Ben Lunder

Ah, that works perfectly, and so simple! Thanks a lot. 😀

ok, I got a random name in the text box but couldn't figure out the rest so can't see how to copy %filename% to the clipboard and paste it. I tried looking at the clipboard command and the help on it but no luck.

quick thanks to you both. I'll experiment with that.

Incidentally don't know if everyone knows, but I just found out that phind ai can create macros for Macro Express, and it should be more uptodate than gpt-4 because it can access the current web. In fact it's expert mode does use gpt-4

It did give me answer but I struggled to implement it so thought I'd check back here first.

Trying to create a macro that would create a random filename and paste it into a text doc or save prompt by using a hotkey. I can see nothing like that under keyboard. I made a macro using encrypted text but it simply pastes the same seed string I put in the command. I was hoping it would encrypt it into printable characters. When I look at the help I can't quite follow its purpose as it only seems to hide what you are typing when creating the macro yet always prints out the unencrypted text. So why is that any different from putting that into keyboard text? But that's a side issue. Can anyone think of any other way to paste a random file name into a save prompt? It doesn't matter if the name already exists because one could always hit the hot key again, and anyway, a random 8 or 10 character name won't repeat that often

Woohoo! Success! Thanks Rberq. I tried your method with the delays and it works. I'll try cautiously reducing the 1000ms later to see what is reliable.

OK, fresh day, fresh mind, fresh computer after a reboot.

The macro is simply 'minimize all windows' (to confirm macro is working) followed by sleepcomputer.

I open a couple of windows then trigger the macro from a desktop icon. The windows minimize, but nothing else happens. No error beep or message.

Assuming you are running Win11, is it updated? A change in the way Sleep is called is all I can think of right now. I mean, it's odd that so many freeware programs no longer work when presumably they did before, and the Windows command line method also fails now.

I'll check my work again tomorrow; it's too late tonight for me. But I've been trying different ideas for days now without success. It's not as if I just spent 5 minutes making a Macro then gave up.

There's a sleepcomputer command but I couldn't get it to work. It had no effect for me at all.

I know of a command line using shutdown with arguments but you also need to first disable hibernation. This worked on my not-updated desktop PC but not on my new tablet. Numerous tests make me think Microsoft have tried to disable/discourage sleep (sleep no longer worked in several old freeware programs I tried) and yet it still works from the start menu. In a separate thread I was trying to trigger the menu but this proved unreliable. I had strange results such as getting an accessibility panel instead, and both my physical and virtual keyboard no longer worked in most (not all) areas of the Macro Express editor. I think I even couldn't type in Notepad! Only a reboot cleared it.

Any suggestions how I could get either the Macro Express sleepcomputer to work, or how I could reliably trigger sleep from the secondary start menu (whatever it's called.) I was using WIND & WINU and 50ms keypresses and the menu came up but keypress u did not invoke the shutdown submenu nor did s trigger sleep. I've even tried multipole arrow downs but that proved unreliable.

Many thanks! Your first suggestion works. 

Thanks for replies.

Yes, the macro was running but didn't work (as expected.) In case it wasn't valid for some reason (it just typed <WIN>X) I added another test line to minimize all windows. This worked, so the error beep must refer to the keypresses. In case there was some problem with calling the Windows key, I reduced the text to just X but still got the error beep.

I'm simply trying to call up the Windows alternate menu. Maybe simulating keypresses only works within a focused window or something.

Any ideas?

I found I could create a desktop icon from my macro but can see no option in the activations list to link from it. I want to be able to click the icon to activate the macro. All I get is an error beep. Seems to me it needs adding to the activations, but how?