193. Making the most of VIEW (1)
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expanding your Macros! by Andrew G8YHI
If you need to print a block of text more than once in a document then View
offers you the facility to define it at the beginning and then recall it as
and when needed. The idea of this is similar to using a procedure from
within BASIC and the defined text is known as a macro. Each macro is given a
two letter code which can be anything that is not already used by View, so AA
would be fine but CE wouldn't.

To define a macro press <EDIT COMMAND> followed by DM and <RETURN> and then
type in the two letter code; for example AA. Then type in your text making
sure you start on the next line down and include any rulers or commands such
as CE or RJ that you want. When completed move onto the next line down and
press <EDIT COMMAND> followed by EM and <RETURN>. So the start of your
document might look like this;

 DM AA
     This bit of useful text is a macro.
 EM

Wherever you wish to recall the defined text move the cursor to the
appropriate line in your document and press (EDIT COMMAND> AA and then
<RETURN> so that AA now appears in the margin. When the document is printed
wherever AA has been set the text will appear. You can define as many macros
as you wish and might store some on disc to be added to other documents using
the READ command. Scientific formulae using complex sub and super-scripts are
one possibility or perhaps a set of different rulers.

Try out this simple macro technique for yourself and next I will show you how
to use macros with parameters, which makes personalised mail-shots easy.