Problem With Shortkey Formatting

[jmazor]

I'm stumped, and thought I'd plead for some advice before spending the next two days making changes manually. Can someone help?

 

First, I have a few hundred text expansion shortkey macros that all start with a period and are entirely case insensitive. Examples:

 

Shortkey Text

.mso ====== Motion for Statutory Order

.jrn ======= Jeffrey R. Nalor

.tcj======== telephone conference with Judge

.ta ======== termination agreement

 

 

I realize now that the text strings that replace the shortkeys fall into these categories, which I expect to handle as indicated within the brackets:

 

1. The text will always be the same (might be all caps, all lower case, some caps, etc.). [shortkey ignores case entirely, and just types out whatever I store in the macro.]

 

2. First letter of (only the) first word may or may not be capitalized. [set the "Customize Macro Settings" choice to “Match Uppercase First Char Between ShortKey & Text”].

 

3. All lower case OR the first letter of each word will be capitalized. [set the "Customize Macro Settings" to “Require Exact Upper/Lowercase Match on ShortKey” and create TWO shortkeys for each. Example:

..ta ========== termination agreement

..Ta========== Termination Agreement

 

So question one is: Is this the best way to handle the upper/lowercase problem?

 

If it is, then question two is: Is there any way to export the hundreds of existing shortkeys to a text file that I could mass edit with a text editor, and then import the modified shortkeys back into Macro Express?

[joe]

Jeff -

Is this the best way to handle the upper/lowercase problem?

I think it is. It seems that you are not stumped at all. From what I am reading, you understand exactly how the ShortKey activation works. I am assuming that no prefix is being used.

 

Is there any way to export the hundreds of existing shortkeys to a text file that I could mass edit with a text editor, and then import the modified shortkeys back into Macro Express?

You will have to change them individually. There is no way to copy a library of macros to an editor and then copy them back again. It can be done one at a time, but what would be the point?

[lemming]

[...]

 

So question one is: Is this the best way to handle the upper/lowercase problem?

 

If it is, then question two is: Is there any way to export the hundreds of existing shortkeys to a text file that I could mass edit with a text editor, and then import the modified shortkeys back into Macro Express?

If you can break down the conversion procedure into repeatable steps, then you might be able to use Macex. The Macro Explorer itself is macro-able.

[jmazor]

Thank you both for your input. I have a followup question, please:

 

Is there any way to have a shortkey place the shortkey itself into a variable? For example, if the shortkey is "xyz", I'd like the first command in the macro to be:

 

"Set Variable %T1% to "Current Shortkey"

 

So that after the command runs, %T1% will equal "xyz".

 

I want to do this because I then will have the program go through a CSV file and look for the record that matches the shortkey. In this case, the record that contains "xyz" in one of its fields.

 

Jeff Mazor