Diary macros

The Diary entry screen features a macro Code field.

You can use the Diary as a means of initiating macros. For example, you may have a macro to send letters, make a booking or record an order for Companies as they are entered. Enter the appropriate macro Code here, or use a wildcard to bring up a list. If you have filled in a Time Do, the macro will begin at that time, if there are no other processes open.

Note that a Diary Item does not necessarily need a Company Code. You can therefore create Diary Items simply to initiate macros at certain times, for example to create a General Ledger Posting. Although not essential, it would be a good idea for an Action type macro to be set up and allocated to these Diary Items for clarity.

The Company, Contact, Order, Job, Product, Service Call and Booking codes within the macro Diary item can optionally be filled in, and then used within an Evaluate Command in the macro, by means of the following codes: ◊CompCode; ◊ContCode; ◊OrderCode; ◊JobCode; ◊ProdCode; ◊CallCode; ◊BookCode.

On the Access Rights screen of Personnel setup, there is a check box ‘Check Diary macros and Messages’. If switched on, this user will always have an extra process (launched on startup) that periodically checks to see if there are any macros in the Diary that need to be performed. If switched off, then macros in the Diary for that user will simply be ignored.

The same background process is also used to periodically check whether any messages have come in that need responding to. There is a setting in the Core Functions Section of Preferences to define the ‘Message Action’. This Action is queried for in the Diary once every minute, and a message will appear informing you if any are found. If just one is found, it says who the message is from and gives a brief version of the Description text. If more than one is found, you are just told how many items there are, and asked ‘Do you wish to see them?’.

Diary macro Processes will only be launched if the user has no current processes (other than palettes), a check for which is done approximately every 2 minutes. Once a Diary macro Process has been started, whether it is interrupted by the user or not, the Diary will record it as Done, with a Result of OK and the Done Date and Time filled in appropriately.