Macro Recording and Automating Windows with Macro Scheduler – Tips & News
Here’s a little script I wrote to give you a Date Picker dialog.
Useful if you need to ask the user to select a date and want to make it easy for the user and avoid too much validation.
By Ed Authier.
I used to consider Macro Scheduler just another tool to manage the technology that surrounded me everyday in my career. But at a certain point I realized that it was the best tool I had.
Many years ago a colleague introduced Macro Scheduler to me and in those days we used to supplement the Business System job streams that could not be automated inherently; nightly reports and routines, etc.
From there it evolved into complete elimination of printed reports; then through that automation we eliminated a nightly staff position from the IT team.
I then took Macro Scheduler into network engineering with me. Macro Scheduler would monitor router interfaces and call the on-staff person in the event of an outage. I also utilized it for VPN tunnel monitoring. In recent years, I’ve tied it into the clinical systems I have been working with.
There are so many possibilities with Macro Scheduler. I have read (in the forum) recently that Macro Scheduler is for the “layman” developer, but even with VBScripting you just cannot manage all your code and compile tight executables as you can with Macro Scheduler.
The other items that many people may overlook are the updates, enhancements, and fixes. Marcus and company are very commendable in this area. MJT Net also has an excellent response to support issues.
I am now a partner in my own business and I honestly believe that Macro Scheduler has had a hand in my success thus far.
Edward Authier, Chief Information Officer
Convergent Solutions, Inc.
http://www.convergentsolutions.com
I just stumbled across a couple of posts in another automation product’s forum where someone was asking how to perform date calculations in their automation routines.
In Macro Scheduler you can add or subtract days to a date with one line of code. E.g.:
Sub>date,1
Or, for more advanced date calculations and formatting, you can use a few lines of simple VBScript code, right inside your macro. Here’s a link to an article I wrote on handling dates in Macro Scheduler.
The official solution to the forum post from our competitor’s tech support person was to have the macro manipulate Excel. Yes, to perform a date calculation you are supposed to write steps to open Excel, send keystrokes to it, paste in a formula, send keystrokes to copy the result to the clipboard, and then retrieve that to a variable, which must itself be created in some convoluted manner. Phew!
Imagine doing that inside a loop that iterates several hundred times. Not exactly portable or elegant, and rather prone to error. And anyway, what if you don’t have Excel installed on the computer the macro needs to run on?
Ok, so you’re thinking: “so what, this tool is probably a low end product”. Well get this, the basic version costs MORE than Macro Scheduler Std. The business edition (still with the same [lack of] functionality) costs over FOUR times more than our Macro Scheduler Pro Enterprise package.
If you’re fed up with the limitations of your automation tool and want to switch to the real deal, drop us a line and we’ll offer you a competitive upgrade discount. You know it makes sense.
Edauthier posted a script to the forum which invokes Merlin the Wizard with a little message for you. I had to make a few small changes. I also compiled it into an EXE.
Here’s the code. Download a zip file containing the EXE. Just run it. Enjoy.
Received this nice email today, and just had to share it. Emphasis mine:
Dear Marcus
Having visited your web site over the past few months and analysed the on-line demo’s, I was convinced that your product would help me in shortening the time I had to spend on one particular aspect of my business, so much so that I purchased AppNavigator and Macro Scheduler primarily for this one task.
This task, meant me spending on average at least 1-2 days per month, and having just ran the same task using your product I am delighted to state that it was completed in under 1 hour with no complications – other than one small glitch (my fault) which was superbly addressed by your support team. This is all the more impressive when you consider that I am not a programmer and have never written a line of code in my life.
The task that used to take me 1-2 days a month to do manually is now fully automated at night. Put another way, from my perspective the product has already paid for itself and the savings will be ongoing.
Furthermore the time I have saved will also be productive and so produce further benefits, and this is without considering the human aspect of tedium with repetitive tasks, which should really never be overlooked.
I hate to tempt the god’s by saying this (just in case you decide to hike the pricing!) but your product is indeed excellent value for money, and straightforward to use.
I have now identified other tasks within the business where your products will once again save me time, and further enhance the “investment” in your software.
Often in life we are quick to criticise and slow to praise, so hopefully this letter of appreciation will help redress this imbalance.
In thanks and appreciation.
Yours Sincerely,
Gerry Pentleton
ERA UK
Did you know there’s now a way you can get a free copy of Macro Scheduler Std (Home/Non-commercial Edition)? And it doesn’t involve cracks! We’ve teamed up with TrialPay to offer Macro Scheduler Standard for free.
TrialPay is a new service that offers you software for free as a reward for signing up for a special offer from one of their partners. Here’s how it works: Large companies like Gap, Cingular, Discover, Amex, Vonage, Blockbuster, eBay and TiVo will pay a reward for new customers. In the old days this went to some marketing firm or unhelpful sales assistant, but now, with TrialPay, you can effectively claim this reward for yourself, for being a new customer.
TrialPay has partnered with 100s of companies to use their reward money as a way to pay for stuff that you actually want. Sign up for a Discover card, a new mobile phone from Cingular, a new eBay account or Blockbuster online, etc. And to say thanks, they will buy a copy of Macro Scheduler for you.
So if you can’t spare the cash to purchase Macro Scheduler, or you know someone who needs a copy but can’t bear to part with the funds, this could be a great option. And there’s no need to go looking for software cracks. You can now get a legitimate copy for free!
Feel free to forward this offer to anyone you think might benefit from it.
We had a customer email us the other day having a problem getting his macro to work reliably. He wanted to start an application, so he had written a macro to left click on the application’s shortcut on the desktop. But sometimes the icon moved. He wanted to know how to reliably know where the icon was.
Reality check. There’s an easier way! You don’t need to know where the icon is.
Let’s just think about this for a second. What is a shortcut? As its name suggests it’s a shortcut to something. In this case the shortcut was to an application. We need to start the application. So why not start it directly? Why click on the shortcut at all?
Right clicking on the shortcut and selecting properties tells us the path of the application in the “Target” field. Usually all we need to do is copy that and stick it in a Run Program command:
Run Program>C:\Program Files\FileZilla\FileZilla.exe
Occasionally an application needs to start in a different folder. In the shortcut properties you’ll see a field called “Start in”. If necessary copy the value there and put it in a Change Directory command. So we end up with:
Change Directory>C:\Program Files\FileZilla
Run Program>C:\Program Files\FileZilla\FileZilla.exe
You can even run a shortcut itself:
ExecuteFile>C:\Documents And Settings\Marcus\Desktop\FileZilla.lnk
This way the shortcut is executed just as if you clicked it and all the attributes of the shortcut are used.
No mouse clicks needed!
If you really *do* want to find an icon on the desktop reliably, use Image Recognition.
Or you can even use keystrokes to invoke a shortcut.
SetFocus>Program Manager
Send>FileZilla
Press Enter
But for just starting an application, all this is rather unnecessary. Run the application directly.
Looking at our referrer logs it seems we get quite a few visitors linking through from our listing at:
http://www.itlocation.com/en/software/prd46729,,.htm
But I notice there’s no user review yet. Care to add one?
Wikipedia lacks a “Macro Scheduler” page. It should be neutral (i.e. not written by me). Anyone can create one. Want to start it? Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_Scheduler and get stuck in. Anyone can contribute.
Many thanks to Ferry Halekor for successfully translating Macro Scheduler to Dutch. He’s now about half way through translating the help file. Ferry has also made a Dutch website especially for Macro Scheduler. If you read Dutch, check it out.
