Noggin the Nog

If you are around and want to see an error has occurred, you can also go to Options/Preferences/Miscellaneous and set to Clear Error Messages after so many seconds. With some of my macros, I regularly get errors that I expect and don't want to log. I set the clear time to 10 secs. After that time, the dialog disappears and the macro stops. Other scheduled macros will run.

Are you sure the folder/path that is defined is correct, no unwanted spaces, and not protected from writing to? That is the only item on the Backup dialog that could clearly prevent a backup being made. Have you tried saving to another location? Is the problem just for one macro? If so, any syntax errors? Assumed save is always/no prompt/backup on windows close.

A non-ME solution is to disable error reporting (Control Panel/System/Advanced/Error Reporting). If running scheduled macros unattended, it's a good idea disabling reporting to avoid hangups. There are many reasons to keep error reporting enabled so it's a personal/situation preference. I'll leave an ME solution to someone who works with error reporting enabled.

Hi Les, Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been away for 5 days and it appears everyone else was snoozing. Re: Screen-dependent. My own terminology - any macro that needs to see and manipulate a window or the desktop, or any other user interface. When creating a macro it should be fairly clear if you access a window. If the window is not visible due to a screensaver or otherwise locked out, the macro must remove the obstruction to give access. There are limits to what ME can do. The alternatives you suggested may be all you can do. Re: Logging macro. You did not say how the macro works. I would be inclined to have a one-liner that just writes the date and time to a text file. I would initially try one that is started by the scheduler but if that failed as yours did, I would make one that has an internal 5 min loop, is manually started at 5pm and runs until manually stopped in the morning. It may be worth making another macro from scratch to avoid any "errors" in the one you have been using. If the macro has been hanging for hours on end, the problem is not a short event. Even defragmenting the pc is not going to take that long. You could check schedule events on the pc (programs/accessories/system tools/scheduled tasks) but other programs may run with their own schedules. The setting in Options/Preferences/Miscellaneous/Clear Error Messages will determine if ME waits if it hangs. If errors are not cleared you should see a message in the morning. I normally set mine to clear in 10 secs to ensure ME continues. If I had a problem I may set to not clear so I can see if ME had an error.

Taking the test macro first, are you sure you have it set to run every 5 minute indefinitely? ie check the "Play indefinitely" checkbox if you are using the "Other" scheduling option. If you are creating the 5 minutes as a loop within the macro, is a counter reaching its limit? The 6am macro, there could be a number of reasons why it does not run. 1. Any other timed macro starting or already running at 6am will prevent the start. 2. Other events (only you know what your pc is connected to) may interfere with timing. 3. If the macro is screen-dependent, as far as I am aware it will not work - the screen is locked. With any screen-dependent application, you have to ensure the applicable window is on top, or is forced on top at the start of the macro. Non-screen-dependent macros, say a simple file transfer or changing audio volume, should run. I never lock my screen so someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Have you tried looking on the Net for other software that will allow autologin? A basic search revealed lots of results. The requirements would be very specific to your setup so you would have to do the looking. If you were sole user with no login, no problem. You can logout as the sole user but I don't know what happens when you next run the pc.

Paul Re Explorer shells. I use both PowerDesk and Opus. PowerDesk is generally better for what I need but getting a bit old for XP. The split screen in PD is a bit more convenient for some operations I do. I use Opus for run-of-the-mill work. Hooray, it can be customized with make a new folder icon! It's quite unbelievable how little Explorer has been tuned over the years. Burt You are misunderstanding what I am doing, I think. In ME there is a group of commands in Files/Folders. If you select the Copy Files dialog and enter the fields below(listed previously) it will copy as you wish (this only works in c:\temp). This procedure does not use Explorer's Copy command at all. That is why the cursor/highlight does not move. Do as you are doing copying the filename to the clipboard Variable set string %T1% from the clipboard Files/Folders Copy... Files/Path Name: c:\temp\%T1% New Name: c:\temp\Copy of %T1% You copy the name of file abcd.doc to the clipboard using Explorer ME makes %T1% equal to text string "abcd.doc" ME will then copy file c:\temp\abcd.doc as c:\temp\Copy of abcd.doc I attach a copy of my macro, use File/Import/Import a Playable Macro. Again only works in c:\temp and the filename with extension must be copied from Explorer. There are many easy ways to accomplish what you are really trying to do. I sort and edit between 2,000-5,000 images a day so I consider myself an expert in saving time! First I'll give a really simple free solution followed by the one I actually use. Put all you images in a permanent folder say c:\images_in. Create another permanent folder c:\images_out. When you find an image you want to select, just drag the file with the mouse (copy) into c:\images_out, which is located right next door. When you have finished selecting all the good ones, use a renaming utility like TheRename (freeware by Herve Thouzard) to add "Copy of" to the files in c:\images_out (or however you want to rename). I would be inclined to use an image browser rather than Explorer. Even freeware Irfanview is far better because you can get a sheet of thumbnails. It can also do bulk renaming. Later correction: I keep forgetting the Thumbnail View in Explorer which is ok for small numbers of images. For large number of images that are going to be frequently accessed, the database style of image browser is better because all the thumbs in a folder are already made and stored. The way I do it is with (payware) Thumbsplus. All the images go in a folder and I have it set so it does not make any thumbnails. I go through the images at fullscreen size. Ones I want to select I hit F3 and it makes the thumbnail. Editing the image also makes the thumbnail. When done selecting, I hit Ctrl+Alt+7 which moves all files WITH thumbnails to the start of the folder. I then move or copy the block of files to another folder and rename or otherwise process. Thumbsplus has a very good renaming utility too. Explorer_make_copy_of_highlighted_file_c_temp.mxe

My method definitely does work. I was assuming you are showing the full file name and extension in Explorer. Not showing the extension is going to make life difficult. When I'm doing file operations I ALWAYS have the full name and extension visible to be sure I have the right file, but that's personal preference. If you want this to work in Explorer with no file extension and in any folder, I'll leave that to someone else to solve! I don't use Explorer, ever. After all these years they still do not have an icon for creating a new folder. I use old PowerDesk which will also copy the full name and path of a file to the clipboard, making this sort of thing a breeze.

There's no harm in using a text file for memory though you can do your operation without. Assumed that the filepath is always c:\temp. If not then other steps need to be added to create the filepath, say %T2%. Do as you are doing copying the filename to the clipboard Variable set string %T1% from the clipboard Files/Folders Copy... Files/Path Name: c:\temp\%T1% New Name: c:\temp\Copy of %T1% The cursor/selection in Explorer should not change

I may be missing something because what you are trying to do looks too simple. The procedure I outlined is solely looking at the foldername, not any filenames. The checks I mentioned are on the foldername. I'm assuming you are going to copy the entire folder from your test server to the same name folder on the live server using *.* as the new filename field in the Copy File or Files instruction. test server path\this folder\*.* is folder and files to be copied "this folder" copied to text file via clipboard make checks to ensure "this folder" is valid foldername "this folder" read from text file into text variable to create new path live server path\this folder\ Macro instruction: Copy File or Files File path(s) name: test server path\this folder\*.* New name: live server path\this folder\*.*

When you have copied the folder name from the clipboard to a file (presumably text file of some sort) why can't you do some checks on the text stored in the file? If you are using a text file and the folder name is saved rather than appended, then you should have one alphanumeric entry only. If there is nothing or more than one entry then you stop the macro. You could also compare the text against a list of all the folders in the system (use Repeat with Folder to get list). It should match one.

You can make all sorts of fancy input dialogs using other applications controlled from ME. Personally I use notepad and text files a lot. Quick to open (assuming notepad is default for .txt files) and easy to look at the data in the file. For a multiple input I would do the following: 1. Create a master template say input.txt which could be: Name:<space> City:<space> Telephone, xxx xxxx:<space> Date of Birth yy mm dd:<space> (<space> being a space for neatness) 2. To input you call up input.txt and a complex pause. Type in the date entries. After filling in one line, the down arrow key will take you to the correct position for the next line. When the last entry is complete, hit the OK on the complex pause. 3. ME then saves the open input.txt as inputtemp.txt (you can save manually too after the last data entry), closes the file and uses this file for subsequent operations. Input.txt remains unchanged for the next use. 4. ME then does a text file process on inputtemp.txt to extract the data. The text past the ":" is selected in each line and any immediate leading spaces removed with variable modify string/left trim. Any required data length or format checks are done. Then on to whatever processing is needed. If I have a long list of items I regularly use (say the 150 web pages I get every night) I use a list of urls in a text file. If for some reason pages need to be redone later I use a text file procedure similar to above. I have a temp text file that gets opened which is a copy of the full list. I remove all the entries I don't want to retrieve. That file is saved and used in the macro, retrieving just the shortened list. When done, the full url list is copied into the temp file ready for the next time.

I started accessing the newsgroup just as it closed (was that a hint or what?). I think the forum format is fine and gives one the opportunity to have a really silly avatar. The typical number of messages in a thread are not that great in the forum and I find it better than a newsgroup for navigating messages - just scroll down. You can also edit your own posts - tidier than posting subsequent corrections. Personally I don't customize the setup very much but some people like doing that.

Inspired by some comments by floyd in another thread and joe's here, I found a very good way to improve my own web page loading without a "Wait for..." line which I could not use in my application. I first tried using the 'get pixel color' as suggested by joe. It worked quite well but I had pages where the progress indicator was almost instantaneous. What I now do (and I'm sure others have done before me) is as follows: 1. Request the page 2. Go into a 2 sec loop which gets control from the address bar (edit) %C1% and converts to string variable %T1%, and gets control from the status bar (msctls_statusbar32) %C2%, and converts to string variable %T2%. 3. If the address bar control string is the required page and the status bar string is "Done", then kick out of repeat loop and save the page. So far works really well. It would not work on sites where Done is overwritten by something else like a banner. Previously I had to allow a large time to cope with variations in download times. This method is very time-efficient.

You can probably get round the hang up but it will not be as neat as what you previously had. I don't know what the error window is so I am making some assumptions. I know this works for saving a file over a file of the same name. After the delete command, make a loop that checks every few secs or millisecs if the error window is active. If it is, bring it to the top if necessary and acknowledge the error. You will need some sort of statement to finally exit the loop and empty the recycle bin. It could go round every second for one minute or if the loop has run for 20 secs without an error being detected etc. Not great if you have lots of temp files in use but I routinely use this, as I am sure others do, for processes where an error is expected.

Something that I do may or may not help. After requesting the web page I allow a certain minimum loading time, say 20 secs. At that point I click the mouse on the Address Bar (near the right hand end), followed by Copy to Clipboard and examine the text using Set Text Variable from Clipboard. If the text indicates it is the required page, I allow a further time to complete page loading and then continue with the macro. The mouse click, copy and interpretation is in a timed repeat loop, say every 5 secs. Once the complete loading time has expired, the macro jumps out of the repeat loop with an Exit or Break command. The first time the new page name appears in the Address Bar, clicking with the mouse will highlight the new page name. On subsequent clicks, the entry will be deselected and nothing returned. The procedure does not always work, but mostly!

It may help to indicate what you are trying to prevent. There may be actions you can take that don't disable the mouse but stop it from interfering. For example, depending on the macro, you could put the macro into a loop where mouse move constantly keeps the mouse at a harmless position on the screen so any buttons pressed do nothing, and any movement is counteracted by being returned to that position.

Have you tried doing the double clicks as two single clicks with a small time delay in between? Whenever I come across these problems I break the operation down into the most basic sequence available. Sometimes operations such as Alt Down, Key, Alt Up work where Alt+Key or Alt Alt+Key does not.

There must be many ways of doing this. I would do it as follows: Put the menu and the various actions in a repeat loop. To set an infinite repeat I usually use "repeat until %N99%=1" where %N99% is never set or incremented (lots of other ways to do this or limit repeats). For each of the option instructions to resize the image, have a repeat "break" command directly after. That will kick it out of the repeat loop and finish the macro or go on to other actions. You can also use a "macro stop" command. For the "pause/read about" option instructions, have the text box open. No "break" command. When the text box is closed, the macro will continue back round the loop to the choice menu.

I'm sure there are lots of variations you could make but you are then getting into application-specific. What suits one person does not suit another. For very specific uses, a custom macro can be written. For general use it is better to have a suite of simple macros that can be put together in different combinations to produce the required results. Regarding spaces, I have another macro that goes though a block of text reducing all the gaps between words to one space (though I will have to modify to cope with tabs, ascii 9!)

Thanks to Nicolas' help with Ascii codes, I have upated my macro to work with all the common text delimiters, space, comma, semi-colon, colon, hyphen, underscore, tab, line feed. It is fairly clear in the macro how to add (or remove) delimiters in plain text or ascii character code. The first character in a text string, and any character after a delimiter, will be capitalized. Example (all lines of text selected): abc -def ghi- jkl ;mno pqr,stu,vwx_yz Abc -Def Ghi- Jkl ;Mno Pqr,Stu,Vwx_Yz 1st_letter_uppercase_r2.mxe

Hi Nicolas, Yup, the ASCII conversion did the trick thanks. I've never had occasion to use ASCII. I just converted %T3% to its ascii equivalent integer %N3% then added the condition, If Variable N3 = 9 etc. I can easily modify my macro for any common delimiter that is likely to appear before text.

Tied in with my macro in the "capitalize first letter" post, I have been trying to detect a tab, carriage return and line feed in a selected block of text spanning several lines using the If Variable statement. This would be used going through the block of text one character at a time eg If Variable %T3% = tab, cr or lf where %T3% is one character. I found a way to enter the code to detect a tab by very devious means but have been unable to detect cr and lf. Anyone have ideas how to detect all three?

Hi Ashley, I wrote a macro a couple of weeks ago that capitalizes the first letter in EVERY word in a text string. It is not what one would call "title case" with some words such as "the" in lower case. The macro starts off basically as Pete showed. It then works through the string looking for spaces and sets a flag if one found. The next non-space character is capitalized and the flag reset. It is designed to change the first letter after a space or "-". Other exceptions are easy to add - see listing in Scripting Editor It will not presently handle a cr/lf so the first words in multiline selections are not changed. It is designed to be run after text in some document has been selected (highlighted). The hotkey is pressed, text is copied, processed and then pasted back. If the text is input via another method the macro needs to be modified. Macro worked for my purposes but not extensively tested. 1st_letter_uppercase.mxe

I would have thought that before embarking on adding code to monitor temperature, you should be a bit more clear on the cause of your problem. If you have found some software to measure cpu temperature, it will not take more than an hour to manually monitor and see what the temperature plateaus at while running your text handling macro. The temperature should stabilize in much less time than an hour. Anyone who has run ME over an extended period has probably encountered freeze problems. Lots of causes unrelated to the processor. If I am away for a week and running macros round the clock, I do a reboot every 24 hours. I also do an externally-induced forced reboot every 24 hours (12 hours off from normal reboot) to ensure any hang up is cleared. Even XP gets tired with extended running.