SubFAQ: Using Plugin Commands in Macros
Plugin commands (even for the default plugins, like MIME Tools) are not macro-recordable. However, with a bit of effort on your part, they can be macro-playable (with some limitations).
The reason that they aren’t macro-recordable is that macros make use of the menu command ID for storing which command to use. For built-in menu commands, those commands all have a fixed ID, so from one run of Notepad++ to the next, they will always keep the same menu command ID. Since the plugins available and taking up menu space can be different from run-to-run in Notepad++, the application actually assigns the menu command IDs for each plugin dynamically. Thus, if you install or upgrade a plugin such that the number of plugin menu commands change, the next time you run Notepad++, other plugins will possibly get different command IDs compared to the previous run (depending on what order Notepad++ processes each of the plugins).
Due to this dynamic menu command ID, Notepad++ would not be able to guarantee that a command ID it records for the macro would work for the same command the next time Notepad++ is run, and thus does not record macro commands.
There are two workarounds:
Use a scripting plugin (like PythonScript) instead of Macros to do your automation (because scripting plugins usually have helper commands that can search through the menu to be able to run even plugin menu commands). This adds overhead, and you might have to learn a new programming language, but it gives you a lot more power.
Cheat the macro system. This will be described below, but has the downside that you have to manually edit the macro XML, and you might have to tweak it if you install or upgrade plugins.
How to Cheat the Macro System
As I said earlier, the macros are dynamic, depending on the order that Notepad++ processes the plugins and how many menu commands each plugin uses. However, for any stretch of time where you don’t install any new plugins or upgrade existing plugins, Notepad++ will process your plugins in the same order, so they will get the menu command IDs for each run.
So to cheat the macro, you can snoop to find the current menu command ID for each action, then manually edit the macro’s XML, then restart Notepad++, and the macro should work until the next time you install or update a plugin.
Let’s assume that you want to have a macro that will Select All, then Plugins > MIME Tools > Base64 Encode with Padding, then Select All, then Copy the results to the clipboard. (inspired by this discussion). Record this sequence and save it as RecordedMacro with no assigned keyboard shortcut. (Just for this example; the names and shortcuts are obviously up to you for your real task.)
To snoop the menu command ID, I recommend the NppUISpy plugin. So install that plugin, then run it’s Spy! command (either from its menu or toolbar icon).
For example, with my current plugins,
Spy! tells me that
Base64 Encode with Padding is Command Id = 22064
Open %AppData%\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml and edit your recorded macro.
It would start out as something like this:<Macro name="RecordedMacro" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2178" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
</Macro>
That is the
Select All command twice and the copy (skipping the plugin command between the two
Select All.
You would need to edit it to be like:<Macro name="RecordedMacro" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="2" message="0" wParam="22064" lParam="0" sParam="0" />
<Action type="0" message="2013" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
<Action type="0" message="2178" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" />
</Macro>
which puts the 22064 that I found with NppUISpy in between the two
Select All instances.
Please note that many recorded editor commands (like copy, paste, home, etc) will be type="0" with the scintilla command in the message="..." field; whereas menu commands like the plugin command will be type="2" and put the menuCommandID into the wParam="###" field. See the
user manual’s <Macro><Action> details for more.
Save the shortcuts.xml and restart Notepad++.
At this point, running your macro should do the select all, the conversion, the select all, and the copy.
The next time you installed or upgraded a plugin, you would need to re-run Spy!, and check whether the command ID has changed; if it has, edit shortcuts.xml again, and replace the example 22064 with the new number.
