terrypin Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 I'm experimenting with other ways of running menu macros. Is there a reason why ME Pro does not allow me to export a menu macro as a playable MXE file please? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cory Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Because it wouldn't work. MXE files contain only one macro so how could it possibly call another one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Because it wouldn't work. MXE files contain only one macro so how could it possibly call another one? Cory: I can successfully make MXE files using Export > Export as Playable from macros that include one or more Macro Run commands, so I don't see why that should be the reason? -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Popup and floating menus could not be exported in MX 3 either. This is not new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cory Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 I can successfully make MXE files using Export > Export as Playable from macros that include one or more Macro Run commands, so I don't see why that should be the reason?Really? Well shut my mouth. I had not idea we could do that! Thanks for the edification. FWIW I don't use MXEs much. I thought about them pretty carefully and I simply don't see any good reason to use them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Yes, you can include a Macro Run command in a playable macro. In Macro Express 3 this will only work if the macro is still in the currently open macro file. In Macro Express Pro you can specify the macro file that the macro is in to make it work a little more reliably. There are, however, circumstances where this will not work. A playable macro contains all of the macro commands for a single macro. A Macro Run command in a playable macro does not include the macro that is called by Macro Run. That macro is run from within your macro file. If your macro file is renamed, moved or deleted or if the macros inside it are renamed or deleted, then a playable macro containing a Macro Run command will fail. A Popup or Floating menu is not really a macro. Instead it is a collection of pointers to other macros. As such there are limitations in what you can do with a popup or floating menu: You cannot export a Popup or Floating menu to a playable macro. You cannot drag a Popup or Floating menu from one macro file to another. You cannot include macros from different macro files in a single Popup or Floating menu. Exporting and later importing a Popup or Floating menu may not work because the indexes of the macros it refers to may have changed (macros may have been added, deleted or moved). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrypin Posted February 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Thanks for the comprehensive reply, Kevin. Here's a little background in case it's of interest to you and others. What prompted my query about menu macros was that I was trying to get the best of both worlds by combining the advantages of ME Pro and my other macro program, Stiletto. The latter lets me pop-up a bar of coloured buttons when I 'bump' the top edge of my screen, and clicking any of these displays a menu of Stiletto macros. I wanted to include my ME Pro menu structure on one of these buttons. The usual way of doing that in Stiletto is simply to enter the shortcut's properties. But for some reason that doesn't work for an ME Pro menu macro. For example, take my ME Pro menu macro called 'AWC MENU'. Using Place on Desktop it runs fine from there. Its Target box contains this: "C:\Program Files\Macro Express Pro\MeProc.exe" /A::C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Insight Software Solutions\Macro Express Pro\FULL.mex?AWC MENU If I paste that to my Run box, that works fine too. Yet if I enter it in the normal way into Stiletto it fails. This is what the dialog in Stiletto looks like: Command: C:\Program Files\Macro Express Pro\MeProc.exe Command Parameters: /A::C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Insight Software Solutions\Macro Express Pro\FULL.mex?AWC MENU If you have any ideas why it doesn't work, then I'm keen to solve that puzzle. I've tried many variations in vain. On attempted execution, they all end up popping up a Stiletto message inviting me to enter Command Parameters, despite these already having been provided. But happily I've now successfully used an alternative method, namely linking to the shortcuts themselves, like this: Command: C:\Documents and Settings\Terry\Desktop\ME Menus\AWC MENU.lnk (leaving Command Parameters empty). -- Terry, East Grinstead, UK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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