terrypin

This is driving me nuts! With a file open in a particular program, I send keystrokes to open another file (Ctl+o). The file browser dialog appears correctly and my TextType command then enters the name of the file wanted into the box. The next keystroke is Enter, which should simply OPEN that file. But instead it tries to SAVE the current file. No matter what Delays or Waits I put after the Enter, the problem remains. Anyone have any ideas on what might be happening here and how to fix it please? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Thanks kahamri. On reflection, you're right about having to keep it runing permanently - not satisfactory. The reason I hesitate to keep the driver running permanently is that it consumes about 3-4% CPU constantly. Also, its blue LEDs are not only a small waste of power but they constantly distract and tempt me to open Google Earth! -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

That sounds different to my requirement, Bob, and I'd have thought fairly easy. Can't you just make the first step of your macro (started by the hotkey) to test whether Program X is running. If it is, close it (send keys to it to do so). If it's not, open it (launch it). -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

No one with any experience of macros that start a program when another one starts please? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Could someone please advise how I can construct a macro which will start program X when I first start program A, and start program Y when I close program A? (For background, this is to let me start the driver for my new toy, a sort of joystick thingie that lets me navigate more easily in Google Earth. I've noticed that it consumes 4-5% of CPU even when I'm not using it, so I'd like it to run only when Google Earth is running. It came with two utilities, to start and stop the driver, so those are X and Y, and Google Earth is A.) -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Thanks Jason. -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Thanks John, appreciate the feedback. I too had to switch to activation by hotkey - but that's a poor second best in this case as there are several similar macros and shortkeys would be easier to remember. Anyone from MX Support or Development have any thoughts on this please? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Hi. Long time since I posted, although meanwhile I've been happily using MX 3.5 for many purposes. Puzzling over this new macro all morning, and hope someone can explain what might be happening please. The macro works perfectly if I give it a Hotkey or a Mouse activation - but behaves in bizarre fashion if I give it a Shortkey (and I tried several). If it helps, I use the prefix ## for my shortkeys. So I specified this one as 'ov1' (meaning 'Overlay 100%') and to activate it I type '##ov1'. What happens is that instead of the macro entering the various keys I want, it acts as if I've simply hit the Delete key! As you see from the paste below, Delete doesn't even appear in the macro. I have a lot of other macros activated by Shortkeys, and they work fine. However, none of those are for this particular application, Google Earth. So maybe the issue is related somehow to GE? BTW, I've tried a wide range of dealys and keystroke speeds, but no difference to result. If there are any GE users here who are curious or maybe want to try this macro, its operation is simple. With an Image Overlay entry selected, the macro opens its properties and moves its slider to the 100% position. I aim to write a couple more for 0% and 50% opacity respectively. // Set opacity of selected overlay to 100% Keystroke Speed: 10 Milliseconds Text Type: <ALTD><ENTER><ALTU> Delay 100 Milliseconds Text Type: <TAB><TAB><TAB> Text Type: <END> Delay 100 Milliseconds Text Type: <ENTER> Macro Stop <REM2:Set opacity of selected overlay to 100%><SPKEY:0010><TEXTTYPE:<ALTD><ENTER><ALTU>><MSD:100><TEXTTYPE:<TAB><TAB><TAB>><TEXTTYPE:<END>><MSD:100><TEXTTYPE:<ENTER>><MSTOP> (If the above doesn't get displayed in the optimum fashion, could someone remind me of the correct way please.) -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Duh! What a difference an * can make Thanks for replying so promptly - that kept me awake last night! (Yes, sad, I know...) -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Hope you're still around Paul? Any idea why I may be unable to get your interesting technique working please? I'm running XP Home (SP1) The registry key is: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Shell\Me Macro\command Its contents under '(Default)': "C:\Program Files\Macro Express3\MeProc.exe" /AContextMacro /VT1:%1 Location of MeProc on my HD: C:\Program Files\Macro Express3\MeProc.exe But nothing has been added to the r-click context menu of any file in a Windows folder. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Is that now actually correct? Shouldn't the full line be "C:\Program Files\Macro Express3\Meproc.exe" /AContextMacro /VT1:%1 not "C:\Program Files\Macro Express3\Meproc.exe" /AContextMacro /VT:%1 as you are saying? However, I've not got it working with either! Maybe I'll try rebooting... -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Thanks anyway. For the time being it's working OK - although I haven't yet implemented your alternative. All I did meanwhile was experimentally place the string into a variable and TextType that instead. Theoretically that shouldn't be any improvement, so I guess it's just a matter of time before the semicolon intrudes again. Yes please, I would be interested in learning more about practical web navigation tips. Any particular threads you can recommend? An initial search of this forum's archives gave me one potentially interesting macro at http://tinyurl.com/2xwsy9 From the acknowledgment of your contribution, I assume you're aware of it? If so, can you clarify one point about it please? Unless I'm mistaken, I don't see that it can possibly work with a LNK file, as claimed. Surely it should open a FILE to achieve that, not Open Folder? -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Yep, that's right. And sometimes displaces it a position or two as well. I'll try that alternative method, thanks. I've so far had very little joy with Controls. Very few of my applications seem to work with it. This particular macro enters a name in a web dialog, and Capture Control couldn't come up with anything useful. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Quite often I seem to get the semicolon ';' character when I try to enter a path like D:\whatever. For example, these commands Keystroke Speed: 100 Milliseconds // Type filename Text Type: D:\Docs\Downloads\%T1%-sorted.kml are sometimes (not always) typing D;\Docs\Downloads... On other occasions, I've had results like D\D;ocs\etc. As you see, I've slowed the typing speed down to a painfully slow level already. Just when I think I've got it stabilised, up comes another corrupted result. Anyone have any suggestions please? -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

OK, sorry, didn't see that. I think I'd be inclined to bring an external application in to help. For example, I have a power utility (and macro-writing) program called Stiletto (now obsolete and replaced by PowerPro). With a click in a fixed place on a menu icon called Switch to Active, it displays a list of all program windows, and each can then be selected and activated. Or go down the route of getting the program names changed! -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

You're right. Just tried that with two identically named windows running and ME always activated the same one as you predicted. OK, how about something as crude as this. Ensure parts of both are always visible and in same relative positions on screen, and left click appropriately to get focus. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Couldn't you Activate each in turn and test (in one of many possible ways) for distinguishing characteristics. Then apply focus to just that window. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Thanks Jason, that fixed it. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

No, you're not doing anything wrong Alan. I get same behaviour here. Not sure which browser you have, but what I now do in Firefox is this: 1. Copy the name of the attached file to the clipboard 2. R-click the attachment link and choose Save Link As 3. Because the forum is geared to IE users, and doesn't fully support Firefox or other browsers, the name of the file about to download is for some reason always 'index.php'. So I immediately paste the correct name over that. 4. Continue in usual way to get the download, which is then in my folder with the right name. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Can't follow that one, sorry! Guess you'd need to post some code and explain more carefully if I was to have a chance of helping... -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

That's unusual, what are they called? Why is that? Are they both closed after every run, rather than simply losing focus or being minimised? If they are both still running, you can of course just use Activate Window. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

It might help to know the program's name. Definitely text? Your subject says 'Copy All In A Picture' I've found that's usually reliable. Does your program happen to use that particular hotkey itself? (I've come across a few that do.) Have you tried <CTRLD>a<CTRLU> ? Failing that, try to emulate the Shift+Control+End method of selecting everything with Text Type: <CTRLD><HOME><CTRLU><CTRLD><SHIFTD><END><SHIFTU><CTRLU> Also, try adding a Keystroke Speed command, with say 10 or 100 ms, although I doubt that's the cause. -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

ME (3.5e) seems to disable Power Options here. I've done several tests that appear fairly conclusive. For example, I set Control Panel > Power Options to switch off my monitor after 1 minute last night. That worked fine, providing ME is not running. With ME off, my monitor remained off all night, as usual. (And there are several backups that run overnight, via Scheduled Tasks.) But after switching ME on this morning, and doing nothing else, the monitor has remained on. No macros are scheduled, or set to run indefinitely. I'd appreciate other users checking this behaviour please. I run an Athlon 1800 512 MB PC under XP Home (SP1). -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Sorry, can't help you there. I just recalled seeing that page very recently and thought it might give you a promising basis to pursue. Also added it to my 'list of stuff to explore sometime' -- Terry, West Sussex, UK

Excel can read dBase (.DBF) files, so one approach might be to try the 'Excel Wizard' introduced at http://pgmacros.com/community/index.php?showtopic=632 -- Terry, West Sussex, UK