Useful Tips and Tricks in Macro Express
- Stick to keyboard equivalents as much as possible. Be wary of Voyager specific keyboard equivalents when mapping to keys – i.e., F9 for delimiters, so you don't accidentally change the function of one of these "Voyager pre-defined" function keys.
- Use the "Home" key to get to the top of a pull-down list in Voyager. This trick only works for pulldown menus with the little triangle icon, not for those with the little arrow icon.
- When asking for things from the database -- like saving -- calculate a little extra time just in case there is some net congestion and the server response is slow. This may involve using Direct mode to insert a delay, a pause, a change in key or mouse speed, etc.
- If you are capturing, always maximize your window first. The macro works better that way.
- To make the toolbar icons into text buttons, go to the Options menu, choose Appearance and select the radio button for Lettered Buttons.
- If you are creating a macro in capture mode using text strings, you will want to go into the Scripting Editor to do some clean up. For example, the text string "Bibliographical References" will display in the Scripting Editor as follows:
Macro Express has added unnecessary delays between each letter. Deleting these delays and typing the text string on one line will increase the speed and efficiency of the macro, as follows:
csb,sy
rev. 8/21/00, jdl
Adapted by jmp 7/2/02