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I said was there a way for the text box not to activate (meaning "appear") if there was no console output from the program. I do not know how to obtain acantor's script. Is %ConsoleValue% provided by Macro Express Pro, or do I have to create or populate it somehow? Or is it set to "Prompt" and "Prompt" picks up the console output from the program? I need a "Do this, do that" kind of answer.

I have a macro which runs a Python program. I end the macro with Text Box Display to show any console output from the program. Is it possible for Text Box Display not to activate if there is no console output from the program? Also, is there some way of showing console output in a display that closes after a set interval without the user having to click "OK"?

I rarely write macros so am always inexperienced. Today I cured a bizarre problem where I had entered <control>c in "Text Type" assuming that it would save selected text to the Windows clipboard. Instead, in one program it selected its edit mode and deleted the selected string. I tried it in another program where it added a space. I then changed the text in "Text type" to <control down>c<control up> and after that it did what I wanted. It may be useful not to bother with "<control>c" - I don't know why it does not do what is expected.

I have a "mouse move" command in a macro. This is preceded by a "Get mouse position" and a delay. If I start the macro with a keyboard shortcut and then move the mouse manually, the mouse moves but not to the position I specified. Is there a way of preventing manual movement of the mouse sabotaging the macro in this way? If I have asked this before, I apologise. I cannot find the relevant post.

I have Acrobat Reader DC open on one monitor and PDF-XChange Viewer open on the other. I am trying to write a macro whereby Acrobat is selected and "right arrow" is transmitted to it to see the next page of the open document, then PDF X-Change Viewer is opened and "right arrow" is transmitted to it to see the next page of the open document there. The first command is 'Launch Program and Activate Window: Program "ACRORD32.EXE", Parameters "", Window "[title of document]"' where I have the title of the document as it appears in the window title. The second command is 'Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ARROW RIGHT>'. And so on. When I composed the first command I selected one of two running processes called "ACRORD32.EXE". I don't know why there are two since I have only one instance of Acrobat Reader running. I suppose that is how Acrobat Reader works. Under the tab 'Options' I put the title of the document in the box 'Window Title', and "Partial Match" is selected. The macro is activated by a hotkey. Or to be precise it is not activated by a hotkey since it does nothing. I do not know how to debug it since there is nothing to see. How does Macro Express Pro deal with situations where there are two processes running with the same name? I am running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Thanks - this works with the following provisos: I think "registercard" here means "tab". I find that the properties button is greyed out until one selects the hotkey one wants to change. If one imports macros it must be a common requirement that the hotkey must be changed to avoid clashes with existing macros. Perhaps this should be covered in the user manual.

I have found the answer, I think. I was running a program that has its own macro facility. Evidently if I use an activation key combination that it uses, that overrides any Macro Express macro.

I found that 'mouse move' would not work. What did make it work was to select tkinter's console window. Although I have no command to select or deselect any window, "mouse move" seems to work only when this particular window is selected. The macro is: Mouse Move: 165, 67 Relative to Screen. Delay: 0.5 seconds. Mouse Left Click. Delay: 1 seconds. Nothing else. Activation is Ctrl+Alt+W. Scope is global. I closed the tk program to see what that did, but Mouse Move did not work. There was a momentary appearance of the circular blue progress icon. The macro behaves as if its scope is within tk. I have no time now but perhaps rebooting Windows will make it work. I suppose that is the next thing to try, but it would not solve how to make a useful macro. Regards John Sampson

Many thanks. The window title is "tk" in this case. I have been investigating further. "Window Activate" and "Mouse Move" work better if confined to one monitor. I have a two-monitor setup which I suspect is a cause of problems.

What is "Window Activate" actually supposed to do? When I try it it does nothing. Are there conditions to be satisfied before it does anything? I want to change focus to a particular window - if this is the wrong command which is the right one? Thank you for the "CTRL+Space" tip.

Many thanks. The macro doesn't work so I expect I will be back with more questions.

Is it possible to write a macro which selects the window of a running program and moves the mouse to a position relative to that window? One would need to set the mouse locator to show the position relative to that window, so as to know how to set "mouse move". Of course while writing the macro the currently-running program is Macro Express Pro, not the program of interest. The mouse locator does not then show the mouse position relative to the program of interest. Is it possible to make it do so while writing the macro?

If I find I have created a macro with an inappropriate hotkey to activate it, how do I change the hotkey? There is a facility to add activations, but 'hotkey' is greyed out.

Is it possible to run a non-window program such as sed within a macro? It may be a way of using regular expressions within a macro, as Macro Express Pro does not have regular expressions. I would need to be able to feed a string variable to sed and use the output within the macro.

I have a delay after each click already - can they be changed en masse or do I have to change each one individually? What is an ME text box? I would have to do the mouse clicks as they open new windows or controls. As far as I know there are no keyboard alternatives to the mouse clicks - if there were I would use them. It may be that I should try this in Autohotkey, or save time by doing the job manually.

I have a process in Microsoft Word which has to be repeated many times. It involves eleven mouse clicks in different places. I turned on the Mouse Locator and did the process manually, recording the positions of the mouse clicks. When I run the macro, the mouse clicks occur in different places from the ones I filled in to the 'move mouse' selection boxes, making a complete mess of things. Is there a way of running the macro very slowly, with the mouse position shown (X and Y values) at each click, so that I can see what is going wrong? If there were, I could take notes on paper rather than trying to use the same mouse as the one that is being manipulated automatically.

I am trying to use a CSV file to locate records in a proprietary database-type program. I look for a particular value in a field of the CSV file and use the value of another field as key to find a record in the database program. I get an error message saying such-and-such is not a value that exists. But the such-and-such it says is not a valid value occurs neither in the CSV file nor in the database program. Where it comes from I cannot guess - some area of computer memory remote from anything I am doing, I guess.

From here in the year 2013 it looks as if that was a hiding to nothing. I am surprised, since one selects rather than types code, that syntax errors can occur except due to bugs.

Hello - > And is it impractical to temporarily somehow 'remove' Instant Text from the scene, manually or programmatically? Now why didn't I think of that, I ask myself. Anyway, you have set me on the right path - many thanks. Regards _John Sampson_

Sorry, I didn't spell it out properly. Say I make a macro activated by the hotkey <alt><comma>, then in the script editor I select the 'script' tab, then 'keyboard', then Text type, and add a command which I specify to be <alt><comma>. I then have what I over-briefly described as a macro with the same script as activation key combination. I have Instant Text (Textware). One of its hotkeys is <alt><comma> (undocumented, but their support service has described it). I have a niche-market application which also has a hotkey <alt><comma>, but I cannot use this as Instant Text 'sees' it first. I was wondering if Macro Express Pro could be used in some way to transmit <alt><comma> to the niche application, bypassing Instant Text. My experiments so far suggest not, because Instant Text 'sees' <alt><comma> before even Macro Express does. I could write a macro in Macro Express which does the same as what <alt><comma> does, but I think it would be unsafe, as Macro Express Pro does not 'know' what state the niche-market program is in when I press the key combination. If a macro is launched while the computer is in the wrong state it can do quite a demolition job! Regards _John Sampson_

Can Macro Express Pro be used to sort out problems with clashing key combinations? If I make a macro with an activation key combination which is the same as the script, and restrict the scope to the program I want the key combination to command, can I rely on Macro Express Pro to send it to that program rather than allowing another running program to intercept the command? Regards _John Sampson_

I frequently have severe slow-downs of Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit). It gets slower and slower until it is unusable. If I catch it quickly enough, I can shut down Macro Express Pro and normal activity is restored immediately. I do not have to be running any macros for this to happen. Regarding Aero 3d flip, I find this the best way to change and see which window has the focus. <grouse> Most of my macros are 'text type' macros. So often if they include chord key commands they do something completely different from what manually typing the key combinations would do. I am beginning to wonder if Macro Express Pro is really useful for what I do, at least on Windows 7. It also interferes with Clipmate. </grouse> Regards _John Sampson_

I am trying Clipmate for the first time, on Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. Powerpaste does not work properly when Macro Express Pro is running. Symptoms are the same - selection runs up the list of clips without user intervention. From previous items on the Web, it seems that any macro software that monitors the clipboard will cause Powerpaste to behave this way. My question is, can clipboard monitoring by Macro Express Pro be turned off? Regards _John Sampson_