Monumental Macros Leslie Vail, ASCI, Inc.

Leslie Vail President, ASCI Summit Nashville 2017 2/16/2019 8:34 PM Leslie Vail President, ASCI Dynamics GP MVP GPUG 2017 All Star  24 Year veteran with GP Community Contributor © 2017 Dynamic Communities. All rights reserved.

Monumental Macros What is a Macro? How Can I Use It? Real-world Examples! Creating and Editing Macros Macro Tips and Traps

What is a Macro? A macro records your keystrokes & clicks

What a Macro cannot do use variables ask questions create a loop make decisions interact with Excel launch Integrations use if/then statements read data from files or windows

How can I use macros? What is a Macro? How Can I Use It? Real-world Examples! Creating and Editing Macros Macro Tips and Traps

How can I use macros? Eliminate clicks Automate repetitive key sequences Do mass changes without SQL Import without Integration Manager Run check links & reconcile after hours

Real-world examples What is a Macro? How Can I Use It? Creating and Editing Macros Macro Tips and Traps

RM Transaction Inquiry Customer Trx Inquiry Open Inquiry window 2 clicks Customer ID Lookup 1 click Open Advanced search 1 click Select Column Lookup 1 click Select Customer Name 2 clicks Change filter to Contains 2 clicks Select Value field 1 click Total: 10 clicks Example 1

SOP Document Inquiry SOP Document Inquiry Open SOP Inquiry 2 clicks Change sort to Date 2 clicks Put in the date range 3 clicks History radio button 1 click Hit Redisplay button 1 click Expand Scrolling window 1 click Total: 10 clicks Example 2

Creating and Editing Macros What is a Macro? How Can I Use It? Real-world Examples! Creating and Editing Macros Macro Tips and Traps

Creating and Editing Demos RM Trx Inquiry SOP Posted Yesterday Print Inventory List Bank Transfer

DEMO Creating and Editing Macros

Suppressing Messages Launch from shortcut bar Logging file ':c:/macro_log.txt' Don’t forget the single quotes!

Macro log contents Troubleshoot errors

Remove Progress_Control lines Delete the highlighted lines

Copy and Paste Remember: Edit > Select All Edit > Copy Remember: Edit > Paste Remember: Delete final ‘TypeTo’

Advanced Macro Menu ShowAdvancedMacroMenu=TRUE No User Interface Flash for speed Jump to specific line Pause after specific line Step through macro to debug Restart macro at specific line

Advanced Macro Menu 1 2 4 7 3 5 6 1. Shows you the name of the macro currently being recorded and what line it’s on. 2. Shows you the name of the macro currently being played, and what line it’s on. 3. Turns off the complete redraw and hides the interface flash thereby making the macro run twice (at least) as fast. 4. The line in the macro you want to jump to. The display below will start at the jump line. You can restart a macro to begin playing at the jump to line 5. The number of lines to display in the scrolling window. 6. Indicate where you want the macro to pause while it’s playing. This is a good way to debug the macro or stop it from executing after a certain point is reached 7. The actual lines of the macro according to the lines displayed

Macro Tips and Traps What is a Macro? How Can I Use It? Real-world Examples! Creating and Editing Macros Macro Tips and Traps

Macro Tips Case sensitive Use ‘Select All’ to copy and paste Remove final ‘type to’ after pasting Eliminate message with Logging file Use Pause to collect user input Nest macros to combine or append Remove Progress Control lines Start recording on correct window You have 60 characters for your Pause msg

Macro Traps Mouse click, don’t scroll Type, don’t select from Lookup windows Don’t close windows using X Scrolling windows last line Be careful with menus, they may not be visible Don’t select from shortcuts Security access to logging file

More Macro Traps Careful with lists whose content can change Checkboxes are toggles- make sure you know their state

Congratulations! You are now Macro Royalty Insert Pause Copy & Paste Editing Macros Nesting Macros Logging Macros Highlighting Final Field Troubleshooting Macros Recording a basic Macro Removing Progress windows Disabling the macro message Selecting from drop-down lists Revealing and Using the Advanced Macro Menu

Questions? Leslie Vail leslievail@earthlink.net 972-814-8550 http://dynamicsconfessions.blogspot.com