Macro Recording and Automating Windows with Macro Scheduler – Tips & News
I’ve posted a poll over on the Macro Scheduler Facebook page to find out what people think about the next version of Macro Scheduler being v13. It’s a bit of fun really but I’d be interested to see what people think. Maybe you think it’s unlucky, maybe it’s lucky. But even if you’re not superstitious maybe you think it’s time for a change. Go ahead and respond to the poll.
We’re currently working on an x64 version of MacroScript. We now have a working x64 compiler and run time (the Macro Scheduler UI and debugger is still x86) which we are testing internally.
If you are a registered customer and use 64 bits and would like to test out the 64 bit compiler/runtime please let me know. It would help if you have a 64 bit process to automate that you cannot currently do – easily or at all – with the existing 32 bit version.
It should be said that in most cases a 64 bit version is not necessary, as the existing version can still launch and manipulate 64 bit applications. But there are some areas where 64 bit support would be useful. One is where you need to scrape text from a 64 bit application (Edit: though we have a an updated version of the text capture libraries that utilise a “proxy” to get at 64 bit processes – so this will no longer be an issue). Another is if you need to run some advanced 64 bit operating system commands where a 32 bit equivalent does not exist. This is rare but such scenarios do exist. Edit: Actually that can be fixed by disabling file system redirection.
Remember that this is very early days alpha stuff – and as I said above there is no new 64 bit version of the UI or debugger just yet. We’re still working on that and still have some design decisions to make. At the moment the only interface to the 64 bit script interpreter and compiler is via the command line. So only those prepared to get their hands dirty need apply! 🙂
We now have a YouTube Channel. And today I have uploaded all our current tutorials there. The videos are still available on our web site in the usual place but we will also add future videos to YouTube and if you subscribe you will then get a notification when a new video is added. Plus of course you can post comments there.
So, please head on over and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
And, as always, if there’s a video tutorial you would like to see please let me know what it is. Even better, you could make one yourself!
Are you on LinkedIn? If you are, please connect with me there. My profile URL is http://uk.linkedin.com/in/marcustettmar. Make sure to add a note to say you’re a Macro Scheduler user so I know it isn’t a random request, and I’ll add you. See you there. 🙂
I was helping a customer out today who is still using Macro Scheduler version 9. I hadn’t looked at version 9 for a long while and using it made me realise how much of an improvement the current version (12) is, especially in regards to the debugger.
Version 9 – released 5 years ago now – did not support multiple breakpoints or running from breakpoints which made debugging this customer’s script much less simple than it would have been in v12. There was also no protection from stray key-sends landing in the debugger itself (later versions ensure the script is read only during debug).
It was actually kind of nice to use v9 for a change as it made me appreciate all the more the improvements and progress we’ve made since. And I’m not dissing v9 – it itself was a great improvement over the previous version and I was very proud of it. But working with an old version for a change reminded me how far we’ve come.
Of course version 9 also lacked important commands that have come along since like WaitScreenText and WaitScreenImage. I say important because more and more applications these days are browser based where the containing window doesn’t change, so using good old WaitWindowOpen to ensure new “screens” are ready is not always possible. These types of applications benefit immensely from commands like WaitScreenText and WaitScreenImage which allow you to wait for text within the screens so that you can be sure you’re at the right place in the application before entering data.
If you’re also using an old version of Macro Scheduler please take some time to look at the latest release, as I think you’ll be impressed with the improvements which will make you more productive and allow you to make more robust scripts.
And don’t forget that v9 is scheduled to be “end-of-lifed” on 1st January 2012.
Microsoft have recently launched a new blog called “Building Windows 8” written by engineers on the Microsoft Windows 8 team and providing a means of dialog between themselves and the rest of us. It already features some interesting insights into how the new version of Windows will differ from existing versions. Well worth keeping an eye on.
Here’s their first Windows 8 preview video from June.
Macro Scheduler 12.1.10 is now available for download.
Registered Downloads/Upgrades | Evaluation Downloads | New License Sales
I rather liked this, so thought I’d share:
Quoting JRL on the forums this morning:
Just noticed the forum recently surpassed 30,000 articles. That’s a lot of shared knowledge. Good job everyone
It is indeed. What’s more is that forum posts almost always result in success for the original poster – i.e. they find out how to achieve their aims or learn something new and this means other people can learn from the posts too.
I recently had cause to look at the forums belonging to a different automation tool. Now I don’t like dissing the competition but it reminded me how fortunate our users are that we have quite possibly the most active and helpful user community and probably the largest knowledge base for our type of software. Some who consider themselves competitors don’t have forums at all. In fact there aren’t many software products – competing or otherwise – with the kind of user support we have.
Thank you!
If you are connected to the Internet here’s an easy way of getting your public IP address by visiting checkip.dyndns.org:
HTTPRequest>http://checkip.dyndns.org/,,GET,,HTMLResponse RegEx>[IPAddress],HTMLResponse,1,ips,num_ips,0 If>num_ips>0 MessageModal>Your IP is %ips_1% Else MessageModal>Error retrieving IP from checkip.dyndns.org Endif