I work in multiple platforms but I’m Mac-centric. I use a macro program called QuicKeys on the MacOS X box to automate keystrokes and clicks and switching between apps and so on. Last time I had need for automated behavior in the Windows environment I used QuickKeys for Windows.
Can anyone recommend me a simple, solid, relatively inexpensive macro utility for Windows? It will initially be deployed on a Win 7 box, with eventual upgrade to Windows 10 probably inevitable.
I was hoping for a personal recommendation. I can go Googling for the existence of such a product but that’s not worth as much as someone saying they’ve used this one or that one and these are their strengths and these are their deficits etc.
I will mostly be using this utility for automatic text entry of various text strings. Be nice if it could do other things like push buttons or invoke menu items or switch to other applications to use their capabilities, etc, but I’d benefit from even a simple util that can only insert specified text strings.
You might give AutoHotkey a look. While I don’t use it to its full extent, I do have one which does this:[ul]
[li]Enter text[/li][li]Press <Enter>[/li][li]Waits three seconds[/li][li]Enter more text[/li][li]Press <Enter> again[/li][/ul]
It also has the ability to prompt for a value to be inserted into a boilerplate text string. I believe it can do most if not all of the other things on your wish list; its documentation should give you the specifics.
For anyone else reading this, I just want to note, that’s because OSx / unix don’t traditionally have any other automation methods: they traditionally use scripting.
Windows has had automation methods since late Win3.x, and stuff that can be done by SendKeys is normally done better by automation.
This does not mean that you, individually, want to learn to use powershell or vbscript.
I’m not sure if this is a solution, but all the Microsoft Office apps have macro abilities. So if you’re just looking to automate some keystrokes all within Word or Excel, just use that. The macro functions for Office are actually done through a full-featured programming language, so it’s possible to create a ‘macro’ that switches apps and does all kinds of complex stuff, though needing some programming knowledge.
It’s not for MS Office. It’s for a niche application that manages scanned in scantron-type forms. It itself does not appear to have any macro-recording utilities of its own.
A ton of people I have worked with over the years use Macro Express. I am not sure what your definition of “relatively inexpensive” is but it runs $50-$60 and has a long, very good track record in my industry.
For free, this is the right answer. However be aware that, despite their front page assurance that it is, it is NOT user-friendly. If you’ve ever programmed something in BASIC you will probably pick it up right away. If you’ve never programmed anything, it’s probably going to be quite intimidating to use at first.
