The Wow Blog

Basic Macros

by Erik

May 6, 2007 – 9:33 am

I have to confess that I have read many guides on Macros, and always ended up confused. Perhaps it is because I am expecting Macros to behave like a typical program (I am a computer programmer by trade), whereas they do not behave like that  — at least not exactly.

I will try to explain Macros in a few easy-to-understand steps, using the very steps that I learned by trial and error.

The first thing to understand is that all or most actions that your character can do that are activated by buttons can also be activated by a command in the chat bar. For instance, to make your character sit, you just type “/sit”, and your character will sit down. Likewise, “/stand” will make him/her stand.

Since anything that can be entered in a chat bar can also be entered in a Macro, we can use macros to automate anything that we might want to type frequently, but do not want to spend the time to type out every time. An example of this would be a tell in the trade channel advertising your services or goods that you want to sell. Normally you would type this in the chat bar like so: “/2 Level 300 Enchanter blah blah blah, bring your own mats.” Of course, if you wanted to advertise this every now and then, it would be nice not to have to type the whole thing out. That’s where Macros come in.

To access your Macros, type “/macro” and press enter. (And yes, you can write a macro to do that, too!). You will see a screen that shows all the macros that you have (there may be several defaults already). Click on one of the icons, and you will see at the bottom of the screen the macro that was entered for this icon. Click on the icons until you find one that you really don’t need, and replace the text at the bottom with your advertising text, making sure to start it with “/2″, as that opens the trade channel.

Next, click the “Change Name/Icon” button, and enter the name for this Macro, and pick an icon that will make sense to you. When you have the name and icon you want, click “OK”. Now, from the Macro window, drag the icon for your new macro to one of your action bars. (There is no need to save the macro, as any typing is automatically saved). Exit the macro window, and right-click your new macro button, and watch your chat bar to make sure your advertising was put into the right channel. If there is an error in your Macro, you should see the error in the middle of your screen. As long as your macro began with “/2 “, including the space, there really should be no errors.

This is the most basic Macro, aside from the “sit” and ”stand” varieties. My next post will explain a type that is just a little more advanced.