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Tweaking Settings
Automating Button Pushing - Tweaking the Settings
To edit a target's properties:
- first open up PTFB Pro's main window, then
- either double-click the target in the list, or select the target and hit "Edit.."
The resulting Target Properties sheet has five tabbed pages - click the links below to view information specific to each page:
Single-Press Properties - General Page
This page is divided into three 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.
Action
Press Button vs. Hotkey
By default PTFB Pro uses a simulated mouse click, but it can also press the button using a hotkey (short key combination indicated by an underlined character on the button's text). This feature may prove useful in cases where the simulated mouse click action is ineffective. To use the hotkey technique, just select the "Use hotkey" radio button and verify that the key combination is correct. If you want to change the hotkey combination, just press the "Set..." button and type the required keys.
Force Enabled
For targets that have a recognised button to press (rather than a simulated press at particular coordinates), you can set the "Force Enabled" option. As the name suggests, this forcibly enables a greyed-out button prior to pressing it.
Please take care when using this option. Some programs may not react well if a previously disabled button is suddenly pressed - you may see unexpected behavior, or even a crash!
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 press action 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.
Comments
This field allows you to enter a short note or description for the single-press item. 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.
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