Cory

What I do in cases like this is create my own registry keys to store things like this that vary from machine to machine. Create a second macro that sets the variables for the user then read them in you main macro. Simple! Alternatively if you can find a registry setting for the color you’re looking at try that. Run regmon and change the colors and see where it lives. Then you can read that in your macro. Another thing you can do for detecting changes is polling the screen. I just wrote a macro for a client that interfaces with a terminal emulator. We simply do a CTRL+A, CopyClip, Clipboard to string var, and then evaluate that string var for the existence of telltale text to know that we have made it. Just a thought.

First off I would not open the files. I would load them into text vars. Then do a repetitive loop to find and replace all occurrences one at a time so that you can count them. We had a recent thread on this if you dig around a bit.

I think you misunderstand me a little but it was interesting what you wrote and spurred other ideas in me. But back to my basic idea. Here’s what I’m trying to say… In VSR (Vista Speech Recognition) (Joy! I made a new acronym) It uses visible objects to act upon. For instance if there is a called “Next Item” it will click that button if you say “Next Item”. Also you can issue commands for keystrokes like the delete or backspace. But ME is invisible normally so how do I get VSR to reach out and touch it? Maybe the ME developers should look into this and see what sort of API could be made use of.

Now that would be nice! While you’re at it have it prevent popup apps! <g>

How did you do the activation. For instance if I have a macro for looking up a word definition online how can one create a command so that I could say something to the effect of “Computer, Define ‘paralax’” and have it do it?

I’ve been messing with the speech recognition in vista and it is working very well. In fact and dictating this right now without touching the keyboard. I’ve not been working with a very long but already I am considering Macro Express. I would very much like to be able to launch macros using this utility. I have a few ideas on how to do it but before spent too much time on it I thought I would put it out to the community to see if anybody has had any experience or thoughts on the matter.

Hey, that’s a cool idea! And yes it can be done. Assuming the field is visible when it’s playing. Otherwise you will have to navigate to it. Check out ME’s windows control commands. They allow macro express to interact with windows controls such as buttons and text fields. There is a tutorial in the help file under tutorials-advanced demonstrating how to use controls to interact with windows calculator. You can use this technique to get text from an invisible field, or even an invisible field in some cases, or even activate macros.

That’s odd. Is it possible the file is open by another instance of ME? Perhaps running on the network? Also check and see what’s up with your system file locks. Maybe, and this is a wild guess, something like an AV program has a file lock against it. For this you should really start an incident on Insights support site. They are very good and usually get back with you in less than a day. FYI this sight is not actually run by Insight even though a few of them hang out here. Often newbs think otherwise which is understandable but they will most often get better and faster support straight from the horses mouth.

That sounds like a fun project and it could all be done on the programming side of ME. But what’s your question?

Sorry I’ve been away for a while. As much as I like computers I also like building things, doing woodwork and the like and I’ve had some fun summer projects. Midsummer sounds like a good time. Near where I grew up in Montana there were some concentrations of Norwegians and Swedes that settled there in the late 19th century so I know of some of these items. However I could never quite get a taste for lutefisk.

In Outlook just use the rules wizard. Here you can set the determining factor and have it launch a program.

I forgot about those. I've been accustomed to looking to activate an already open window when available.

Yes, and I appreciate it. Skål to you too. What will you be drinking tonight I wonder? Personally my favorite is Absolut so I'll use you as an excuse ot have a drink this evening.

Sure, just launch the path. That is write the path where you would usually type a program's name. EG if you put "C:\program files\" it would launch the program files folder.

I envision something like this. You highlight all the files you want and then hit your middle mouse button. The macro should do the rest. So the net user action required is highlight and a click. This in fact is fewer user actions than the nanotech program. With it you would need to highlight, right click and select a menu item. My solution would eliminate all of that after the selection and replace it with one mouse click. Unless you have a have mind reading computer I don’t see how you could possibly do it in less.

We should figure out how to fix that. I was thinking about the same thing recently and was pretty sure it was the direct editor pastes. But I think if we tried to put any extra characters in the code would break. For instance I know if you actually enter a CRLF in the direct editor it will actually do a TextType. Maybe something in a remark? Mabe it’s only when it doesn’t have any spaces? Then again we could just make them attachments.

I don’t think you want to use the delete button as it is essential for normal windows operations but this is relatively easy. I wrote a macro like this for a client but it was a subroutine for other macros. But the idea is the same. Our problem was that on a Windows 2000 Server there is no undelete for the network so I would move the files to a folder called c:\MEDelete. You can even have the macro manage the content and if it sees anything over a certain date or if it’s beyond a certain size delete the necessary files. Figuring out how you want to activate it is the key. You can right mouse click a file and have a context sensitive menu item (see recent thread on this subject) that would pass the path to ME and launch a macro which would do whatever you like or you could simply highlight files, do a CTRL+X and pop open an explorer window to you recycle bin and paste. You could use that multiple file select like patgenn123 was talking about. There are all kinds of ways.

Oh yeah, I got it confused. I didn't read your code but I looked at mine again and it should have N2 instead of N1 in the last two commands. What I get for not actually trying it.

First off I must point out that I am available on a consulting basis! In all seriousness if this is something you really just need I can help do the actual writing or just advise in an interactive way. What you are suggesting sounds like fun and very similar to things I have done in the past. Now where was I… Good explanations, I see what you’re up to. You’re correct that there are limitations to doing it exactly like you want but I can think of a couple of ways to get close. First off I don’t think you have a need for a right click to activate the macro after selecting. Personally I would highlight the files I want, leave the mouse over one of the files. Then hit a hotkey for the macro that would then right click on the file and select the item you want and march on with the macro. In any case you have to select the files and you will have to right click and do something otherwise how would it know when you are ready. So this seems a pretty quick solution: Highlight, hotkey. Oh, and I have an idea. How about you set the middle mouse button to be the hotkey? Very cool. All the rest of the stuff seems pretty easy as long as your filing systems and such are consistent. But you’re right, getting the selection down is the first step and I think if you approach it as I suggest you can avoid the prompts. Uhhh…. No. Why do you think another selection is needed? Once you run your program all the files will be on the clipboard ready for the macro. Uhhhh… Yes!

I’ sorry, I must be think. I still don’t know why you don’t just run it as a part of your macro. Parsing it has nothing to do with the running of the macro. But then again I’ve never gotten any details on what exactly it is you’re trying to do. Why can’t you have the user start running the macro that does whatever it is you like, then pause to have the user select multiple files, right click and copy to clipboard with your utility, and then move on to finish the macro? Maybe if you could give a specific blow by blow of what think it should do and a specific explanation of what it is you’re trying to automate. For instance what is it you want to do with these files? On the one hand you say you want to get the path from multiple objects by right click but then it sounds like you want to be able to have the macro do this somehow by using the right click context sensitive menu. I’m confused. Here’s an idea for you. Why don’t you run the utility and paste the results into a text file and post it here. Then I can tell you how to parse it. As for right click activation of a macro if you look back a while there was an excellent post on how to launch a macro from a right click. Many of us have tried it and it works really well.

If it were me I would save the count in the registry. I know it sounds intimidating to some but it’s super easy. Have the macro read an integer from the registry and then increment it and write it back each time the macro runs. Make a registry value for each macro. ME has a Misc section which I like to use for all kinds of variables I want to stash. Also handy to create preferences for macros. Have one macro edit preferences so the user can change them without being prompted every time. Read Registry Integer: "HowManyTimes" Variable Modify Integer: Inc (%N1%) Write Registry Integer: "HowManyTimes" Text Box Display: Result <REGRINT:1:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Insight Software Solutions\Macro Express\Miscellaneous\HowManyTimes><NMVAR:08:01:0:0000001:0:0000000><REGWINT:1:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Insight Software Solutions\Macro Express\Miscellaneous\HowManyTimes><TBOX4:T:1:CenterCenter000278000200:000:ResultMacro has been run %N1% times>

Because multiple choice is often used for other things besides running macros. For instance I have a fax monitor and alert macro and the operator can choose multiple email recipients to notify of a new inbound fax. Sometimes you want Fred and sometimes you want Fred and Susan. To me their plural does not imply simultaneous execution. If you want to try multiple macros you can. Just not at the same time. Hence the parenthesized plural.

Dude, I love that quote. I'm putting it right up there with "...herding cats"

It sounds like it’s looping and never seeing the control. I noticed you were using the “Is Focused” option. Often a control like a button will be visible but not focused. Might try to change that to “Visible”. In cases like these I write a simple little test macro. You could write one where after you manually get it to make the error box appear check to see if it can see the button or what have you and simply display a text box like “Yup, I see it!”. Wait a minute….. OK, Kevin and I differ in our approaches. Personally if the If condition was ever entered into I would simply click on the button instead of creating a “Found” to be used later. But in Kevin’s I think he forgot to add a Break to the If condition. Without that t he loop keeps going… Like this: Repeat Until %N1% > %N2% If Control %C1% Focused Variable Set Integer %N1% to 81 Variable Set String %T1% "FOUND" Break Else Delay 0.25 Seconds End If Repeat End But he has this N1=81 stuff so I don’t quite follow his logic because he never increments N1 as part of the loop. Maybe he’s missing a counter. Personally I would do it more like this: Get Control %C1% Repeat Start (Repeat 40 times) If Control %C1% Focused Mouse Single Left Click on Control %C1% Break Else Delay 0.25 Seconds End If Repeat End

It is a fundamental limitation that ME can only run one macro at a time.