Unloading Macros

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Patrick J
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Unloading Macros

Post by Patrick J »

Hi

I've just encountered something a bit odd I think.

I try to empty the Macros folder:

/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer/Macros

with a view to creating a nice empty Macros menu so I can start to populate it with the AppleScripts I'm writing for NWE.

I quit out of Nisus Writer Express version 2.7 and move all the Perl macros to a separate folder. Then I launch NWE again and all the Perl macros re-appear.

I'm a bit loath to trash the prefs because my keyboard short-cuts will be lost.

Any ideas on how to successfully "unload" those macros which are bundled with NWE 2.7?

Thank you.

P.S. I think it would be good if keyboard short-cuts were kept in a separate pref's file myself.
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martin
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Post by martin »

Current versions of Express will always try to repopulate the macros folder with the default macros. I'll file a bug report that this action should only be done once.
dshan
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Post by dshan »

NWX will always recreate the system supplied macros in the Macros folder, you can't delete them (trashing prefs won't help, this behaviour is apparently hard coded). But you can now (2.7) create sub-folders inside the Macros folder (e.g. the 'templates' sub-folder), why not put your Applescript macros in a new sub-folder? In fact you don't have to put them in the Macros folder at all, using the 'Macro'->'Load Macro...' menu you can access macros stored anywhere in the filesystem you like.
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Patrick J
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Post by Patrick J »

Hi

Well thanks for letting me know there's a problem with 2.7 in this regard.

For now I'm putting scripts in folders.

I'll be glad when this bug is fixed as my desire for neatness compels me to clear the Macro menu of all those macros I don't need and start building a Macro menu with macros and scripts that I do want.

In relation to the “P.S.” in my original post now that I’m getting the hang of OS X a bit (I’ve only had it for a few weeks) I see that I can open NWE pref’s with Omni Outliner. This is rather useful as I can create from that a list of keyboard short-cuts, which is what I want to do.
It would be great if some good way for bulk entry of keyboard short-cuts could be found. With the old Nisus Writer Classic I had well over 200 keyboard short-cuts and with Classic they could be entered using a macro, which is what I did, but I don’t think that is going to be possible with NWE, unless I’m missing something.
Mark XM
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Location: Xiamen, China

Post by Mark XM »

dshan wrote:NWX will always recreate the system supplied macros in the Macros folder, you can't delete them (trashing prefs won't help, this behaviour is apparently hard coded). But you can now (2.7) create sub-folders inside the Macros folder (e.g. the 'templates' sub-folder), why not put your Applescript macros in a new sub-folder? In fact you don't have to put them in the Macros folder at all, using the 'Macro'->'Load Macro...' menu you can access macros stored anywhere in the filesystem you like.
This behaviour gives me the problem that I have two versions of every default macro, because I run NWE from the /System/Applications/ so that if my wife uses the machine she has access to it, but I have run betas from /~user/Applications/ so that I can keep it separate from the previous release copy.
The result is that I have the same set of macros--which I have hardly ever used--in both libraries. I presume that if I delete the one in /~user/Libraries/ it will only get put back again, next time I install a beta in that location.
Any way round this? :?
Mark
dshan
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Post by dshan »

Mark XM wrote: This behaviour gives me the problem that I have two versions of every default macro, because I run NWE from the /System/Applications/ so that if my wife uses the machine she has access to it, but I have run betas from /~user/Applications/ so that I can keep it separate from the previous release copy.
The result is that I have the same set of macros--which I have hardly ever used--in both libraries. I presume that if I delete the one in /~user/Libraries/ it will only get put back again, next time I install a beta in that location.
Any way round this? :?
Mark
Macros are a per user thing - they're always stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer/Macros. It doesn't matter where the NWX executible is kept - /Applications or ~/Applications - each user has their own copy of the Macros folder (just as they have their own copies of Nisus New File.dot and the Nisus preferences file all hanging off their individual ~/Library folder tree). So no, your copies of the NWX system macros will get recreated as soon as you run any copy of NWX from your user account.

If you want to run betas of Nisus as well as the current production version on the same machine I suggest you set up a separate Mac OS X user, install the beta in that user's ~/Applications folder and only run the beta NWX from that user account. That way only your beta user will get the beta versions of macros, New File.dot and other user level files. You and your wife can then run the current release version of Nisus (kept in /Applications) from your regular user account(s) and will have the corresponding release versions of macros and so forth in your ~/Library folder tree(s).
Mark XM
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Location: Xiamen, China

Post by Mark XM »

dshan wrote:Macros are a per user thing - they're always stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer/Macros. It doesn't matter where the NWX executible is kept - /Applications or ~/Applications - each user has their own copy of the Macros folder (just as they have their own copies of Nisus New File.dot and the Nisus preferences file all hanging off their individual ~/Library folder tree). So no, your copies of the NWX system macros will get recreated as soon as you run any copy of NWX from your user account.
All this has made me think more about the issue, and I seem to remember that very early versions of NWE came with a folder of macros with instructions to put them in either the /Library or the ~/Library folder tree. I put them in the former. If later versions are automatically installing them in the ~/Library folder tree, then if I delete the one in the system library, that should not be replaced when I install a new version. I'll try that. I hardly use them, but it's a nuisance having the menu contents repeated twice.
dshan wrote:If you want to run betas of Nisus as well as the current production version on the same machine I suggest you set up a separate Mac OS X user, install the beta in that user's ~/Applications folder and only run the beta NWX from that user account. That way only your beta user will get the beta versions of macros, New File.dot and other user level files. You and your wife can then run the current release version of Nisus (kept in /Applications) from your regular user account(s) and will have the corresponding release versions of macros and so forth in your ~/Library folder tree(s).
I've thought about doing that, but as I want to use the betas with "live" data, as I don't have time to spend just playing with them, and the sort of multilingual data I am working with seems to bring out all sorts of quirks, I therefore need to have them in my own account. In general, it is only the earliest betas of major upgrades which have been proving sufficiently problematic that I have needed to revert to the previous public release version, and I have a very regular back-up system.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Mark
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