A keyboard and mouse macro recorder for Windows. Everything records itself, with undo, redo, and a teaching line that shows you the AutoHotkey it wrote.
# Marco Macro Recorder
A keyboard and mouse macro recorder for Windows, written in AutoHotkey v2. Free, MIT licensed, no installer, no dependencies beyond AutoHotkey itself.
There is a macOS port with the same design and the same workflow: [HAMMERSPOON_LUA_RECORDER](https://github.com/markoboskoauroville/HAMMERSPOON_LUA_RECORDER).
## What makes it different
Most recorders capture your timing along with your actions, which means a macro that played back correctly on a fast morning fails on a slow afternoon. This one throws your timing away and writes a fixed `Sleep(333)` between every step. Predictable beats faithful.
Everything records itself. Press a key and it is on disk before you have let go of it. There is no save key and no pause, so every key on the keyboard stays available to be recorded.
The recorded file is the only source of truth. Nothing is held in memory. You can open `CapturedMacro.ahk` in an editor mid session, change it by hand, and keep recording on top of your changes.
And it teaches. The big line in the status strip shows what you pressed, a pipe, and the exact AutoHotkey that was written:
```
Escape | Send("{Escape}")
Ctrl+Shift+S | Send("^+s")
XButton1 | Click(2456, 812, "X1")
```
Nothing is said twice. The label names what you pressed, the code carries the numbers.
The same human label goes into the macro file as a trailing comment, so the file reads like a lesson rather than a wall of `Send`.
## Getting started
1. Install [AutoHotkey v2](https://www.autohotkey.com/).
2. Download `13-Marco_Macro_Recorder_AHK_v13.ahk` and put it in a folder of its own. If you drop a copy of `AutoHotkey64.exe` in beside it, that build is used to run your macros.
3. Double click it.
4. A status strip appears at the bottom of your left monitor, saying IDLE.
5. Press `Ctrl` and `.` together to open the menu, then click the red Start recording button.
## Keys
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| `Ctrl` or `Alt` or `AltGr` plus `,` or `.` | The menu. Six bindings, all equivalent |
| your own shortcut | Runs the macro, in TEST mode only |
| everything else | Recorded, in RECORD mode |
## Three modes
It starts in **IDLE**, which does nothing at all. Nothing is captured, nothing is loaded, and the strip simply tells you to press `Ctrl` and `.` for actions. You are never recording by surprise.
**RECORD mode** records everything, always. **TEST mode** records nothing and runs what you built.
Open the menu and click Testing mode. The app asks you to press the shortcut you want. Press any combination, and that combination is written into `CapturedMacro.ahk` as its hotkey line, the macro is loaded, and you are in TEST mode. You are not tied to one fixed trigger. Escape on its own cancels.
The choice is remembered in `MarcoRecorder.ini`, so it survives a restart.
Open the menu again in TEST mode and it offers Back to Macro Recorder mode, which unloads the test copy and starts recording again. The menu shows only what belongs to the mode you are in: undo, redo and the mouse entries are RECORD mode business, because a file edited underneath a loaded test copy is a file out of sync.
## Undo and redo
In the menu. Undo cuts the last command and its `Sleep` out of the file and remembers them, redo writes them back, and recording anything new clears the redo stack, the way a text editor behaves. Anything you edited by hand elsewhere in the file survives.
## The mouse
Clicks record themselves, because at the moment you click, the pointer is already where you want it. All five buttons a four button mouse can produce are captured; the two thumb buttons arrive as `XButton1` and `XButton2`.
Recording a position without clicking is the harder problem, and the menu solves it by freezing. The menu opens from the keyboard, so at that instant the pointer has not moved. The menu grabs the coordinates right then and shows them. The four mouse entries record that frozen position, not where the pointer ended up after you walked it over to press a button.
Coordinates are screen coordinates throughout, so a click recorded on the second monitor plays back on the second monitor.
## Details worth knowing
Auto-repeat is ignored, so a held key records once and must be released before it records again. Keys and clicks aimed at the recorder's own windows are never recorded, so closing the menu with Escape does not record an Escape. Keyboard capture uses a single `InputHook` in Visible mode rather than hundreds of `Hotkey()` registrations, which is why it can see every key without stealing any.
## Where things live
Beside the script: `CapturedMacro.ahk`, the macro itself. `MarcoRecorder.ini`, your testing shortcut. `CapturedMacro_<timestamp>.ahk`, anything you archived.
## Troubleshooting
**An AutoHotkey error box appears saying "Item has no value".** You are on v9 or earlier. Download the newest version.
**The recorded macro will not run, and the error mentions an unexpected brace.** You are on v10 or earlier, and you pressed the quote key or the backtick key while recording. Those went into the file without being escaped, which left a string open. Fixed in v11. Delete the broken `CapturedMacro.ahk` and record again.
**The test macro stays in the tray after I stop testing.** Fixed in v11, which asks it to exit politely, kills it if it refuses, and sweeps up any stray copy. There is also a Close the test macro button in the menu.
**Nothing records.** Check the status strip says `● REC` and not `▶ TEST`. TEST mode records nothing by design.
**A key does nothing when you press it.** The six menu bindings and your chosen testing shortcut are never recorded, which is deliberate.
## Licence
MIT. Use it, change it, ship it, sell it. Attribution appreciated, not required.
Marko Boško, Mantra Productions.