Write Your Own Tools and Utilities

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Write Your Own Tools and Utilities
Fred Wersan MAK Technologies fwersan_at_mak.com
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Session Outline

• Intro
• Demonstration
• Guidelines
• String replacement
• Macros
• Scripts with AutoIt
• Framescript (non-Framers think Visual Basic)
• Brainstorming
• Q A

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Why Write Your Own Tools?

• Repetitive, boring work procedures
• Commercial apps dont do everything
• 3rd party plug-ins dont cover all gaps
• Quick response to local need
• Extend skills add value
• Sense of accomplishment
• Its fun

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Demonstrations

• Being a demonstration of button bars and tools
  for automating frequent and not-so-frequent
  procedures

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General Guidelines

• Any procedure that requires a repeatable set of
  keystrokes is a candidate for a script.
• A procedure that requires a repeatable mix of
  keystrokes and mouse movement might be a
  candidate for a script.
• Procedures that are mostly mouse-based are
  hardest to script.

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Another Guideline

• Procedures that require assessing the state of an
  application or reading the contents of windows or
  dialog boxes can be difficult to script with
  generic scripting applications, but may be
  accessible using specialized scripting programs,
  e.g., FrameScript, VB for Applications.

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String Replacement

• A short string gets replaced by a long string

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Macros

• Repeat a series of common menu commands/keystrokes
  
• Can manipulate menus and dialog boxes
• Might include mouse control
• Might include variables and logic

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Good Tasks for Macros

• Indexing
• Invert entries
• Add formatting codes
• Text formatting

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Mechanics

• Record as you do the task
• Timing issues
• Errors
• Type a series of commands in a macro editor

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Demonstration

• Macro Express

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Scripting with AutoIt

• Simple scripting language
• Variables
• Conditional logic
• Loops
• Functions (subroutines)
• Function libraries (include)
• GUI library

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Script Ideas

• Button bars for common tasks
• Control panels for running applications or
  special scripts
• Automate UI tasks
• Create GUIs on top of console-based apps
• Automated testing utilities
• Application configuration

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Basic Syntax

• Activating windows
• Getting values from a window
• Sending commands to the GUI
• Variables
• Looping
• Functions

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GUI Functions

• Windows
• Tabs
• Input boxes

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Demonstration

• Find/Wrap code
• Getting data from Notepad
• Create Control Objects test in VR-Forces

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Framescript

• Scripting language on top of FrameMaker SDK.
• Doc is hard to use, but good user community.
• Scripts run fast.

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FrameScript Demonstration

• Save files to particular format
• Compare chapter TOCs to headings
• Delete conditional text
• Change formatting
• Color code comments

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Framescript Demos 2

• Split up elements
• Event scripts
• Create GUIs for editing elements (replace the
  built-in dialog boxes)

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Brainstorm Tech Writer Utilities

• What utilities do you wish you had?

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Questions?

• Q. I want to automate a process that references a
  menu, but the menu commands might change. How can
  I tell whats on the menu?
• There may be cases where a portion of a procedure
  isnt predictable enough or your scripting tool
  isnt smart enough to figure things out. However,
  if your scripting tool lets you pause a script
  (Macro Express and AutoIt support pausing), you
  can stop at the place that requires an injection
  of intelligence, do the right thing, then
  continue the script. The PDF utility I showed
  demonstrated this. When I added chapter numbers
  to the chapter titles in the bookmarks, the
  script asked how many chapters there were,
  automatically inserted numbers, then asked how
  many appendices there were and then inserted the
  letters. There is no way to figure that out
  automatically, but scripting the boring
  repetitious stuff still saves a lot of time.

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Resources

• Leximation http//www.leximation.com/toolsearch/.
  
• Zillions of scripting languages
• Perl
• Javascript
• Python
• Visual Basic for Windows

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Sources

• Macro Express http//www.wintools.com/automation.
  htm
• AutoIt http//www.autoitscript.com/
• Framescript http//www.framescript.com/
• XN Resource Editor (for editing DLLs so you can
  make the FrameMaker Marker dbx bigger (edit
  fmdlg.dll, the Ins_marker dialog be sure to
  save a backup)) http//www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/del
  phi.htm

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• Fred WersanMAK Technologiesfwersan_at_mak.com