Nova^™

Macro provides recording and replay of text editing changes.

Capture typing, text modification, selections, cursor movement, made during an editing session.

Useful to speed up repetitive edits, to play back text changes for the purposes of screen recordings. Or just to roll your own clips/snippets on-demand.

Usage

To run Macro:

• Select the Editor → Macro menu item; or
• Open the command palette and type Macro

Configuration

To configure global preferences, open Extensions → Extension Library... then select Macros's Settings tab.

Recording

• Selection Changes
  • default: on
• Automatically Compress Macro
  • default: off

Playback

• Playback Delay (milliseconds)
  • default: 10

Developer

• Show Debug Logs
  • default: off

Commands

These can be summoned from the Editor menu, Command Palette, or by shortcut key:

• Start Recording (Option+Cmd+m)
• Replay Last Macro (Shift+Cmd+m)

Last Macro refers to the one at the bottom of the list, usually the most recently recorded or processed.

Sidebar

• > Play selected macro (or double-click)
• + Start Recording Macro
• - Delete selected macro

Context Menu

• Replay
• Compress
• Duplicate
• Rename
• Copy (Compressed)
• Copy (Raw)
• Copy (Readable)
• Delete

Recording

Recording is done on-demand, only when you want it. A notification will signal recording has begun. When done, you select the Stop button in the notification and the macro will be automatically saved to the sidebar.

You can also start the recording using the + sidebar icon, or a command via the menu or command palette, but recording is always stopped through the notification.

After recording a macro a number of options become available via the context menu.

Actions

The following actions are recorded:

• INS (insertion)
• DEL (deletion, +/-)
• POS (cursor position, +/-)
• SEL (selection, +/-)
• REP (replace selection)

In addition to this, each macro stores its own expanded/unexpanded state for the sidebar.

Compression

Compression of a macro serves a few purposes:

• reduce size
• speed up playback
• increase readability

Example Macro

Raw macro (17 actions):

{"name":"Macro 1","actions":[{"type":"INS","text":"N"},{"type":"INS","text":"o"},{"type":"INS","text":"v"},{"type":"INS","text":"a"},{"type":"INS","text":"!"},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":1},{"type":"SEL","count":-1},{"type":"SEL","count":-2},{"type":"SEL","count":-3},{"type":"REP","old":"ova","new":"O"},{"type":"INS","text":"V"},{"type":"INS","text":"A"},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":1},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":1},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":1},{"type":"DEL","count":1},{"type":"DEL","count":1},{"type":"DEL","count":1},{"type":"INS","text":"o"},{"type":"INS","text":"v"},{"type":"INS","text":"a"}],"isExpanded":false}

Compressed macro (6 actions):

[{"type":"INS","text":"Nova!"},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":1},{"type":"SEL","count":-3},{"type":"REP","old":"ova","new":"O"},{"type":"INS","text":"VA"},{"type":"POS","direction":"←","count":3},{"type":"DEL","count":3},{"type":"INS","text":"ova"}]

This types:

• Nova!VAova

Resulting in:

• Nova!

Version 1.0.x

Initial release