News :: 15MR: Easy Macro Recorder v3.61

Hello all and welcome to another edition of 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is Easy Macro Recorder version 3.61 by GoldSolution Software—A simple system tray macro recorder and playback application.

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“Easy Macro Recorder is a handy utility that makes your computers automatically do tasks for you. It records all operation of mouse and keystrokes and saves them as macros, then Easy Macro Recorder can play back the recorded macros to automate your work any number of times. It works on any Windows applications.

Easy Macro Recorder is very easy to use, just three steps: record, save and playback. It doesn’t require any programming experience.”

Quick Pros

• Simple to use from the system tray
• Built-in macro editor
• Ability to change

Quick Cons

• Uses too-common F9/F10/F11 keys
• Not that quick to use because still opens ‘Open’/’Save As’ boxes (Hard to use in-game)
• Macro editor too ‘light’ to be much use besides small changes
• Additional commands very thin
• No form of ‘triggering’ at all

Expansion

Simplicity is the name of the game with this application. While this application is simple however, with said simplicity, also removes any decent power to this application.

While there are keyboard shortcuts for launching the application, it still requires you to select a file to open or save each time. This wouldn’t be too bad, if it saved which file you used for quick-launch next time. Because of this, it requires you to edit a macro to remove your mouse starting out in the middle of the screen each time with the dialog box or similar. Also makes the application difficult to use in games for mouse/keyboard scripting because you have to flip out of the game, select the macro, go back into the game (Which may be hard to script for if the game moves in the task bar or different alt-tab position.) The fact that it uses F9 through F11 is a bit of an issue, since there are still a good deal of applications and games which use those keys.

It is nice there is a built-in macro, but it is really only useful for light scripting purposes or small corrections. There is no ‘buttons’ for quickly deleting, copying, pasting and so forth. You either have to use the right-click context menu or the actual menu to perform tasks. There is also no ‘typing’ support, requiring you to build/alter your script as building-blocks. And with no form of triggering (Pixel-monitoring, keypress monitoring, etc.) it is a ‘Point A to Point B’ macro; Runs until its done.

Final Verdict

While the application is useful for performing basic macroing, outside that domain is very limited. While the editor does give the application some redeeming qualities, it is very basic, just like the recording features as well. While for free, it may be worth giving it a try; As for $29.95, I do not feel it is worth this much for the basic features it offers. There are plenty of freeware alternatives out there ( Suggest checking the comments here for alternatives ) as well as some decent payware alternatives such as the formerly-reviewed xStarter ($39.95, scripting and functionality a lot more powerful)

Posted by BladedThoth on Monday, March 26, 2007