WardXmodem

I just added a few lines to launch if NO Firefox is active. If Window "— Mozilla Firefox" is focused Macro Return End If Activate or Launch: Window "Mozilla Firefox", Program "firefox.exe", Parameters "" Thanks again! P.S. when I invented and programmed the world's first Bulletin Board System, I suffered from "Rampant Featureitis". I was ALWAYS thinking of new things to tweak, haha. SO FOR THIS macro, my next "tweak", would be that if I'm on the non-private-browsing Firefox, and I switch to the private-browsing one, BUT it isn't there, then I'd issue a ctrl-shift-P command in Firefox to open a new window with private browsing. Or not. heh.

OOPS, I missed that you didn't do an "activate or launch". so will have to tweak it. A non-private-browsing Firefox window is open, but the hotkey doesn't switch to it. But at least the swapping is working!

Ah, 'tis truly a work of art! Learned some new things. THANKS!!! Reminds me of an old rule I seem to no longer follow: 1. Read up on new software 2. use it for a while 3. go back and see what you forgot/missed. So poking about all the functions would be a good idea! LOVE posting both versions of the macro!!! Nice!! VV

I see macros posted which are the way they look in the macro editor, but I can't figure how to capture that look to my clipboard. I tried selecting and copying, and also all three options of file/export, none of them producing a readable macro. In desperation, I have screen-clipped a macro in the editor and OCRed it but that's a pain, and I'm sure others aren't doing that. Thanks!

I have started using "private Browsing" with Firefox. This results in two windows - a "non-private" window with possibly multiple tabs, and a "private" window with possibly multiple tabs. I'd like my MEP shortcut key to go to, say, the non-private window, but if I'm already there, go to the private window. Since the "activate window" title is variable but ends in: "Mozilla Firefox (Private Browsing)" -or- "Mozilla Firefox" I can't distinguish between them - so if I'm in the private browsing window and say to activate "Mozilla Firefox" -- wanting the OTHER window -- it is happy to do nothing - after all "Mozilla Firefox" is in the title containing (Private Browsing). I could "hack" issuing an alt-tab to the "next" window, stopping when the window title has "Mozilla Firefox" -- by definition either back to the ONLY Firefox window, or advancing to the "other" one. Not elegant enough, flashing windows, etc. Thanks for any ideas.

I forgot to say - I chose semicolon semicolon as my shortcut prefix not only because of no conflicts, but also no shift key! heh.

I found a pair of semicolons work well as a prefix for shortkeys. This is because this combination does not seem to occur in any common context, from programming languages to lines of characters to draw attention to a particular things like a line of ########## would do, etc.

Does anyone else have a problem with Windows, (I'm on Windows 10) where pressing enter after a "save as" name is all set, doesn't always work? Even pressing alt-S (the highlighted "save" button]. At times I press enter 2-3 times to get it to save. I bring this up, because it is a nightmare to program macros for things that -- unlike what a computer SHOULD do -- aren't repeatable. If i just sent an enter keystroke and assume the "save as" window is done, BOOM goes the rest of the macro. The only SURE way is to move the mouse to the [save] button and click. I "think" it is always in the same relative position.

Do you want a really SIGNIFICANT reply to the "save as"? TL;DR <= Sorry if so. I have a file called "names.txt", containing comma delimited "short names" for folders - even on my NAS \\Alpha\... a few lines: how,C:\Ward\Bin\How\ dc,C:\Ward\Darryl\Chats\ xn,C:\Ward\Xmodem-net\ e,C:\Ward\Eudora\ nastv,\\Alpha\shows\tv\ When I do a save-as, the suggested name is highlighted so I ^C it to save it. -- but I don't HAVE to, read on: I then type my macro express pro 6 shortcut leadin which is ";;" then the macro to read my names file and return the full path: "dot" (.). ex: save as shows [myfile.ods] but this isn't in the directory I want I press ^C to save it I type [mac ex shortkey leadin]. <== note the "dot" at the end. it pops up a window asking for the shortcut name: I type for ex dc<enter> it looks up, finds dc is c:\ward\darryl\chats\ and stuffs it in the "save as" name field. I can then do either of these: 1: press ^V to paste in the "myfile.ods" and hit enter to save. -or- 2: I hit enter with just the path in the save-as filename, which switches to that directory *and* puts the "myfile.ods" back, so press enter Do I use this macro? Does the fact that I have 495 names in my NAMES.TXT help you answer? LOL Name: . = go via names.txt any app Icon: (Default) Shortkey: . Scope: Global <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x02" Destination="%saveclip%" NoEmbeddedVars="FALSE" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="<SHIFTD><HOME><DELETE><SHIFTU>" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <DELAY Flags="\x02" Time="500"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x01" Destination="%name%" Prompt="name to look up:" Mask="FALSE" OnTop="FALSE" Left="Center" Top="Center" Monitor="0"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x02" Destination="%name%" NoEmbeddedVars="FALSE" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x00" Destination="%NamesPath%" Value="C:\\Ward\\Directories\\T520-names.txt" NoEmbeddedVars="FALSE"/> <IF NOT FILE EXISTS File="%NamesPath%"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x00" Destination="%NamesPath%" Value="c:\\Ward\\Names.txt" NoEmbeddedVars="FALSE"/> <IF NOT FILE EXISTS File="%NamesPath%"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x00" Destination="%NamesPath%" Value="C:\\Ward\\T520-names.txt" NoEmbeddedVars="FALSE"/> <END IF/> <IF NOT FILE EXISTS File="%NamesPath%"/> <MACRO STOP/> <END IF/> <END IF/> <REPEAT START Start="1" Step="1" Count="100" Save="FALSE" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <ASCII FILE BEGIN PROCESS Filename="%NamesPath%" Format="CSV" Start_Record="1" Process_All="TRUE" Records="1" Variable="%namesfile%" Start_Index="1" Parse_Blank_Lines="FALSE" Clear_Array="TRUE"/> <TEXT BOX DISPLAY Title="Variables" Content="{\\rtf1\\ansi\\ansicpg1252\\deff0\\deflang1033{\\fonttbl{\\f0\\fnil\\fcharset0 Tahoma;}{\\f1\\fnil Tahoma;}}\r\n\\viewkind4\\uc1\\pard\\f0\\fs14 %name%\r\n\\par %namesfile[1]%\r\n\\par %namesfile[2]%\r\n\\par \\f1 \r\n\\par }\r\n" Left="Center" Top="Center" Width="278" Height="200" Monitor="0" OnTop="FALSE" Keep_Focus="TRUE" Mode="\x01" Delay="1" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time="1" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <IF VARIABLE Variable="%namesfile[1]%" Condition="\x00" Value="%name%" IgnoreCase="FALSE"/> <DELAY Flags="\x02" Time="500"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="%namesfile[2]%"/> <MACRO RETURN/> <REPEAT EXIT/> <END IF/> <ASCII FILE END PROCESS/> <END REPEAT _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="\\" _ENABLED="FALSE"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="%name% -- ** Not found **"/> Hope you don't mind the indents - I wrote a URL indenter and expanded it to work with macro express... I should have cleaned that up for submission, by making assigning the names.txt a variable -- just search for it in the macro. BUGS: Windows 10, curses, sometimes does the popup window asking for the name, BEHIND the active window. I've learned to ignore that, and just type the shortcut, e.g. dc<enter> which works find. Enjoy. Ward Christensen, inventor of "Xmodem" and "BBSs" (Bulletin Board Systems) (all 3 entries are on wikipedia if you're curious) P.S. I have about 250 macro express macros. I'll probably be rather active here, haha. I'm a 75-yr-old retiree from 44 years at IBM in the Chicago area. P.P.S. The "program/programming language" I use for (1) maintaining my names.txt list, and (2) indenting urls and macros, is Mansfield Software Kedit, so sorry, not very portable. ______________________ A bit of background: At one point, I believe it was Windows XP, assigning shortcut keys in Windows was easy - you just did the properties on the link in the start menu folder, and assigned for example "K" which meant this .lnk would be launched by Ctrl-Alt-K. Well, one day, I realized that doing Windows shortcut keys to launch, sometimes took TEN SECONDS. I analyzed why, and found that XP was NOT CACHING the shortcut keys, so was finding the start menu for every user, opening each .lnk file, scanning for the n'th character, to see if it matched the one you used with Ctrl-Alt. I was SO annoyed, I sought a replacement - and Macro Express to the rescue! Instant loading of programs, instead of up to 10 seconds of "nothing". THEN I went nuts with shortcut keys, to where I now have 173.