Disable all macros with X activation?

[zambai]

I have a lots of macros that use the F keys for activation. I also have a few macros that require all these F key macros to be disabled. I use the Macro Disable and Macro Enable commands to do this. So, every time I write a new F key macro (or even change the name of one of my F key macros), I must also edit the F key disabler and enabler macros with the name of the F key macros.

 

Is it possible to disable and enable all macros (regardless of scope) based on their activation keys (instead of their names)?

[kevin]

There is not a way to enable or disable macros based on their activation from within a macro. You can do it manually from the Macro Explorer Window. You would need to sort by Activation, search for the first 'F-key' macro, highlight the macros, then right click and click Enable Macro/Disable Macro.

 

For the macros that need to disable and enable a set of F-key activated macros could you have them all call (Macro Run) a single macro to disable and a single macro to enable? You could even combine them into one EnableDisable macro and set a variable to indicate whether it should disable or enable. This would make it so you only needed to edit one macro when you add new macros.

 

Or you could keep your list of F-key activated macros in a separate text file. You could then write a macro that reads the names from the text file and enables or disables those macros as needed.

 

Another idea is to take advantage of the 'Output Macro Information' feature. This feature creates a text file containing information about your macros, for example, their names and activations. Once you have the text file, you could write a macro to parse through it looking for macros with an F-Key activation and collect the names of those macros. This could be automated (yes, you can have a macro automate Macro Express itself). Look at 'File, Export, Output Macro Information'.

[zambai]

Thanks! I didn't know that you could export macro information to a text file. After I learned that, it was easy to set up a macro that parses the text file for the activations and then disables (or enables) the macros that fit the bill.

 

I was already doing it the hard way before (for over a year now!), I was simply looking for a low maintenance method of keeping the lists of macros to enable and disable up-to-date.

 

Thanks again for your great info and quick response!

[balithag]

Good to know this. Interesting topic, too. I continue to be amazed at what this program can do.

[Namino]

Good to know this. Interesting topic, too. I continue to be amazed at what this program can do.

 

Me too! It's really only limited by our imagination