Documentation for MagicWord 1.0 ------------------------------- (c) 1992/93 Author: Urs Fleisch Leimatstr. 38 CH-9000 St. Gallen E-mail: ufleisch@stud.ee.ethz.ch This program is PUBLIC DOMAIN, and may be freely distributed, however always together with this documentation! MagicWord is a universal utility for word replacement and macros. Other than special solutions in editors and wordprocessors, MagicWord works with nearly every wordprocessor, editor and any other utility. Instead of recording macros for every application, it is easier to record the macros once with MagicWord for you'll be able to use them with future applications too. The use of MagicWord is only limited by the ideas of the user. This versatility can be used especially by replacing words. So you can let MagicWord type your address simply by typing \adr in any application. MagicWord can also be used as a little data base because you get access to information by typing keywords. The access is done rather quick by hashing. You can start MagicWord from Shell or Workbench. From Shell you can provide MagicWord with the name of a macro file, which will be loaded automatically. MagicWord doesn't need any library to run, but it is able to use the ARP and ASL-Requesters. So arp.library is recommended for Kickstart 1.3, asl.library for Kickstart 2.0 and 3.0. After loading MagicWord opens a window with half height of the actual default public screen. A cursor indicates that you can edit in this window. The program offers the following menu items: Project/Load: Load a macro file Project/Save as: Store the macros in memory Project/Quit: Quit program Macros/New: Record a new macro Macros/Delete: Delete an existing macro Macros/Delete all: Delete all macros in memory Macros/Show: Show all macros in memory Here comes a more detailed description of the menu functions: Macros/New: This function may be used first. It enables you to record keypresses for a new macro. First it requests the name of the macro. This name can contain letters, numbers and symbols, but no spaces or backslash "\" for this character marks the begin of a macro name. The program won't distinguish between upper and lower case. The macro name can be deleted by typing Backspace or Del, input is finished by typing Return or Enter. From now on, MagicWord records your keypresses until you select the menu Record/finished. Now the macro is stored in memory and may be used by typing a backslash "\" follow by the defined macro name. Example: Select Macros/New, the message "Input new word!" will appear. Now we type "adr" followed by Return. Now the program tells you that it is recording all keypresses. You can type your text in any application, e.g. in the wordprocessor to use this text with. So we change to our application an type our address: "Hermann UserBitstreet 2561024 Bytetown. Now we return to MagicWord and select the menu Record/finished, MagicWord confirms that it has stopped recording keypresses. You can also type the text to record in the MagicWord-window which offers you a simple editor. A macro can contain 2000 keypresses. Be aware the the typing of the Backspace or Delete-Key won't edit the macro data. The keypress will be recorded and later reproduced like every other key. Now we type "\adr" in any application or in MagicWord, and \adr is being deleted and replaced by the recorded text. Be sure that you typed in the macro name correctly, or you've got to retype the whole text (with preceding backslash "\"!). Finish by typing Space or Return. It is important that you start the macro name with a backslash, so MagicWord recognizes the macro without checking every word and slowing down your machine. Macros are stored in memory dynamically. MagicWord compares every word which starts with a backslash with the macros in memory by calculating the position by hashing (just like the AmigaDOS file system). So access should be pretty quick. The number of macros isn't limited, so you could fill all RAM with macros. Macros/Delete: Deletes a macro from memory. You've got to type in the macro name. Notice that memory won't be freed until you select "Macros/Delete all" or quit the program. Macros/Delete all: This function deletes all macros in memory and frees the used memory. Macros/Show: Prints out all macro names in order of their appearance in the hash table. The associated text can be displayed by typing the macro name with preceding backslash. Project/Save as: By choosing this function you can save all macros in memory to disk. While saving, MagicWord prints out the name of the macro currently saved. If available, the filename can be chosen using the ARP- or ASL-Filerequester. Otherwise, you'll have to put up with a simple requester. Project/Load: Allows you to load a MagicWord file. Again, you may find an ARP- or ASL-Requester and the names of the loaded macros are being displayed. The macros from the chosen file are loaded to the ones already in memory. Existing macros with the same name will be overwritten. This function is also invoked when MagicWord has been started with a filename as an argument. Project/Quit: You can leave the program by selecting this menu item or by clicking the close gadget. No more macros will be available to other applications. That's all. Now I want to add some hints. When you use MagicWord to replace words, nearly every application (DTP, wordprocessors, editors...) can take advantage from its word replacement faculty. From the many tested programs, only "Beckertext I" and "SuperED C" don't work with MagicWord. The problem may be their key processing over Intuition, which remembers only four keypresses. This limits also the recording of short cut keys to select menu functions from macros. If an application uses it's own menu keyboard handling (e.g. WordPerfect), there's no problem. Because you can move and click the mouse by keypresses, MagicWord can also guide the mouse. But you must look out for some things: * The mouse pointer can be moved by holding an Amiga key and pressing the cursor keys. By holding down a cursor key, the pointer moves quickly, single keypresses move it with little steps. If you hold down a shift key, the pointer takes larger steps. MagicWord generates only single keypresses. You should only (even to simulate the right mouse button) use the left Amiga key (lAmiga), for the right one generates repeated keypresses. To move the pointer faster, you may hold down shift. Before moving the mouse pointer, it should be positioned. E.g. you can move it with the mouse to the lower right corner; while recording, you can move it to the upper left corner by pressing lAmiga-Shift-Left and lAmiga-Shift-Up. So you can be sure that the pointer will get to the upper left corner from every position. Now you can move the pointer to the desired position. => Move pointer: Place pointer and move it with lAmiga-Shift-Cursor keys or lAmiga-Cursor keys with single keypresses. * To simulate the left mouse button, it's not sufficient to press lAmiga-lAlt for both of them are qualifier keys. In addition, you've got to press a normal key without function, e.g. F1. To simulate a double clicking, you should press a normal key alone between the mouse clicks. => left mouse button: press lAlt-lAmiga-F1. double click: press lAlt-lAmiga-F1, F1, lAlt-lAmiga-F1. * To select a menu, you may want to simulate the right mouse button. Move the pointer and hold down the right Alt key. When you're over the menu item, release all keys. Again: record single keypresses, use shift for fast movement. => Select menu: move pointer with lAmiga-rAlt-Cursor keys to the menu item, then release the keys. That's for the mouse simulation. Now other hints: * In the Shell, a macro may replace a batch file. Simply record some often used commands. * You don't need an editor to invoke a macro. You may also type blindly on the Workbench screen. * You can get often used addresses or your own letterhead simply by typing one name. * You can record phrases like Hello, Yours sincerly, Greetings... * Programmers may record frames for their programmes, titles, comments...