Tutorial - Popup Menu

This example will show how to create a popup menu. Before creating a popup menu, you must already have some macros defined. If you have not done so, then first create both a Hot Key macro and a Shortkey macro as described in the Hot Key and Shortkey sections. This example is based on the assumption that you have created these macros. From the Macro Explorer menu click on Macros | Add Macro. A new window should appear titled Add Macro.

Select the Popup Menu option. Click on the edit box with the mouse to place the cursor inside. Next, hold down the ALT key, the SHIFT key and the Z key all at the same time and then release them. ALT+SHIFT+Z should appear in the edit box. This is the hot key we will use for the popup macro. Next, click on the Build Menu button to activate the menu builder.

The Available Macros section displays all macros created. The Macros in Menu is the list of macros we want to assign to the popup menu. First click on the Properties Tab and enter My Menu in the Nickname field. Select Nickname and Scope as the How to Display option. In the Icons area click on the Change button.  The Select an Icon window will appear. Click on the Browse button to display several icon folders and a number of icons. Select the black 4 icon (black 4.ico) and click on the Open button. This displays the 4 icon as the current icon. Press OK to return to the Properties Tab. Place a check next to Place menu in System Tray. Selecting this option disables the Scope tab and automatically sets the default to Global. We'll use the icon later in this tutorial section.

Now  click on the Editor tab. Under the section titled Available Macros, highlight the macro CTRL+SHIFT+T (the one we created earlier) and then click on the Add button. Next highlight the email macro (created earlier) and click on the Add button. These two macros should now be moved over to the Macros In Menu section. We are finished defining the menu so click on the Save speed button or File | Save Menu to save the menu.

Click on the Macro Explorer button to see your newly defined popup macro, ALT+SHIFT+Z, added to the list of available macros.

Let's test out the popup menu macro. We'll use the notepad program again so let's run it. (To run notepad, click on Start | Run from the bottom left of the computer screen, enter notepad and click the ok button.) Once notepad is running, hold down the ALT+SHIFT+Z keys. A menu like the one above should appear, listing the two macros we have previously defined. We can either press the corresponding letter or number next to the macro or double click on the macro in the menu and it will play the selected macro back in notepad.

Another way to invoke the popup menu is to right click on the "black 4" icon in the system tray. The "black 4" icon should now be showing in your system tray, because of the Properties settings we made previously. The popup menu may be displayed in four different forms. One of these, Nickname and Scope, was displayed earlier. Let's take a quick look at the other options. Highlight the Popup Menu macro from the list in the Macro Explorer. Choose Macros | Menu Builder from the Macro Explorer menu. From the Menu Builder, click on the Properties tab. Select the First Part of Macro option under How to Display Menu. Click the Save icon. Click on the "black 4" icon in the system tray. The menu should pop up, but this time, it lists the first part of the contents of each macro, as shown above.

Cancel out of the popup menu and return to Macro Express. Highlight the My Menu macro again and choose Macros | Menu Builder. Click on the Properties tab. Select the Icons Only option under How to Display Menu. Next, select the Horizontal option and enter 10 for Maximum Icons per Row. Click the Save icon. Now click on the "black 4" icon in the system tray. The menu should display, but this time, it will show a list of icons. Click on one of the icons in the menu to run the macro.

Return to the Macro Explorer. This time, double click on the My Menu macro to activate the Menu Builder. Click on the Properties tab. Select the Windows Default option under How to Display Menu. Click the Save icon. Now click on the "black 4" icon in the system tray. The menu should display, but this time, it will display as shown above. Click on the macro you want in order to execute the macro. Windows will also assign underscores to each of the macros, where possible. So in the example above, pressing the M key will also activate the My Address macro.