Macro Recorder - A useful tool to do repeated tasks in Appsheet Editor

[jyothis_m]

I have been extensively using this Macro Recorder for doing repeated tasks inside appsheet editor. Thought of sharing it with the community.

Use cases : if you have a common change to do on all Tables or anything else that requires you to do the same steps multiple times which i found very tedious, this tool is really handy.

Just record the steps when you make the changes in the first table/column as the case may be. Check the steps recorded and modify if needed. I remove the unwanted delays and mouse moves. Playback the recorded macro for making changes in the sebsequent tables/columns.

Below are the steps i recorded for removing an expression from Valid-if Field and pasting it to Suggested Values Field (i made a mistake by entering it in Valid-if Field initially for all tables). I had around 20 Tables to apply this change and it took only a few minutes once i recorded the steps. Another advantage that i found is that errors are avoided when using this. When doing repeated steps manually, I found myself doing the wrong sequence after some repeatitions. Once i found this tool, now i always use it to do all repeated tasks not only in Appsheet but other cases as well. 

Another great feature is that, this tool can also repeat steps and write values from a list each time. Which means the steps may be same but the value to be used in each step may be different, and this values can be taken from a list we provide so that for each repeatiton once value is taken from the list and then next.

[dbaum]

Sounds really helpful. Thanks.

ICYMI, @MultiTech has shared info about some macro hardware. AppSheet Macro Keyboard 

[jyothis_m]

You are correct @dbaum . I was not aware of this macro hardware by @MultiTech 

[MultiTech]

This is so true! I love that macro recorder, it saves so much time.

For a while I was even putting together a repository of macros that people could download, but there's a lot of difficulties with making that a smooth integration.

Unfortunately all of the macro things are based on the positions of the cursor on the screen, in an XY coordinate system, and there are a lot of things that affect where things appear on the screen. Screen size, desktop size, Windows font size, web browser font size, font, the website settings, need I go on....

So I abandoned the project, as there was no real easy way to make it a smooth operating machine - one where you could basically download the macro and run it and it would do whatever.

But recording your own macros, 100%!

Thanks for the ping @dbaum 

[jyothis_m]

You are absolutely right @MultiTech Since there is no other way in Appsheet to quickly make changes common to many items, macro recorder is a very good time saving tool for us here. 

Record the macro during the first step. Do a little optimisation and you are ready to repeat these steps as much as you want. It saves so much time which otherwise we would have to do each step manually which is very boring and prone to errors. 

In my case the initial macro recording sometimes took few minutes to get it correct and optimised, but i should say it is worth the time spent if you need to repeat those same steps atleast 10 times or more. 

It is existing to see the macro actions taking place within fraction of seconds which would otherwise take few seconds to do it manually. The playback is so fast that sometimes we cannot see what has happened, but when we go back and check, every changes we need are correctly made.