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My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Aug 21st, ’19, 13:43
by Steve Clark
I've been using Fastkeys for a few months now. It is EXTREMELY POWERFUL and I love it for what it can do.

It is a fantastic value!

My big question is...

Is Fastkeys designed to execute multi-step macros? I have many single step macros that I use everyday.
They work great. But, every time a try to "develop" for lack of a better term, a multi-step macro, I can never get it to work.

For instance, in my previous post I mentioned about running a macro on startup to start several programs and have these programs
do different things. Originally I tried to do this with 1 macro. That didn't work for me. I split each program up into separate macros.
This actually works pretty well. Chrome never seems to cooperate (but that's a another story).

I seem to have a problem with each line in the macro having different "types" of steps (run, send, command, etc)

Is it my style or am I missing the boat all together?

Thanks again,
Steve

Re: My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Aug 21st, ’19, 20:38
by Marko
It is of course possible to execute multiple actions with a single command.

Please give an example of what would you like to do and we will try to assist... ;)

Re: My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Aug 28th, ’19, 02:49
by Steve Clark
Okay, sorry for the delay.
Please give an example of what would you like to do and we will try to assist
I'll get to this in a second.

Now, here's a simple example that I was playing with earlier tonight trying to figure this out...

1. use the run command to open a program i.e. EditPad Lite (works fine)
2. using the send command (in the same macro window) to send keystrokes "Enter" "Enter"
3. use the send command again to send keystrokes that activate a "text expansion" shortcut i.e. ,dd

This seems like it ought to be very easy. I cannot get it to work. When I go back into the edit macro area, I
see that the run command on line #1 is now using the send command from the subsequent steps. WHY?

I have run into this problem over and over again. This is why I asked my initial question, Am I not getting how
this is supposed to work? I no nothing about scripting, programming, etc. I've used other macro programs and
this process seems a little more straight forward in some of these other programs.

Don't get me wrong, as I said above, I LOVE Fastkeys. I'm just trying to figure out how to take advantage
of its power.

I hope this simple example explains what I mean a little better.

Thanks
Steve

Re: My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Aug 28th, ’19, 08:06
by Marko
One way for doing this would be using "Insert command code" and "Insert another item" macros, like this:

%CODE_Notepad%{Enter}{Enter}%INSERT_,dd%

Where the CODE_Notepad is

Code: Select all

Run, Notepad
Sleep 500
We plan to implement a full RUN macro in one of the next releases.

Alternatively, you could do it with a simple script (Type: Command):

Code: Select all

Run, Notepad
Sleep, 500
Send, {Enter}{Enter}
SendLevel 1
Send `,dd
SendLevel 0

Re: My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Aug 28th, ’19, 18:43
by Steve Clark
Thank you!

I get it now. I was actually trying to use the program the wrong way.

I was used to using other macro programs that work step by step (each command being separate) as opposed to
how Fastkeys works i.e. seperate steps fall under the umbrella of one command.

Thanks for all your help. :)

Steve

Re: My One Big Question about Fastkeys...

Posted: Sep 1st, ’19, 17:42
by Henry79
Marko wrote: Aug 28th, ’19, 08:06 One way for doing this would be using "Insert command code" and "Insert another item" macros, like this:

%CODE_Notepad%{Enter}{Enter}%INSERT_,dd%

Where the CODE_Notepad is

Code: Select all

Run, Notepad
Sleep 500
transfers reims
We plan to implement a full RUN macro in one of the next releases.

Alternatively, you could do it with a simple script (Type: Command):

Code: Select all

Run, Notepad
Sleep, 500
Send, {Enter}{Enter}
SendLevel 1
Send `,dd
SendLevel 0
Thank you very much