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Topic: Macro opeates different than expected, Do I understand how macros work?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
tanstaafl.
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Posted: Feb. 06 2010,00:53
I think I know the answer to this question, but I want to make sure I have an understanding of how you designed the Macro part of the program.

I tried to write a clever macro for the "Mass Set..." tab that took existing data in the Mass Set fields, parsed it and moved selected bits of it to different fields (for example, changing "Stephen King" to "King, Stephen" and pre-pending "King" to the Title field) by highlighting [ctrl-shift-arrow] and copying to the Windows clipboard [ctrl-c] and pasting [ctrl-v] to a different field.

The end result was a lot of keystrokes, and a macro that worked perfectly -- so long as I wanted to change the data in every file I subsequently ran the macro on to be the same data that was written to the first file(s) when I created the macro.

From this experience, I conclude (and a look at the .mtm file seems to confirm this) that the macro does NOT store the keystrokes, but instead stores the DATA created by the keystrokes while the macro is being recorded.

If this is true, then your macro utility will be of no use to me.  :(   But don't worry, Magnus, I'll still love you! :agree:

tanstaafl.
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Magnus Brading
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Posted: Feb. 06 2010,02:04
Yes, the macros don't record keystrokes, only the operations performed in the program (practically every time you press an Execute button).

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tanstaafl.
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Posted: Feb. 08 2010,00:27
Thanks, Magnus.  That confirms what I already strongly suspected.

I think I know why you did it the way you did.  I have a programmable keyboard in which I can store keystrokes and play them back, but it gives problems because MP3TS cannot execute the commands as fast as they keyboard sends them, so the macro fails.  By not storing and playing back keystrokes in your macro utility, but instead saving and storing the results of the keystrokes, you avoid this problem.

After much trial and error (lots of error! ) I finally found the workaround with my macro keyboard.  The failure point was in the "Direct tag manipulation" tab, where I was appending track number onto the end of the Title field.  Only the first seven files (out of 30+) got modified, then the keyboard macro would send MP3TS onto the next task, "Auto rename (from tags)".  The workaround was to open "Direct tag manipulation", put in 10 "Tab" commands (as buffer), then run the manipulation, followed by 10 more "Tab" commands before calling up the Auto Rename function.

The keyboard macro runs to nearly 80 keystrokes, but it lets me tag all of the files in an audio book (anything from two to 40 files), including parsing the author to be last name/first name, prepending last name to the title, appending track number to the title, adding the narrator's name to the album name, renaming each file, etc., all with a single keystroke.  

There's no particular reason anyone would care, but on the off chance that there are people as geeky and OCD as I am, I will attach a file showing the keystrokes of the macro to this post.

tanstaafl.

edit:  Well, I thought I was attaching a file.  Apparently I'm not doing it right...  :(

Edited by tanstaafl. on Feb. 08 2010,00:29
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