User Submitted Macro

Handy Macros

Written by Joseph Maddison

What the macros do

Nudge a selected object, select all text in a window, uppercase a selected line, and paste non-formatted text.

I use a graphical tool that doesn’t do the snap to grid quite the way I want it, so I find myself trying to make precision drag movements with my mouse. It’s difficult to move vertically without changing the horizontal position or vice-versa. The ‘Nudge’ macros are set up for a specific program, to nudge the mouse position by dragging for a single pixel in the desired direction. The hotkeys keys Ctrl-I, Ctrl-J, Ctrl-K, and Ctrl-M make it easy to do a precision drag from the current mouse position, using the keyboard.

The dialog boxes in certain programs do not have the expected functionality to select all the text in the window when Ctrl-A is typed. The ‘Select All’ macro adds that functionality.

The ‘Upper Case selection’ macro changes a selected line of text to uppercase.

While the ‘Paste Normal’ macro only contains a single command it is quite useful. It bypasses unintentionally copying the formatting when pasting text from one application to another.

To install

Download the macro file umhandymacros.mex and save it to your hard drive where you store your macro file(s). Import the macros into your existing macro file by clicking File, Import, Import Macros.

Once imported, you will need to change the Scope property for most of the macros to allow them to work in Specific applications. You may enter several programs in the Program Specific scope.

To use

 – Ctrl+i will nudge a selected object up one pixel.
– Ctrl+k will nudge a selected object right one pixel.
– Ctrl+j will nudge a selected object left one pixel.
– Ctrl+m will nudge a selected object down one pixel.
– Ctrl+a will send a sequence that should select (highlight) everything in a dialog box.
– Ctrl+b will set the selected text to upper case.
– Ctrl+Alt+v will paste from the clipboard without including the formatting information.

** Joseph wins a Macro Express T-shirt for his submission.