Sometimes I wonder if Macro Scheduler has outgrown its name. “Macro” seems too small a word, and “Scheduler” is just one small feature. It’s so much more than these two words suggest now.

When version one was released there were less than 20 commands, purely for simulating user input and manipulating windows. No script editor, just a drop down list to select the few commands you needed. And a scheduler. Macro Scheduler was the perfect name. People used it to write macros and schedule them.

Fast forward ten years and Macro Scheduler’s script language, which we call MacroScript, is now vast, with all kinds of functions, looping constructs, conditional statements, subroutines, internet functions, etc. It has a dialog designer for creating user interfaces, embedded VBScript, see-screen image recognition, a debugger, DLL functions you can use to run functions in custom DLLs and Windows API functions, and a full featured editor. There really is nothing it cannot automate. I know people who have created routines over 5000 lines long. The emphasis now must surely be on the word “automation”. But at the same time it has got easier to use.

One feels the word Macro just doesn’t do these capabilities justice. I also wonder if first time visitors might initially make the mistake of comparing Macro Scheduler to other products which are more basic.

But what’s the solution? Change the name? I’m loathe to do that for a number of reasons. There’s ten years of history, loyalty, word of mouth and Google-juice in the name “Macro Scheduler”. No way should we drop the name altogether. Or maybe we should leave Macro Scheduler where it is but start a new branch of the product with a new name? I don’t know. I do know that the word macro is searched for on Google many many times more than the word automate. So perhaps we should leave things be? I also know that Macro Scheduler is a very capable product and we want people to realise that. I don’t want the name putting anyone off.

The other day I was talking to someone at one of the largest utility companies in the USA. She told me that her IT department uses HP’s WinRunner product for automation but they were unable to get it to automate one particular piece of software. WinRunner costs thousands of dollars. She found Macro Scheduler and was very quickly able to use it to automate this tricky application. Other customers report similar stories. Well I guess the name didn’t matter in this case. She found our product and it proved itself.

So does the name matter?

This version uses Macro Scheduler 9.2’s DLL import method. It installs the DLL into Macro Scheduler 9.2’s folder and creates native looking functions instead of LibFunc calls. Much easier to read. Also much easier to edit. Of course, you can switch back to using LibFunc calls if you need/prefer to.

WebRecorder 2.0 also has an ExtractTable function so that you can easily extract HTML tables to CSV files.

Some slight user interface updates also, such as close buttons on the browser tabs.

WebRecorder| Downloads | Registered Updates

I’ve just made Macro Scheduler 9.2 available.

• Mod: FindImagePos: Can now use SCREEN in haystack parm to have it scan the screen directly (no need to capture the screen to a file first)
• Added IGNOREERRORS option to prevent script error popups
• Added ability to change log file viewer in registry from default notepad (Set HKCU\Software\MJTNET\MSched - LogViewer)
• Added DLL import system to define native looking functions rather than have to use LibFunc (Documentation on request. Will be used by WebRecorder 2.0).
• Fixed: Rounding error in CompareBitmaps could yield incorrect result if images more than 99% similar
• Fixed: Errors downloading from some FTP server types with FTPGetFile
• Improved: View System Windows follows correct tree hierarchy
• Added: View System Windows “Identify” option - highlights object

This is a kind of bonus release in a way. We were going to wait for version 10 for some of these features but for various reasons wanted to get them out there now. One is so that we can release WebRecorder 2.0 which will use the DLL import system. Makes for code that is easier to read rather than all those LibFunc calls. The ability to specify SCREEN in the FindImagePos command instead of a bitmap file also makes it easier to write code to scan the screen for an image - there’s now no need to use ScreenCapture first.

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Some while ago I wrote this post about how to script a tool called Textract to perform OCR against the screen. Well gpulawski has just posted this tip in the forums pointing out that Microsoft Office 2003/2007 comes with something called MODI (Microsoft Office Document Imaging) which can OCR a bitmap or TIFF file and is scriptable. Very cool.

We can use MODI transparently in a Macro Scheduler script to use OCR to extract text from a Window. I’ve posted an example here.

This is really useful if you have a window that doesn’t expose text as text objects and you can’t get at the text any other way (e.g. via the clipboard or controls). You may want to check for the existence of a certain string in a window, or wait for a particular word or phrase to appear in order to determine when a process has completed. If the control doesn’t expose the text and the text cannot be copied to the clipboard, OCR may be the solution.

If you’re into Pool, watch out for Jonni Fulcher in the 2007 World Pool Championships 3rd to 11th November. We are proud to be one of his sponsors. So good luck Jonni!

What is it with the packaging you get computer stuff in?

This is that horrible thick plastic stuff. You almost need a hacksaw to get into it. I just about managed with a pen knife. And you have to be careful - this stuff is sharp. There’s more plastic in the packaging than the product in this case. Not exactly environmentally friendly. A cardboard box would be perfectly adequate.

The last time I tried speech recognition was about 15 years ago and back then it wasn’t very good. I suppose it was early days for the technology but I pretty much gave up on it. This morning, however, I was reading Scott Hanselman’s post about speech recognition in Vista and wanted to give it a go myself. It just so happened that I was in PC world today so I picked up a decent microphone, which I have been meaning to get for a while anyway - for product demos and Skype etc.

So when I got back I hooked up the microphone to my vista box and started playing with speech recognition. My goodness it is pretty amazing! In fact I am writing this post using dictation.

One really cool thing is that I can start Macro Scheduler macros using voice recognition by speaking the keyboard shortcuts assigned to them. This could be really handy in situations where voice recognition is needed for controlling complicated processes. E.g. Hands-busy medical applications, or for helping people with disabilities. Macros can be written to control those processes and assigned to shortcuts which can be triggered by voice commands. And all this is capable using Windows Vista without extra software (except Macro Scheduler of course).

QuickButtons makes it easier because you just have to say the text of a button rather than the shortcut key sequence. With QuickButtons you can create an AppBar with buttons assigned to keystroke macros, applications or Macro Scheduler macros. The AppBar can remain visible above or below the application you are working in. Just speak the caption of a button and that button is “clicked” and the macro is executed.

So not only have I learnt how cool Vista’s speech recognition is today, I’ve also discovered how it can be used with our very own Macro Scheduler and QuickButtons to great effect. Dedicated voice recognition software can cost thousands. Yet with Vista and Macro Scheduler and/or QuickButtons you can make voice recognition do anything for far less. Awesome.

If you haven’t already heard about the Excel bug, open up Excel 2007 and try multiplying 77.1 with 850:

=77.1*850

Clearly that should give you 65,535. But Excel 2007 returns 100,000. Oops.

It turns out it’s just a presentational bug. The displayed result is wrong, but the underlying value is correct. If you were to create a graph or access the value from VBA, you’d get the right result. Read Joel’s post for a clear explanation of why this is.

Speaking of Office 2007, I had a near disaster with Outlook today when it refused to work. It crashed on startup, and kept trying to restart itself, only to crash again. Got it sorted in the end. But I’ve been meaning to implement a decent backup solution for Outlook since I switched to it a few months ago. So today I installed BackupOutlook from our friends at Wisco. Does the job nicely. If you’re looking for a decent Outlook Backup tool you should check it out.

There’s a great deal on Direct Access, one of my favourite apps, over on Bits du Jour today. 40% off. Today only. Go grab it.

Direct Access lets you assign textual abbreviations to applications and other actions on your PC. Say you want to open Microsoft Word, you can just type “word” wherever you are, whatever application you’re working on. You can also create text substitutions. E.g. you could be writing an email and type “sign” and it will replace “sign” with your signature. Of course, there’s a confirmation key so you have to hit Shift, or F12 to confirm these actions. Otherwise I’d have opened Word three times and inserted my signature twice while trying to write this post

Direct Access is a really smart tool, written by my good friend Andrea Nagar of Nagarsoft. Please do check it out. I don’t often recommend other people’s software, but I just love Direct Access.

Macro Scheduler 9.1.05 maintenance update was released yesterday.

- Fixed: delay on some systems when saving scripts
- Fixed: Rare issue starting trial on Win2003 Svr RC2
- Fixed: SCRIPT_FILE variable showing garbage in compiled script
- Fixed: Possible “Invalid Pointer Operation” error on windows shutdown

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