Windows 7 Keystroke Macro Recorder

[macdunn]

Hi all,

 

I am editing hundreds, possibly thousands, of essentially identical photos in Photoshop on a Windows 7 x64 machine, doing exactly the same task for every one of the photos (I will be putting them together as a stop-action video).

 

I am looking for a keystroke / mouse recording [to a macro] program, like the Recorder program which was included with Windows up to Win XP. And, freeware. Well, the MS Recorder program may not have been included with all versions, but I know that the last Win version I have which it worked on is XP. I have tried running it on the Win7 x64 machine in XP compatibility, but it immediately displayed the error dialog which says it is not compatible. And, no, I do not want to run it in the Windows XP emulation (I am running Win7 Ultimate) because the emulation is horribly slow, as well as other issues with the emulation.

 

Re: the XP emulation on Win7, I would rather 'carry' all of the photos over to one of my still-in-use XP machines rather than use the XP emulation on Win7 Ultimate, even with 16GB RAM.

 

Does anyone have a suggestion, preferably one that you have personally used?

 

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!

 

-Mac-

[daveydoom]

I've used AutoHotkey in the past:

 

http://www.autohotkey.com/

 

 

It would probably suit your needs . I probably won't be of much help to you since I was doing some pretty basic stuff with it, but the help they provide on their forums is top notch .

[macdunn]

Hi daveydoom,

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I have found AutoHotKey and am currently trying it. I looked at two others, and one was listed on cnet.com as Free, but then I found it is only free for 30 days.

 

So far AutoHotKey seems to meet my needs with a Macro recorder. I am having some difficulty capturing some of the keystrokes or mouse clicks in Photoshop, but, as always, so goes the learning curve.

 

I will post my results and comments here on Scot's Newsletter.

 

-Mac-

[macdunn]

Okay, next day (Boxing Day, day after Xmas), and I can say that AutoHotKey works well enough for my first efforts. Some comments --

 

1) My environment is an Intel NUC (I really like it as a workstation, not as an entertainment centre as it is being sold), Intel Core i5, 16GB RAM, Microsoft [3rd gen] Ergonomic Keyboard running IntelliPoint 8 software, but no special keys programmed.

 

2) When you compile the recorded keystrokes and mouse clicks which are recorded with the AutoScriptWriter program which is included (but not named in the docs), I had to disable AVG. Logically, of course. No biggie.

 

3) Here is the weird thing, when I first ran the executable, it did not execute correctly, missing keystrokes or mouse clicks and not completing. What I discovered (as a professional QA tester and knowing to pay attention to little things) was that I have to hold down the Ctrl key after starting the executable. Weird. But, it works.

 

-Mac-

[daveydoom]

Glad it's working for you Mac . I believe that with this software you must assign a hot key to be pressed with the Ctrl key in order to run a script after it's been loaded.

Edited December 26, 2014 by daveydoom

[macdunn]

Hi daveydoom,

 

I guess I missed your comment.

 

I had looked at assigning a 'hot key', as I have used in the past with the Windows Recorder on XP, but I could not figure it out.

 

I went ahead by simply rerunning the executable for each photo to be edited and that worked if I hit (and held down) the Ctrl key as soon as I ran the executable (from its directory window).

 

Since that worked and I wanted to get the specific mini-project underway, I did not look further into the 'hot key'. I will in the near future.

 

Thanks!

 

-Mac-

 

Glad it's working for you Mac . I believe that with this software you must assign a hot key to be pressed with the Ctrl key in order to run a script after it's been loaded.

Edited January 22, 2015 by macdunn