MACHIII and how it can help KINDWORDS  20688 bites (crunched) Reviewed by Perry Mowbray  (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) When I first acquired MachIII, I was completely unaware of its amazing power, and time saving capabilities (shouldn't this be the final end of power anyway?). I was only attracted by it's screen blanking, mouse acceleration etc, which is what the PD li sting had it down as; but after digesting some of the extensive manual I was experimenting with it's powerful macro features. In my mind, it is this macro feature which makes MachIII worth the $15.00. But first a quick overview.... What do you get with MachIII? Mouse Features: Mouse Accelerator, Mouse Blanker, SunMouse, Mouse to Menu (on right mouse button click), Window cycling.  Clock Features: A clock and memory meter, Variable positions and screens, Alternating date and memory display, Low memory warning, On line meter for modems. Screen Blanking with optional display and variable shades. SetMachIII for manipulating MachIII. Alltitles for producing screen and window titles. These are a few of the features of MachIII, but I really wanted to concentrate on its ability to record and play back macros. To do this I will give an example from my own experience, with KINDWORDS.  KindWords Example First up we need to get the programme running. MachIII doesn't release the CLI, so it is suggested that you use RUNBACK (or something similar). Once it's running, you'll have the clock and memory at the top of the screen, and we can start recording macros. I use KINDWORDS as my word processor (which is not too bad, but it's not too good either!), so I have recorded a few special macros specifically for KINDWORDS (actually, I have quite a few different configurations for different occasions). The macros are stored as an ascii file of different configurations each with a title. If a title of a configuration matches the active window or screen (use ALLTITLES for finding this out), it will be the one used. Hence I have one for KINDWORDS, one for AMIGA SHELL, one for AZ, etc; which automatically become active when the window is active.) Changing fonts frequently can be a real hassle because there is no keyboard short cut. Stop the typing, find the mouse, find the menu, find the font, etc.... With MachIII I have recorded the mouse clicks and movements that select the different fonts and attached them to specific hotkeys. Does it sound complicated? It is actually incredibly easy. and saves heaps of time... 1. Start recording by pressing Alt and ESC together (the clock will say, "Select Hotkey"). 2. Select Hotkey, say Alt and 1 (ie, the number at the top of the keyboard), the clock will say, "Recording Macro..." 3. Press Right Mouse Button. 4. Highlight first Font in the fonts directory in the menu bar. 5. Select this font by pressing the Left Mouse Button. 6. Press Alt and ESC to stop recording. The next time you press Alt and 1, the first font will be selected, if not a little slowly. This is because it records all the pauses as well. For example if I had held down the right mouse button for 60 seconds trying to decide which font I'd like, whe n I play it back, it will sit there for the same 60 seconds that I did! Thankfully this is easy to fix either with a text editor or the supplied SetMachIII programme. Click on the clock, and the SetMachIII screen slides up the monitor. From here we can edit, create, copy, and save macros back to disk, as well as adjusting all the clock features, mouse acceleration, screen blanking etc. Back to our problem, click on the 'Select Hotkey' button, press 1 (the number), and up comes my macro in the editing window. Now I can delete all the "\PS", which indicate pauses, press the save button (saves to disk), close the window and try the macro again. The little pointer blazes across the screen faster than the eye can follow! This routine can then be repeated for all the fonts, and then saved back to disk. Easy eh? Without saving the configuration, I can have as many 'temporary' macros as I like. For example, if I was entering data that was fairly repetitive, I could record the inputing of the various blocks of repetitive data, attach it to a hotkey to play it bac k when needed. For example, if I was typing up an address list was that required thus: NAME: Perry Mowbray ADDRESS: "Fogarty's Cottage", Coonara Ave. West Pennant Hills. 2125. with the name in Bold print I could have a macro attached to CONTROL and N that printed "NAME: ", and changed the printing mode to bold (Amiga and B). The macro would then wait for a variable number of keystrokes (that is, me entering the name) after which I conclude the entry with ESCAPE and the macro continues by changing the printing mode to plain (Amiga and P), starts a new line, prints "ADDRESS: " and then waits for the address to be entered (terminated by the ESCAPE key). The macro will then start a new line and finish. In the config file, it would be entered as: Macro=N\C{}\NAME: \RB\PV\RP\N\ADDRESS: \PV\N All of which is recorded on the fly, with great ease! It could be my address, or bits of BASIC code, or anything.  Spelling Checker The other thing that got up my nose with KINDWORDS was the spelling checker.... changing words was a laborious process of mouse clicks. Hey, did you say mouse clicks? I can now record those! So basically it the same process, get the spell checker up, find a misspelt word, select a hot key (say CONTROL and S - for the suggestions button), start recording.... (all the mouse clicks will be recorded from now on!), Click the suggestions button, stop recording. Once the suggestions have come up, record another macro for selecting the top word of the list. The hot key I use is a CONTROL and 1 (the number) combination. Click on the first word, then on the replace button and stop recording. I now have short cuts for all the buttons, selecting and replacing any of the five visible words and moving the selection words up or down (via the arrows). Doing this has really made a large difference in the time spent moving the mouse from one end of the screen to the other, pushing various buttons just to get one job done! The other type of macros that become operative in KINDWORDS are some automatic macros. These can execute at specific times of the day, or periodically. Autosave is a macro that executes every 15 minutes by playing back an Amiga and S combination, which tells KINDWORDS to save the document. Another automatic macro may execute at 1:00 pm each day (if KINDWORDS is running), and could be: ECHO >SPEAK: "Lunch time. Take a break for a coffee and a snack." Great if you forget the time as you are bashing the keyboard! Finally, the other type of macro I use regularly, is the type that launches programs. So, on my machine, if you press CONTROL and A, AZ (the text editor) will appear. If you press Left Amiga and ESC a Shell window will appear. If you press CONTROL and K, a macro will start that will reassign fonts: to Kindwords:fonts, and then run KINDWORDS (this is because on my floppy system, my boot disk is relatively free of fonts to make room for other applications). This is in no ways an exhaustive look at MachIII, it is an incredibly powerful programme that takes quite a while to get to the bottom of, and to discuss all the features would take a book (actually, the manual IS a bit of a book!). BUT most importantly, this programme is VERY easy to use, and useful! In my opinion - well worth the paltry $15 (in my latest correspondence with the author, version 4 should by now be released, which is for Workbench 2.X. It can be purchased from: Polyglot Software. 884 W. Melrose Ln. Boise, Idaho 83706. USA for $15.) So, if you want a sunmouse, mouse accelerator, clock, memory meter, etc, etc, etc and lots of other features, plus the ability to greatly reduce the time it takes to enter repetitive data plus incorporate 'new' features into your old programs....machIII may be the programme for you. It is for me.  (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 )) (( 27 ))