1¾«o'PRRRRSTTo record a Macros with Windows Recorder. 1 The Recorder program can be used to record a sequence of keystrokes, and to assign a “Shortcut” keystroke pattern so that the whole original pattern will be reproduced automatically just by using that simple shortcut code of a few keystrokes. This is a “Macro”. For example, Recorder can be used to reproduce quickly a standard paragraph or a letterhead, just by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the F1 key, or another shortcut of your choice. You can have a whole set of these personally designed shortcuts available at the same time by having them in the one Recorder file. 2 It can also be used for getting access to a character not in the normal range of the keyboard. If you start Windows Character Map, you'll see a full range of the characters available; those in the first three lines can be keyed in directly; those in the following four lines cannot. Click on one of thes characters, and you'll see displayed in the bottom right of the window the code for that character. With most, it involves “Alt+number”. For this, you need to engage the NumLock key, hold down Alt, and type in the appropriate number, which is a three or four digit number, the first digit being always zero. For some of these extra characters, another key code is given, without a number. In Times New Roman or Arial, try Ctrl+Alt+e; this produces é. Add Shift, and you get É. This is true for all the vowels. What you get depends on the font you're using. Using Recorder, we can extend this pattern for easy access to other characters; see below. 3 Start your application - for example, Word Processor. Resize or minimise the window until you can see the Recorder icon in Windows Program Manager. (To “Minimise” a window means to reduce it to an icon at the bottom of the screen, while still open.) To do this, click on the down arrow in the top right hand corner of the window of the application in question. If you can see more than one such down arrow, choose the one that belongs to the application you want to minimise. 4 Double-click on Recorder. (If it's already running, you'll have to close the Macro that's running, since only one set can run at a time.) It will open as “Recorder - Untitled”. Open the Macro menu and choose Record. In the dialog box, fill in the details you want. 5 For “Macro Name” type a description of what your first item will do - for example, “Open Quote”, or “Letterhead address”. 6 Make sure the “Enable Shortcut Keys” box is selected. For shortcut keys, enter any letter or number, or function key:click on the down arrow to see which are available, like Backspace, etc. Other characters - punctuation, #, {, etc, are not recognised. Choose your selection/combination of Ctrl, Alt and Shift. For example, for “Open Quote”, you might choose (as I did) Ctrl+Alt, and select “1” as the shortcut key. (For “Close Quote” I have Ctrl+Alt+0.) For your Letterhead, perhaps Ctrl and F1. It may be wise to try beforehand in your application(s) the combination(s) you're thinking of, to ensure the combinations are not already used for another purpose. 7 Set the Record Mouse item to “Ignore mouse”. 8 Set it to run in any application, and relative to Window; to playback fast (otherwise it will play back at the speed you actually type in the content of what you want to produce!). 9 If you want to, add a more detailed description in the Description box. 10 Now that you've set up how you can reproduce easily what you're about to enter, click “Start”. You'll see Recorder reduced to an icon at the bottom of the screen; it's flashing to tell you that it will record the keystrokes you're about to enter. 11 Return to the application you started by clicking in its window if necessary. 12 Enter whatever it is you want to be able to reproduce quickly and easily. For example, for your Letterhead address, just type in the information you want to appear on the top of a letter for the size of paper you use. If it's “Open Quote” from the extended character set above No.127 in Times New Roman font, make sure NumLock is engaged, hold down the Alt key, and enter the appropriate number preceded by a zero (for example, Alt+0147). This will give the character “ , rather than the plain " which is on the keyboard. (“Close Quote” at Alt+0148 gives the character ” ). 13 If what you want to produce concludes with a character from the extended character set above No.127, be sure that you enter any normal keyboard character after it from the keyboard - for example, an X; and then Backspace to delete the extra character. If you do not do this, for some strange reason, the special character you want will not be produced. If what you want is just the special character on its own, you'll get nothing at all when you want to use the macro shortcut keys unless you add and then delete the non-code character. 14 When you've entered what you want, click on the Recorder icon, and accept Save. (This saves just that sequence of keystrokes; later, you'll need to save all the sequences as a set under your chosen filename.) The Recorder window will minimise to an non-flashing icon, to show it is loaded, but not recording what you do now! Your first Macro is ready to use. 15 To test the Macro: in your application, enter the shortcut key combination you chose - for example, if you assigned your Letterhead address to Ctrl+F1, when you hold down Ctrl and press F1, your Letterhead should appear on screen just as if you had typed it in full. 16 If you set it up to produce a character from the extended set and nothing happens, it may mean that you forgot to type in an extra, regular character and delete it; you'll have to go back and try again. Double-click on the Recorder icon, and click if necessary on the faulty macro line. Then open the Macro menu, choose delete, and try again from Step 4. 17 When you're happy with it, leave your application running. You may wish now to save to disk, in case of disaster! If so, enlarge Recorder from its icon again, open the File menu, and choose Save; fill in the necessary details. The first eight characters of the filename can be of your own choosing; then a “period” or “full stop” (“ . ”); the final three characters need to be REC - the filename box already has the extension REC supplied. 18 To add more items to the Macro, open the Macro menu and choose Record again. as at Step 4 above. 19 When you've saved all the individual patterns of keystrokes you want, each with its chosen shortcut key combination, you need to save and close the whole set of Macros. Open the File menu and choose Save. If you did not already give it a filename, do so now. 20 Now that you've saved the set, it's ready to run whenever you need it. It will lie waiting until you use the assigned shortcut keys in your application. If the set you've saved is already open, it is already running, so minimise it to an icon and continue with your application, and try out all the keystrokes you set up. If you've just started Recorder, you need to select it. In the Recorder window, open the File menu and choose Open. You'll be given a list of any existing ones. Make your selection, and it will display on screen. Minimise it, and continue with your application as above. (You may ensure that it automatically runs minimised by opening the Options menu in the Recorder window, and selecting Preferences; check the Run Minimised option.) If there's a space below the working window of your application at the bottom of the screen, you'll see the icon there. 21 If there's a Macro you want often, you can make it more easily available by setting up an icon for it in Program manager, as follows. 22 In Program Manager, open the File menu, and choose New. 23 Accept the default, Program Item, from the dialog box, by clicking Okay. 24 A new box opens for you to enter the details. At Description, type in the title you want to see under the icon when it's ready. 25 At Command Line, type in RECORDER.EXE filename.REC, where filename is the name you gave your Macro file. Click the Run Minimised box so that there's an X in it. You can leave the Working Directory box blank. 26 Click on Change Icon. You'll see the standard Recorder icon - you can choose this if you wish, and it will appear with your title. If you want a different icon, click on Browse. You may have a library of icons available elsewhere; or you can go down the list of filesnames you'll see displayed of files in the Windows directory. If you select MORICONS.DLL, you'll see a box displaying icons; scroll right—left, and double-click on one you choose. You'll also find selections under PROGMAN.EXE and WINFILE.EXE. 27 This brings you back to the Program Item Properties box, with your chosen icon displayed. Choose Okay. You'll see your icon on screen; place it in whichever group you choose. It's now ready to be activated, minimised, with a double-click. If you want the Macro to start automatically every time you start Windows, place the icon in the Startup group. 28 When running the Macro at any time, you may close it: click on the icon at the bottom of the screen to highlight it, and choose Close, or hold Alt and press F4. 29 Applications which run under Windows usually provide some built-in short-cut keying system to make their use easier; while there is some standardisation, there are also variations. Compare how you save a document in Windows Write with how you save a document in another Wordprocessing program. You may find that the short-cut combination in a Macro conflicts with another function you need. If so, you can retain the specific Macro function you want, but change the short-cut keys to something which does not conflict. Open up your Macro file, and click on the offending item in the list displayed. Then open the Macro menu and choose Properties. 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