My weekly posts up until now have always talked about macros that are already in existence. Today we’re going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to give you a brief overview of how to create your own macros. Don’t worry, every user of CorelDRAW can create a macro with just a couple of extra button pushes.

Why would you want to create a macro? Quite simply to save time! If you have a repetitive task that you have to complete on a regular basis? Record the steps and you can reduce those steps to a single click or keystroke.

Start out by selecting Tools | Macros | Start Recording (note that the exact command may vary a bit depending on which version you are using. Next a dialog box will appear asking you where to save the macro. I’d suggest GlobalMacros. Click OK and start going through the steps of your process. After you go through all the steps, select Tools | Macros | Stop Recording. That’s it, you’ve written a macro. It may be a very basic macro, but it is still a macro.

Now that you know the process, start thinking of tasks you might want to automate. I bet you can find quite a few if you think about it. Once you have a few recorded, you can learn a bit more about editing the macros and even adding a dialog box or two. We’ll save that information for a future post.