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Tweaking Settings

To edit a target's properties:

1. first open up PTFB Pro's main window, then
2. either double-click the target in the list, or select the target and hit "Edit.."

The resulting properties sheet has six tabbed pages (or four if it's a screen macro) - click the links below to view information specific to each page:

Macro Properties - General Page

This page is divided into four sections:

Title
Here you can see the title of the target window (if available) when the macro was created, and set the title that PTFB should display in the main list.

Playback
You can adjust the playback speed for the macro on this page, or on the macro editing page (if present - see below). The speed range runs from one quarter of normal speed, right up to the maximum possible speed on your computer. The mid-point in speed range represents 1x speed - at this setting, the macro should play at about the same speed as the original recording (subject to system load).

This section also contains an option labeled: "skip redundant mouse movement". When set, PTFB deliberately skips over what it considers to be unnecessary mouse-move actions during playback, increasing the playback speed still further.

If you want to know which mouse moves PTFB thinks are redundant, try setting the macro to a slow speed and tick the "skip redundant" box. You'll see that PTFB only takes note of mouse moves that occur immediately before a mouse button action - all the ones in between that describe the path the cursor took are skipped. This is fine for many applications - but not so good of you're recording the movement of the pen tool in a free-hand drawing package!

TIP#1: If you find that a macro is playing back but not producing the results you expect, it's often a good idea to try reducing the playback speed - sometimes mouse and key actions can arrive before the target program is ready for them. Also try turning OFF the "skip redundant" setting - again, some programs don't cope too well if they don't see a more natural movement of the mouse cursor.

TIP#2: If you find yourself always having to change the playback speed or the "skip redundant" setting when you create a new macro, don't forget that you can alter the defaults - check out the "Defaults" page of PTFB's Configuration Sheet for more details.

Restore Active Window
When PTFB Pro is about to act on a target, it forces it in front of the current active window to help ensure that all mouse and key presses go to the correct recipient. If you tick the "Restore Active Window" option, PTFB Pro will attempt to re-activate the previously active window once the macro has completed.

This will most often be used for repeated, periodic operations on a background window. It will have no noticeable effect in cases where the target window has already forced itself to the front of the screen by the time PTFB Pro sees it.

Hide Macro Editing Tab
There may be times when you don't want others to be able to view or change the contents of a macro. One to accomplish that is to use this setting. When you tick the box, you'll be asked to provide an unlock password. Choose a password you won't forget (more on that later) then click OK on the sheet to save your changes. The next time you view the properties for you macro, the editing tab simply won't be there.

To get the editing tab back, untick the "Hide" box and supply the correct password, then again click OK on the sheet to save changes. The editing tab will again be present when you next view the macro's properties.

CAUTION:

• Don't forget your unlock password - if you do, you won't be able to edit your macro! You'll have to delete it and create a new one from scratch.
• Please be aware that this function does NOT provide bullet-proof security. Where possible, PTFB uses Windows' own cryptographic services to encrypt the macro itself and your unlock password when storing them on disk, and PTFB itself contains a degree of protection against memory-dumping and similar attacks. However, suitably skilled individuals would probably be able to break these protections. You should always weigh the risks before recording a macro that enters a critical password, for example!

Comments
This field allows you to enter a short note or description for the macro. The comment will be shown in the tooltip displayed when you hover the mouse over the item's name on PTFB's main screen.

Item Properties - Identifying the Target Page

PTFB Pro takes a lot of care to ensure that it is acting on the right target window. For safety reasons its default settings require an almost perfect match between a candidate window and its snapshot of the original target. If differences are found, PTFB will declare a mismatch and take no action.

The settings on this page allow you to make PTFB more forgiving of certain differences, or to change the attributes that PTFB uses to declare a match.

The page is divided into two sections. The upper section is concerned with identification of the external attributes of the target window: its title, its type and size, and the program that created it. The lower section looks at the contents of the window - its "controls" to use the official Windows term.

Identifying the Main Window
Title
The window's title is one of the first things PTFB uses to match it to a macro or single-press item. Unfortunately, window titles aren't always constant - it's very common for programs to change their title according to the document they're showing. Take Notepad for example - its title includes the name of the file being edited, or the word "Untitled" if you haven't saved yet. Other programs sometimes add an asterisk (*) to the title to denote unsaved changes.

The "Require this text" option allows PTFB to cope with these variations. If part of the window title is always constant and you think it uniquely identifies the window, just enter it in the edit box.

If that doesn't provide enough flexibility, you can tick the regular expression checkbox and enter a suitable expression.

About Regular Expressions
A regular expression is a notation that describes a pattern for matching pieces of text. For example, the regular expression:

Notepad$

will match any title that ends with the word "Notepad" (much more specific than just requiring the title to contain Notepad).

Regular expressions are very flexible and PTFB can handle the most common forms, but make sure you know the syntax for regular expressions before using them!

A good place to start if you're new to regular expressions can be found (with a little effort) at Microsoft's MSDN site. Browse to http://search.msdn.microsoft.com/ and enter the search text "Introduction to Regular Expressions (JScript)".

For people with more experience, by far the best place to go is: http://www.regexlib.com. This is an excellent site. It has a cheat sheet for the basic syntax, a library of ready-made expressions and best of all, an online test page to help work the bugs out of your own efforts.

Fire only if window belongs to program (off by default)
This option is available if PTFB was able to determine which program created the original target window. As the name suggests, ticking this option means that PTFB will only declare a match if a candidate window appears to have been created by the same program.

Match Window Type (on by default)
Windows have various attributes that can't be seen by the naked eye. For example, every window has a type (or class, to use the official term), and this can often help to uniquely identify a window. Unfortunately, some programs give their windows a different type or class every time they run. To help cope with these cases, you can turn off the requirement for a match on window type.

Match Window Size (off by default)
Normally, PTFB doesn't worry about the size of a candidate window, since most windows can be resized manually. However, you might find it useful to require an exact match on size - if so, this option is for you.

Allow Minimized Window (off by default)
By default, PTFB ignores minimized windows. If you enable this option, PTFB will automatically restore a minimized window in order to press it (or run a macro). The restore action is necessary as many programs aren't ready to accept mouse and keyboard actions when they are minimized.

Identifying Window Contents
Another important tool for telling windows apart is their contents - the "controls" or child items that they contain. PTFB offers three options:

Strict (default)
This option requires an exact match between the contents of the candidate window and the snapshot that PTFB took when the macro or single-press item was created.

It's the safest option, but in practice you'll often find yourself using one of the other options (usually "Simple" - see below).

Why? Well many applications many programs make subtle changes to window contents while they're running. If you create a new item and it works once, but afterwards fails to "see" the target window, the chances are you need to try one of the other options below.

Simple
This is a much more relaxed setting. In the case of a macro, it essentially causes PTFB to ignore the window contents entirely. For a single-press item it causes PTFB to check only the target button, if available.

This setting is required for so many windows that we seriously considered making it the default, instead of "Strict". In the end, the Strict option won out for safety reasons, but you can change this yourself - check out the "Defaults" page of PTFB's Configuration Sheet for more details.

By Prompt
If Strict is too.. strict.. and Simple is too relaxed, this option offers a useful compromise. You can enter a piece of text (or a regular expression - see the comments for Window title above) that must be present somewhere in the target window before a match is declared.

Bear in mind that not all text in a window may be visible to PTFB - some programs prefer to draw text on a window instead of loading it into standard text control. To help with these cases, PTFB fills the editable drop-down list (immediately below the By Prompt option button) with all the text it can see. If you enter text that isn't in the list, it's unlikely that PTFB will be able to match against it.

TIP#1: If you find yourself always having to change the trigger options when you create a new macro, don't forget that you can alter the defaults - check out the "Defaults" page of PTFB's Configuration Sheet for more details.

TIP#2: If PTFB is having trouble recognizing a target window, first look to see if the title is changing from one occurrence to the next. If it is, try the more flexible window title option above. If that doesn't help, try switching from Strict contents checking to Simple. In the vast majority of cases, that will do the trick.

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