[solved - idiot user] Problem with Dorico 2 and external macros

This is maybe beyond the scope of this forum, and of Dorico development, but it’s very much a query that’s come up in my use of Dorico Pro 2.

In Dorico 1 I had a variety of macros set up in Pulover’s Macro Maker (which is basically a nice GUI slapped on top of Autohotkey. One of them did the clever thing of adding a notename under a note, like this: (a specific niche demand from a small educational publisher).

The steps that the macro took were as follows:

  1. Type Shift-X
  2. Type notename (it actually waits for me to type the note name, as it’s not clever enough to figure it out for itself)
  3. Hunt around for this image:

  1. Click in the centre of that.
  2. Type n (to use my specific Note Name text style, which is small and bold).
  3. Type Return, then Escape, then find the newly-created text item (sometimes it gets this wrong).
  4. Find and click this:

I seem to remember there being some difficulty getting the macro to find the various images, because when you roll over these sorts of things the background colour changes, but I definitely got around that somehow.

For some reason, in Dorico 2, I can’t make this work. I can externally screenshot this image but the macro software can’t see it because, I guess, it lives on top of the window rather than within it.

Is this something that’s changed in Dorico 2? If so, is there a way around it?
I guess long term the bigger question is, please can we have custom text styles where we can set the default position to Above or Below, shortcut-ed individually in such a way that we don’t have to start from Shift-X? Having to use a drop-down actually means having to use a mouse, and some of us find keyboards substantially quicker.

This is probably not the answer you’re looking for, but a number of us Mac people use Keyboard Maestro, which plays very well with Dorico 2. I have around 50 shortcuts programmed and they work consistently to save time. I highly recommend it.

It’s not the answer I’m looking for in that predominantly I’m in Windows for Dorico. My two-core Mac just couldn’t keep up, and when I looked at what a quad-core Macbook Pro was retailing for I decided to switch to Windows, at least until there’s more money in the kitty! Thanks though - I’m very familiar with Keyboard Maestro…

There’s no intrinsic difference in the way the popover for text editing appears in Dorico 2 versus Dorico 1: technically it’s exactly the same, it just uses a different colour scheme. So I’m afraid I’m at a loss to explain why this method doesn’t work any longer in Dorico 2.

You have to rewrite the script, it’s that simple.

Steve, thanks so much for your insightful response - do you think you could read before you post?

That’s exactly what I was trying to do. Unfortunately I can’t natively capture the text toolbar from Macro Creator; the inbuilt screenshot tool captures the stave behind the text toolbar.
I could screenshot the toolbar using a different screen-capture app, but Macro Creator then can’t find the text toolbar on screen.

You have to rewrite the script manually, not using that utility. I did read the text of your post, and I comprehended that you want to use Pulover’s app, which is not reliable- which you noted. Note also, that it has not been updated for almost 2 years.

I saw your reprimand, but I don’t agree with the force you used.

Here is an autohotkey image search routine, ready for testing, which I have manually configured and tested for you.
The image I used is attached, it should be placed in the Dorico Projects folder, though a different display size might require a different image file. I use Greenshot to capture the image.

CoordMode Pixel  ; Interprets the coordinates below as relative to the screen rather than the active window.
ImageSearch, FoundX, FoundY, 0, 0, A_ScreenWidth, A_ScreenHeight, %userprofile%\Documents\Dorico Projects\defaulttext.png
if ErrorLevel = 2
    MsgBox Could not conduct the search.
else if ErrorLevel = 1
    MsgBox Icon could not be found on the screen.
else
    MsgBox The icon was found at %FoundX%x%FoundY%.
return

defaulttext.png

If that’s what you meant, then why didn’t you say that? The force used was because

just isn’t helpful. Either that or I’m being incredibly dense!

And thank you - I’ll investigate going directly through AHK.

I would consider every option in this area. :wink:

I really hate to say this, but sometimes the simplest solutions work - a restart sorted this, and PMC is now finding the text toolbar.

Sorry for wasting everyone’s time, and for lashing out at Steve.