HELP: Having trouble with Macros in v8.5.3 or later
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Hello, @wonkawilly, @datatraveller1, @alan-kilborn and all,
Oh… Of course, I forgot to mention that, in my previous posts, I refered to macros already created by a user with a N++ version prior to
v8.5.3!If, with N++
v.8.5.3, you just create a new macro, containing one or several line-break(s), it’ll be correctly recorded !However, I noticed some oddities when recording these line-breaks !
Follow these different actions for testing :
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Open N++
v.8.5.3 -
Open a new tab
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If the line-break format of the new tab is not
Windows (CR LF), in the status bar, change it with the commandEdit > EOL Conversion > Windows (CR LF) -
Start recording a macro with the command
Macro > Start Recording -
In the new tab, just type in the string
ABCand hit theEnterkey -
Then, type in the string
DEFand hit , again, theEnterkey -
Stop recording the current macro with the command
Macro > Stop Recording -
Click on the the menu option
Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro... -
Give the name
Test_CRLFto this macro -
Delete all contents of this new tab with a
Ctrl + Zoperation -
Change the EOL format of the new tab to Unix, with the command
Edit > EOL Conversion > Unix (LF) -
Start recording a macro with the command
Macro > Start Recording -
In the new tab, just type in the string
GHIand hit theEnterkey -
Then, type in the string
JKLand hit , again, theEnterkey -
Stop recording the current macro with the command
Macro > Stop Recording -
Click on the the menu option
Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro... -
Give the name
Test_LFto this macro -
Delete all contents of this new tab with a
Ctrl + Zoperation -
Change the EOL format of the new tab to Mac, with the command
Edit > EOL Conversion > Macintosh (CR) -
Start recording a macro with the command
Macro > Start Recording -
In the new tab, just type in the string
MNOand hit theEnterkey -
Then, type in the string
PQRand hit , again, theEnterkey -
Stop recording the current macro with the command
Macro > Stop Recording -
Click on the the menu option
Macro > Save Current Recorded Macro... -
Give the name
Test_CRto this macro -
Close N++
v.8.5.3, without saving the new tab -
Restart N++
v.8.5.3 -
Open your active
shortcuts.xmlfile -
Note the contents of the three macros
Test_CRLF,Test_LFandTest_CR:-
In the
Test_CRLFmacro, the first part of each EOL recording is theCRcharacter ( OK ) but the second part isCRLFand notLF( ?? ) -
In the
Test_LFmacro, the two EOL recording are theCRLFcharacters and not theLFchars ( ?? ) -
In the
Test_CRmacro, the two EOL recording are correctly theCRcharacters ( OK )
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I don’t know, if we should trigger an
GitHubissue for these oddities ??Best Regards
guy038
P.S. : I’ve just seen the @peterjones’s post… and will have a look at it !
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@guy038 said in HELP: Having trouble with Macros in v8.5.3 or later:
Note the contents of the macros Test_CRLF , Test_LF
I can duplicate your poor results with these two. :-(
if we should trigger an GitHub issue for these oddities ??
Either that, or post about it in the 8.5.3 release thread, HERE.
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G guy038 referenced this topic on
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I’ve a similar problem.
I’ve created a macro doing a lot of things, included changing “word” into ‘word’ (look for ‘ ’ instead of " ").
This worked ok until last update (8.5.3, build May 15 2023 06:07:16).
Now the macro (I don’have touched it) change “word” into& # x 2 0 1 8 ; w o r d & # x 2 0 1 8 ;
Please ignore spaces: if I don’t insert spaces, this forum convert “& # x 2 0 1 8 ; w o r d & # x 2 0 1 8 ;” into " ‘word’ " and it’s impossible to understand what I mean.
I need Notepad++ don’t “convert” the ‘ ’ symbols.I’ve tried to search my macro recorded but I don’t find it in shortcuts.xml. Where I can find it? My macro is called “calcio (prime correzioni)” but in shortcuts.xml I find only “Trim Trailing Space and Save”. BTW the date of shortcuts.xml is from 2021 and maybe my macro was created after.
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Hello, @massimo-piscopo and All,
I suppose that you have a standard installation with N++ installer ! Then, you must look for the real location of your
shortcuts.xmlfile !
Follow the steps, below :
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Open your Notepad++
v8.5.3, as usual -
Click on the
Windows Logokey and, simultaneously, hit theRkey -
In the Execute window, type in
Explorer.exeand hit theEnterkey
=> The File Explorer program should start
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Clic on the ‘STAR’ and type in the string
%appdata%\Notepad++ -
Valid with the
Enterkey
=> You should normally see a
shortcuts.xmlfile, along with some others files- Clic on the
shortcuts.xmlfile and drag this file into your notepad++ window
=> You should see, in the
<Macros>section, your macro namedcalcio (prime correczioni)-
Now, open the Replace dialog (
Ctrl + H) -
Untick all box options
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SEARCH
‘ -
REPLACE
\x{2018} -
Check the
wrap aroundoption -
Select the
Regular expressionsearch mode ( IMPORTANT ) -
Click on the
Replace Allbutton -
Save the changes of your
shortcuts.xmlfile -
Close Notepad++
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Restart Notepad++
=> Your macro should be OK and do what it is designed for :-)
Best Regards,
guy038
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I don’t find it in
shortcuts.xmlIt’s there, or your macro doesn’t exist when you exit Notepad++ and restart. Did you look in the right
shortcuts.xml?If you had read the first post in this discussion, you would have seen the we asked you to supply your ?-menu’s Debug Info. Because you chose not to do so, we have to assume the location of your
shortcuts.xmlis in%AppData%\Notepad++\shortcuts.xml, as @guy038 guessed while I was typing this. -
@guy038 and @PeterJones THANK YOU SO MUCH, I’ve solved. <3
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@datatraveller1 said in HELP: Having trouble with Macros in v8.5.3 or later:
@wonkawilly As far as I have understood @guy038 and the FAQ, you simply have to replace the old values UTF-8 encoded literally with
è,àetc.I’m not sure if something like Python would work for the macro system but I partly agree that it is a bit ugly sometimes - In my case I don’t like that real line breaks get inserted into shortcuts.xml.
It should be good enough to see it replaced with “\r\n” as in regular expression syntax. Nevertheless, that solution would of course be good just to “survive”, not in the long run, because nevertheless the optimus would be to have a complete new macro system as in LibreOffice, MsOffice and so on. It would be a huge improvement even replacing the current macro system in npp with a new macro system based on AutoIt language and macro recorder.
The current macro system is too cryptic and too limited. Compare this row
<Action type=“1” message=“2170” wParam=“0” lParam=“0” sParam=“è” />
with its equivalent in a simple scripting language in which you can even do loops or if/else and so much more.
IMHO the current macro system in N++ is going old… and really needs retirement, better sooner than later…
Also another ugly thing is that n++ saves new recorded macros only on exit: it would be better to save new created macros on click on the Save Macro button so they could be edited without the need of restarting npp: other ugly and incomprehensible thing. -
Moving to the next bookmark does not work inside a macro. No matter where the cursor is, it will always go to a specific bookmark.
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@Cement-Knight said in HELP: Having trouble with Macros in v8.5.3 or later:
Moving to the next bookmark does not work inside a macro. No matter where the cursor is, it will always go to a specific bookmark.
You might want to start a new thread with that, as it is very unrelated to previous conversation in this thread.
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Good News
It turns out that XML’s five predefined named-entities still work even in Notepad++ v8.5.3 and newer. Also, the entities made up of two hex digits still work.
The following macro shows the named entities that still work in macro sParam values with v8.5.3 and newer, as well as showing how to get a
CRLFnewline sequence using the two-hex-digit entities. You can use this as an example for when you are manually editing your macros to work for v8.5.3 and newer:<Macro name="XML Named Entities" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0"> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="&" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="<" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=">" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="'" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=""" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> </Macro>And here are all the two-digit hex entities for ASCII characters from 1 to 127:
<Macro name="ASCII 2-digit Hex Entities" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0"> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="	" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=" " /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="!" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=""" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="#" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="$" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="%" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="&" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="'" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="(" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=")" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="*" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="+" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="," /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="-" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="." /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="/" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="0" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="1" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="2" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="3" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="4" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="5" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="6" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="7" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="8" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="9" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=":" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=";" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="<" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="=" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam=">" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="?" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="@" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="A" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="B" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="C" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="D" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="E" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="F" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="G" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="H" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="I" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="J" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="K" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="L" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="M" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="N" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="O" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="P" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="Q" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="R" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="S" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="T" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="U" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="V" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="W" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="X" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="Y" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="Z" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="[" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="\" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="]" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="^" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="_" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="`" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="a" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="b" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="c" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="d" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="e" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="f" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="g" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="h" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="i" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="j" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="k" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="l" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="m" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="n" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="o" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="p" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="q" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="r" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="s" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="t" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="u" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="v" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="w" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="x" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="y" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="z" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="{" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="|" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="}" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="~" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="
" /> </Macro>The FAQ has been updated to match this new information.
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Moderator Note: The contents of this post were moved to a separate topic, Macro works normally, but fails when shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+C, because it’s actually separate from the >=v8.5.3 issue for this Topic.
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P PeterJones locked this topic on
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