Understanding the CodeStore User Interface

 

Note : Before proceeding with this section, kindly go through the CodeStore macro structure and the concepts of Slots.

 

Macro Editor/Customizer


Editor Window

Creating a new Category

To create a new Category, 

  •  Select the File/New Category menu option

  • Click the New Category button in the tool bar

  •  Right click on the Category list and select the the New Category option

  •  Press CTRL+N or ALT+N

The above actions will launch a popup that expects the name for the category you would like to create

After entering the name, if you want the macro to be created, click OK on the popup. This will create a new entry in the Category list.

Creating a new Macro

To create a new Macro, 

  •  Select the File/New Macro menu option

  • Click the New Macro button in the tool bar

  •  Right click on the Category list and select the the New Macro option

  •  Press CTRL+M or ALT+M

The above actions will clear (if any text is present) in the Macro Source text editor that is present on the right hand side at the top.

After entering the macro text, to save the macro,

  • Select the File/Save Macro menu option

  • Click the Save Macro Button in the tool bar

  • Press CTRL+S or ALT+S

This will save the macro in the corresponding directory.

Customizing an Existing Macro

The above represents Code Store's default window. It can be seen that the CodeStore is currently in the macro customization mode. To customize a macro, select the category and the macro to be customized. Then, do one of the following:

  •  Press ALT + Z 

  • Press CTRL+Shift+Z

  • Click the Customize Macro Button in the Toolbar

  • Select the File / Customize Macro option from the Menu

  • Right click on the Macro List and select Customize Macro option

  • Note : A checkbox, with the text 'Edit all slots at once' is present on the right hand side bottom. Checking that will cause a table (the one above it on the picture) to be dynamically created with a particular number of rows matching the number of slots to be customized. If it is not, then for each slot, a popup dialog appears seeking user input. When the OK button is clicked, the customized macro is shown in an editable multi line text area. This text can then be directly copied (by selecting all the text in it and pressing CTRL+C as in any text editor), or through the Edit/Copy menu.

    Activity Log:

    Log Viewer

    CodeStore comes with a simple logger that takes care of logging some of the activities happening on it. Though the user is appraised of all the events/activities as and when the happen in the form of messages in popup dialogs and also on the status bar, to have a log with some raw output traces may help. Hence, a simple logger is also available along with CodeStore. It can be viewed by:

    • Selecting the File/View Log menu option

    • Pressing ALT+L

    Macro Details View

    The above screenshot depicts the macro details table of CodeStore. It displays a list of all the macros along with their categories , with the creation/last modification date. This is just an addition to quickly lookup some macro based on its category instead of having to look through each category . 

    Note :These details can be stored as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, which is compatible with most of the modern spreadsheet applications

    The CodeStore Toolbar

    The toolbar has buttons that directly map to some of the main functionalities of CodeStore. Also, there is an additional button that takes care of customizing the interface namely, the width, height , location etc..

                                           1                  4         5            7     8     9        10     11

    1. New Category Button - Creates a new category

    2. New Macro Button - Creates a new Macro

    3. Save Macro Button - Saves a created Macro

    4. Delete Macro Button - Deleted a Macro

    5. Customize Macro Button - Invokes the customizer for the current macro

    6. Export Macro Button - This invokes the exporting of all the Macros in a category (Macros are exported as a whole with an option of saving them as text)

    7. Font Button - This launches a Font Dialog meant to set the font for the Macro Editor and Result Text area

    8. Select All Button - Currently unused

    9. Copy Button - Gives an option of copying from either of Macro Editor / Result text areas

    10. View Log Button - Displays the Log file

    11. Set UI Properties Button

     The Set UI Properties Button launches a Dialog that allows the user to visually see and set the size and position of the CodeStore frame on the screen. By default, positioning through this dialog is restricted to some pre-calculated value based on width and height, to keep it evenly placed from all the sides independent of width and height. The width and height, can , however be adjusted using Sliders provided below labeled to show their purpose. Also, a checkbox is provided to let the user to select whether the tool bar can be docked or not. The UI Properties Dialog is shown below

    This ends the description of the various parts of the user interface of CodeStore.

    For clarifications, mail me @ ramanujam_off@hotmail.com