staying in one category

[margaret]

What most drives me crazy with this program is that it always opens with all the categories visible and it won't always stay in the category I choose.

 

1. Is there any way to make it always open with only the category you want visible? It could be confusing for the people I'm writing the macros for, since they don't need to know anything about System or my "subroutines".

 

2. I have my main macros in one category named after the program they work with. Then I have macros that are only called by other macros in another category (category name starting with X so it will sort to the bottom of the list -- this is what I refer to as my subroutines). Then of course there's System. While I'm editing and going back and forth with different macros, sometimes the System macros appear, covering up some of my macros. Then I have to click on System, then back on the main category in order to see only my main macros.

 

Thanks.

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

I'll leave the subject of Categories to others. I don't use them and maybe you don't have to either. Why not give each user their own Macro File eg Bill.mex, Lucy.mex loaded with their macros, no Categories? That way each user only has access to their macros and ME always opens at their setup. You would have your system Macro Files to yourself and transfer changes to user Macro Files as needed.

 

Some thought would be needed as to how to do that with minimum effort. Depends on number of users and frequency of updating. If they are always the same for everyone, you update a master copy say master.mex . You write a macro to save master.mex as an mex file per user's name, Bill.mex, Lucy.mex. Each update of the master you run the copy macro and then simply replace each user's file.

 

In doing that you could also arrange each person's macros in their own Categories if it was a good idea to do so. Otherwise, just one list of unassigned macros.

[margaret]

I'll leave the subject of Categories to others. I don't use them and maybe you don't have to either. Why not give each user their own Macro File eg Bill.mex, Lucy.mex loaded with their macros, no Categories? That way each user only has access to their macros and ME always opens at their setup. You would have your system Macro Files to yourself and transfer changes to user Macro Files as needed.

 

Some thought would be needed as to how to do that with minimum effort. Depends on number of users and frequency of updating. If they are always the same for everyone, you update a master copy say master.mex . You write a macro to save master.mex as an mex file per user's name, Bill.mex, Lucy.mex. Each update of the master you run the copy macro and then simply replace each user's file.

 

In doing that you could also arrange each person's macros in their own Categories if it was a good idea to do so. Otherwise, just one list of unassigned macros.

 

I don't quite follow your idea. Each macro file has the "main" macros (the ones the user needs to know about), plus four "subroutines" that are called by other macros (reduces errors as if there's a problem, I just fix the subroutine one time and don't have to fix all the macros), plus the default "System" macros. The user doesn't need to know about the subroutines or the system macros. If I have no categories, then the user sees everything every time. Right? There are no differences between one user's file and another's -- except that I have four sets of macro files, for accomplishing the same tasks working with four different programs, so the user gets the file appropriate for the program that he/she is using. Why can't there be a default category instead of defaulting to all categories?

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

I'm confused too! In para 1 you are talking about user macros. In para 2 you are talking about "my" macros. I assumed they were different things:

Each user had a set of macros and that's all they needed.

"My" macros referred to your maintenance macros and did not need to be anywhere but on your PC.

 

...plus four "subroutines" that are called by other macros (reduces errors as if there's a problem, I just fix the subroutine one time and don't have to fix all the macros), plus the default "System" macros....

 

What are these "other" macros? Part of the user's normal set; part of your maintenance setup that is on every PC, or just on your PC? If those subroutines have to be on every user PC, then they will be accessible by everyone. You could put those subroutines in another Macro File (and load that file when needed) but if they have to run with the normal macros that won't work.

 

.......except that I have four sets of macro files, for accomplishing the same tasks working with four different programs, so the user gets the file appropriate for the program that he/she is using.....

 

With my idea you would make it Bill Word.exe, Bill Excel.exe, etc one for each program. I don't use Categories, every task has its own category by Macro File: Web Page Design, Text Processing, Catalogs etc.

 

It sounds like you have the System macros in a Category of their own rather than having them in the main macro listings. For users can't you put them in a separate Category and arrange the Category names so that the normal macros are the default (like you prefixed with 'X'). If they are getting in the way, put them in with one of the other Categories. Considering the hotkeys, they are unlikely to be activated by accident!

 

I've no idea why your selected Category is changing. When I test my setup, it always opens with the last Macro File and the last Category used. That is the default as far as I know and would be fine in most circumstances including yours. Other than that, someone else will have to chip in on Category use.

 

....While I'm editing and going back and forth with different macros, sometimes the System macros appear, covering up some of my macros.....

 

That sounds the strange (corrupt?) and I'm not sure how they cover up "some"; surely it's all or nothing? Otherwise same comment as previous para.

[margaret]

I'm confused too! In para 1 you are talking about user macros. In para 2 you are talking about "my" macros. I assumed they were different things:

Each user had a set of macros and that's all they needed.

"My" macros referred to your maintenance macros and did not need to be anywhere but on your PC.

 

...plus four "subroutines" that are called by other macros (reduces errors as if there's a problem, I just fix the subroutine one time and don't have to fix all the macros), plus the default "System" macros....

 

What are these "other" macros? Part of the user's normal set; part of your maintenance setup that is on every PC, or just on your PC? If those subroutines have to be on every user PC, then they will be accessible by everyone. You could put those subroutines in another Macro File (and load that file when needed) but if they have to run with the normal macros that won't work.

 

.......except that I have four sets of macro files, for accomplishing the same tasks working with four different programs, so the user gets the file appropriate for the program that he/she is using.....

 

With my idea you would make it Bill Word.exe, Bill Excel.exe, etc one for each program. I don't use Categories, every task has its own category by Macro File: Web Page Design, Text Processing, Catalogs etc.

 

It sounds like you have the System macros in a Category of their own rather than having them in the main macro listings. For users can't you put them in a separate Category and arrange the Category names so that the normal macros are the default (like you prefixed with 'X'). If they are getting in the way, put them in with one of the other Categories. Considering the hotkeys, they are unlikely to be activated by accident!

 

I've no idea why your selected Category is changing. When I test my setup, it always opens with the last Macro File and the last Category used. That is the default as far as I know and would be fine in most circumstances including yours. Other than that, someone else will have to chip in on Category use.

 

....While I'm editing and going back and forth with different macros, sometimes the System macros appear, covering up some of my macros.....

 

That sounds the strange (corrupt?) and I'm not sure how they cover up "some"; surely it's all or nothing? Otherwise same comment as previous para.

[margaret]

Oh, I see the source of the confusion! Sorry. All of the macros are "mine" in that I've written them, but each user needs all of the macros. I put the default macros that come with ME into a category called "System." I put the "subroutines" (macros with no activation, which are only called by the macros that the user knows about) into a category whose name begins with "X" so it'll go to the bottom of the list. The macros the user uses are in a category with a name indicating the application that they work with.

 

There's no corruption; the files are fine and have been tested many times. It's just that sometimes the appearance of the list of macros in the Macro Explorer changes unpredictably, with the "System" macros appearing in the lower part of the list only. Then I have to click on "System" and back on the application category in order to see only the application macros. I'll see if I can take a screenshot next time this happens.

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

What makes no sense to me is the Category order. Although I don't use them, they are always in alphanumeric order. I added a bunch of Categories to test. Every time I restarted ME it opened with the last-used. Ditto for reboots. I cannot get them out of alphanumeric order. If you are concerned with order, make sure no other Categories are lower in alphabetical order than your System and X Categories. I'm sure that's what you do. There are a number of applications starting lower than "S" eg Word, so you may have to add a prefix like zSystem or (Zystem!).

 

Other than that there is no way to hide categories. The only way to hide other sets of macros is to put in separate Macro Files as I do, but that doesn't work if they have to be available to run.

 

Have you given any thought to dispensing with ME Explorer being the main interface - have it open minimized. Why not make pop-up or floating menus for the users? I haven't used them myself - I use ME Explorer with no Categories so I don't have your issues. You can also make a Multi-Choice Menu system listing all the tasks and each task runs a macro. You don't have to see ME Explorer at all. If you have four applications, hotkey say Ctrl+W brings up the menu for Word, on which you can select the macro to run. Pop-us may be neater.

[margaret]

What makes no sense to me is the Category order. Although I don't use them, they are always in alphanumeric order. I added a bunch of Categories to test. Every time I restarted ME it opened with the last-used. Ditto for reboots. I cannot get them out of alphanumeric order. If you are concerned with order, make sure no other Categories are lower in alphabetical order than your System and X Categories. I'm sure that's what you do. There are a number of applications starting lower than "S" eg Word, so you may have to add a prefix like zSystem or (Zystem!).

 

Other than that there is no way to hide categories. The only way to hide other sets of macros is to put in separate Macro Files as I do, but that doesn't work if they have to be available to run.

 

Have you given any thought to dispensing with ME Explorer being the main interface - have it open minimized. Why not make pop-up or floating menus for the users? I haven't used them myself - I use ME Explorer with no Categories so I don't have your issues. You can also make a Multi-Choice Menu system listing all the tasks and each task runs a macro. You don't have to see ME Explorer at all. If you have four applications, hotkey say Ctrl+W brings up the menu for Word, on which you can select the macro to run. Pop-us may be neater.

 

Well, my files definitely do NOT open with the last-used category selected. I just took a screenshot of when the System macros appear over mine and a screenshot of how it looks normally. The thing is, the users have to see the Macro Explorer when they first installl the software, because otherwise they cannot load my macro file. They are not in my location -- we are all freelancers -- so I can't install it for them. I tell them to run ME minimized after installation, but I don't see how to avoid their ever seeing the Macro Explorer. But really it's more of an annoyance for me -- suddenly the system macros show up over my macros, in alphabetical order. It's as if normally I would see

 

 

AppMacro1

AppMacro2

AppMacro3

AppMacro4

AppMacro5

AppMacro6

 

Suddenly I see

 

AppMacro1

AppMacro2

Menu of Macro for Topmost Window

Resume / Pause

[etc.]

then other AppMacros that begin with letters after the last letter of the System macros

 

I think I'll write to tech support about this as I don't want to post my screenshots publicly.

[Yehnfikm8Gq]

As I'm liable to do, I'm not answering the question but pointing in another direction! I'm not saying that you don't need to have ME Explorer completely out of the picture. You definitely don't have have it visible to run macros, in fact in multi-user situations I would have thought it undesirable. There are several areas that you should look at.

 

I've already mentioned Pop-Up and Floating Menus which are simple to set up and extensively described in Help. There's a limit of 36? macros per menu which may be good enough - you can always split menus into two or more. I've never used them but within 2 minutes I had all the macros from one Macro File on a Floating Menu (stays visible when the macros run) and a Pop-Up Menu (activate with hotkey and disappears when macro runs). You don't have to worry about Categories because you can't see them - they are not on that format of menu. You don't need hotkeys either - if you choose the Name and Scope option, there is a letter against each macro. Press A and the A macro runs. I'm guessing for most uses, Pop-Up is better than Floating because the menu is inactive unless popped-up.

 

You don't need ME Explorer window visible unless you have some admin to do or writing your own macros. You would start up ME with Explorer minimized to the taskbar and use say a hotkey to bring up the required Pop-Up. You can have multiple Pop-Ups with different sets of macros listed on each etc.

 

The second item is Command Line parameters (described in Help). If you have other people using the macros you may want to start ME in certain way. With the /A<nickname> parameter you could have the most-used Pop-Up menu appear when ME is started; or the most-used Macro file. You may want to use /B to stop others modifying macros. Maybe even the /T where ME is an icon in the system tray (running but minimized to tray).

 

When you were talking about the System macros appearing out of order I thought you were talking about Categories. You are referring to the actual macros, not the Category. One explanation of that is "All Categories" has been selected, so you will get every macro in every Category appearing in the list, in whatever order you designated - Name/Scope/Activation etc.