The Datafile PD-CD 5/DATAFILE_PDCD5.iso/utilities/m/makro/!Makro/!Help/!Help

Text File | 1996-11-25 | 12KB | 301 lines

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                             Text macro system

                         by David Thomas, © 1993-6
                         version 1.52 (25 Nov 1996)
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 Introduction ______________________________________________________________

  Makro is a utility which allows you to define simple string sequences and
then ‘play’ them back, as if you had typed them in at the keyboard.  This
is most helpful in cases where a series of repetetive actions need to be
carried out.

  Makro allows you to maintain many different sets of macros and it allows
you to specify *Commands, so you can use it for, say, an e-mail address
book _and_ an application launcher.

  Version 1.50 is a complete overhaul of the way Makro works - it now
installs on the iconbar, has real window gadgets and you can now have named
macros.  For each macro, there is now ‘name’ and ‘string’ fields which are
edited via a dialogue box.  This makes it much easier to tell what each
macro does.  Many thanks to Bob Harding for suggesting these changes.


 Usage _____________________________________________________________________

  When loaded for the first time Makro will install its icon on the icon
bar.  Clicking SELECT on this icon will open Makro's main window which, at
this point, will in the bottom-left hand corner of the screen.

  The main window consists of a display and pop-up menu selector, left and
right bumper icons and twenty horizontal ‘slabs’.  Each of these slabs can
be programmed to contain a macro and each window's worth of slabs can be
saved - known as a ‘macro set’.

  The display icon shows the name of the current macro set, at the moment
it will be ‘Empty’.  Clicking on the pop-up menu selector next to the
display will open up a menu listing of the different macro sets you can load
(Makro is supplied with several).  Clicking on the left and right bumper
icons will take you through the macro sets available.

  To define a macro, click MENU over any of the slabs.  A menu will appear
with ‘Edit macro’, ‘Save set’ and ‘Clear set’ entries on it - ‘Edit macro’
is the one we're interested in - move the pointer right to open the ‘Edit
macro’ dialogue box.  The dialogue box consists of two writable fields and
two action buttons.  They are:

    • ‘Name’ writable
       Enter in here the name of the macro,

    • ‘String’ writable
       Enter in here what you want inserted when the slab is clicked on,

    • ‘Store’ button
       Will enter your macro into the slab you clicked over,

    • ‘Cancel’ button
       Cancel will shut the window without making any changes, or
       alternatively when clicked with ADJUST will restore the original
       text.

  When you've entered what you want into the writable fields, click on the
Store button (or press Enter) and your macro will be stored in the slab you
clicked over.  When you now click with SELECT on the slab, the string
associated with it will be inserted into whatever document or application
currently has input focus (signified by a cream-coloured surround.)  Also,
clicking with ADJUST will enter the macro name, rather than the string.

  Some strings, which contain special characters, may not be inserted in
exactly the same way you wrote them, see the ‘String Format’ section below
to find out how to avoid this.

  *Commands can be defined simply by entering the command you require in
the ‘String’ writable, with a preceeding ‘*’.  If you need to use a string
which starts with ‘*’, then enter ‘<42>’ instead (which will insert an
‘*’.)

  You can also press Ctrl when the pointer is over one of the slabs to
insert the associated string.  This is useful for menus and dialogue boxes
which would otherwise be closed.


  The ‘Save set’ dialogue box allows you to save your currently defined
macros to a named set, which will from then on be available from the Load
menu.  This dialogue box is also used to delete macro sets - load the
unwanted set into Makro and then save it with nothing in save box's ‘Name’
field - the set will be deleted.


  The ‘Clear set’ entry simply does that - wipes all the macros and renames
the current set ‘Empty.’


  There are also an entry available from the icon bar menu :

  • ‘Save’ will store to disc the current macro set and position of window.
    These options are automatically restored each time Makro is run.


 String Format _____________________________________________________________

  All strings are passed through the RISC OS string translator (OS_GSTrans)
prior to being inserted.  This enables you to easily insert control
characters and system variables.  So things like ‘<Sys$Time>|M’ will be
expanded into the form ‘19:51:42’ and then a newline.

  However, to facilitate this certain characters must be reserved, or take
on special actions.  Basically this means that strings enclosed in angle
brackets are turned into system variables (or characters) and characters
prefixed by ‘|’ are turned into control characters.

  To insert the actual characters (< and |) you must either enter their
ASCII codes in angle brackets or prefix them with the control character ‘|’.
For example:

                           Insert  String needed
                           ------  -------------
                              |          ||
                              <          |<

  Control characters you may find useful are :

                           String  Action
                           ------  ------
                             |M    Return
                             |C    Copy in most editors
                             |X    Delete/Cut in most editors
                             |V    Move in most editors

  You can also enter ASCII codes directly by enclosing the code in angle
brackets.  Base 10 is assumed, but other bases can be used by prefixing the
number with the base number and then an underscore.  For example, “<33>”
generates ‘!’ and “<16_7E>” generates ‘~’.


 Notes _____________________________________________________________________

 • The maximum string size is 255 characters, the maximum name size is 20
   characters.  The maximum number of characters which can be generated
   from a macro is 511 characters.

 • Dropping a text file on one of the slabs will load in the first string
   or the first 255 characters of the file, into the slab.

 • Any enhancements you want me to make then contact me, rather than just
   sitting there muttering to yourself. ;-)


 Example Files _____________________________________________________________

  A number of example files are provided to demonstrate Makro.  Load the
examples by selecting the appropriate entry from the Load menu.  They are:

  “HTML”  HTML Document Markup ___________________________________________

    This uses the standard RISC OS keyboard shortcuts to surround the
    currently selected text with HTML tags.

    It is slightly tricky to get these to work as HTML tags are surrounded
    by angle brackets ( < and > ) which means they will be interpreted by
    Makro as system variables.  The solution is to prefix the first angle
    bracket with a ‘|’ (Ctrl) character.

    For example :

      Name: “Bold”
    String: “|<B>|V|Z|</B>”

      Name: “Italic”
    String: “|<I>|V|Z|</I>”

  “E-mail”  Address Book _________________________________________________

    This demonstrates how Makro can be used as an address book.

      Name: “David Thomas”
    String: “[e-mail]”

      Name: “Justin Fletcher”
    String: “[e-mail]”

      Name: “Clares Sales Dept.”
    String: “[e-mail]”

  “Reports”  Report Creation Assistant ___________________________________

    “Johnny” is an excellent worker
             is a good worker
             is an average worker
             is a poor worker
             is a strange child... ;-)
             etc.

  “Buttonbar”  Application-Independent Buttonbar _________________________

      Name: “Copy”