Tutorial - Capture a Macro - Assigning Hot Key Last

When running Macro Express, you will note that there are five hot keys automatically assigned and displayed in the Macro Explorer. These five hot keys are System Macros (Scope indicates System). One of these System Macros is called Start / Stop Capture and by default is defined as CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X. Pressing CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X will start the recording of a macro and pressing it a second time will stop the recording. The actual hot key used here can be changed to another hot key combination available in Macro Express.

Before we record any macros using this System Hot Key, we want to make sure we have our default settings in place. From the Macro Explorer click on Options | Preferences and select Capture. This will display the Capture default settings.

These are the settings that are used when the System Start / Stop Capture Hot Key function is invoked. These are also the default settings that appear when doing a macro recording by Assigning Hot Key First (see prior example) or when using the Capture Quick Wizard. Let's go ahead and set our defaults. Click on Program for the scope. This indicates that the recorded macro will only play back in the program we record it in. Put a checkmark next to Capture Keystrokes, Capture Mouse Relative To, Capture At and Actual Speed. In the Capture Mouse Relative To  setting, select Window  and Capture Window Size. Put a checkmark by Prompt on Capture which will display a message indicating that the capture is starting. Click on the OK button to save the defaults. We are now ready to record.

An important thing to remember in recording a macro is to make sure that the program you plan to start recording in is active and on top. Our example recording will be in the Windows Paint program. Let's run the Windows Paint program. To do so, click on Start | Run from the bottom left of the computer screen, enter "mspaint" and click the OK button. Once in the Paint program, press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X. A notice may appear warning about the use of the ALT key. Click OK. Then a notice will appear that the macro is about to start recording. Click the OK button to start recording.

The macro is now recording. Let's do something fairly simple in the Paint program such as drawing a face. Draw a circle and place two eyes, a nose and mouth on it. When finished, terminate the macro capture by pressing the same SYSTEM Hot Key. Press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+X. A new window should appear titled "Capture Complete".

At this point we assign a hot key or another type of macro activation to the macro we just recorded. We also give the macro a nickname and we can also override the Scope default setting at this point. For our example, let's enter My Paint Drawing #2 for the nickname and make sure Program is selected as the Scope. Select Hot Keys as the Macro Type. Now move the cursor down into the hot key edit window and press CTRL+SHIFT+S and let go of the keys. CTRL+SHIFT+S should appear in the edit box. Click on the Save button and the whole capture process should be complete.

Let's go back and play our recorded macro. First, bring paint to the front of the screen (click on it in the taskbar). We want to start with a clean screen in Paint so choose File | New from the main menu in Paint. After the screen is clear, press CTRL+SHIFT+S. The face that you just drew should be redrawn complete with any hesitations that you may have made while doing so!