Yehnfikm8Gq

Here's the code I used: Move Mouse to Tray Icon to Macro Express Pro - Macros currently running Mouse Right Click <MOVE MOUSE TO TRAY ICON Icon="Macro Express Pro - Macros currently running" Exact="FALSE" Center="TRUE" Left="0" Top="0"/> <MOUSE RIGHT CLICK/> I did not check how it works with macros running from multiple Macro Files. I simaltaneously ran 3 macros out of one file for testing.

Not me. Syntax should be as unobtrusive as possible and mimic human thought trains. ME is perhaps an extreme example of where syntax is dealt with outside the human interface. You select what you want to do in simple terms. You don't have to care about how that is going to be translated down - syntax by others. Many of the languages in use are gross overkill for average purposes but you are forced to use them even for simple tasks because they come with an application.

Check out the Mouse to Tray command. The only proviso is that it has to be Visible for the stop to work.

I was involved in a project which peripherally needed a driver written for some industrial equipment. The code was by another company but I was overseeing the work. I got hold of the VB manual; VB had just come out I think. It was truly the worst manual I've ever read (bar a few oriental electronics manuals). Clearly written by someone involved in the development. Totally useless. Apart from that I dislike the syntax of object-oriented programs. I occasionally do something in VB. For years I've done a lot of programming in CorelScript for Photopaint. Then that got changed to VBA. It made the simplest task a real pain. Even though I use PPX3 today I still do most of my work in PP7 (early Win95 vintage). It's so easy to knock off a script and the application itself is up and running in seconds. You can do far more with VBA but it's gross overkill for what I need. The only thing I miss from the VBA is that CorelScript can't Get and Put pixels. CorelScript to VBA is as AutoIt to VB. As I noted in another thread PP7s tools are all controls, I'm not sure about PPX3. That has enabled simple automation by ME during hands-on editing (eg hanging on to the mouse while a hotkey with the other hand does something).

What's wrong with the Mouse to Tray? Works fine, the extra macro is two lines and that's it. The read/write method is fine for stopping specific macros (macros without the extra code will continue to run). The idea was to stop all and Mouse to Tray does it so easily.

There are worse-looking programs around but the MEPro interface is a bit untidy, un-Pro in fact. If I were in a large company looking at buying the software I would not be over-impressed. Appearance does count for something and contributes to confidence in the product. The Script Editor is fine. No complaints there although others may have. What's your beef? Here's mine: Why have honking great icons down the side and micro-icons across the top? Same size please, somewhere in between sizes. Icon text is fine for the Side Bar (in proportion of course, no shouting text). Is there much point to the movable Side Bar? The main reason I want to move it is it's so big. Why not have the same icons across the top in Pro as in ME3? Us pros like to use the mouse too and that short Explorer bar looks a bit empty. How about being able to customize from a larger selection of icons; tooltips enabled as Option for Explorer Bar. For simple people like me, can we waste less space with the Categories block. Some of us don't really use that other than to display current mex files? How about a horizontal row of Tabs above the Macros section, wrapping to new row below when right side of the dialog reached. If people use categories for the mex then that row starts with mex name and tabs for categories to the right. In the dropdown list of recent macros, make the box wide enough so I can see more than 5 letters of the macro name. The box is filled with the file path. Alternatively have Option of mex filename only, no path. Although unrelated to User Interface, it would be nice to be able to add graphics to Text Box Displays and the like. That would make the usage seem far more professional. Some companies may like to see their logo appear on the display. The improvements over ME3 welcomed of course.

Your comments highlighted my "up to the ass in alligators/drain the swamp" mindset. One wants to overcome the problem but loses sight of what the task really was. I'm sure something could be done along the lines you indicated for general use. I detest VB so it won't be me. My reasoning for opening at a particular folder is that I already know approximately where I want to be for the task in hand. Each macro may have a different starting folder. Getting back to "The Swamp", I could easily make a multiple choice list of the folders I regularly access (not that many) in a separate macro and preset the radio button with the user macro. Then the most likely choice is already selected, otherwise I can select another. Otherwise, use the standard folder selection dialog and get clicking.

I also assumed "If Contains" would be slower. Long variables (like all text on a web page) may have significantly different times. I'm certain we often try to simplify macros unnecessarily - we think we are saving effort but the processor does a host of operations in milliseconds. If the "Repeat with Folder" did not register each filename into the variable (ie count only), would that make a big difference?

I'd also found that setting the variable before the Repeat cured the problem and passed it on to ISS. I didn't try to analyze the issue; that's what the guys there get the big bucks for!

I tried it before responding and it depends hugely on the PC. My old PC does about 500 filenames per sec*. On my newer PC it will do 10,000 almost instantly. If the total time is insignificant it's not an issue. I've tried folder comparisons and filename searches through multiple files/folders before. They can take 40mins. That's why for significant searches it's often easier to use something like Directory Opus. I have hybrid search macros that do the donkey work with Opus and the final search and listing with ME. Opus is not always quicker - converting a folder of filenames to a text file listing takes significant time, about the same as ME. * this includes counting each repeat, plus an If to exit at a predetermined number

I assume at this point you would have restarted ME a few times and done a reboot. You need to figure out some simple tests to show whether ME is the problem, the particular application or other things on the PC.

You've got to love those unnecessary time delays. If you are actually getting the text rather than the actual command, it sounds like the <> that surround each command are missing. Remember the commands in the Text Type box are Upper Case? I was going to suggest in the previous email that you check the commands in the Direct Editor but it seemed superfluous. May be worth a check. It may also be why Enter did not work, ENTER instead of <ENTER>. The first letter "E" being typed may have some significance to the application. I have no idea what would cause that unless you typed directly in the Text Type Box and forgot the <>. When you click the actions below the edit area, the <> are automatically entered. If those are hit and the <> are missing, you may need to do a Repair Install. Seems unlikely.

Short of remapping the keyboard or jamming keys, the keystroke should be per Text Type (assumed that's what you are doing). Could it have anything to do with what you are trying to type into? Perhaps that does not like "Enter" or it's a multiple choice and the default is not the one you think it is. Does the letter have any significance? PowerDvd and ThumbsPlus for example use simple letters as commands once you are in the program (L=menu, C=adjust color). If you double up on the "Wait for Keystroke" key it should make no difference. Some people may put 2 in to be sure it works. Presumably the macro is not continuing after the keystroke for you. An instance where I would add a time delay between the two key presses to see if there is an interaction. If you are getting lots of keystroke problems you could also suspect the keyboard. Not too likely.

Lock Player only prevents other macros from starting (other than manually via Macro Explorer). It will not stop running macros. (edit1) Something else to bear in mind, you cannot stop macros that are in Delays. You will have to wait until the timing finishes. If that is a problem, break down the timer. If you want 30 minutes, make a one minute loop of 10x6sec delays and repeat 30 times (or 300x6sec once). Not as accurate but will stop within 6 secs. (edit 2&3) How about Mouse to Tray and right-click on the running man until all stop? I tried it and it stopped all running macros. In the stop macro, set the Tray icon name to "Macro Express Pro - Macros currently running". Seems to work on single and multiples.

You may want to check out a thread a few down the list Won't work on vista laptop. It relates to Vista but W7 has similar. I have no idea how relevant it may be. If you are unfamiliar with UAC I suggest you google it so you understand security implications. As I noted in that thread, recording macros limits what you can do although it's very convenient for simple macros. If you enter commands manually, you can write smarter macros and can handle unexpected problems (like timing issues). That may also avoid recording issues. Some security software does not like the keylogging aspects of ME. That does not seem to be your problem. You could pass on your problem to ISS by filling in a "Report a Bug" form on their Support page.

I've never used this facility. It may be quicker to get ME to flag an event then use another program to actually find the change. With ME I surmise you would have to make a list of the files at the start and then compare to the list after the flag. Rather than process the entire list you could be smart about it, like you would do manually. Check the filenames about halfway down the list If the filenames are the same the change is in the bottom half Otherwise the change is in the top half Repeat a few times (with the halfway) to get close to the change. You would have to work out relative speeds of the above logic versus processing every filename. Let's say you have a list of 4,000 files. To get to #2,000, Repeat with Folder but don't do anything other than increment a counter (very quick). When the counter reaches the goal, then read the filename, End Repeat. Your existing list you can Text File Process and simply process line # 2,000. This is an idea only, I've never tried it.

Another way of doing it will work for sure but requires that all macros that you want to run have some extra commands. Have each running macro check the value of a text file every so often. If the text file (one word) says "run", keep going, if it says "stop" Macro Stop. You can set the "stop" by another macro. Starting again as scheduled macros, the first thing a macro does is to write "run" to the file on the first run (only) through the commands. If you want to start certain macros only (such as the ones that were stopped from running) you will have to create a list of some kind. That can also be in the form of a text file. The control macro starts the macros listed at its scheduled time. If you want to have multiple starts, run control macros at those times with different macro lists. I'm sure this method could be implemented in several ways.

Thanks for trying. I tried the "named" variable approach and the Prompt for Filename behaviour worked as I described. It seems that we have differences between OSs. Could you navigate either the Filename or Foldername applets with ME? That may be OS-dependent too. I get an applet for Prompt for Foldername but an Explorer-style dialog for Prompt for Filename.

It does not sound impossible. Assumed ME is installed on the PC. So many questions though. What carries out 1) and 2)? OneNote? You? ME? These sections with tabs, are they full page so you see one section with 4 tabs per standard OneNote? Anything else in the section? Can you navigate from section to section with keystrokes or are you doing that with a mouse? What does 3) mean? How is the "waiting for other input" going to work? The icon types its text or not. Why click the icon if the text is needed later? 4) how do you append a form with 4 tabs to other forms? Each tab info to the bottom of the corresponding tab on the previous form? Does OneNote have a built-in capability to do that? If the form is being appended why do you need a new form for the input? If icons intended to be on a OneNote page, can OneNote run links to non-documents like on the Desktop? You would have to be able to run a macro from each icon. Could be done by other means (screen position). Is the text being typed at the text cursor position? Cursor positioned by you? I don't have OneNote so I'm not sure I can help.

If you Prompt for Filename and preset the variable with a filename, the applet opens in the relevant folder with the file pre-selected. If you Prompt for Foldername, you get an applet that has My Computer selected regardless of any preset of the variable. That is quite annoying. The applet can be easily navigated manually. To get to the 3rd folder starting with "T" on the D: drive you would type D<KEYP+>TTT . The applet does not seem to respond to keystrokes from ME. Ideas on opening the applet with a preset folder selected, or method to navigate applet?

I must be a meat and two veg guy. I really don't care what text looks like or avatars or signatures or anything else. After I ditched 3.6, when I reinstalled 3.5.7 I manually checked for updates (within 2 hours) and all the add-ons that had been disabled had updates that 3.6 did not find. I'll wait for 3.6.0.%N[%N[1]%]%

It sounds to me like you are recording mouse movements to the wrong parameter. Mouse coords can be to the screen or the active window. Say you mistakenly leave ME on top of your application window. Let's say you can move the mouse perfectly horizontally, the ME window is aligned left edge of the screen and is 500 pixels wide. If you record the mouse position per your other app and it's 800 pixels from the left edge, that's what is recorded. When the macro is played back it moves the mouse to the right but when it reaches 500, the bounding box of the ME window, it stops because that is as far as the ME window goes. The same happens if you enter coords off the screen. The mouse is still on-screen closest to the coords. What you need to do is put ME to the back and record with your application window on top. If it's a maximized application you could use to Screen or to Window. If the window is a certain size, mouse moves should be to the active window. I haven't used Record for many years. I suggest you check the Capture settings in Option/Preferences. Recording is fine for simple tasks and sometimes is a good way to get the framework for a macro. It is generally better to enter commands manually. If you need to click on something you need a Mouse Move, then Mouse Left Click. Entering a Mouse Move command gives you the options of enabling the Mouse Locator, the hotkey to record the X and Y, and whether to record relative to the screen or window or several other options. After launching the Mouse Locator, put your application window on top, position the mouse, press Ctrl+Space and you will find X and Y have been filled in the dialog.

I've found Paste is reliable if you allow enough time and the application doesn't mind Paste. It's the only option with large quantities of text. In some of my old macros where I needed reliability in the shortest possible time I counted the number of characters and proportioned the time delay for Copy and Paste accordingly. That was with widely varying amounts of text to be copied. I vaguely remember 60,000 characters per sec for my old PC. You have to balance time for counting against time saved in the Copy and Paste. If you are doing it from the content of a text file or similar such as html you could probably evaluate far quicker from the file size. Although I described it as dumping the Clipboard in a blob, in reality the content is pasted sequentially. Any interruption can lead to the dump being truncated. I can't understand why that occurs. Windows is given the task of pasting and should not allow anything to interrupt. If another window tries to come to the top, it should be prevented from doing so until the previous tasks are done or the pasting should continue on the now-lower window. Instead it's "Insert Time Delay Here".

The commands are changing a filename to a URL. The same problem occurred with changing : to | . It's always puzzled me why people have their home page somewhere on the WWW but that's another story. What seems odd is that it's not an incorrect computation (that operated fine), it is stopping the Repeat. I also tried the Repeat set to 100 times. Thanks for checking it out. Once one starts to lose confidence you end up wasting time troubleshooting because you're not sure if it's the same stuff all over again. In normal programming it's fun trying to figure out what's wrong but if after an hour you find what you originally had now works, fun is not applicable. You've learned nothing.

I changed per your instructions and apparently I can type my usual garbage! I installed 3.6 but uninstalled when most of my add-ons were disabled. That was a bit naughty because it said before install that only one add-on was affected. Back to 3.5.7. I'm all for security but if my software is disabled I put it in the same class as malware.