Macro Recording and Automating Windows with Macro Scheduler – Tips & News
With Christmas round the corner I thought I might post a reminder that we have a number of official logo T-shirts, mugs and mouse mats available via Zazzle.com:
A minor update to Workflow Designer 3 today as well: When attempting to open script code in the Macro Scheduler editor it would fail to find the Macro Scheduler 12 editor and instead try to open the Macro Scheduler 11.x editor. So if you had v11 installed it would open in that. If you only had v12 installed it would fail to open at all. 3.0.01 fixes this so that it first tries v12 and then only tries to open in v11 if v12 is not found.
Registered users can download the update from the registered downloads page. Evaluation versions are here.
Workflow Designer ships with Macro Scheduler Pro Enterprise.
Macro Scheduler 12.1.2 is now available for download from the usual locations (registered updates | trial versions).
This is actually just a change to the AutoLogon component installer and not to the core product. We found a small error in the way the AutoLogon component was being configured in the registry which was preventing it from working properly on some customer systems.
So if you were having problems getting AutoLogon to work please download this update. If you do not use AutoLogon you do not need to update.
Another contribution from Peter Begelsdorf which takes off from where his last video left off. Aimed at complete beginners this video demonstrates how to execute a file and wait for it to be ready before sending text and keystrokes to it.
Part 1 of this sequence and other videos can be found on the Video Tutorials Page.
This video is a result of my recent offer for free licenses and updates in exchange for video tutorial contributions. If you want to have a go at creating a tutorial please let me know.
Following my recent request for video tutorial contributions long-time Macro Scheduler user Peter Begelsdorf has stepped up to the plate and put together a short tutorial aimed at the non-technical beginner.
This slick three minute video introduces the fundamental, yet very important, SendText and Press commands and shows beginners how to create a simple text macro assigned to a hot key.
Peter is now planning to create a sequel to expand on the basics and explain how to execute a file and wait for a program to be ready.
While many of my regular readers may be amongst the more technical and experienced Macro Scheduler users I think these new videos will be a great help to newcomers to the software.
Peter Bengelsdorf is a media integration consultant who was a newspaper editor when he started using Macro Scheduler more than a decade ago. For his contribution Peter has been awarded free future Macro Scheduler updates and a WebRecorder license.
If you would like to create a video tutorial or have ideas for one, please let me know. We’re giving away licenses and future upates to video contributors.
This tutorial has been added to the Video Tutorials page.
I received the following email today (I have paraphrased and anonymised it to protect the innocent):
“We were given a Macro Scheduler script to run on our system that someone else wrote which we are trying to use with your trial version. It doesn’t work. Your product seems to be very flaky and unreliable. Is this a feature of the trial version?”.
Now, when I read an email like that I have to breathe carefully and compose myself. To see what’s wrong with it let’s reword the same message as if it were talking about a different product:
“We were given a VBScript file which someone else wrote and we are trying to run it on our system but having problems. Microsoft VBScript must be very buggy!”
Yeh, so because a script that someone else built using a particular product is buggy the user thinks it is the product that is buggy. It seems not to have occurred to them that the script they were given is clearly not put together very well, or at least not written to run on their system. It hasn’t crossed their mind to report back to the person who wrote the script. For all we know the person who wrote it never intended it to be run on any other system but his/hers anyway.
You can build all kinds of dodgy, bug-ridden and dangerous software with C++. Does that mean Microsoft Visual Studio has a bug?
I’ve downloaded lots of dodgy VBscript code snippets, buggy PHP files and Perl scripts that fail to do what the author says they do, or need tweaking to work on my system. It never occurred to me to blame the VBScript, PHP or Perl interpreters. Next time rather than email the author of the code I’ll email Microsoft, PHP.com or Larry Wall instead.
Sheesh.
WebRecorder and the IEAuto runtime have been updated as follows:
IEAuto 2.08 :
WebRecorder 2.4:
We need to add more video tutorials. There are thousands of forum posts, blog posts and articles on this site but so far we’re shamefully low on video tutorials.
So I need your ideas. I’m not very good at coming up with contrived examples and I’m also the kind of person who learns by doing, so perhaps that’s why I struggle to come up with training guides and videos.
So, you can do one of two things:
1) Send me your ideas for a video. Don’t be too vague. Videos need to be short, so it needs to be fairly specific. Saying “Do a video on dialogs” is not that helpful. Which bit of dialogs? But remember that not everyone has the same applications, so any example needs to be reasonably generic. I can’t do a video on “automating SAP” for example. That’s actually TOO specific.
OR
2) Create a video yourself! All you need is the free version of Jing and a microphone. Assuming we think your video is appropriate we’ll put it on our site on the video tutorials page with your bio and web link if you have one (so you can promote your services if appropriate). We’ll also reward all contributions with free licenses/updates. You could even make a name for yourself!
The other day I posted a response on the forums which uses LibFunc to run the Win32 API function GetKeyState. This prompted someone to email me the following:
I didn’t know the Win API call to check for a key being down. The API call works but have you considered adding a native MS command called KeyDown> or maybe CheckKeyDown>
Well, it’s already possible to create native looking functions for DLL functions and therefore Win32 API functions.
We can do this by creating an Imports file in the Imports sub folder of Macro Scheduler. Let’s make an import file for some functions in User32.dll:
Step 1. If you don’t already have an Imports subfolder inside the Macro Scheduler program folder, create one: c:\program files\Macro Scheduler12\Imports
Step 2. Create a symbolic link to the appropriate DLL in this folder. Start a CMD prompt and CD to the Imports folder and for User32.dll type the following:
mklink user32.dll c:\windows\system32\user32.dll
If on a 64 bit system replace system32 with syswow64
This will create a link to the DLL in the Imports folder. Next we need to make a corresponding INI file.
Step 3. Create a file called User32.ini in the Imports folder. Inside this file create entries for each function you wish to import. E.g.:
[GetKeyState]
FunctionName=GetKeyState
Parms=1
Parm1=INT[SendMessage]
Parms=4
Parm1=INT
Parm2=INT
Parm3=INT
Parm4=INT[FindWindow]
Parms=2
Parm1=PCHAR
Parm2=PCHAR
Now, instead of writing:
Let>VK_UP=38 LibFunc>user32,GetKeyState,result,VK_UP
You can write:
Let>VK_UP=38 GetKeyState>VK_UP,result
So here’s a project for someone or a group of people: Create a User32.ini file for a fuller list of compatible functions which we can share on the website. Any function that accepts either integers (INT) or strings (PCHAR) and returns an integer (or nothing) can be included. And then we want another one for Kernel32.dll … etc.
Macro Scheduler 12.1.1 is now available with the following fixes since my last update announcement:
Workflow Designer and the SDK have also been updated to the same MacroScript version.
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