stevecasper

Hello all, I haven't been on the forums much in the past year or so, mostly because I changed jobs and - much to my dismay - I now work for a company that automates virtually nothing. On top of that, they are so paranoid about... well, everything that they don't even let us plug stuff into our surge protectors, let alone install software which has not been previously and expressly approved on our machines. It is so bad here that I only very hesitantly asked my supervisor if there were any chance of getting approval for some ME licenses. Surprisingly, she told me to write a proposal, including cost/benefit analysis and she would take it to the powers that be. Getting to the point: I've used Macro Express for years... Originally using Keyboard Express starting in 2000, my company migrated to ME 3.x in '02 or '03, I believe. I have used it ever since, upgrading to MEP when it launched. I understand the benefits of the program very well, and can find a way to get it to do just about anything I need it to do - and when I am stumped, I know I can call on my PGM Forums friends and colleagues for input. The problem is, there are a lot of benefits of MEP that I've never used, which others on the board have. What I would like, if I may ask it, is for anybody reading this post to give me some very basic ideas of what you have been using ME for. Obviously, any tasks requiring boilerplate responses (with or without variables) would fit in this category. Also, if anybody has done any time/benefit analyses or has an effective way to estimate or calculate such a comparison, I would be very interested in something of that nature. To give a brief idea of the areas in my job where it would come in handy: We have a form with about a half-dozen drop down menus. This form must be filled out on every call. For some reason we cannot save preferred settings for these drop downs, even though they almost never change. ME can make this redundant step painless. We send out a number of boilerplate emails in order to update clients on the status of their tickets. Though canned responses are available in the system they say things like "Good <Enter Morning, Afternoon, Evening> <Enter Client's Name>," which is ridiculous and tedious to go through and delete. ME can eliminate the need to hunt down every variable and can fill in the blanks for me. There are a number of tasks where we are required to collect information from a .csv file, organize it, eliminate duplicates, reformat it, and save it to a separate drive. Insanely tedious. Takes about an hour to do the task each day, and with ME I imagine it would take a few seconds. There's more, but that's all that comes to mind immediately. Anyway, I want to thank everybody in advance for your suggestions and ideas.

Thanks Cory. I knew this would be the case... it was more of a hopeful fantasy than an actual hope.

I'm afraid I know the answer to this already, but I would be remiss if I didn't double-check. If I have my ME files on a flash drive, is there any way to run the .exe from various computers without having to purchase multiple licenses and downloading them to these computers? I'm sure the answer is a big "Negatory." Here's my reasoning: My new job won't allow me to download any software onto company computers, no matter how useful that software might be. Also, since we often have to bounce around from one PC to another, it would be nice to be able to take my license with me.

Here's what I do when I can't be certain a path isn't going to change, or if a specific source file may be renamed by a 3rd party..... Maybe this won't suit your needs, Terry, but when I read the post, it sounded to me like you'd benefit from the Set String: Prompt for a filename command. It leaves setting the path in the hands of the user, so it's not going to be fool-proof, but you could probably add some code that compares the selected file against the name of the file that should be selected, and if the actual filename doesn't match, then the user didn't do what they were supposed to do. Ergo, you give a Text Box scolding the user, and telling them to try again; then "Macro Run: this macro" and Macro Stop [don't wait for this macro to finish] (or whatever), and they get to try again.

If you download the actual macro file, you'll be able to open that command and see where the start position actually is (could be a comma, a space, or a specific series of characters).

Information isn't stored inside macros.......... If you have a macro that sets a variable with a specific value, then that value can be retrieved using one of the "Save Variable" commands in the source macro, and "Restore Variables" command in the calling macro. Other options include storing the information in a .txt file on your hard drive. Or an .ini file. Or using the Write to and Read from Registry commands. By the way: Thanks for stealing my icon I've been looking for an excuse to change mine anyway.

It couldn't hurt... and I don't think it would be too difficult for him to pin such an email/post. Probably a lot easier than fixing the broken codeboxes.

I've used both Paul's and Brain Virus's solutions in the past. For me it always depended on how dedicated I was to the number of <TAB>s I needed. And experience. The more experience I gained with ME, the more I leaned toward's Paul's solution. It's elegant, easy, and you can modify it without having to recount your <TAB>s to make sure you have the right quantity.

Your solution worked for me................... Text Type: <SHIFTD> Left Click Text Type: <SHIFTU> This tested successfully for me. To test it, I opened a Word document with text on it. I built the macro to activate Word, click at the beginning of a line of text, and finally to Shift+Click at the end of the text. If it worked, the entire line would be highlighted. It was. Since I don't know what it is you're trying to do with your macro, I can only speculate about what is going wrong. And each time I start to write down my speculations, I end up seeing how this one or that one couldn't be the problem. So it comes down to me wondering if Firefox, or the specific webpage itself is interrupting or limiting the functionality of this macro.

What?! You mean I'm not the only one?

Your post is illegible. Please edit it so it can be read.

Hi Kim, The best responses are, without a doubt, going to come from somebody like Kevin or Stan, who actually work for Insight Software Solutions. However, I have my own theory for you: 3.7d has been out since before Windows 7 was even a blip on the radar screen. With the launch of Macro Express Pro (ME 4.x), I don't know how much focus ISS is giving ME 3. It is still supported, and I imagine they are working on tweaks to make ME3 compatible with Win7. However, it's also possible that they figure anybody willing to upgrade their OS is probably going to be willing to upgrade their Macro Express. But that's just me speculating. I've dealt with some of these guys and they're on the ball. If a fix for ME3 compatibility with Win7 is on the wind, they'll tell us about it, I'm sure. If not, they'll confirm my speculation.

This doesn't work 100% for me.................................. I modified it a little bit: I have it position %hwin[1]% in the top left corner, then position %hwin[2]% in the top right. I worked the first time I ran it, but not any time since. It launches the notepads fine, but doesn't reposition them... Well, it repositions one of them: %hwin[2]% But %hwin[1]% just sits where it was when it opened. <LAUNCH PROGRAM AND ACTIVATE WINDOW Title="notepad" Exact_Match="FALSE" Wildcards="FALSE" Path="notepad.exe" Mode="\x00" Default_Path="TRUE" Wait="1" Wait_For_Program="12"/> <LAUNCH PROGRAM AND ACTIVATE WINDOW Title="notepad" Exact_Match="FALSE" Wildcards="FALSE" Path="notepad.exe" Mode="\x00" Default_Path="TRUE" Wait="1" Wait_For_Program="12"/> <VARIABLE SET HANDLE Option="\x00" Info="notepad" Partial="TRUE" Wildcards="FALSE" Destination="%hwin%"/> <WINDOW REPOSITION Option="\x01" Title="%hwin[1]%" Partial="TRUE" Wildcards="FALSE" Method="\x02" Left="10" Top="10" Monitor="0" _IGNORE="0x0006"/> <WINDOW REPOSITION Option="\x01" Title="%hwin[2]%" Partial="TRUE" Wildcards="FALSE" Method="\x04" Left="10" Top="10" Monitor="0" _IGNORE="0x0006"/>

Holes in my logic? The devil you say!!!................... I never said it was a perfect solution. It's a pretty good one, though, if you consider the potential for a website whose title bar may change from time to time, or varies based on content (such as various Wikipedia pages). Or something. It's late, and my brain isn't firing 100% right now. Honestly, as far as dealing with multiple web pages that may have the same title bar, you'd really have to figure out additional logic to verify pages. I agree completely with that, and hadn't considered that when I hacked out that macro. What would be really cool is an If website option.

The short answer, Bob, is "Yes." The slightly longer answer is "Yes, there is." I'm betting you're looking for a bit more than that. So here it goes: Since you want the macro to open a website if that site isn't already opened, you know already that you're going to need an If/Then style sequence. So you need to establish what the address is going to be, or what the window title will be for that If to check. Since it sounds like you'll be running the macro multiple times over the course of a day, week, or longer, you'll most likely want to establish the window title in a way that the macro will be able to check to see if that window is running, regardless of the last time you checked. A simple macro will be something along the lines of: Variable Set String %Web Title% to "Test Web Site Title Bar - Internet Explorer" If Not Window "%Web Title%" is running Web Site, "http://www.TestWebSiteTitleBar.com", using Internet Explorer End If Of course this will require you to know what the title bar is when you write the macro. Another option, as long as you know the web-address, which I'm presuming you do, would be to build a slightly more complex macro that you can write using nothing more than the URL: Read Registry Value "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\MEProVariables\Test\Amerifax\web title" into %Web Title% If Not Window "%Web Title%" is running Web Site, "http://www.macros.com", using Internet Explorer Wait for Web Page: http://www.macros.com Variable Set String %Web Title% to topmost window title Write Registry Value "%Web Title%" into HKEY_CURRENT_USER\MEProVariables\Test\Amerifax\web title End If The very first time you run this macro, if you already have the window open, it will open a second instance. After that, however, it will never open the web-site again if it is already running. Also, you will probably want to change the path inside the HKCU. I have a specific path for Testing, and if you're planning on using a permanent path, you might want to direct it elsewhere, but it's completely up to you. You could also save it along a path within your primary drive (e.g. C:// ) and save it as a .txt or .ini, but again, it is all up to you. Here's the macro as I built it, if you want to download it and test it out for your own purposes: Launch_or_Check_If_Open.mex One more thing: This will only work in IE. If you use a different browser, you'll need to tweak it for that browser. That means changing from IE - in the Web Site command - to "Default Browser", and changing the "Wait for Web Page" command to a Delay or Wait for Time to Elapse command. I tested it in Google Chrome with a 2 second delay, but for purposes of distribution I switched to IE. I can't test it in IE on my machine because IE 8 crashes on my PC almost every time I launch it. And I can't seem to get rid of it... <sigh> but that's a story for another post on a different forum. Anyway, as long as your IE works, this macro should work fine.

Home Network: Steve's PC and Tammy's laptop. Steve's PC: ME 3.7d and MEP Tammy's Laptop: ME 3.7d and MEP Until very recently, my wife only had ME3 on her laptop. I found I was able to set my ME3 back-up to save to our shared "Public" folder, and then when she (re)launches ME3, she has a scheduled macro that Loads Macro File from my backup. This makes it so that if I tweak or add macros on my computer, it basically ensures that her macros will update as well, so if I find myself working on her laptop, I don't have to suffer through doing things manually, or setting up the same macro all over again. Now circumstances have arisen where I no longer need my MEP license at work, so I've set it up on Tammy's laptop. I've tried to duplicate my set-up so that I can benefit from MEP on both machines (which is what I would prefer to do anyway). However, MEP doesn't seem to work in the same fashion. When I tried saving my back-up files to the shared "Public" folder, it saves the back-up as a .000, which is relatively useless. If I try opening that file with my wife's MEP, the application comes to a near stand-still. Terminating and restarting the program doesn't help. I had to do a complete reinstall and try another tactic. My second attempt, I renamed the .000 to .mex. Same results. My final solution was to export every macro on my MEP to the "Public" folder, and then import it on the laptop. This is less-than-ideal in a number of respects: Any time I tweak a macro on my PC, I'll have to re-export/import that specific macro for it to do me any good. I lost all my categories. Even though I checked the box to save them, the categories were lost upon importing the macro file. I'm sure there are other factors making it less-than-ideal, but those two are sufficient for me right now. My hope is for somebody here who has done something similar, or who has some experience with this particularity, to help me find a way to make this a little more stream-lined and easier. The way it is in ME3. It doesn't have to be exactly the same way it was in ME3. In fact, I welcome improvements. The bottom-line is that the way it worked in ME3 was great, and I can't think of how to do it in MEP all by myself. Thanks for any help!

It's an interesting error. In my code Line 21 is a Remark, which means it has no value whatsoever to the actual functioning of the macro. Since your error is providing a "line" error, I'm presuming that means you're using Macro Express Pro (since I've only gotten errors specifying line numbers in Pro), and this macro was specifically built for Macro Express 3.7d. So I'm not really in a position this very minute to test and find the cause of the error you've experienced. However, my first guess is that when selecting the file from the original prompt (line 12 in the original code), you are selecting an incorrect file... or, since you said the file causing the error doesn't even exist on your machine, the code following line 12 - the code that chnges the name of the file - has an error in it, changing the name of the file to .db3 Of course, I don't know for certain. Export the code, and attach it to a reply so that we can look at it exactly as you have it. Also, be sure to provide the actual Macro Express version you are using. I'll be happy to look into it.

AWESOME!!!!

Alt+F+M Text Type: <ALT>fm Why does it work? Alt+F opens the File Menu M selects Rename <TEXTTYPE:<ALT>fm>

The things I learn by listening to Cory................................. This is interesting. I had never thought of using Controls for emails. Of course, I rarely think of using Controls, since I generally spend more time frustrated, trying to make controls work on applications that only partially support them than the Controls end up being worth in the end, but it is definitely nice to know when there are Controls that actually exist and work. Outlook (at least Outlook 2007) appears to be one of them. A caveat, however: Sending text directly to the control you set as the body of the email will possibly crash Outlook. At the very least, it will simply not put the information into the email. Oh, and it sends the email automatically as it is attempting to send the text directly to the Control. At least that was my experience. So it is probably better to simply set focus to that control and then Text Type the message.

I've had this same problem, and it's not with your shortkey. It's not a Macro Express problem at all. When Outlook recognizes an email address, it has an auto-complete feature that says: "Hey, I already know this email address, since you used it before. Here, let me auto-complete it!" And by auto-completing, Outlook completely defeats your macro. Your <TAB> merely "confirms" the auto-complete instead of taking you to the next line like it is supposed to. You could ad a second <TAB>, but then the macro won't work if it's a new email address. What you'll probably need to do is use a single <TAB>, then a <SHIFT><HOME>, <Clipboard Copy>, and check if there is anything in the clipboard. If yes, then <TAB> 2 times to the Subject line. If no, then you are in the CC field, so <TAB> 1 time to the Subject line. It's irritating, but like Cory said, MS apps are clever and that is usually not a good thing when working with Macro Express. Here it is, tweaked for successful use. Works 100% of the time on my machine (I've changed the name to avoid confusion): Fixed_Shortkey.mex

Oh man... that is so brilliant it makes me want to weep. Still, a checkbox option within the command would be nice. Not that there aren't plenty of bigger fish to fry with regards to the multiple choice menus right now. Thanks Cory. Headache: averted.

Ok, so I have ME3 licenses on my PC at home and on my wife's Laptop. Our PC's are networked via a wireless router. She runs very few macros on her laptop, whereas I run a number of them on my PC. Whenever I'm at her computer, I get a little irritated by the fact that I can't use my macros for anything as mundane as opening a webpage (I'm uber-lazy). So, I recently started saving my macro file to the Public folder shared by both our computers, and directed her ME to open that file (all the macros she does use are on my macro file, since I built them on my PC first, and then exported them for her). She loses nothing, I gain everything... except my MEP macros, which is fine, really. Anyway, here's the point: I built a single-line macro to restart Macro Express. I did this so that if I updated any of the macro files on my PC, it would be a simple matter of restarting Macro Express via a single macro on her computer in order to update it on her end. Here's the bug (or possible bug): If I don't change anything, the macro works fine. If I do change anything, the macro kills ME, but doesn't restart it. Ok, so it's not a big deal to manually click Start>Macro Express. The point is that big deal or not, it shouldn't be necessary. Am I right? Here's the code (the activation I set is Ctr+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow): Restart Macro Express and, just to be thorough: <RESTARTMACEXP:FT> Is there any help to be had? Should I bugrep this? EDIT By the way, we are both rockin' Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit, SP2, in case that matters.

When selecting "Multiple Choice" in the Multiple choice menu, is there an easy way to add a carriage return on each selected option? Example: Text Variable: %Things To Do% A - Go to the store B - Go to the gym C - Go out to eat D - Play chess Text Type: Here is a list of things I would like to do today: %Things To Do% This, assuming all items are selected, will type out: I want it to look like this: I know I could build a bunch of "If" sequences to parse it out, and add CR/LFs that way, but if the list is of any size at all, the macro will quickly become long and extremely tedious. I built a %CRLF% variable: Variable Set to ASCII Char 13 to %CRLF% Variable Set to ASCII Char 10 to %T[1]% Variable Modify String %CRLF%: Append Text String Variable (%T[1]%) and tried attaching that to each item in the multi-choice menu, but the results were identical the quote above, as though the macro completely ignored the %CRLF% string within the choices. Anyway, that's where I am, and what I'm hoping to accomplish. Thanks for any help.

What Bob said................................ I use that kind of indicator all the time for stuff. I usually annoy myself with them. In fact, I think they are tedious and inelegant, but they are very handy. I probably use them where something different would probably work better, but this whole Macro Express thing is a constant learning experience. Here's an example from a recent macro I tweaked. I have a macro that processes huge text files, searching for specific information with in them. Sometimes the text files are hundreds of MBs in size, sometimes they are just a few KBs. To keep track of the huge ones, I had built some extra code to change/update a text box displaying the percentage of processes that had been completed (the big ones take 6-8 minutes), so that the user (usually me), can be confident that the macro really is still working. Unfortunately, this extra code dramatically slowed down the small files. Overall time spent was negligible, but without the "updates" the small ones were done almost instantly, with the updates, the macro took 3-5 seconds. Not a big deal, but not really necessary. So I considered options, and ended up building an initial indicator: Set Variable %N10% to size of XYZ.txt. If variable %N10% < 1000000 Set Variable %T8% to SKIP. Then whenever the macro gets to the "update" section, I use: If Variable %T8% <> SKIP Update code Of course, I could probably just us the "If variable N10 <1000000" code rather than set the %T8% to SKIP... But then, that's part of what annoys me