stevecasper

Thanks, cmh, I edited my post while you were providing this response. And while you're right, about multiple macros, you're also right about the not disabling others... I need to be able to abort other macros while the Reminder remains viable.

Ok, for a change of pace, I thought I'd ask about a functionality rather than complaining about a problem. Situation: When I go to lunch, I often return to my desk early start fiddling around, maybe even start working if I'm really motivated or bored, and have a tendency to forget to log back in. To help prevent taking a "long lunch" when I was actually back early, I had a very handy ME3 macro that was scheduled to run every 30 minutes. The macro would remain disabled until I logged out for lunch (an action which, by design, would enable the "Reminder" macro). After 30 minutes, I'd get a pop-up stating "Don't forget to log in!" I'm trying to duplicate that in ME Pro, but a new design in MEP has me stuck. The "When a specified time has elapsed..." option has two tabs: 1) Schedule - essentially where I define the frequency (30 minutes) and 2) Range - where I define lots of little specifics about when the macro runs. I choose to run the macro indefinitely. I want it to run any time of day, so I leave the "Run between the hours of..." unchecked. I may need it any day of the week, so I leave all the days of the week checked. But the line that defines "Start calculating the next runtime at: " defaults to the time and date that the macro was built. So, if I built my macro at 10:00 AM and logged out for lunch at 12:00 PM, the macro would run and remind me at 12:30... perfect! However, if I didn't take my lunch until 12:15, the macro would run and remind me at 12:30, even though I still have 15 more minutes left. What I need is for the scheduled macro to run after the specific time has elapsed from the time the macro becomes enabled. My first thought to work around this new MEP feature was to grab Date/Time variables and plug them in, but the "Start calculating" fields don't accept variables (understandable for an Activation). Anybody have any ideas how I can make the zero-time match the time the macro is enabled? If that's just not possible in MEP, can somebody help me figure out a way to build a macro that essentially does the same thing? Thanks! PS - I've already considered using a macro that simply starts with a 30 minute delay command, and after 30 minutes gives me the pop-up. The problem with that option is that I may be running other macros in the mean-time, which isn't a problem in and of itself (thanks to the multiple macros functionality of MEP), but if I should need to abort any other macros, I will also inadvertently abort this macro, which I definitely do not want to do.

1. I have not, but I will as soon as I get to work. Though I no longer suspect ME Pro has anything to do with this bug. It's just the means by which I'm using the paste function. 2. There is always the possibility that something else on my machine is evil. It's my work computer, so there very well could be some insidious spyware installed by Big Brother which is fiddling with my processes. I don't know if I'll be able to download and install the ProcMon software, but I'll look into it. 3. The smallest possible DE script will look like this: <TEXT TYPE Action="1" Text="a"/> I added repeats in order to process the maximum number of iterations of this function in the least amount of time. I also added code (in the original examples) that then counted how many times the function was successful; but essentially, this single line of code is where my troubles lie in wait. I'll run it from home right now in this post, and then when I get to work, I'll edit the post running it from there (I'm re-adding the repeats). Not because I doubt anybody believes me, but simply because I get bored and this is a form of sad entertainment. From Home: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - My count: 50 From Work: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - My count: 37 (surprisingly, the worst results so far. Usually I get between 45 and 48 successful pastes) If there is something interfering, it is something that runs on start-up. This little test is the first thing I did after booting my system. I have one IE window open, and MEP.

Ok... it was a ridiculously stupid question. I know this, I use this function all the time. I wasn't thinking clearly when I posted it. But it does lead me to an actual question: What if I want it to actually type <CONTROL>a without performing a Ctrl+a ? I mean, when I type it out manually, nothing unintended happens. How do I make "Simulate Keystrokes" actually simulate keystrokes? Is it possible to deactivate the "function" of the functions in Text Type? With a dysfunctional Paste function (apparently isolated to my POS machine at work), I kind of need the "SK" to simulate without variation. Maybe I just need to modify the variable with a Replace < with <<DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".5"/>... Except that I tried that. <DELAY> isn't one of the commands that translates to Text Type. I guess I may just have to build annoying pop-ups to confirm whether or not the paste has worked (if not, repeat, for example) until I can figure out just wth is wrong with my computer.

I want to tell you to shut up . But you're probably right . I think each time MEP has given me this error it has been in relation to a clipboard-event (like the one in my original example, which had me setting the variable from the clipboard).

Yeah, I know all this. I'm an idiot, but not that idiotic. 1. The clipboard I'm using is the windows clipboard. 2. When I say "ME clipboards" I'm referring to macros that use the Clipboard Copy/Paste commands (and like ilk). 3. When using the afore mentioned ME clipboards, the Clipboard Copies are always assigned to a variable (with the occasional exception of Text Type commands) in order to avoid conflicts. The timing of the clipboard isn't the issue, either. The macros posted above don't even use any Copy commands within the repeat (which is the important part of the two macros). It's the paste that is failing. I just tested both of the above macros on my home computer and they both worked successfully on multiple runs, which tells me my flippin' work computer is a pile o' poo (which I honestly already knew). So I guess what I really need is to understand how the Windows clipboard works, so I can try to fix it. I don't expect this forum to be the best source of information on the matter, but I trust all the regular posters here, so if anybody does have an idea, that would be great. In the mean-time I'll be scouring the inter-web.

Is this intentional, or is it a bug? When using Text Type to simulate keystrokes, if the keystrokes being simulated happen to be, and I quote: "<CONTROL>a<DELETE>" Then the function of Ctrl+a Delete occurs. In other words: If I copy some direct editor script from a macro that happens to have the above mentioned code, and use a Text Type command to simulate keystrokes to transcribe it into a text editor, everything that came before the <CONTROL>a<DELETE> gets wiped out. Here, try it out! <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. Bunch of text. <CONTROL>a<DELETE>Ha-ha! You lose!"/> The only reason why I would ever use Simulate Keystrokes rather than Use Clipboard, is simple: Clipboard Paste is inconsistently functional (for me, anyway). Ctrl+v works (manually, but not consistently when mimicked by MEP)... so I have a lot of Simulate keystrokes in macros where I would much prefer to Use Clipboard. But then this little situation reared up and irritated me. Can anybody tell me if this is an intentional or unintentional feature?

I'm not sure where the problem is on this one, so if anybody could attempt to duplicate my results, I'd love to know what you think. I've built the following two macros as tests. If you could build similar macros (or just use mine) and tell me what your results are, it would really help me to understand better what is wrong: Macro 1: This macro uses the Text Type (Clipboard Paste) command to enter text directly (Note: for both macros, the End Repeat is the end of the test, the rest of the code is merely for ease of counting how many times the Paste worked). <REPEAT START Start="1" Step="1" Count="50" Save="TRUE" Variable="%Iteration%"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="1" Text="Test %Iteration%\r\n"/> <END REPEAT/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="<CONTROL>a"/> <WAIT FOR TEXT PLAYBACK Indefinite="TRUE" Hours="0" Minutes="0" Seconds="0"/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <CLIPBOARD COPY/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x02" Destination="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE SET INTEGER Option="\x0D" Destination="%NLength[1]%" Text_Variable="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY STRING Option="\x0F" Destination="%Clipboard%" ToReplace="Test" All="TRUE" IgnoreCase="FALSE"/> <VARIABLE SET INTEGER Option="\x0D" Destination="%NLength[2]%" Text_Variable="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY INTEGER Option="\x01" Destination="%NLength[3]%" Value1="%NLength[1]%" Value2="%NLength[2]%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY INTEGER Option="\x03" Destination="%NLength[4]%" Value1="%NLength[3]%" Value2="4"/> <TEXT BOX DISPLAY Title="Number of times it appears" Content="{\\rtf1\\ansi\\ansicpg1252\\deff0\\deflang1033{\\fonttbl{\\f0\\fnil\\fcharset0 Tahoma;}{\\f1\\fnil Tahoma;}}\r\n\\viewkind4\\uc1\\pard\\f0\\fs16 Repeats Executed: %Iteration%\r\n\\par Successful Repeats: %NLength[4]%\\f1 \r\n\\par }\r\n" Left="Center" Top="Center" Width="278" Height="200" Monitor="1" OnTop="FALSE" Keep_Focus="TRUE" Mode="\x00" Delay="0"/> Macro 2: This macro places the text into a variable, and then uses the Text Type to paste from the variable. <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x00" Destination="%Test%" Value="Test"/> <REPEAT START Start="1" Step="1" Count="50" Save="TRUE" Variable="%Iteration%"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="1" Text="%Test% %Iteration%\r\n"/> <END REPEAT/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <TEXT TYPE Action="0" Text="<CONTROL>a"/> <WAIT FOR TEXT PLAYBACK Indefinite="TRUE" Hours="0" Minutes="0" Seconds="0"/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <CLIPBOARD COPY/> <DELAY Flags="\x01" Time=".1"/> <VARIABLE SET STRING Option="\x02" Destination="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE SET INTEGER Option="\x0D" Destination="%NLength[1]%" Text_Variable="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY STRING Option="\x0F" Destination="%Clipboard%" ToReplace="Test" All="TRUE" IgnoreCase="FALSE"/> <VARIABLE SET INTEGER Option="\x0D" Destination="%NLength[2]%" Text_Variable="%Clipboard%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY INTEGER Option="\x01" Destination="%NLength[3]%" Value1="%NLength[1]%" Value2="%NLength[2]%"/> <VARIABLE MODIFY INTEGER Option="\x03" Destination="%NLength[4]%" Value1="%NLength[3]%" Value2="4"/> <TEXT BOX DISPLAY Title="Number of times it appears" Content="{\\rtf1\\ansi\\ansicpg1252\\deff0\\deflang1033{\\fonttbl{\\f0\\fnil\\fcharset0 Tahoma;}{\\f1\\fnil Tahoma;}}\r\n\\viewkind4\\uc1\\pard\\f0\\fs16 Repeats Executed: %Iteration%\r\n\\par Successful Repeats: %NLength[4]%\\f1 \r\n\\par }\r\n" Left="Center" Top="Center" Width="278" Height="200" Monitor="1" OnTop="FALSE" Keep_Focus="TRUE" Mode="\x00" Delay="0"/> In both cases I experience inconsistent failure rate. It's better than a previously reported %25% failure rate (reported in another thread), but any failure can be devastating to the macro itself. If I change the Use Clipboard to Simulate keystrokes, I have a 0% failure rate (which is fine - considerably faster actually - for short texts like this, but unacceptably slow for longer (full page) pastes. Is this Macro Express, or Windows? Somebody help me make my Paste function work, please!

Usually the text is just a string of numbers 5-10 characters long. It's something very mysterious. I can change the name of the variable and it will work fine. If I change it back it stops working again. But if I wait a while (possibly rebooting the mean time - I haven't been able to specifically hunt it down), and then change it back, it works again. It's one of those weird bugs that is not always what it seems.

Ah, I wasn't sure what the built-in clipboard was called. I just know I hate it, so I disabled it ages ago in favor of my ME clipboards. Yup, the problem is somewhere in my clipboard commands, or in the clipboard function of my OS altogether (about to start a new thread about it). Oh CRAP!!!! That's where I thought I was putting it! DAGGUMIT!!! Now I'm going to have to go through and move everything. I'm such a bone-head!!!

Wha..? Something I knew about that you didn't? Wow... I've been using this awesome functionality forever, it feels like. 1 point to the couch-potato! I may have just looked out the window and noticed there are actual mountains outside!

Hey Cory, These are things that I've done in the past for personal projects that needed me to yank info from an Excel workbook. I was just looking for a way for somebody to process information with minimal action on their part, and as behind-the-scenes as possible. Like I said, it's not hugely difficult to take a few extra steps before running the macro, but actually having the macro take those steps is kind of the point. Of course, I could just have the macro do an <Alt>fac<Tab><Enter> (with possible delays just to be safe), and then reverse the process at the end of the macro. I just wanted something a little more elegant (and sneaky).

I do remember something along those lines. <Fingers crossed>

Hi Jim, So I guess I'm stuck with the manual Save As option, huh? In the situation I'm dealing with the source is .xls (non-negotiable), and when all is said and done, the results must be .xls (also non-negotiable). The .csv or .txt are just for the sake of processing. It's not really all that difficult to make the change, but it would certainly be easier to give somebody a macro and tell them: "Press Ctrl+Shift+\ and the macro will do all the work." Than to give them the macro and tell them that they need to first save the Excel document as a Comma Delimited Text file, and then run the macro. Oh yeah, and then save the .csv back as an .xls. Oh well, I guess we have to live with limitations in our lives

Where to start? ME has a "Copy File" command, in which you can copy an .xls file, changing the .xls to .csv On the surface this works. You can open the file in Excel and it looks just exactly as it should. However, if you open it in notepad, you just get a bunch of gibberish. Likewise if you try to process the .csv through an ASCII File Process, the variable just gets garbage. Using the "Rename File" command gives like results. I know I've used these commands switching between .csv and .txt extensions, and thought for sure I had previously used them (or some other command) to switch between .xls and .csv/.txt... but I just can't seem to do it. I've even tried setting a Text variable from the .xls file, and then saving the Variable to a .csv with the same failed results. Can somebody please shed some light on this for me? Is it possible, if so: how? If not... why? I mean, picking apart the contents of an .xls should be a piece of cake for Macro Express... If you manually save the file as a .csv, ME tears it apart quick and easy as you please. Shouldn't there be a way (other than building a bunch of commands duplicating the manual process) to convert an .xls to something ASCII Processable? Of course, I have to ask the question: Did I miss something obvious?

Ok Mike, I think I've got a solution for you. It's not as perfect as I wanted, but it works pretty darn well. I have a short list of caveats, however. This won't pull from or write directly to an open .xls document. You'll need to save the .xls document that your list appears in as a .csv document. I am (or rather was) sure that Macro Express could do this for you, creating a .csv that it would work from and then getting rid of it automatically (behind the scenes), but I can't for the life of me get it to work.So, first from your Excel program (with the list open - we'll call it Bananas.xls): File > Save As > Bananas.csv (be certain to select CSV from the drop-down list, otherwise Excel may save it as Bananas.csv.xls - which won't work) Second, open the macro in the Macro Expess Editor and make changes to the first 2 commands: Change the location of the first Variable Set String commands to the correct locations on your machine (and change the names to match your files) - Please make careful note: the first one (%T20%) is the name of the .csv you just created (Bananas.csv), the second one (%T21%) needs to be different - I just added a '1' to the end of the name (Bananas1.csv). This is because the macro cannot write to the same file that it is reading from. So it will read from %T20% and write to %T21%. When it's all finished, the information will be moved to %T20% and %T21% will be deleted. Third, close the new .csv file (if it is open, the macro won't do anything). You may have to click a couple of Yes buttons when closing the .csv. [*]This works on my XP Pro machine set to a resolution of 1040 x 1280. This is important because in order to find the "Value" information, the macro has to look for something consistent. In this case, it's the light-blue highlight. I've got a slight fool-proof built in so that the macro starts looking for it too high, and then proceeds to search down the screen until it finds it, but if the macro doesn't work for you, you may need to make adjustments to the %N2% variable (which is where the macro starts it's vertical search down the page - currently set to 200) [*]My Google is set with default colors (I'm not sure if there are other colors available, but this macro relies on detecting the light-blue bar highlighting the line where the values appear). If you are using something other than the default colors, you'll need to figure out the color and reassign it to the %N3% variable in the Repeat Until commands throughout the macro. [*]One last caveat. This macro relies on Internet Explorer. Any other browser will probably not work. Macro Express is very limited as to which browsers are supported (IE being the only one). Finally, I tested this using only the three sample items you gave in your list (bananas, green bananas, and blue bananas). I never had Google get mad at me for too many searches. Maybe a longer list will cause problems. If so, you should only need to enable the 5 second delay close to the end of the script (I built it in there, but left it disabled because it wasn't necessary). The macro will perform the 4 searches per line, then delay before moving on to the next line. Once the macro has finished running, you can open the .csv file and File > Save as > Bananas.xls You'll be prompted to replace the existing Bananas.xls > Choose Yes and you're done (except deleting the Bananas.csv file, of course)! Here is the direct editor script (just copy this and paste it into a blank macro): <TVAR2:20:01:C:\Documents and Settings\z051940\Desktop\Bananas for GotTeeth.csv><TVAR2:21:01:C:\Documents and Settings\z051940\Desktop\Bananas for GotTeeth1.csv><CLIPE><IVAR2:10:01:1><ADFBEG:F10:001:000001:000000:%T20%><HTTP2:1:T:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%T1%><IVAR2:01:09:><NMVAR:04:01:1:0000001:2:0000002><IVAR2:02:01:200><REP3:08:000001:000002:0003:0:01:16381936><NMVAR:01:02:1:0000002:2:0000005><GETPX:3:W:%N1%:%N2%><ENDREP><MMW2:1N,2N><LDCLK><LCLK><CLIPC><REP3:01:000001:000001:00010:1:04:><IFOTH2:07:1:><DELAY:.05><ELSE><BREAK><ENDIF><IFVAR2:2:04:1:10><WCLS:%T1%><MACRUN2:GotTeeth - Bananas><ENDIF><ENDREP><TVAR2:02:03:><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><IVAR2:04:13:2: of about ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N04:><TMVAR2:21:02:00:000:000:of about><IVAR2:05:13:2: for %T1%><TMVAR2:10:02:02:001:N05:><IFVAR2:1:02:7: of ><IVAR2:06:13:2: of ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N06:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:of><ENDIF><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:,><TVAR2:10:01:,%T2%><WCLS:%T1%><HTTP2:1:T:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1%><IVAR2:01:09:><NMVAR:04:01:1:0000001:2:0000002><IVAR2:02:01:200><REP3:08:000001:000002:0003:0:01:16381936><NMVAR:01:02:1:0000002:2:0000005><GETPX:3:W:%N1%:%N2%><ENDREP><MMW2:1N,2N><LDCLK><LCLK><CLIPC><REP3:01:000001:000001:00010:1:04:><IFOTH2:07:1:><DELAY:.05><ELSE><BREAK><ENDIF><ENDREP><IFVAR2:2:04:1:10><WCLS:%T1%><MACRUN2:GotTeeth - Bananas><ENDIF><TVAR2:02:03:><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><IVAR2:04:13:2: of about ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N04:><TMVAR2:21:02:00:000:000:of about><IVAR2:05:13:2: for ><TMVAR2:10:02:02:001:N05:><IFVAR2:1:02:7: of ><IVAR2:06:13:2: of ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N06:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:of><ENDIF><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:,><TMVAR2:07:10:00:000:000:, %T2%><WCLS:%T1%><HTTP2:1:T:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:squidoo.com+intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1%><IVAR2:01:09:><NMVAR:04:01:1:0000001:2:0000002><IVAR2:02:01:200><REP3:08:000001:000002:0003:0:01:16381936><NMVAR:01:02:1:0000002:2:0000005><GETPX:3:W:%N1%:%N2%><ENDREP><MMW2:1N,2N><LDCLK><LCLK><CLIPC><REP3:01:000001:000001:00010:1:04:><IFOTH2:07:1:><DELAY:.05><ELSE><BREAK><ENDIF><IFVAR2:2:04:1:10><WCLS:%T1%><MACRUN2:GotTeeth - Bananas><ENDIF><ENDREP><TVAR2:02:03:><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><IVAR2:04:13:2: of about ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N04:><TMVAR2:21:02:00:000:000:of about><IVAR2:05:13:2: for ><TMVAR2:10:02:02:001:N05:><IFVAR2:1:02:7: of ><IVAR2:06:13:2: of ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N06:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:of><ENDIF><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:,><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:from squidoo.com><TMVAR2:07:10:00:000:000:, %T2%><WCLS:%T1%><HTTP2:1:T:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:hubpages.com+intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1%><IVAR2:01:09:><NMVAR:04:01:1:0000001:2:0000002><IVAR2:02:01:200><REP3:08:000001:000002:0003:0:01:16381936><NMVAR:01:02:1:0000002:2:0000005><GETPX:3:W:%N1%:%N2%><ENDREP><MMW2:1N,2N><LDCLK><LCLK><CLIPC><REP3:01:000001:000001:00010:1:04:><IFOTH2:07:1:><DELAY:.05><ELSE><BREAK><ENDIF><IFVAR2:2:04:1:10><WCLS:%T1%><MACRUN2:GotTeeth - Bananas><ENDIF><ENDREP><TVAR2:02:03:><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><IVAR2:04:13:2: of about ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N04:><TMVAR2:21:02:00:000:000:of about><IVAR2:05:13:2: for ><TMVAR2:10:02:02:001:N05:><IFVAR2:1:02:7: of ><IVAR2:06:13:2: of ><TMVAR2:11:02:00:001:N06:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:of><ENDIF><TMVAR2:01:02:00:000:000:><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:,><TMVAR2:21:02:01:000:000:from hubpages.com><TMVAR2:07:10:00:000:000:, %T2%><WCLS:%T1%><TMVAR2:07:01:00:000:000:%T10%><IFVAR2:2:10:1:1><TMVAR2:17:01:00:000:000:%T21%T><ELSE><TMVAR2:20:01:00:000:000:%T21%T><ENDIF><NMVAR:08:10:0:0000001:0:0000000><DIS:<DELAY:5><ADFEND><DOFILE:05:NN:%T21%>%T20%><DOFILE:08:NN:%T21%>> In the Script Editor it will look something like this: Variable Set String %T20% "C:\Documents and Settings\z051940\Desktop\Bananas for GotTeeth.csv" Variable Set String %T21% "C:\Documents and Settings\z051940\Desktop\Bananas for GotTeeth1.csv" Clipboard Empty Variable Set Integer %N10% to 1 ASCII File Begin Process: "%T20%" (Comma Delimited Text ) Web Site: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%T1% [Default Browser - Wait to load] Variable Set Integer %N1% from Width of Window Variable Modify Integer: %N1% = %N1% / 2 Variable Set Integer %N2% to 200 Repeat Until %N3% = 16381936 Variable Modify Integer: %N2% = %N2% + 5 Get Pixel: Window Coords: %N1%,%N2% into %N3% Repeat End Mouse Move Window %N1%, %N2% Mouse Left Button Double Click Mouse Left Button Click Clipboard Copy Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) If Clipboard Text Equals "" Delay 0.05 Seconds Else Break End If If Variable %N4% = 10 Window Close: "%T1%" Macro Run: GotTeeth - Bananas End If Repeat End Variable Set String %T2% from Clipboard Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Variable Set Integer %N4% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of about" with "" in %T2% Variable Set Integer %N5% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Copy Part of %T2% to %T2% If Variable %T2% contains " of " Variable Set Integer %N6% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of" with "" in %T2% End If Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Replace "," with "" in %T2% Variable Set String %T10% ",%T2%" Window Close: "%T1%" Web Site: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1% [Default Browser - Wait to load] Variable Set Integer %N1% from Width of Window Variable Modify Integer: %N1% = %N1% / 2 Variable Set Integer %N2% to 200 Repeat Until %N3% = 16381936 Variable Modify Integer: %N2% = %N2% + 5 Get Pixel: Window Coords: %N1%,%N2% into %N3% Repeat End Mouse Move Window %N1%, %N2% Mouse Left Button Double Click Mouse Left Button Click Clipboard Copy Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) If Clipboard Text Equals "" Delay 0.05 Seconds Else Break End If Repeat End If Variable %N4% = 10 Window Close: "%T1%" Macro Run: GotTeeth - Bananas End If Variable Set String %T2% from Clipboard Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Variable Set Integer %N4% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of about" with "" in %T2% Variable Set Integer %N5% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Copy Part of %T2% to %T2% If Variable %T2% contains " of " Variable Set Integer %N6% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of" with "" in %T2% End If Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Replace "," with "" in %T2% Variable Modify String: Append ", %T2%" to %T10% Window Close: "%T1%" Web Site: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:squidoo.com+intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1% [Default Browser - Wait to load] Variable Set Integer %N1% from Width of Window Variable Modify Integer: %N1% = %N1% / 2 Variable Set Integer %N2% to 200 Repeat Until %N3% = 16381936 Variable Modify Integer: %N2% = %N2% + 5 Get Pixel: Window Coords: %N1%,%N2% into %N3% Repeat End Mouse Move Window %N1%, %N2% Mouse Left Button Double Click Mouse Left Button Click Clipboard Copy Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) If Clipboard Text Equals "" Delay 0.05 Seconds Else Break End If If Variable %N4% = 10 Window Close: "%T1%" Macro Run: GotTeeth - Bananas End If Repeat End Variable Set String %T2% from Clipboard Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Variable Set Integer %N4% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of about" with "" in %T2% Variable Set Integer %N5% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Copy Part of %T2% to %T2% If Variable %T2% contains " of " Variable Set Integer %N6% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of" with "" in %T2% End If Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Replace "," with "" in %T2% Replace "from squidoo.com" with "" in %T2% Variable Modify String: Append ", %T2%" to %T10% Window Close: "%T1%" Web Site: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:hubpages.com+intitle:%T1%+inanchor:%T1% [Default Browser - Wait to load] Variable Set Integer %N1% from Width of Window Variable Modify Integer: %N1% = %N1% / 2 Variable Set Integer %N2% to 200 Repeat Until %N3% = 16381936 Variable Modify Integer: %N2% = %N2% + 5 Get Pixel: Window Coords: %N1%,%N2% into %N3% Repeat End Mouse Move Window %N1%, %N2% Mouse Left Button Double Click Mouse Left Button Click Clipboard Copy Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) If Clipboard Text Equals "" Delay 0.05 Seconds Else Break End If If Variable %N4% = 10 Window Close: "%T1%" Macro Run: GotTeeth - Bananas End If Repeat End Variable Set String %T2% from Clipboard Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Variable Set Integer %N4% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of about" with "" in %T2% Variable Set Integer %N5% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Copy Part of %T2% to %T2% If Variable %T2% contains " of " Variable Set Integer %N6% from Position of Text in Variable %T2% Variable Modify String: Delete Part of %T2% Replace "of" with "" in %T2% End If Variable Modify String: Trim %T2% Replace "," with "" in %T2% Replace "from hubpages.com" with "" in %T2% Variable Modify String: Append ", %T2%" to %T10% Window Close: "%T1%" Variable Modify String: Append "%T10%" to %T1% If Variable %N10% = 1 Variable Modify String: Save %T1% to Text File Else Variable Modify String: Append %T1% to Text File End If Variable Modify Integer: Inc (%N10%) Delay 5 Seconds ASCII File End Process Copy File or Files: "%T21%" Delete File or Files: "%T21%"

Oh wow, thanks for the list, Kevin. The next time it happens (fingers crossed that it won't...) I'll be sure to check for these specific .exe's EDIT Well, I feel kind of dumb. I don't know how I'd missed it before, but it was the macexp.exe that was hanging around. Killed it and had no problem relaunching MEP. Thanks again!

I've got a recurring MEP crash (ticket number ISS7052) that refuses to allow me to re-launch MEP without first rebooting my computer. I've checked the task manager to see if MEP is still somehow running invisibly, but there is nothing listed that I can reasonably connect to MEP. Does anybody know of any way around a complete reboot? This crappy crash happens 2-3 times a day, and every time I log out of my system for any reason my boss gets a report about it. Occasional computer problems are an accepted part of working with computers, and he understands that. But 2-3 (sometimes more) reboots each day makes him... apprehensive. I'm afraid management is going to strip MEP away altogether if it keeps forcing me to reboot so often (I purchased this MEP license myself, so they don't care if it is 'money wasted'). Thanks

Ticket: [iSS7059]

This shouldn't be too difficult (if you've played with ME for a while), and I'd be happy to help you build the macro you need. But I need just a little more informaiton. Specifically, when you say: "...with the values from each search copied from google and pasted to the excel file." To what values are you referring? Also you say there needs to be a random time delay or at least 5 seconds between each search. Is that in addition to the time required for the macro to perform the Google search, collect the information, and save it to the Excel file? If so, why does there need to be an additional 5 seconds?

That's an interesting bug... I just tried to duplicate it but it worked for me... tell me if I'm doing this right: I have a macro called RandomTests housed in a category called PGM Tests (three guesses what I use this category for). I opened RandomTests in script editor, went to the explorer window and dragged RandomTests to the Unassigned category. I then went back to the script editor and clicked "Save & Close". After all this, I went to the Unassigned category, located RandomTests and opened it easy as pie. I should note, I think, that the PGM Tests category, is actually a sub-category (under the main category Test Macros). I tried this again, dragging from Unassigned to the main Test Macros category to see if that made a difference. Still no error. Have I followed the logic of what you were doing correctly?

Ok, I think I've figured out that the problem is almost certainly not the registry Read/Write combination. * I rebuilt my "check if clipboard is empty" sequence. I then tacked a delay and a Read Registry command followed by a Text Box Display (using a unique Variable) onto the end of the copy macro. The clipboard is definitely copying and saving successfully to the Registry. * I started running the corresponding Paste macro with limited success (75%). The text saved was simple: "Test" Very consistently, if I ran the macro 4 times, Forrest would appear 4 times, but the word Test would only paste 3 times to Notepad. * Thinking it might simply be a matter of the "Alt" portion of the macro launch, I inserted a Text Box display between the Read Registry command and the Text Type command to display the contents of the variable being used. Again, 4 runs, 4 Text Boxes indicating the Read command had assigned the correct information to the variable, but only 3 times did the text actually paste into Notepad. * Assuming there must be an active-window issue, I added two additional commands: I set the active window title to a variable, at the start of the macro, and then added an "Activate Window" macro before the paste command. Exact same fail-rate. I'm about to test "Simulate Keystrokes" rather than "use clipboard to paste", though I hate to do that. Edit <sigh> Simulate Keystrokes appears to work 100% of the time. Assigning the variable to the clipboard, and then using the Clipboard Paste command results in failure as often as using the Text Type command set to Use Clipboard... this is extremely disappointing (sometimes I have a lot of text to paste, and simulating keystrokes, though fast, is not a paste). Oh well. At least the macro works !

I just lost another custom variable. While replying to another thread, I lost %cb% as a variable. Is nobody else experiencing this at all? I can't imagine it's just me. The macro was working fine, I was using it as part of a clipboard function to copy a specific bit of text from point A to point B, and then on the third run I got the same error as originally shown above, only replace %cb% for %acctnumber%. It hasn't worked since.

I did. One of them had an image that I can't display at work (for some reason they are blocked here), and I haven't had a chance to check it out at home.

Jim, Thank you for your detailed response. I'll touch on your points and let you know what my experience is: Initially, I wanted to respond "Yes, I checked." But in reality I don't think I have. I will do that when I get a chance to toy with it again. Yes, sometimes there are CR/LFs involved. But sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Also, sometimes, when it doesn't work, there are not CR/LFs. So this one seems to be a dead-end Actually, the first time I noticed it, I was using it to copy command-lines from MEP Script Editor. When that wasn't working, I tried MEP Direct Editor. Continued failure and I tested from Notepad, and finally have also had problems within this PGM forum text box. So it would appear to not be directly related to the program being copied from/pasted into. The %cb% shown as an array is the "old" way, when I was using Save/Restore. That way I had %cb[1]% through %cb[10]% (assigned respectively to Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+0). Using the registry values to save the clipboard contents, I don't need the array, since each macro will call from a different value: \Clipboard001 through \Clipboard010 and assign the value to %cb%. If I needed to pull more than one at once for a macro, then in that macro I could just assign each needed \Clipboardxxx to a specific variable defined in that particular macro (possibly making the %cb% into an array again for that specific macro. But as far as the basic Copy/Paste functions (Ctrl+1 / Alt+1) I don't need arrays anymore. As I understand it. OT As a side not - relatively off topic to this particular discussion, but relevant in that I just experienced it, my %cb% variable has just crapped out on me the way %acctnumber% did on some of my other macros yesterday (see: MEP Not Recognizing Custom Variable Names!!!!).