Anyone using macro programs or text expanders with RealmWorks?

[MNBlockHead]

I'm a heavy user of text-expander & macro programs. I used ActiveWords for many years and now use PhraseExpress.

Right now I'm only using PhraseExpress to generate formated stat-block tables for putting into a RW snippet. I'm also putting together a macro so that I can reveal and article's topic AND all its snippets with a single hotkey.

I'd be interested in learning how others are using these kinds of tools to make their use of RW more efficient.

[BoomerET]

I like AutoHotkey (ahkscript.org)

Gonna take a look at the two you mentioned. Thanks


BoomerET

[Parody]

Just don't be like the lady who had macroed-up her computer to the point where she'd file bug reports that turned out to be her macros interfering with our program. :)

I miss that job, and I miss properly scriptable applications. :(

[Gord]

Originally Posted by MNBlockHead

Right now I'm only using PhraseExpress to generate formatted stat-block tables for putting into a RW snippet. I'm also putting together a macro so that I can reveal and article's topic AND all its snippets with a single hotkey.

For some reason, I thought it would be easy to make the initial formated tables and then just cut and paste them into another snippet. Is there a reason you are using the text expanders? I tried a couple of them like Active Words, some years ago but I just never found that it was that much faster for me. Perhaps I just don't do enough repetitive work.

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by Gord

For some reason, I thought it would be easy to make the initial formated tables and then just cut and paste them into another snippet. Is there a reason you are using the text expanders? I tried a couple of them like Active Words, some years ago but I just never found that it was that much faster for me. Perhaps I just don't do enough repetitive work.

If I understand your workflow, you would need to open the article with the snippet you want to copy from, or have the text in some other file (Word, Evernote, etc.), then open a new tab in Evernote with the article that you wan to copy the text into the snippet, copy from one, and paste into the other.

With PhraseExpress, I can open RW, open a new tab to create a monster, NPC, etc., and in the snippet where I want the stat block, I just type in "statblock" and PhraseExpress will insert a nicely formatted statblock table for me. If I wanted to, I could also have it prompt me for the values but I find just typing into the table is easier.

Another way I use PhraseExpress with RW is to reveal both the article and all contained snippets with a single hot-key. I had inputted many, many pages of mechanics before I every planned to give players access. Now that I am thinking of using RW with the Player version, I wanted to reveal all those articles. So I created a macro that would would do the hotkey to reveal the article then the real-all snippets option, rather than my having to drill down into context menus or manually click each orb. I couldn't figure out a way to have it do that for a group of topics at one time, but it still saved me a lot of time.

For those of you who would like spell-checking in RW, PhraseExpress (as well as ActiveWords) can provide that.

If you have person or place names that are long and hard to remember the correct spelling for, you can create an abbreviation and let the text expander enter the full correctly spelt name. For example, I use "kk" for "Khakunun Khaganate" and I use it heavily for Dwarven place names that were cool when I made them but which I'm always mistyping.

I also like how PhraseExpress works well with MouseRecorder so for those operations that have neither hotkeys nor context menus, I can automate mouse movement and clicks.

The downside is the PhraseExpress is not cheap, but I use it heavily for work and write it off as a work expense. Still, even if it wasn't, I would still consider buying it for personal use. I was a huge fan of ActiveWords for years, but I think that PhraseExpress is the best of its class. The newest version, currently in Beta is even better. It will offer full document-assembly capabilities.

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by Parody

Just don't be like the lady who had macroed-up her computer to the point where she'd file bug reports that turned out to be her macros interfering with our program. :)

Funny, I could see that happening. So far, I've been pretty good at avoiding conflicts with OS and application hotkeys, etc.