How To Build A 60 Macro Pop-up Menu

[ejs]

I built an enhancement to Macro Express which allows me to have pop-up menus containing 60 macros (rather than the maximum of 36 allowed by Macro Expresses native pop-up menus). If anyone is interested in using this, please post a reply to this message thread or send an email to

ejs_mac_express@yahoo.com

 

If there is enough interest, I will post the files for download. I provide an overview below so that you can decide. The reason I'm doing this survey rather than just posting the files is the following: I will need to write up the instructions for setting the menu up (and test them to make sure I did not omit anything), and I don't want to invest the time without knowing that people are really interested.

 

How My Pop-Up Menu Works

 

You will need to install two items, which I will provide:

1 - One macro to call the pop-up menu

2 - An EXE file (which was written in PowerBasic) to create the dialog box for the pop-up menu

 

The macro performs a Program Launch in the macro script to call this EXE file. The EXE file uses a Macro Express command line to call the selected macro. The EXE file does not touch the Windows registry or make any Windows system changes. It does not modify Macro Express in any way or have any special hooks into Macro Express; it interacts with Macro Express using the two ordinary methods I just identified. But I realize that people are reluctant to install EXE files from strangers, which is part of the reason why I want to gauge your interest before I spend more time writing the instructions.

 

Benefits Of My Pop-Up Menu Enhancement

 

1 - It supports up to 60 macros in a single pop-up menu. (You can have several different pop-up menus by selecting a different hotkey for each one.) The macros are arranged in a 5 x 12 table on the screen, so the entire menu is visible without scrolling.

 

2 - You can control the font and point size of the menu items to improve readability or to distinguish certain entries in the menu. (You can independently set the font and point size for each menu item. They don't all have to be the same.)

 

3 - You have full control of the text used in the menu item. It is completely independent from the macro nickname.

 

4 - You can choose any typeable character in the menu item's text label and use it as the one-touch selection key. That is, if you want to allow users to select a menu item with the keyboard instead of clicking with the mouse, which key do they have to press for a given macro? As far as I can tell, in the Macro Express native pop-up menus, Macro Express automatically determines the one touch selection key without letting you control that choice. (Macro Express lets you select the one-touch key for multiple-choice menus, but not pop-up menus.)

 

5 - As a result of benefit #4. you can design new two-stroke hotkey activation sequences for macros, even though the sequences would not normally be valid in Macro Express. For example, ESC followed by "t" could launch a macro, or NUMPAD / followed by "e" could launch a macro. The first keystroke is the macro hotkey for the pop-up menu, and the second is the one touch selection key. If you remember the one touch selection key, you can immediately type it; if you don't remember it, you have the menu on the screen to remind you. (Technically speaking, this benefit is possible with Macro Express's native pop-up menus. But I found that it was not practical without having control of the one touch selection key. In particular, when I changed the order of the menu items in the native pop-up menus, Macro Express automatically changed the one touch selection keys.)

 

6 - When you select a macro from the menu, focus always returns to the window which was active before you press the pop-up menu activation hotkey. The return of focus happens before the selected macro is run. As a result, you can be sure that your selected macro is running in the most recent window, which is important for some macros. (I experienced a limitation with Macro Express's native pop-up menus that the focus got lost in the process of activating the pop-up menu and, as a result, my selected macro might try to run in the wrong window. This limitation goes away with my pop-up menu.)

 

Please don't think this list is intended to put down Macro Express. I absolutely love the product. The only reason I encountered these limitations is that, because it is so great, I use it constantly and for so many different things, and it's natural that I will run into some things that it was not designed for.

[James]

I, for one, would certainly be interested in something like this. However, I must confess that as a beginning user just finding out how to establish a 36 option menu would most likely be enough for me.

[patgenn123]

i WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT!

[johnboy691]

Me Too!!

[ejs]

Since there is not much interest in this capability, I directly e-mailed the information to the three people who wanted it.

[tommytx]

This sounds really great, I have just completed a menu using visual basic program to allow me to access tons of stuff on the computer and web by simple mouse clicks, but I think it could be even better using this macro.

 

Would appreciate a copy if you don't mind... also I program in just about any language you can imagine and would love to see the basic source code if you would be willing to part with it.. along with the 60 menu macro.

 

I love to program and I would probably make lots of changes to it, and if you liked any of them I would be sure to share with you...

 

Thanks

Tom