I'm pretty much called a computer expert, and most of my colleagues wonders why I don't use macros much. I know how convenient and effective macros and keyboard bindings and shortcuts are, and recommend to most people to use it unless you have good reasons like mine of not using it.

Over the course of typical two weeks, I use approximately thirty or so programs to finish the projects. As for this, I use this program; for the other, other program while some of the sections of it done by the another programs. I'm not a diehard fan of a specific program, and use whatever suits my needs.

As I switch among different programs, I need to adjust a macro which set up for MS Word, which has a different key bindings from LaTEX, which is different from Emacs, which is different from HWP (Korean word processor), and so on for Japanese word processor, and so on, etc. Even among word processors, there's no way I can remember all the macros for each programs. I just mentioned about text processings, but there's CAD's, several 3-D modellers, animations tools, databases, programming tools, and lots of utilites.

You know already that one can't assign same macros to all the programs. To save myself from headaches of figuring out macros for each of all the programs I use, I decided not to use any macros and keybindings at all; instead, I stick to the default menus to access the commands. By the time I feel comfortable with the default menus, the program is upgraded with new menus; and I have to relearn the menus although the learning curve is smooth.

Among all the programs I use, I don't emphasize one over the other as each has different strength over other's don't have. I use whatever the program is convenient to finish the work.

As I use many programs which have different keybindings, not using macros is saving me time. I don't expect myself sticking to a couple of programs only in near future. Unless you have a reason like mine, it's definitely worth spending time figuring out macros for your favorite programs. (Mar-14-98)