Atari XL - Manual (Page 41)

The Last Word 3.0 Reference Manual
7-41
You can disable the startup macro (@) in one of several ways:
 Specify the “/M” switch on its own on the SpartaDOS X command line

Hold down <Option> while LW is loading
You can disable the autoexec macro (&) as follows:

Hold down <Option> when loading a macro with <SHIFT+CTRL+M> (press
<Option> after pressing <Return> and hold it down until the macro file has
loaded.
 Specify the “/M” switch immediately after the macro filename when issuing the
<SHIFT+CTRL+M> command.
7.3 WRITING AND EDITING MACROS
Because macros tend to contain lots of control codes, it’s best to load in the special
macro editing font before you start. It substitutes special alphabetic characters for the
control codes and makes macros much more readable. Load the macro font with:
<Shift+Ctrl+N> then type MACRO and press <Return>
The above will work in either 80 or 40 column modes because there’s a macro font for
each mode: MACRO.F80 for 80 column mode and MACRO.FNT for 40 column mode.
You may find it much preferable to switch to 40 column mode when editing macros
simply because the 40 column font is easier to read and accuracy is important when
writing macros.
Switch to 40 column mode with:
<Shift+Ctrl+W>
You may need to go through the procedure to load the 40 column macro font if you
haven’t already done so.
All the examples here are illustrated by screen shots of the macros in 40 column mode
with the MACRO.FNT character set loaded.
7.4 SPECIAL MACRO COMMANDS
As with TextPro, the special macro commands are entered as INVERSE
<CTRL+KEY> characters, and are only available from within macros. You type these
with <CTRL+ESCAPE> followed by either <INVERSE>, <CTRL+KEY>, then
<INVERSE> again, or <SELECT+CTRL+KEY>, which is another TextPro feature
which has been emulated to make the typing of the odd inverse character less of a
hassle.
<CTRL+A>
Ask for Input String. This command obtains string input from the
user on the command line. Follow the command with message,
ending in <RETURN>, just as you would with the macro print
message command. This message becomes the input prompt.
Any following text appears as the default contents of the input