Where Are the Macros of Yesteryear?

When are you most happy?

Back in the early days of word processing, I used macros all the time. You could set them up as you needed, say, for the end of a letter:

Sincerely,

Stephen A. Schrum, PhD

Leave a voicemail on Google Voice for me: 724-835-4074

And then, when you hit a certain key combination, like Command-S, that text would appear on the page. Type once, configure the macro, and it was there forever.

Well, not forever. Macros seem to have disappeared, and I miss them because…

Sidebar: I forget what the source was; it may have been Arthur C. Clarke talking about the writing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and postulating that the MGM studio had a single key on its typewriter that, when pressed, typed, “Never before in the history of motion pictures” —and then the marketing department would take over.

…the reason I mention this is, if I had macros for this blog, one would say, “Frequent readers of this blog know”—because I do make references to past entries on a regular basis.

So imagine it says that, and you likely know that my answer to today’s prompt would be, “When I’m directing and writing.” Since my chances for directing have been less (okay, nonexistent) since I retired, writing has been my #1 go-to for creative enterprise. But directing will return in 2024, including with things I wrote. So that’s a shot of double happiness. Or a double shot of happiness. Whatever sounds less like a package from a Chinese manufacturer.