First, macros and scripts are designed in UltraEdit for doing something on files, not for customizing or configuring UltraEdit itself. What happens when macros and script become to powerful can be seen on Visual Basic macros/scripts, ActiveX, JScript, etc. – they become a big security risk. In my point of view it is good that UltraEdit macros and scripts can be used only for modifying files although that is already problematic because it is possible to modify every file with write access.
Ribbon mode
Select ribbon tab
Advanced and look on items in group
Macro. There is the down arrow right of item
Load with the two items
Load... to load a macro file with 1 or more macros replacing all currently loaded macros and
Load and append to existing with loading all macros in a macro file with appending them to currently loaded macros.
The list of currently loaded macros can be seen by clicking on down arrow right of item
Configure and clicking on
Configure macros. In opened
Modify Macro dialog it is possible to delete and rename macros, change their hotkeys or
chords and change the two properties for each loaded macro.
To run one of the loaded macros either click on down arrow right of item
Play macro and click on
Play multiple times or switch to ribbon tab
Layout and check
Macro list to open the
Macro List view. Like all other views also this view can be configured to be docked on any side without or with auto-hiding or being floating view. And like all other views it is also possible to assign a hotkey for this view in key mapping configuration dialog to quickly open/close it by key. A macro listed on
Macro List view can be executed one times by double clicking on it. The
Macro List view has also the context menu item
Modify Macro to open the
Edit/Create Macro dialog.
There are three possibilities to create a macro:
- Quick record a macro by pressing Ctrl+Shift+R or clicking on down arrow right of item Record and clicking on Quick record. Quick recorded macros have never a name, have macro property Show cancel dialog for this macro not checked and macro property Continue if search string not found checked. Those properties can be later modified.
- Record a macro with first opening Macro Definition window to define macro name and all the other properties before recording starts by clicking on down arrow right of item Record and clicking on Define and record...
- Create a new macro by opening Edit/Create Macro dialog for example with clicking on down arrow right of Configure and next on Edit macro.... This dialog has the button New macro to create a new macro for example with macro code posted in this forum.
A recorded or manually created macro is always appended to list of currently loaded macros as long as its name is unique in list of currently loaded macros. This means quick recording multiple macros requires giving each quick recorded macro a name before quick recording next macro as otherwise an already quick recorded macro is replaced on starting a new quick recording. That automatic replacement is of course very often very useful when the quick recorded macros are needed only temporarily for current editing of a file and do not need to be saved for future use.
By clicking on down arrow left of
Configure and next on
Save all macros all currently loaded macros are saved into a specified macro file. On loading such a macro file all the binary compiled macros inside are loaded at once.
Last by clicking on down arrow left of
Configure and next on
Delete all macros it is possible to delete all currently loaded macros from memory for example to create a new set of macros being stored in a new macro file.
Toolbar/menu mode with contemporary menus
This GUI mode has the same items as the ribbon mode. A ribbon tab is a main menu in this mode. Items on a ribbon tab are menu items in this GUI mode. A popup menu opened in ribbon mode on clicking on down arrow of an item is a submenu in this GUI mode.
For that reason everything written above for ribbon mode exists also in toolbar/menu mode with contemporary menus with exactly the same names. All macro related items are in menu
Advanced with the exception of menu item
Macro list to toggle visibility of the
Macro List view being located in menu
Layout as in ribbon mode.
Toolbar/menu mode with traditional menus
This GUI mode has the menus and menu items like before UE v23.00 introduced the ribbon mode and the toolbar/menu mode with contemporary menus.
This is my preferred GUI mode because I'm very familiar with this menu structure and nearly every command can be executed in this mode with at least one less click than in the other two modes. This fact can be easily seen also on macros management.
There is the main menu
Macro with all the commands as explained above to manage macros, but available directly in this menu and not in submenus or popup menus. The menu items have a little bit different name, but those usually longer menu item names are usually more meaningful than in the other two GUI modes.