By popular request a new version of PTFBPro is now available on our download page. It adds the ability to override the delivery email address(es) for notifications on a per-item basis. To put it another way, you can now have the bulk of your macros send emails to a default set addresses whenever they fire autonomously, but set up certain others to send to a different set of addresses. Here’s how you use it:

1.Enable the override

Open up PTFB Pro’s configuration screen (Options -> Configure) and switch to the email tab. Tick the “Allow item override” option in the Recipients section:

2. Provide alternative addresses as needed

Now just edit a macro/press item that needs to send notifications to different recipients. Switch to the Notifications page, press the new button titled “Recipients” and enter the required address (separate multiple addresses with a semicolon):

And that’s all there is to it

If you haven’t used PTFB Pro’s notification facility yet, don’t forget that it’s there if you ever need it. As you can see it can send an email when a macro fires automatically, but it can also run a command line of your choosing, play a sound, or simply make a note in its text log.

There’s a hidden gem in Windows 7 onwards which copies a file’s full path directly to the clipboard. I know this isn’t directly related to PTFB Pro or macros in any way, but I just discovered it and I find it hugely useful, so I wanted to share it. Here’s how it works:

1. In a file window, hold down the SHIFT key while right-clicking a file
2. The resulting popup (context) menu will now contain a new option called “Copy as path”
3. Select Copy as path get the full path to the file into the clipboard. And what’s more, if the path contains spaces it puts quotes around it automatically.

There you go. Hope you find it as handy as I do!

If you haven’t updated your copy of PTFB Pro for a while, now would be a good time. The previous release, 4.7, added some useful tweaks to make all edit screens retain their last-used position, and an advanced option to respect process session boundaries (great for machines with multiple active user accounts). It also had a little workaround to help tackle an old “stuck tray icon” problem that was really Microsoft’s fault, but hey, if they can’t fix it, someone has to fix it for them! Today’s new release adds another little fix to do with tight repeat loops around “forced delay” commands in macros, but its biggest change is actually a small tweak to the defaults for new users.

Up until now, PTFB Pro has always defaulted to require an exact match between a target window and the “snapshot” it takes when a macro or single-press item is created. This was for safety reasons; it left very little chance that PTFB Pro would act on the wrong window. Unfortunately, it also meant that PTFB Pro would routinely ignore any window that was ever so slightly different from one appearance to the next. The workaround for this was usually to edit the item you’d created and switch from “Strict” window contents checking to “Simple” checking, but for a new user just trying to get on with their work, this was often an unwelcome extra step. In fact if I were to check through our support history, I’d probably find that the vast majority of requests related to this very issue.

All that changes with 4.7.1 because now, “Simple” contents checking is the default. This should mean that more single presses and macros will work straight away without any tweaking, which will definitely improve the “out of the box” experience for new users. It’s worth noting though that this change won’t affect you if you already have PTFB Pro installed – it’ll keep your current defaults and operate just as it always has. Don’t forget though that seasoned PTFB Pro users as well as newbies are free to change the defaults for new items via Options -> Configure -> Defaults page.

That’s about it for this release, except to say that if you’re quick, you can pick up cheap a license for PTFB Pro in our Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale via the 40% off link below. Maybe you need an extra license of your favorite macro and button pusher, or maybe you’ve just downloaded our installer for the very first time. Either way, now is the time to buy!

https://sites.fastspring.com/tlhouse/instant/ptfbpro?coupon=BLACK2014

Find out more about saving time and finger-wear with PTFB Pro’s macros.
CLICK HERE to download a free 30 day trial, no strings attached. If you aren’t entirely happy simply uninstall!

The latest release of PTFB Pro, v4.6.2.0, now preserves selections across sessions. In other words, if you select an item then quit PTFB Pro (or restart your PC), when PTFB Pro launches again the same item(s) will still be selected. This is a small change, but it should be very welcome particularly for people who like to trigger their macros using the “Run Now” button (or the Run Now shortcut they’ve defined).

To update to the latest version please visit the PTFB Pro download page: http://www.ptfbpro.com/download.shtml

From Monday 2nd Dec 2013 to Friday 6th (inclusive) we’re running a Cyberweek promotion with 50% of all our products, including PTFB Pro. So if you’d like to get a half-price license for PTFB Pro, or try out one of our other products, NOW IS THE TIME!

Use the coupon code “CYBER2013” at the checkout stage to get your discount. The position of the coupon field varies from product to product so keep an eye out for it; it is there!

As I mentioned the same coupon works for our other products too. So you can get tabbed, helpful command prompts with PromptPal, generate pleasing color schemes and try them out on a live webpage without any coding using ColorCache, and be alerted about errors and warnings on all PCs in your network with LogMeister and EventMeister, all at half price using the same coupon code.

Finally, I’m happy to report that PTFB Pro helped me to get a Black Friday / Cyberweek discount of my own. I saw a good deal on Amazon for the two recent Star Trek movies on bluray. Unfortunately I was a bit slow adding them to the shopping cart and discovered that the deal was already fully taken; I was stuck at position 103 in the queue, with little chance of getting my videos! Undeterred, I set up PTFB Pro to keep clicking away on the page every 1/3 sec exactly where the “Add to cart” button would be if someone backed out of their purchase, and went for a coffee. By the time I got back to my desk PTFB Pro had bagged the movies for me! They arrived this morning; just need to get some popcorn for a night of Trek indulgence!