Problems with Macro Groups

[dbish]

I recently upgraded from MSched 5.1 to 7.1. I am confused about use of groups for macros. Several subpoints:

1) I did not like the display of the groups on the left side of MSched desktop app so I moved the divider bar (groups vs. macros) over to the left side to give me more room to display macro names. Now, how can I get the group display back?

2) All my ver 5.1 macros came across and were put into the group "General" and all work fine whether run from command line or desktop shortcut or traybar Msched icon/run macro. However, when I created a brand new ver 7.1 macro it has no item listed for group and can't run from desktop shortcut. Error message of "macro in command Line does not exist".. I used Msched's Create shortcut icon to make the shortcut and the properties look okay. I played around with it and found that when I changed the group for this macro to general from blank the shortcut worked. I then renamed my macro, created a new shortcut (via Msched's tool) and now same error - Macro does not exist. Now however, it is still listed as General group.

All I want to do is create macros - have them always go into a default group of General and work via shortcuts.

How do I accomplish that?

A third, unrelated topic - I still have whatever ver 5.1 files are in program files/macro scheduler directory including old help file. When I click on menu item help it brings up the ver 7.1 help file. When I click on the question mark on the toolbar it brings up the old help file. Thought you would want to know - and should I just delete old help file so it will work?

Thanks
Dave

[support]

I recently upgraded from MSched 5.1 to 7.1. I am confused about use of groups for macros. Several subpoints:

Groups let you specify where you want to store your macros. Many people like to specify directories other than the Macro Scheduler directory and using groups allows you to specify different physical locations for different macros and to organise macros more easily. If you have 1000 macros this can be extremely useful.

1) I did not like the display of the groups on the left side of MSched desktop app so I moved the divider bar (groups vs. macros) over to the left side to give me more room to display macro names. Now, how can I get the group display back?

You should just be able to drag it back, but failing that exit Macro Scheduler and delete the following registry key using REGEDIT:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MJTNET\Msched\Width

2) All my ver 5.1 macros came across and were put into the group "General" and all work fine whether run from command line or desktop shortcut or traybar Msched icon/run macro. However, when I created a brand new ver 7.1 macro it has no item listed for group and can't run from desktop shortcut. Error message of "macro in command Line does not exist".. I used Msched's Create shortcut icon to make the shortcut and the properties look okay. I played around with it and found that when I changed the group for this macro to general from blank the shortcut worked. I then renamed my macro, created a new shortcut (via Msched's tool) and now same error - Macro does not exist. Now however, it is still listed as General group.

A macro does not have to have a group, but I've discovered the cause of your problem and it is a bug which we can fix easily. The problem is that the settings aren't saved to disk until the application is closed so if you have renamed a macro and then create a desktop shortcut, until you close the application the desktop shortcut will not find the macro in the settings file. We've fixed this by saving settings to disk when a desktop shortcut is created. In the mean time you will find that if you quit Macro Scheduler the desk top shortcut will then work. Your problem had nothing to do with names or groups but would have manifested itself by changing them.

All I want to do is create macros - have them always go into a default group of General and work via shortcuts. How do I accomplish that?

When you create a macro it will go into the selected group. Macro Scheduler remembers which group you had selected last time and reselects this group on startup. So if you really don't want to ever see the macro list but you want new macros to default to the general folder then select the general folder before you hide the groups pane. That folder will always now be selected each time the software starts.

However, as said previously, if you don't care about groups then it doesn't matter which group the macro ends up in and doesn't have to belong to any group at all. If it doesn't belong to a group it is stored in the default Macro Scheduler folder which is the same for the general group. So if you don't care about groups forget about them altogether.

A third, unrelated topic - I still have whatever ver 5.1 files are in program files/macro scheduler directory including old help file. When I click on menu item help it brings up the ver 7.1 help file. When I click on the question mark on the toolbar it brings up the old help file. Thought you would want to know - and should I just delete old help file so it will work?

Ouch - that is a bug. The toolbar help button should be opening the new HTML help (.chm file) not the old .hlp file. Thanks for reporting this - it should have been spotted before it was released. It will be fixed for the next maintenance release.

[dbish]

Thanks for the help. The registry tweak did not restore my groups list but, as you said, if I don't care and always want them in default folder I am not worried.

The Msched close / restart fixed my shortcuts (and task manager entries which also could not find the macros).

Thanks again

Dave