HeyJim

I'm viewing the source code from a Google search page (small sample below) and trying to run a macro that will extract the domain names from the page. I tried setting it up using Control F (search for class=a>) move mouse to cursor, left mouse down, do a Control F < move mouse to cursor, in hope that the domain www.centralcapital.com would be selected. Then I could copy it and loop through to the next domain. As you can imagine, it doesn't work. I've spent too much time going through the manual trying to understand how to use looping and variables and appending to a variable... Well, it just doesn't compute in my head tonight. What do I try next? Thanks. ww.centralcapital.com')" onMouseOut="cs()">Remortgage Specialists</a><br>Fast, easy online application<br>A remortgage to suit your needs<br><font class=a>www.centralcapital.com</font><br><br><a id=aw2

Thanks, Kevin. I just spent some time going over ME Explained and what it has to share about the clipboard. I've also used the csv process before so I have some familiarity with that. I'm picturing processing the file one line at a time. A small problem remains in that I can't just tab to the *next* field and fill that in with the next line of the csv file. After one line processed I tab 3 times to the next then maybe 6 or 8 times to the next field that must be filled in, etc. There's no consistency here from required field to required field. Do I consider a separate csv file that contains numbers relating to the number of times it's necessary to tab to the next required file? A nested repeat? Or, do I just insert x number of line feeds in the emailed response corresponding to the number of times necessary to tab from one required field to the next so that I'm filling non-required fields with nothing? Or, does someone have a better idea?

I have a form set up for prospects to complete if they're interested in our services. The email we receive contains about 25 lines, currently formatted similar to that below but naturally I can make changes there: field_one: prospect response field_two: prospect response Currently, the email arrives and I print it out, go to the form on the other website and type everything in to the other form. (I think this is faster/easier than toggling back and forth using copy/paste. At least for me.) I have a dozen or so (small) macros already so being spoiled by ME I'm wondering what might be the best approach to at least manually run a macro on the email (I can identify it myself when it comes in - no big deal there) which then takes the information and pastes it into the form on the other website. From the tiny bit that I know I don't think it's a csv process so what is my best approach for this? Thanks.

I used this function/process a few months ago and love it. It was a tremendous help then. But, I'm still a novice and not sure this following is "doable". I've searched the help files and forum. Probably the answer was right in front of me and I didn't realize it. Can you kick start me on this? What I need to do is take that comma delimited file of 25 records with 9 fields each and expand it by mixing fields from one record with fields of another record. Take 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D etc. (Where 1 is the record & A is the field) 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D And then add to the csv file the following records... 1A, 1B, 1C, 2D 1A, 1B, 1C, 3D 1A, 1B, 1C, 4D etc. and along the way also create things like 1A, 1B, 2C, 1D AND 1A, 2B, 1C, 1D as well as combinations such as 4A, 4B, 4C, 1A as well as everything in between. I don't know how to do the math but I suspect this will result in thousands of combinations. Hopefully this makes sense by now. My apologies if it doesn't. I know this has to involve looping but I'm not sure how to mix and match the variable combinations from record to record. Any and all help greatly appreciated.

"...I would use ME to create a CSV file" Thanks. I'll pursue learning that option first. If ME can create the CSV file AND assign each field to a specific variable I should then be able to TEXT TYPE each variable into the fields as needed. (?) I'm thinking along the lines of having ME request the data for one field at a time. Creating the CSV file would simply be a byproduct... hmmm. I don't know... maybe I can just import it afterall... you might have a better idea there than what I realized... (I'm only half way through the manual so I'll be a while :-0)

When a new enrollment comes in I first enter all of the relevant information in Quickbooks. After that I open a form in our database and enter all of the same information in the data base. There's simply gotta be a better way! At first I thought of entering all of the information in a spreadsheet and processing it that way, assigning each cell of information to a different variable. I'd also have to have in the spreadsheet a corresponding cell that indicates what information goes in which cell. (What I'll call the title cell.) I'd guess it wouldn't be too hard to figure out a way to ignore the title cells in the spreadsheet but since I'm far, far away from being competent in ME I thought I'd ask for some advice first. How would you address this little project. Am I even on the right track with processing a csv file or a text file or is there a better development path to follow? Thanks for all input.

I'm not sure how complex the solution to this project really is, only that one minute it seems simple to me and then a minute later simply overwhelming. It it's simplest form, I'm thinking along the lines of a macro that would daily (automatically) examine my logs for search terms used to bring people to my site then add new ones to an ad group in my Adwords campaign. Adding new ones would naturally mean a database to check these phrases against before new ones were added and in my status as a very novice ME guy I'm thinking maybe this would be bit too much to tackle? I guess, even if the macro would just return a list of new search terms that would be major help to me. Probably a bit much expecting it to add the words in for me as well. Could you offer a basic approach in terms of commands and procedures I should use in my approach? Not the actual macro (well, I mean, if you're so inclinded...) but what should be my basic approach in terms of determining whether each keyword phrase is unique or brand new? In a related vein, is this the kind of information that would be well explained in the $50.00 manual that's available? I don't recall anyone praising it for it's help yet I'm big on preferring a *very good* manual on my desk. Also, is this project one that would definitely find the PGM Functions library a big help? Thanks for any guidance.

Not sure I follow your question here. I'll copy your work into ME later today or tomorrow and run it. Once I see what it's doing it should make more sense to me.

Thanks to some help on this board before I was able to write a macro that has saved me a ton of work and more time then I could ever accurately estimate. It was my first. My next little project includes looking at the source code of a web page and extracting everything that falls between two tags and then stripping the <b> tags out and pasting or saving the results to a word processor document. For instance, I think what I want the macro to do is go through a page of source code and when it finds "onMouseOut="cs()">Jumbo Jumping <b>Frogs</b></a>" (the quotes won't be there) see "onMouseOut="cs()"> as the flag that it should copy the text up to </a>, spit out the bold tags and return "Jumbo Jumping Frogs. I really don't have a clue as to the concept involved here or even how to place the 100+ resultant phrases per web page into a document or spreadsheet. Hmmm. Is the easiest way to save the results as a csv file? Any guidance on this will be really appreciated.

Joe, I put two of your comments to use and seem to have corrected the problem. Thanks! I believe the fundamental timing issue was that the window was coming in to focus too slowly at times. I enabled a 3 second delay prior to the loop and disabled the two redundant loops and it seems to be working fine. I did have the 3 second delay in already that I was trying at one point but I guess there was a error in my pixel detection commands when the delay was enabled and that led me astray from the solution. The delay "didn't work" at that time so I went looking elsewhere for a solution and eliminated the delay from the macro.

Gotcha. And, thanks. I'll be upgrading to an LCD monitor soon and I know I'll have to make a couple of changes at that point. For those searching the board for pixel change solutions, the triple loop to catch odd pass throughs did work.

I think I finally have it. Since the original macro configuration worked 90% of the time, to state the obvious, 90% of the time it WAS waiting for the correct pixel to change to a new color. It was the other 10% that was puzzleing. What I did was create two more pixel change loops, all right after the other to catch most if not all of the odd 10% that was slipping through. A couple of short trial runs indicate that it's working! I'll keep my fingers crossed for later but logically I think I have to have it running at at least 99% accuracy and I can live with that, I guess.

Had another thought on how to make this work. My original script was 90% effective. What can I add to the processing loop so that when each line in the csv file is processed it is erased? The ten percent of lines that were skipped the first time through could then be processed on a second go through or maybe the macro just keeps repeating until every line has been processed. It certainly seems as though that should work. At least I'm very hopeful again. {I guess I shouldn't post too early in the morning. I just realized that every line really is processed, it's just that some lines are accessed by the macro while the software is doing other things and so they're just lost then from the process. Back to the drawing board.}

No. I have the entire macro working fine, processing a csv file, etc. Thought that was pretty good that this software would enable a rank amateur to put this all together. I just can't get anything to pause the macro effectively except waiting for a mouse click. Thanks for trying people.

I think the solution to my problem is using the window control for a button although for the life of me I can't understand why a pixel changing to the color I need won't work. Anyway, too new to this to know or remember about window controls and buttons I figured this had to be the answer. Having 15 minutes before I had to leave for an appointment I jumped on the macro to give this new option a try. The first couple of times it didn't work at all. I played around with the macro a bit and got closer to a solution when the macro aborted because it couldn't find C1. (I'm going on memory here.) On the way to my appointment it occured to me what is going on now. (I think). Lets say the software goes through four processing windows: A, B, C and D. I've been waiting for a color change in D to hit enter. I used the same thinking to grab the button for window D that says CLOSE but what I really need is to patiently loop during window C and then when that button disappears break out of the loop and move on with the macro since the CANCEL button in window C moves elsewhere (changes name?) in window D. So when I go into work tomorrow I'll be checking to see if the macro will continute to loop while the CANCEL button is present and then break out of the loop when the window changes to D and the CANCEL button no longer exists. I also wonder if although the next button (CLOSE) is in a totally different place and in window D, if it's actually the same window control and I can just focus on the button text changing from CANCEL to CLOSE. As always, any input greatly appreciated.

Nope. Tried everything except setting the pixel manually. Not sure how to do that without using the mouse locater. It's not like the concept is difficult to grasp. The only part of the active window that changes color consistently is the CANCEL button which changes to close at one point. When it changes to CLOSE the pixel changes to the color that the macro is waiting for. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. That button location does have a border that changes color when I mouse over it but not until it changes to CLOSE. I'm sure that has something to do with my problem but I have to get productive now. Wait for mouse click here I come. Thanks though.

I have a couple of other macro projects that are taking priority at the moment but, yes, what you suggest is something that I've given a little bit of thought to over the last couple of days. Something along the lines of plugging in my search term in Google and then run my macro which would do a right click and view source. Run through the html code and I'm sure there's some way to pattern match links and copy them to the clipboard, text file, or csv. Then the same macro could load each url in turn, load the page, view code, collect the info I'm looking for, etc. Sound like a viable plan? I mean, I should be able to script a macro that will do all this. Certainly it would take a lot more macro knowledge than I have but it seems workable. Ha! Then beyond that my imagination becomes challenged as to what I can then do to help me build quality websites for marketing purposes; something special that would help me be different and give me an edge.

Thanks everyone. This gives me something solid to look forward to trying when I get back to the office Tuesday. I"ll let you know how this turns out.

I'm having lots of trouble with wait for pixel to change color. 90% effective just isn't good enough. It seems that the window is stable and consistent in terms of position on the screen but apparently it's, what? moving a pixel or two? To the human eye it looks like the window is always opening in exactly the same position on the screen. About 10% of the time the macro acts like it doesn't wait for the pixel change and just rushes ahead and I lose some information. I guess because I'm brand new at this I'm even having trouble using a different pixel location. I've tried different pixel locations, screen position versus window postion, wait for "equals" and wait for "different then". Nothing much works. Either the macro doesn't wait for my color change (when logically I don't see why it wouldn't) or it waits forever and I have to abort the macro. This is when I try to deviate from my current macro which is 90% accurate. Anyone have any suggestions on how to whip a macro into shape that only works 90% of the time? Currently I'm using (rough code): Text type ENTER Repeat until %n1% = 14215660 Get pixel: screen coords:423,379 into %N1% Repeat end Delay 1 second Text type TAB Text type ENTER, etc. I insert the TAB which then brings the window into focus and the ENTER clicks the FINISH button so the software can move on which, coincidentally, is also where the macro loops back and I process the next line in the csv file. The window title doesn't change, only the text in the window. The "print" is an image. Can't highlight it and copy it so can't focus on it. The only thing I'm left with is to replace waiting for pixel change to left click mouse. I really don't want to do that but I'm not sure if I have any alternative. Any input really appreciated.

Ouch. But, very much appreciated. I prefer "eyes wide open" and the challenge to me is a bit more (well, a lot more) than what I'd expected. However, I'll do what's necessary. I'm not even sure what many of my future projects will involve. Basically, I just want to find ways to provide unique content for a wide variety of sites. I'll find my way. And, now, ME will be a large part of the process.

Thanks, Joe. I feel alot better about getting more involved in ME then. So, to make sure I understand you properly, if I learn enough about building macros with ME then I can query Google, visit the sites returned in a search and mine them for information. THATS exactly what I've been hoping to find and with a shorter learning curve then trying to become proficient in a programing language. A lifetime ago I did some elementary programing for my Commodore VIC20 in Basic but I've probably forgotten everything I every learned. I may be way off base but I'm seeing ME as something of a shortcut for accomplishing some of the things I want to do without having to learn a programing language from scratch.

I just finished my first efforts at writing a macro which will enable me to manipulate some desktop software and build webpages quicker than I could ever do it myself. Well, big deal. That's what ME is all about. (Actually it IS a big deal to me. The first time the macro ran successfully I jumped up, whooped, and scared a co-worker half to death.) There are some other things I'd like to do in the near future but suddenly I'm having doubts based on some older posts I've found in the forum. Now I'm concerned that maybe the internet capabilities of ME are limited and it might be wiser for me to invest my learning time elsewhere. Frankly, I hope not. I really like what I've seen so far. So lets say I wanted to write a macro that would query Google for sites on widgets, visit each of the pages showing in the serps and record any instances of text found on the site that are in bold type. Can I do that with ME? Using ME is it possible to create a macro that will visit a specific website and follow each link until it finds a link to my website or reports "all pages visited and link is not found? In other words, I know there are some internet/web functions but now I'm getting concerned that ME is a little bit limited in this area. Or, did I just work too many hours today. How would you rank ME's internet capabilities?

Nope. I didn't notice the box at the bottom. Thanks to both of you. I think I'll be in work early tomorrow just to finish up my first real macro and clean it up. (Oh, I'm self-employed so that's not too weird, I guess.)

Thanks for the help. But, I'm stuck I found the command to start this and I have: Repeat Until %N1%= 14215660 I found "Repeat End" What I can't find so far (and I have to leave work now) is the "Get" that you use to get the middle line. If anyone could explain that part to me I think I can finish my first major (in terms of importance) macro. I just need that color change wait in there and then clean up the macro so that it runs faster. (God, I love this software already.)

Really sorry to hear that. I've never lost macros before (I'm brand new at this. Just finishing my first major project) but I've certainly lost files before. So, do we construct a macro that starts and runs macroexpress and when closing the program saves the files in three or four different locations? So that when ME shuts down today it does a backup in location 1, tomorrow a backup to location 2, etc.? Is this practical?