is: <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="Type this and wait"/> <WAIT FOR TEXT PLAYBACK Indefinite="TRUE" Hours="0" Minutes="0" Seconds="0"/> <COMMENT Value="Some other commands"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="Type another line and wait again"/> <WAIT FOR TEXT PLAYBACK Indefinite="TRUE" Hours="0" Minutes="0" Seconds="0"/> <COMMENT Value="Some other commands"/> <MACRO RETURN/> And in the Script Editor I now have: Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type this and wait Wait for Text Playback // Some other commands Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): Type another line and wait again Wait for Text Playback // Some other commands Macro Return I agree with your suggestion of a checkbox to add this in automatically after individual Text Type commands. But meanwhile, whether the original macro contains 1 or 1000 text type commands, that few seconds work above could automatically add all the desired Wait commands. A simple macro could automate that simple task to make it even faster. I can't immediately think of any time I would not want to add a Wait, but if there were any then those Waits would have to be deleted afterwards, of course. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 Steve: Was my suggestion of any value in solving your problem? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevecasper Posted February 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Steve: Was my suggestion of any value in solving your problem? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Hey Terry, Sorry, I've been away from the forum for a while (work, sick kid, life, etc.). In theory, your suggestion is probably the best one for my particular situation. A lot of the solutions presented were good ones, in fact, and yours is by far the most convenient for the way I generally think and work. Frankly, in my opinion and based on my understanding, a command like "Wait for text playback" which doesn't appear to have any function outside of the Text Type command shouldn't even exist outside that command. Obviously, though, the foks at Insight are a bit more brilliant than me, and they certainly understand their own software better than I do, so I'm sure there are perfectly valid reasons for the command standing alone. Just a bit surprised that they didn't also incorporate it within the Text Type command itself. Certainly not complaining, of course, as I don't honestly know what I would do without Macro Express. It's a lovely program that has brought me hours of creative fun (seriously, I will sometimes play with ME at home just for fun... hours spent in front of the computer trying to build macros I will never have any use for just so I can show my wife "Hey honey, look how cool!" and watch her roll her eyes at me and call me a nerd... she's a Highschool math teacher and I'm the nerd?) And that's a ramble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floyd Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Frankly, in my opinion and based on my understanding, a command like "Wait for text playback" which doesn't appear to have any function outside of the Text Type command shouldn't even exist outside that command. It is probably like this for backwards compatibility. Over the years, Macro Express has morphed from a handful of commands to what we have now. In each new major release, the underlying file and command structure (the MEX file) has changed dramatically. But converting has always been easy because they attempt not to break anything by deprecating old commands. They may also feel that it is a command that users are used to having and did not want to rock the boat. Having a Wait for Text Playback checkbox in the Text Type command is a nice idea and you should suggest it if not having done so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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