As I was glancing through the Arbortext Editor menus not long ago, I came across the macro feature. Where I work, we are always looking for ways to do things more efficiently, so I decided to check out this tool.
To record a macro, you go to the Tools menu, point to Macros, and click Record New Macro. The dialog box that appears allows you to specify a name, the file where the macro will be stored (more on that in a second), and a description.
For the macro storage location, you need to determine the scope. The default choice enables you to use the macro with any file. The other two choices enable you to use the macro only with the current document, or with all documents of the same type. I haven’t yet felt the need to change the default choice.
Specify the information, click OK, and then perform the actual steps. When you are done, click the Stop Recording button.
To run a macro, place your cursor in the appropriate place and use the Alt+F8 keyboard shortcut to display the list of recorded macros. Select the desired macro and click Run. The macro does its thing.
Hi!
I’m very interested in macros, i use them quite often but I can’t find the way to assign a keyboard shortcut to my macros. Does anyone know if this is possible in Arbortext?
The online help for Arbortext Editor 5.2 (the version I’m using) says that you can assign a keyboard shortcut by opening the .mcf file and adding the key attribute to the macro element. I gave this a try when creating the blog entry, but was not successful. I’ll give it another shot and let you know if it works this time. The help also describes how to assign macros to menu items and toolbar buttons, but that seems to be more complicated.
What macros do you create to save time and do things more efficiently?