Wow Macros – Save Some Time

Wow has a macro facility that allows you to conveniently repeat actions by pressing a button. Essentially a macro types whatever you like into chat as if you had typed it. There are a slew of macro commands, and you can find a tutorial here. But we are going to talk about a special use that we use to move a list of item codes into a macro to save a lot of typing and maybe some typos.

We have kept track of item codes for high level gear so that we can quickly outfit our toons. But we are typing these commands in each time we need new gear. Macros can save a lot of typing.

First, open the the Google sheet with the item codes that you need. Here we are going to use Paladin level 80 gear.

Now select just the numbers in a vertical column. You can select armor and weapons and possibly the accessories too, but there is a limit of 255 characters in a Wow Macro, and armor and accessories comes pretty close to the maximum.

Now create a txt file using notepad, on the desktop and paste the text into the text file. If you use a smarter editor, you may not get what you want. You just want text and line breaks.

Now type .additem<space> in front of the first item and then select, copy and paste it in front of all the lines.

So now we have our macro. These are the commands we type to create the gear.

Now let’s create the macro.

Or you can type /macro into the chat window to bring up the Macro window.

Notice that General Macros is selected. You can have macros for the whole account or just the one character.

Click New.

And then fill out the box with a name and Icon for your macro.

I chose an icon that suggests a Paladin class and included the level of the gear that it would create.

Now use ALT Tab to get back to notepad, select all the text and Ctrl/ C to copy it. Then return to the macro window and use Ctrl/ V to paste the text into the macro commands box.

Now click Save.

Now you can drag the icon to an out of the way slot on your spell bar.

Make sure you have enough space in your bags and then to create all the gear just click on the icon on the spell bar. ONCE  ; )

Another useful macro is one to create some Frostweave Bags, for your bags or bank slots. It is quite a chore to scroll through the icons to find the right one. But it’s there.

:ww