Keyboard Macro

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What Does Keyboard Macro Mean?

A keyboard macro is a series of actions defined by the user that a keyboard can perform repeatedly without any outside assistance. They are usually helpful in the performance of repetitive computational tasks, which would normally require a long sequence of clicks or patterns of keystrokes. Various software tools and codes are available as open source for users to modify or implement keyboard macros and stop them at any time.

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Techopedia Explains Keyboard Macro

A macro key was common on early keyboards, found in the lower rows in the left corner, between the Z and Ctrl keys. Most keyboards printed a backslash upon hitting the macro key, but it actually had a different back-end code. Keyboards and applications directly use the back-end code and handle this key differently.

Keyboard macros are often used by gamers or online advertisers to repeat a certain pattern of strokes without human assistance. This way, rapid functions are performed over a course of time and then stopped.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.