Hello, @dario-de-judicibus-0, @alan-kilborn, @peterjones, @astrosofista and All,
Aaaah ! I’m sorry and apologize for making, all of you, searching hard ! It’s all my fault !
Indeed, when @alan-kilborn said :
From your description, your “workflow” for this doesn’t include anything which will cause Notepad++ itself to need to update shortcuts.xml
I just thought that he was speaking about the fact of saving the shortcuts.xml file with Microsoft Notepad and not from within Notepad++ !
But I understood, at once, all the story then @peterjones said :
Start recording macro, type blah, backspace out blah, save, stop recording, save macro as blah
Like you, when I decided to record a new macro and give it a name, and, after closing and restarting N++, all comments were gone away in shortcuts.xml, even those located outside the <Macros> node and, also, the default comments of the initial shortcuts.xml file, located in the UserDefinedCommands section, below :
<!--
The following shortcuts are dangerous if your computer is compromised.
(But if your computer is compromised, EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS!)
Remove the comment and use them at your own risk!!!
<Command name="Launch in Firefox" Ctrl="yes" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="88">firefox "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
<Command name="Launch in IE" Ctrl="yes" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="73">iexplore "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
<Command name="Launch in Chrome" Ctrl="yes" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="82">chrome "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
<Command name="Launch in Safari" Ctrl="yes" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="65">safari "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
<Command name="Send via Outlook" Ctrl="yes" Alt="yes" Shift="yes" Key="79">outlook /a "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
-->
Wooooh, everything is, again, logic between all our configurations ;-))
So, as any macro recording deletes all comments, a simple work-around would be to :
Copy your present shortcuts.xml file as, say, shortcuts_comments.xml
Comment all your macros already created, in the shortcuts_comments.xml, as you like to
Record your new macro, in Notepad++
Close and re-start Notepad++
Open, both, the shortcuts.xml and shortcuts_comments.xml files, in N++
Copy your new macro from the shortcuts.xml file
Paste it in the shortcuts_comments.xml file
Add the wanted comments in the shortcuts_comments.xml file, relative to this new macro
Save the shortcuts_comments.xml file
With this method, in addition to having a nice version with comments, that we may post in our site, we also benefit from a backup of the shortcuts.xml file. Indeed, if, by mistake, the shortcuts.xml is deleted, simply copy shortcuts_comments.xml as shortcuts.xml and your comments will even remain in shortcuts.xml until your next macro recording ;-))
Best Regards,
guy038