Macro article covers what you can do with macros, and why you should consider using macros. This article talks about types of Windows Macro and should you use Macro Programs or should you use macro capabilities provided by your specific applications.

Types of Windows Macro

There are 2 types of Windows macro.

1. General purpose Macro Programs: There are quite a few macro programs available that are not specific to one application but will work with any Windows application.

2. Application Specific Macros: The application that you use may also provide some in-built macro capability for example Excel or Word.

Compare Windows Macro

Comparing macro programs with application specific macros is like comparing apples and oranges. They both have a place for themselves. But below are the few things to consider. It will help you decide if you should use macro programs or macro capabilities provided by your application.

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General Purpose Macro Programs

Consider using general purpose macro programs if,

1. Your application does not support Macro capability.
2. Your application supports macro capability but requires you to write a code and you don't want that. Some applications provide macro capabilities but they provide you a VBScript editor and expect you to write a code. Even if you know how to code, learning to code a macro for a specific application can be time consuming.
3. You work with 5 applications and you want to just learn one macro program, not 5. This is one important reason why more users are trying out macro programs. Your job involves repetitive tasks and you like to solve it using macros. But you don't have to time to learn 5 different application specific macro features. Just use general purpose macro programs.
4. You need to do some task between applications like copy data from one application to another. Application specific macros work only for one application. You need general purpose macro program.

Application Specific Macros

Consider using application specific macros if,

1. You use this application regularly & your application supports macros. Spend 30 minutes trying to understand what your application provides. If it provides an easy to use macro recording interface or an easy programming interface, within an hour you may have your first macro working.
   
   
2. You use this application regularly and you don't mind investing time learning their macro capability or you already know it. Even if you don't know it, if you use an application regularly, spend some time to understand their macro capability. Knowing what you can do using macros, will give you new ideas about applications capabilities and suggest new ways of working.
   
   
3. Application specific macros offer far more superior integration with your application. It can provide features unique to that application which general purpose macro programs cannot.
   
   
4. If you invest bit of a time, you can get application specific macros to be very reliable. In fact many large companies use thousands of application macros daily to run their business.
   
   
5. There are many companies out there who can provide you ready made or customized macros for your application. If you use these applications extensively, it is worth talking to a company who specializes in that application. It might be an investment that will pay off soon in productivity and quality of your processes.

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