Tutorial - Shortkey

This page will show how to create a macro assigned to a shortkey. First, let's create some default settings that will apply to all Shortkeys that you may create. From the Macro Express Explorer menu click on Options | Preferences to load the Preferences window. Click on Shortkeys from the list in the left panel of the window to display the shortkeys options.

Select the Use Prefix Keys option and enter ## in the Prefix Keys entry space. Click the OK button to return to the Macro Explorer. This will require that ## be pressed before any Shortkey you define or the macro will not play back.

From the Macro Express Explorer menu click on Macros | Add Macro. A new window should appear titled Add Macro. Select the ShortKeys option. Next enter "email" into the ShortKey Name entry space. We can choose to create the macro using the Direct Editor or the Scripting Editor. For this exercise click on the Scripting Editor button. Clicking on the Scripting Editor button will activate the Scripting Editor pane.  

First, click on the Properties tab. In the Nickname box, enter "My Email Address". Then click on the Scope tab and make sure Global is selected. Now click on the Script tab to return to the screen displayed above. Scroll down the list of commands and click on the Text command to expand this listing. Double click on the Text Type command found in this group.

This will activate the Text Type window where we can enter the text of our email address. Enter your email address in the Keystrokes field. If you want to have the macro paste the text into your application via the Windows clipboard, place a check in the box next to Use Clipboard to Paste Text. Otherwise the text will type out into your application. Press the OK button to save your entry and return to the Scripting Editor. A new entry should now appear under the section called Macro Script. This entry should read Text Type: followed by the email address that you entered. If you made a mistake entering your email address, you can double click on this entry and edit the address in the Text Type window.

From the Scripting Editor, click on File | Save to save your macro. Click on the Macro Explorer button to see your newly defined macro, "My Email Address", added to the list of available macros.

To test out the macro, run the notepad program. (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, type the following: ##email. Your email address should type out into the notepad program.