Keystroke Delay -vs- Individual Macro Keystroke Delay

[redwards]

Is is better to set the global keystroke delay in MEP Preferences or set it inside each macro as needed. On my install of MEP the Preferences is set to 300 milliseconds which is most likely the default.

[kevin]

Is is better to set the global keystroke delay in MEP Preferences or set it inside each macro as needed.

If you want to set the keystroke delay for everything without having to add it to each macro then use the global value. If, however, you have a macro that interacts with an application that needs additional delays, add a Keystroke Speed command to that macro. Some applications need a little more delay than others (MS Office applications come to mind). But setting the global value allows for a minimum delay to make the majority of your macros work better.

 

On my install of MEP the Preferences is set to 300 milliseconds which is most likely the default.

To clarify, the setting is 300 microseconds (not milliseconds). To put it into perspective 300 microseconds is 0.000300 seconds while 300 milliseconds is 0.300 seconds. Windows needs a minimum amount of delay between keystrokes. We found a default value of 300 microseconds allowed Macro Express Pro to work with the vast majority of applications on all but the slowest computers.

 

Note that, unlike the global 'Delay after keystrokes' setting, the Keystroke Speed command does use a value in milliseconds.

[Cory]

In addition to what Kevin wrote I'd like to add as a practical matter i leave the default option setting alone and when needed set a slower speed in the macro. In my experience most programs have no problem accepting keystrokes and the global value and it would be a sin to slow down their execution for a few bad apples. My advice is to leave the setting alone unless there is a problem with that machine.

 

Also I would like to point out that in programs that do have problems with keystroke speed I like setting it per macro for another reason. When I write macros that are distributed on multiple machines I find that there always seem to be a couple of dogs. So what I do is use a variable for the keystroke and my general 'action delay' and read these values from the HKCU of the registry. Then i have another macro that allows one to change these custom registry values. It's very similar to the way any program has custom options. This way I can slow down the dogs and not impact the rockets.