nevada

I would like a macro to do one thing if the user types j and another if he types k. It should ignore all other keystrokes. I haven't found a command that simply says accept one keystroke. I thought about simply enabling a macro for j and a macro for k until I found it you can't assign j and k as hot keys. The set variable from prompt command requires keying of a enter key and covers up screen area which the user needs to be able to see. You apparently can't control the size of the prompt box. I discovered the following Wait for Key Press: J OR Wait for Key Press: K Sound Beep works but how could you determine what keystroke the user keyed? It seems like there should be a way of doing something so simple.

What exactly is "the Windows title of the text box"? Does this refer to the title in the title bar of the window or is this an internal program box name? If the latter how can you determine it?

Is there any say I can determine whether, at the point I started a ME macro, I am in a single or multi line text box, where the characters typed are being taken by the program as an input string, or am not in such a box, where the running program will interpret what I type as a command or ignore it.

Opera recently released 9.50. It wasn't ready. Anyone considering an upgrade should read the posts at http://my.opera.com/community/forums/forum.dml?id=26 I use the Opera execute program action in a right click on a link option to start a macro. It has worked for years. It didn't work with 9.50. I found a bug labeled 'The "Execute program" action fails in certain circumstances." http://opera.remcol.ath.cx/bugs/index.php?...=bug&id=455 Looks like mine was one of them.

Opera wand passwords don't work because of the new domain name. Fortunately I had my userid and password and didn't face the issue of whether or not changing the site name in the Opera wand facility works.

It appears that save clipboard to a text file saves only 64K of the clipboard and you find about it when someone's data disappears. This limit shouldn't exit. It sounds like something from DOS. The help file doesn't say anything about a limit. It is easy to workaround it by opening wordpad and saving the document as a text file from there. But that means I slow down 99,9 exections of a macro for one unusual case that may not occur again.

I wish macro express would provide some way, even a limited facility, to let you keep the control key down and key you key a control key macro. I write with WordPerfect 5.1 -- "It gets better every year" -- and, with it, I can keep the control key down and use character keys to move the cursor. It's annoying to be able to do this in DOS but not in Windows.

Kevin stated: > QUOTE It never worked that way before. How is anyone supposed to know this... The list of changes says "The installer has been updated and revised to optimize default installs." We will change the installer for the next release to more clearly describe what happens when 'Default Installation' is selected. Nevada replies: The sentence does not even hint that you changed it to ignore previous installations of the product. Kevin said: > QUOTE ...the install trashed their system? The install didn't exactly 'Trash your system'. All that was lost were a few preference settings and that is a direct result of uninstalling Macro Express. Microsoft's published specifications require that registry values be removed when a program is uninstalled. Nevada replies: That's not true. I lost the license information. After considerable effort and loss of time, I was able to find it on some pieces of paper from six or seven years ago. For while I thought I had lost it. Fortunately my paper filing system worked. Had not I been able find it, and had I not had multiple levels and copies of backups, including different locations, I would have had a non working ME system. Without the code or proof of purchase, you may have made me repurchase the product. Furthermore, it was not just "a few preference settings." Those few settings included all my fonts and colors that I chose over years and would be a real pain to figure out again. Furthermore, the new install left in place some start up commands that pointed to and actually started version 3.5e when I ipled the system. That's another problem of ignoring previous installs. Kevin said: > QUOTE But removing the check creates the problem that trashed my system. To fix one alleged problem, you create another one that trashes systems. Very few, if any, programs that we have seen and compared search for previous installations. It was a poorly implemented feature and not commonly used. We stand by our decision to remove it. Nevada replies: But few programs I have ever seen don't give you a choice of an installation directory and the opportunity to install one version over another one, unless like with WordPerfect, the developers intend new versions to coexist along side earlier ones. If a user has installed a program in one place, an update install should not install it again in another without giving the user a choice. Kevin said: > QUOTE > If you have extensive changes to your preferences you may want to export the program configuration to save them before you uninstall. Click Tools and Export Program Configuration. That's certainly useful information to know after you have lost your system. This feature has been in Macro Express since v 2.0, long before even Macro Express 3 was first released. Nevada replies: Until this screw up, I never needed it. BOTTOM LINE: The default install wizard should let the user choose to install over a previously installed version instead of always installing in c:\program files.

Kevin said: > When you install Macro Express v 3.6 you are given a choice of 'Default Installation' and 'Custom Installation'. When you choose 'Default Installation' Macro Express will be installed in the folder 'c:\Program Files\Macro Express3'. Nevada replies: It never worked that way before. How is anyone supposed to know this, until they find out the install trashed their system? Providing users a drive choice on installs, as opposed to installing to c drives without telling them, is becoming more important now than before because of the way manufacturers make c drive restoration the only way to recover systems. If you save your registry on the d drive, you can restore the c drive from the manufacturers cd-rom or partition, restore your registry from d, and get your system back without reinstalling everything, or using gigabytes to store check points. I do not buy the argument that you should reduce such choices to accomodate dumbed down users. Kevin said: > The option to search for a previous installation of Macro Express was removed because with today's large hard drives it was taking too long to search for a previous version of Macro Express. On some computers it was taking 10 minutes or more. Nevada replies: But removing the check creates the problem that trashed my system. To fix one alleged problem, you create another one that trashes systems. That's truly brilliant. The solution is that you provide a prompt in the install wizard to ask the user if he wants to install on top of a prior installation and if he does, you take time to find the installation. Kevin said: > If you have extensive changes to your preferences you may want to export the program configuration to save them before you uninstall. Click Tools and Export Program Configuration. Nevada replies. That's certainly useful information to know after you have lost your system.

I turned on my backup system and ran regedit, the registry editor. I exported to a floppy key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Insight Software Solutions\Macro Express I then imported it to my system. It got back my colors and fonts for the macro editor. So far I seem to have successfully returned to where I started from before I installed 3.6.

Following install and uninstall of version 3.6 and trashing of system because it didn't discover a prior ME installation, I went through the registry to see if I might be able to recover my colors and fonts from a backup registry copy, I discovered a key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Insight Software Solutions\DRM that was not in my backup registry and apparently new with 3.6. I would speculate that this has something to do with Vista, but exactly what? On one hand DRM, generically speaking, protects legitimate abuse of protected materials, but, on the other hand, it keeps people from exercising their constitutional fair use rights. I have to ask what am I now getting with ME 3.6 that they don't tell you about?

I have never before had problems installing Macro Express upgrades. Therefore, when I saw version 3.6 available, I ran it without hesitation. The install ran without problems. Because I haven't run a ME express update in well over a year, I didn't realize when I ran it that I didn't see the searching for prior installations screen that I saw before. I rebooted only to see the splash screen saying version 3.5e. I had a problem. I discovered that ME had installed itself in c:\program files and my old version in f:\program files was still there and starting up on reboot. The install didn't discover the prior version on the F drive. I use my c drive to boot windows only and have limited space there. I don't want any application programs or data there to reduce image creation and restore times and file sizes. Because I have never had problems with ME before I didn't make an image before installing. Because I had installed some other programs that I didn't want to reinstall, I didn't want to simply restore my c drive from an image. So I uninstalled version 3.6. My program start entries on the start menu went away. I reinstalled 3.5e to put them back. When it restarted, it told me I had used the program for more than 30 days. My license information was gone. Fortunately, I was able to find it from six or seven years ago. I put it in. It worked. Now I have lost all of my customization settings. I am not sure what to do now.

I have discovered that the following breaks Macro Express. Using Opera 9.02 under Win98 SE, I start with Opera opened. I key shift-alt-v. This should open the view menu, and it does. The error appears at this point. Ordinarily opening any menu item with the keyboard opens the menu with the first menu item highlighted. However, with Opera, when I open view with shift-alt-v, most of the time, the first item is not highlighted. If the first item is highlighted, and it sometimes it is even with shift-alt, there is no problem. If the first item is not highlighted, and it usually is not, then ME, and keyboard entry, is doomed. If the first item is highlighted and I key down, I go to another program. If I key a letter, to select a menu item, or escape nothing happens. If I click the mouse outside the menu to make it go away, it does. I them right click the Macro Express M icon in the system tray, no menu opens, and ME is "not responding" on the Win 98 task list. It looks like when I key shift-alt-v something is going wrong, the first menu entry is not highlighted, and everything else follows from whatever error has happened. I did not observe the problem with Opera 8. It is new with 9. The same thing happens with other shift-alt menu combinations. It is not unique so shift-alt-v. The shift-alt-menu letter combination performs an important function for ME. With programs that use a standard Windows menu bar, an alt-letter ME macro overrides an alt-menu letter function. That is how it works and should work. I have a complete set of alt-letter cross application macros that preempt the alt-menu function. Shift-alt-menu invokes the menu. So I have alt-letters for things I do all the time, and shift-alt-menu for menus, which I do far less frequently. However, with Opera 9, things get broken. Opera has its own keyboard key programming facility that gets keystrokes at a low operating system level. In the past, I think version 7 of Opera, Opera and ME didn't get along. Then they started working together. Now they are broke again. I don't have access to an XP system with ME and can't try this there. I have reported this as a bug.

I upgraded to Opera version 9 and have discovered that it breaks Macro Express. I use Win 98 SE. The problems, except as noted, below seem soft and random. In failing, ME dies and goes into a non responding state in the close program dialog box. It just happens, for no apparent reason. When it happens you can't do anything but end task ME. The problem frequency seems multiple times a day. The only really partly consistent hard failure I have noted is when using the Opera menus and using the cursor keys to move the focus around the menus options. Sometimes the cursor down key takes me to another executing program.

In response to a command, a Windows window may or may not appear, such asking whether or not I want to replace a file. If the Window doesn't appear, within say 10 seconds, I would like the macro to continue. However, if you put in a time delay in the wait for window command, the macro aborts. I can't find a way to tell ME that I want to continue the macro, not abort, if the time elapses. I tried putting in a wait for window ORed with a wait for time. That didn't work. My intuition tells me that this problem must have arisen and got solved in ME version 1, beta. But how?

Yes that worked. After thinking about this, it looks like Adobe did a fast one in their short cut tables. In their table of short keys, they stated the control-+ key as the zoom in shortcut key. Does "control-+" mean the control key and the +/= key or does it mean the control key, and the +/= key plus the shift key, to get a + as opposed an =. I had never thought about this ambiguity before. When someone says control/shift/alternate with a key that is upper case does that mean to throw in the shift key as well? I would say no because if they meant to include the shift key, they should have included the shift as well. On the other hand, to get a + you have to shift and if you don't shift you are really doing control-=. To avoid ambiguity and to keep this question from ever arising, the better practice would be never to use an upper case key with control/shift/alternate and refer only to the lower case key. In this particular case, the crux of the matter is that the zoom in shortcut Adobe Reader is control-=, not control-+, as Adobe's table states the shortcut keys, and the true "control-+" key is control-shift-+/=, the rotate shortcut. When I put control-= in the macro it worked. When Adobe Reader got the control-+ from ME, it thought the shift was on and did a rotate. It looks like ME passes to the application something different when the macro says control-= from when it says control=+.

Using Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0.4, Win 98 SE, and ME 3.5e, I have a macro that does a control-+. Without ME, that shortcut does a zoom in. But with ME on, that macro does a rotate clockwise. Rotate clockwise is a shift-control-+ in Acrobat Reader. It looks like a shift is getting thrown in somewhere in Acrobat or ME. I tried this with 6.0.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.0.3, and 6.0.4, and got the same result every time. I tried putting in a shift up and shift down in the macro. That made no difference. I tried putting in some delays. That made no difference. I have another macro that does a control--, a zoom out, and it works fine. I haven't seen any problems with any other macros in Acrobat Reader. I experimented with the + keys on the numeric keypad and keyboard, and that didn't make any difference. I tried doing a shift-control-+ in a macro, and that worked. I haven't found a zoom in command in the menu that I could use in lieu of the control-+ short key. Anyone have any good ideas?

I have a program specific macro ctrl-h for Irfan view. When Irfan view is open, this macro is being executed in other programs, including ME explorer and Opera 8. When I disable the individual macro or suspend ME, the other program work fine. But when I enable the macro, it executes in other programs. I have dozens of other program specific macros, and can't recall ever seen one execute in the wrong program. The problem seems specific to Irfan view. The problem seems to have started with ME 3.5d. It looks like ME thinks the key strokes came from Irfan view when they didn't. Has anyone else seen something similar?

The statement, "It does not work in the MS-DOS prompt of Windows Me, 98 and 95," is partially misleading. You can invoke a ME macro by calling meproc and the a switch, like "f:\progra~1\macroe~1\meproc.exe /Acfl2cl" to execute a ME macro named cfl2cl. To save documents or blocks in the Windows clipboard from WordPerfect 5.1, I have a WordPerfect macro that stores the file or block in a text file and calls a WordPerfect shell macro which starts a DOS batch file which does the above call. I can then paste in windows. This takes a short while loading the DOS command processor, but it works. Obviously two keystrokes, alternate spacebar, n, are easier for my present purpose. It seems to me that for keys from a DOS window that Windows processes itself and doesn't return to the DOS window because the user checked them on the misc tab, ME should treat those keystrokes like from a Windows window.

As a result of a long story I will spare everyone from, I have a new need to minimize my DOS window with WordPerfect dozens of times a day. I never had this need before but do now. The mouse and title bar minimize button are too much time and energy. Alternate spacebar to open the control menu and n to minimize the window beat grabbing the mouse but grow old quickly. Going to a dos prompt within the DOS window and invoking a ME macro takes longer than alt-spacebar and n. I have never been able figure out a way of doing an alternate space bar and n from a dos program or macro to see if that would work. Is there anyway with ME to minimize my DOS window from within it with one keystroke? I use Windows 98 SE. I use a 84-key keyboard, with the function keys on the left, where I can touch type them. It doesn't have a win key. I have discovered the following. On DOS pif file properties page, miscellaneous tab, you can specify certain keys that Windows does not pass on to DOS but processes itself. One of those keys, alternate space, works as a ME macro activation key. I reasoned that since Windows doesn't pass the key to DOS there is no reason for macro express not to respond to the key if keyed within DOS. However, it doesn't work that way. I set up a macro with that key combination and from a DOS window it does nothing. It seems to me like there should be some way to invoke a macro from within DOS so long as it only executes windows functions outside of DOS.

When I tried to search the board with the word DOS I got an error message saying that it was less than four chracters or disallowed.

I shut down ME and tried renaming the file to mexexp test.dat. I didn't know what to do with the ME other files in the directory, so I did nothing. I restarted ME. So far it appears to be working. It recreated the macexp.data and started OK. The file is now 1 KB. I believe that it started in less time than before. Maybe the solution is to simply delete the file.

File macexp.dat on my system has grown to nearly 8 M, and it is on my boot partition where space is critical. Does the user have any control over the size of this file? Is there any way to move it? I looked in preferences and in the registry and I couldn't find the file anywhere where I could change the location.

Before the user closes the edit box, is there any way for Macro Express to know if the user is in such a box?

Situation. The user is on file or directory name inside a Windows Explorer directory window. He keys F2, shift right, rename, or file. rename, and Windows opens up a rename box for him to type the new name. Is there any way for a ME macro to distinguish between keystrokes done inside the rename box from keystrokes done outside that box but within Windows Explorer? I tried using Capture Window Control to see if the rename box is an accessible control. I found out that when you activate the Capture control box, the Windows Explorer rename box closes.