Redefining Shortkeys On The Fly

[jmazor]

Thanks to you, our fax project is near completion....report to follow. This item is probably old hat to you guys, but the solution eludes me.

 

I would like to make simple text shortcuts, like ".cn" to type out a client's name. Whenever I type ".cn", for example, Mx would type out the client name for the case I was on. While I would always type ".cn" to get a client's name, Mx would type different client names depending upon which case I was on.

 

I can easily have my office database export a CSV or text file containing the relevant data. Presumably it would contain one record (line) and many fields. I see two methods:

 

A. The values of T1, T2, etc. would be cleared, new values would be loaded from the data file, and Mx would type out the values of those variables when the corresponding shortkey is entered. For example, typing ".cn" might type out the value of variabe T1, ".cr" might type out the value of the variable T2, etc.

 

B. Mx would use the values in the CSV or text file to write a Mx text file like:

<ITEM NAME>.cn

Cleint's Name

John Smith

 

<ITEM NAME>.cr

Case reference Number

Smith vs. Jones

 

but when I went onto the next case, I'd export the data and Mx would use the values in the new CSV or text file to write a Mx text file like this:

 

<ITEM NAME>.cn

Cleint's Name

Penny Lane

 

<ITEM NAME>.cr

Case reference Number

Lane vs. Avenue

 

Two problems:

 

(A) approach "A" would limit me to 99 variables, and I would like to have about 125;

 

( approach "B" doesn't seem to work. I had thought that importing a new text file would replace the previous definitions of each variable with the new definition, but instead the first definition persists and the subsequent ones are ignored.

 

Can anyone suggest a better approach?

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

[joe]

Hello Jeff!

 

Is there any way for Macro Express to "know" which client you are working on automatically, say, by a window title? In other words, is the client or case reference part of the document's window title?

[jmazor]

Joe,

 

'Sorry for the delay in responding. I really wanted my assistant to respond because he can do a better job explaining how he may have solved the problem. I hope he can do so before he leaves for college.

 

The data on each case resides in a case mangement database. The data can be "sent to" ME and then processed either (I think) of these two ways:

 

1. An export to CSV data file process coupled with reading and assigning each value to a variable which is then used to write a shortkey text definition file.

 

2. Through a "formattable clipboard" (in which the values in the fields are essentially merged with a form using the clipboard, resulting in what amounts to a shortkey definition file).

 

I think that Andre took the second approach. I don't know how he got around the problem of having a number of shortkey definitions for a given shortkey read into ME one after the other.

 

Thanks again,

 

Jeff Mazor