I wrote a script with a free programming software that helps shave about half the time out of making chess problem worksheets. It works with Chessbase and Microsoft Word. If you’re like me and making 1,000’s of problems than you might want to try this.
I’ll warn you though, I was a little hesitant to make this post here since it would probably be hard to figure out how to get this to work if you’ve never done any programming. If you’ve never done any programming you might not want to try and use my script unless you have a lot of free time or some one to help you. You’ll have to use your brain a bit to set it up since i it tells the mouse where to go and click in some cases, and it’s set up for my screen resolution. The script isn’t very long and you can hopefully read it and the instructions and figure out how to edit it and get it working. It’s possible to tailor it to your needs.
i’m not sure what you mean about “function of screen resolutions”.
but the script i wrote is nothing but macros. there are 6 main macros in total, each activated by a different hotkey. most of which will probably need to be adjusted to work on a different computer other than mine by putting in the correct coordinates for where your mouse should be to do the clicks in the right places.
i put in a hotkey that you can use to get mouse coordinates. to use it you just put the mouse over the spot where you want the coordinates you want then hit the mouse coordinates hotkey instead of clicking and it’ll open up notepad and print the coordinates where the mouse was when you hit the hotkey. then you can copy paste the coordinates into the script to replace the coordinates i’m using, re-save it, and reload the script.
if i get time later in the next few days i can add a second file and a user interface so that it’ll walk you through the setup process. it’ll take some time though so i’m not going to do that unless at least 1 other person requests it though.
The Trinitron dinosaur I’m using has a 1024 x 768 resolution. The double monitors on my office machine are something like 1280 x 1024; my laptop is something like 1440 x 900. I use ChessBase on all these computers, and I’m guessing that the mouse coordinates would be different on all three.
Relying on keystrokes (to the extent possible) would make the macro more portable. But this is very cool, and I’d be interested in learning it in any case.
for an all keyboard script i would need to know is all the shortcut keys to change it. it would be easy. i think there’s even 1 or 2 keyboard shortcuts i neglected to put in there that i could have.
what would be harder is making a second file that guides the user to find the right mouse coordinates. i could do it but it seems a little silly if it’s just for you and me. re-writing the script would take me at least a few hours but i could help you set it up instantly. it would be much easier for you to call or email me so i can guide you through the setup process.
edit about the 3 monitors, ya, most likely all 3 monitors would need different mouse coordinates but once you get one working the other 2 should be pretty close and only take a minute to setup… just keep in mind that you’ll want to keep all the windows you’re working on maximized. that’s not a problem for chessbase but in microsoft word you’ll probably want to keep it maximized.
