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What
Is A Macro? Does Anyone Really Care?
by
Rafael Van Dyke
Some of
you have never heard of the term "macro"; and if you have,
you may not know what it means. First, we're going to share
with you what a macro is; and afterwards, we'll share with
you why you may or may not need to start using them.
In the
early stages of word processing programs, macros were used
to record a series of keystrokes that can be reused quickly
in all of your documents. Macros were an excellent way to
automate tasks that you needed on a regular basis like signing
letters, recalling a paragraph used often, or setting up special
page settings. When these programs came out with Windows versions,
you could record mouse clicks in addition to keystrokes; Microsoft
Word 97-2002 can even memorize commands whether you use a
button, a menu, or a keystroke.
Sounds
cool don't it? Let's make one in Microsoft Word. To start,
go to Tools menu - Macro - Record New Macro. Give you macro
a name that describes what the macro will do; then make it
a button or a keystroke by clicking on the Toolbars or Keyboard
button. Your mouse arrow with have a tape attached to it to
let you know that you're recording; when you've done everything
you wanted to save, click on the Stop button. And when you're
ready, try out your macro with your button or keystroke and
it will repeat the commands that you recorded previously.
Definitely
cool, right? So if they're so cool, why aren't more people
using macros? As we mentioned before, a lot of users just
aren't familiar enough with macros to use them on a regular
basis. And even if you're a power user of Microsoft Word,
most of time macros aren't necessary because of the new tools
that are available.
To bring
up huge blocks of text quickly, it's easier to use AutoText
rather than a macro; not to mention that it's faster now that
AutoText can be called automatically and completed on the
fly - you can even launch them from a button. You don't need
a macro to save your page settings or to start off your commonly
used documents anymore; you just simply create a template
for that (or use one of the templates that comes with Microsoft
Word -- like the Letter Wizard). And if you want to copy text
formatting to other blocks of text, you'll use the Format
Painter ... not a macro.
With all
of these great tools that have replaced need to use macros
for common tasks, the last question is what exactly would
you use them for nowadays? Though some may find a few isolated
cases to use one, a macro is mainly a tool for programmers.
So unless you find yourself needing to create an automation
solution in Visual Basic, macros should become a thing of
the past. But it's nice to know that they're available ...
just in case!
Rafael
Van Dyke is the site owner of http://www.betterdocuments.com
and the editor of its articles & newsletters. (url is outdated)
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