Total Visual CodeTools Macro Recorder

The Macro Recorder is a very powerful tool that lets you record a complex series of keystrokes and replay them. It's ideal for situations where the same set of tasks need to be repeated.

Note that the Macro Recorder only records keystrokes and not references to the menu or mouse movements and clicks.

To start, select macro recorder from the Total Visual CodeTools menu or toolbar:

The Macro Recorder Toolbar appears:

These buttons are available:
 

FYI, the appearance of the buttons may differ based on your Windows and VB6/VBA version but the order is always the same.

Example

Here's a simple example of how you may can use the macro recorder. Let's say we want to copy fields from one table to another. This is the code we want to write:

Dim dbs As DAO.Database
Dim rstSource As DAO.Recordset
Dim rstTarget As DAO.Recordset

Set dbs = CurrentDb
Set rstSource = dbs.OpenRecordset("tblSource")
Set rstTarget = dbs.OpenRecordset("tblTarget")

Do While Not rstSource.EOF
  rstTarget![FirstFieldName] = rstSource![FirstFieldName]
  rstTarget![SecondFieldName] = rstSource![SecondFieldName]
  rstTarget![ThirdFieldName] = rstSource![ThirdFieldName]
  rstTarget![LastFieldName] = rstSource![LastFieldName]
  rstSource.MoveNext
Loop

But before we wrote that code, we only had the list of fields inside the Do..Loop:

Rather than manually entering the text for each line, wouldn't it be easier to do it just once for the first line and repeat it for the others? 

Recording Keystrokes

It's simple! Move the cursor to the beginning of FirstFieldName, then record the keystrokes necessary to convert that line to this:

rstTarget![FirstFieldName] = rstSource![FirstFieldName]

Start by pressing the Start Recording button. Enter the keystrokes to create the first line from the field name, then move to the same place on the next line:

Keystrokes	Action and Line Appearance
	FirstFieldName
Shift End	Highlight text to copy: FirstFieldName
Ctrl C	Copy field name to the clipboard
Left	Go to the beginning of the highlighted text
rstTarget![	Enter the first part of the line: rstTarget![FirstFieldName
End	Go to the end of the line
] = rstSource![	Enter the second part: rstTarget![FirstFieldName] = rstSource![
Ctrl V	Paste the field name: rstTarget![FirstFieldName] = rstSource![FirstFieldName
]	Finish the line: rstTarget![FirstFieldName] = rstSource![FirstFieldName]
Home Down	Move to the beginning of the next line

Press the Stop Recording button to save our keystrokes.

Playing Back the Keystrokes

Pressing the Play button replays our keystrokes, and presto, the next line of code is written:

rstTarget![SecondFieldName] = rstSource![SecondFieldName]

Press Play for the next line, and next line, etc., and you quickly get the desired result:

This example is fairly simple. For more complex repetitive steps, the Macro Recorder will ensure accuracy and save you tons of time!