February 11, 2014

Reading from System Event Logs

Filed under: General, Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 3:08 pm

Just been asked how to read from the system event log (what you see in Windows Event Viewer) using Macro Scheduler.

As it happens there’s already an example of monitoring the event log for specific event types and responding to them in the Scripts n Tips forum here.

So I’ve taken that code and modified it slightly to return a list of all entries for a given event code.  Here is the script:

Although I’ve added code to allow you to retrieve ALL events I would not advise it as that could take A. VERY. LONG. TIME.

I’ve added this example into the Scripts n Tips forum.  Here.

February 4, 2014

Macro Recorder or Automation Tool? How do you describe it?

Filed under: General, Macro Recorder — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:16 pm

When you tell people about Macro Scheduler how do you describe it?  Do you call it an automation tool, a macro recorder, a script language, a data entry tool, an interface builder, a trained monkey, or something else altogether?

I’d be interested to know.

To me Macro Recorder suggests only a tiny part of its capabilities, but it’s a useful and popular term.

An automation tool sounds more encompassing but “automation” can mean different things to different people.

IBM and SAP use “automation” to refer to the interconnected nature of their Enterprise solutions, connecting data across the entire organisation. But to me – and Macro Scheduler – automation is something more robotic: automation of a more specific set of human activities.

This kind of automation requires a tool box containing many tools, one of which might be the macro recorder.

Does it matter? Not if you’re using it and benefiting from it, no, probably not.  But in getting the word out, explaining what it is to people and from a marketing point of view, it’s more tricky.

And that’s why I’m interested to know how you describe it.  I’ve started a poll over in the forums.  Please answer the poll or add a comment.

Thanks!

January 9, 2014

Happy New Year!

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 7:12 pm

Happy New Year everyone!

Apologies it’s a bit late. Our family Christmas and New Year was pretty full on and then just as things were meant to go back to “normal” I went down with tonsillitis.  Seems something like this is going around these parts and I’m not the first.  So that pretty much put me out of action for the first part of this week.

But happy to say I’m much better now and back to full speed ahead.

Over here in the UK it’s currently very, very, very wet.  Floods all over the place. In the US it looks like it is very, very cold.  Hope  wherever you are you are safe and sound and looking forward to everything 2014 has to offer.

Cheers for now!

Marcus

December 27, 2013

Christmas Morning 1972 – Macro Scheduler Arcade – From JRL

Filed under: General, Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 10:43 am

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I expect many of you are still enjoying some holiday time. Well if you are here’s some Macro Scheduler fun from forum regular JRL.

Yes, it’s a two player 1970s computer game written entirely with Macro Scheduler code. Here’s the code

See JRL’s forum post and grab the code here: http://www.mjtnet.com/usergroup/christmas-morning-1972-t8106.html

Paste it into a new Macro Scheduler macro, hit run and off you go.  Up and down arrows control the right hand paddle, A/Z the left. Enter to start, Esc to end.  Happy Memories! Enjoy 🙂

If you don’t have Macro Scheduler you can download a trial version here.

December 10, 2013

Print Excel File Automatically

Filed under: Macro Recorder, Scripting — Marcus Tettmar @ 10:41 am

Thanks to Alberto Voli for this little tip.  The code below can be used to print an Excel file without having to manipulate the printer dialogs.  It uses VBScript to interface with Excels’ COM object model to call it’s PrintOut method.

Place the VBSTART .. VBEND lines near the top of your script ready for use. To use modify the path to the Excel file in the VBRun line and place that line where needed.

You can use this approach with other Microsoft Office Apps, e.g. Word. A good tip is to record a macro within Excel or Word using it’s own macro recorder. This will create VBA code. You can then view the VBA code to figure out what objects and methods you need. You can then convert it to VBScript which you can run inside Macro Scheduler.

December 9, 2013

Winter Sale – 25% Off New Licenses

Filed under: Announcements — Marcus Tettmar @ 2:11 pm

Get 25% off new Macro Scheduler licenses until the end of this month.

For the rest of December 2013 we’re offering 25% off all new license sales.  Just use the following coupon code:

XMAS2013

This code is valid for all editions of Macro Scheduler and can be redeemed at http://www.mjtnet.com/pricing.htm (Enter the code on the cart/checkout page).

November 18, 2013

PC Audio At Work – Screencasts

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 4:00 pm

We’re finding screencasts more and more effective in a technical support and training role.  But it occurs to me that not everyone has audio.  At one of our large clients most PCs – even those in the IT department – don’t have audio capabilities.  I guess this could be common among the larger corporations.

If so many of our videos and the screencasts we send out would be nigh on useless because a major part of their benefit is that we can explain what is going on.  Just watching us click on the screen won’t always be enough.

I’m seeing screencasts and video being used more and more online.  We’re not the only people doing this.  So perhaps things will change.  But I’d be interested to know if you find this a problem at your place of work.  Feel free to comment below.

November 11, 2013

Costly Mistake or Competitor Sabotage?

Filed under: General — Marcus Tettmar @ 3:54 pm

Microsoft advertising their advertising network using Google’s advertising network.

Is this a typo from Microsoft or are Google having a chuckle.

Either way Google are making money out these useless clicks 🙂

Useless Box Kit

Filed under: Pointless but Fun — Marcus Tettmar @ 12:02 pm

I rather like this. I thought you might too:

And it gives me an idea.

This struck me as being rather like a hardware equivalent to the old “Hello World” type program most people start out with.  I remember learning BBC Basic with something like this:

10 Print “Hello”
20 Goto 10

Does anyone have a totally useless but fun Macro Scheduler macro?

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