KeyQuencer Easy Start, by Ansel Webb

Drop the KeyQuencer Control Panel on your closed System Folder and let it put it where it belongs.  Note that there is a difference between the "Macro Editor" (which is a regular application/program) and the "KeyQuencer" Control Panel.  Just leave the Macro Editor in its folder on your hard drive.  Then, put ALL the KeyQuencer extra extensions EXCEPT! the "AtStartup" extension into the "KeyQuencer Extensions" and drop the "KeyQuencer Extensions" folder into your System Folder (it won't go any special place inside there and it's not supposed to).  Drop the "KQ Apple Events" onto your closed System Folder and let it put it where it belongs.

RESTART your Mac.

Now, if you want some kind of macro to run at startup you can write one while you're in the Macro Editor (NOT the KeyQuencer Control Panel!). This is the same way you write all Macro Editor macros, the only difference being that you will put your "AtStartup Macro" (which is what you MUST name it) inside the "KeyQuencer Extensions" folder ALONG WITH the "AtStartup" Extension (you should have both or neither in the folder!).  "AtStartup Macro" is the ONLY macro that you want to put in the KeyQuencer Extensions folder. For all other macros, put a new folder on the top level of your hard drive and name it "Macros".  You should do this if you want to use these instructions.

Double-click the Macro Editor to open it and it will give you a blank macro page to fill in.  Choose "Build This Menu" from the "Extensions" menu.  Now you will notice that "Build This Menu" has turned into "Help".  Choose that, and it will show you help on all the "commands" that you can put into your macros.  For the moment, though, don't worry about help but just follow my instructions.

Now, my friends, let's build a simple macro to choose the printer as Apple's "Fax Sender" and give us a message to confirm that that's been done.  [NOTE:  Wherever I use "Fax Sender" you should put in the name of the chooser item you want this to work for!!!!  If you don't know what your chooser item names are, open up your "Chooser" and look at the names.] Then we'll assign a key combination to make it so.  This will give you an overview of macro-making and key assigning that you can use to make any kind of macro your heart desires!  :)  It is in this general form, for instance, that you will make your "AtStartup Macro" if you want one.

The making of your chooser Macro: 
On your new Macro Editor page, either type in "ChoosePrinter" (without the quotes) OR go down to "ChoosePrinter" in the "Extensions" menu and let go. Either way, you end up with "ChoosePrinter" written in at the beginning of the first line.

Then type in "Fax Sender" (including the quotes!!!) OR go down to "ChoosePrinter" under the "Extensions" menu and let go at "Printer driver name" in its pop up part.  If you do the latter, you will need to replace "Printer driver name" with "Fax Sender" (or, again, with whatever the name of the driver you're going to open up).

Now we have built a macro for changing the printer to "Fax Sender"! Save it into the "Macros" folder that you have created as noted above (but don't close it yet!) -- name it "Chooser One".  But this isn't cool enough!  We want to know fer shure that our printer driver has been changed when we use the macro so we will add something to the macro to tell us that. Here's how.

Continuing on your "Chooser One" Macro Editor page:  
Under the "Extensions" menu, go down and let go at "Message".  It should start on a new line after the "ChoosePrinter" line -- if not, well, make sure it's on a new line.  You don't want lots o' commands on the same line 'cause it won't work!  After Message, type in whatever you want the message to be to tell you that "Fax Sender" has been chosen -- make sure it's in quotes!  My message says: "Ansel, the printer now chosen is for faxing." On that same line, I put in "beep" so that it will beep when it shows the message.  You know you can do that because it's one of the pop up menu choices when you go down to "Message" under the "Extensions" menu.  Also, "beep", as the menu item shows you, should NOT be in quotes.

Now save (but don't close) your cool "Chooser One" macro.  Just to make sure you got it right, it should look like this:

ChoosePrinter "YourChooserItemHere" 
Message "Ansel, the printer now chosen is for faxing" beep

Big tip numero UNO:  Before you go assigning key combinations to make your macro run, or before you go creating an "AtStartup Macro" and throw it into your "KeyQuencer Extensions" folder, ALWAYS, but ALWAYS, TRY the macro out! To do that, choose "Try Macro" from the "File" menu.  If all goes well, it will change your printer driver to "Fax Sender" or "StyleWriter II" or "AppleShare" or whatever you've chosen to make this macro change to -- AND it will put up your message and beep.

Good, it worked!  :)

Now, you want a key combination for your "Chooser One" macro.  Key combinations are made in the KeyQuencer CONTROL PANEL -- NOT in the Macro Editor.

Open the KeyQuencer Control Panel.  Choose "New Macro..." from "File" on its little menu bar.  "New Macro" will be highlighted -- just type in your chooser name -- say, "Chooser Macro".

Tab over to "Macro Key" and, pressing just the keys you want assigned on the keyboard, choose the Key combination you want -- for my Fax Sender I chose "Shift-ctrl-f". BTW, if that combination is already assigned to something, KeyQuencer will let you know and give you some options in that regard.

Tab to the "Macro Script" field.  Now, you can either type in this macro or "build" it using the two boxes below.  If you click on "Open" from the list on the left, the Open options appear on the right -- etc.

Let's "build" this one, shall we?

Double-click on "Open" on the left.  It will put "Open" up there in the "Macro Script" field.  Now, Double-click on "Disk:folder:...file" which is in the right-side box.  That's all we need to work with.

In place of "Disk:folder:...file:" BUT INSIDE THE QUOTES, put, well, your disk name, folder where macros are, and name of file, thus:

"YourHardDriveName:Macros:Chooser One"

This assumes, of course, that you made that Macros folder as I told you to do and that you named your macro file "Chooser One".

Your new KeyQuencer Control Panel macro looks thus:

Open "YourHardDriveName:Macros:Chooser One"

That's it!!!

Click "OK" and you're done!  Now you have a key combination that will run your "Chooser One" macro!  Try it out!

Now you can make (or "build") all manner of macros using the "Extensions" menu in the Macro Editor and you can assign them key combinations with the KeyQuencer Control Panel macros you build.

A couple of general hints:

You prolly want your macros to work fast so DO NOT choose "Build When Launched" from the Macro Editor "Extensions" menu -- it will build it every time you call a macro and will slow things down.  Just build it when you want to make macros or get "Help" about the extensions/commands.

To this end, make sure you select "Auto Quit" from Macro Editor's File menu (it will be checked after you select it).  That way, Macro Editor will come on and go off very quickly when you use your key combinations to call up your magic macros.  But it will start up regularly and stay started if you double-click it in the finder or double-click an alias for it that you've put in Malph or Apollo or whatever program you might have for launching applications.  You can also put an alias of the Macro Maker in your "Apple Menu Items" folder (which is in your system folder) and open it under your Apple menu.

Another hint:

Since we sometimes forget the key combinations to macros (though they will be visible in the KeyQuencer Control Panel), here's a way of running your macros without key combinations:

Make an alias of our handy-dandy "Macros" folder (not of the macros in the folder but of the folder itself) and put it in your "Apple Menu Items" folder.  That will open the folder for you if you aren't in the finder and you can double-click a macro to run it.  Or, if there are a few macros you will use often, then make aliases of them and put them in the "Apple Menu Items" folder and they will run when you select them from the Apple menu.

When you make "Open" macros (for programs or files that you want to be able to open with a key combination or from the Apple menu), note that you can write those macros like this:

Open "YourHardDriveName:Folder1:Folder2:Folder3:etc:FileNameOrProgramName"

That's called a "path" and it tells KeyQuencer where to find the file or program/application you want to open.

That's all I can think of for now!  Have fun making many macros!  :)

Ansel Webb
Internet:
ansel_webb@ncsu.edu
majesty@unity.ncsu.edu
PPC.MAJESTY@genie.geis.com
GEnie:
PPC.MAJESTY


