How to Build a Time-Saving Macro Library for Firefox–Free

I’m always surprised at how many of the computing tasks I do each day and each week are repetitive. If you find yourself doing a lot of repetitive tasks all the time, and you’re a Firefox user, I cannot recommend iMacros from iOpus highly enough. The download for this extension is free, and it shows up as a button on your Firefox toolbar for easy availability.

The iMacros application lets you record, edit, name and organize macros for every kind of repetitive browser-based task you do. Recording macros with iMacros is very easy and requires no coding on your part.


Let’s assume that you want to build a macro designed to visit a certain web page. First, you select a Record tab at the left of the iMacros application, and when you hit Record, a red status line will alert you that your actions are being recorded. After you follow the steps for loading the web page that you want the macro to bring up, you hit Stop to stop recording.

Your next step is to name your macro, and if you’re like me, you’ll end up creating a lot of them, so keep the names unique. To play the macro at any time you just hit a Play button in the iMacros application. All of your macros are listed in a tree-like directory that resembles Internet Explorer if you choose to have that pane open, or you can hide it.

While one of the nicest parts about iMacros is that you can you can create macros without working with code, you have the option to edit any macro’s code whenever you want. Just select the Edit Macro button to do so, and you’ll see the steps that the macro follows in a pop-up text editor.

One problem that occasionally arises when using other tools to record macros for web tasks is that Java, Active X, and other controls on the web can throw the recorders off. However, iMacros is tuned to work well with them.

Of course, creating a macro that visits a web page isn’t the most advanced job. As you get into the iMacros application, you’ll find that it’s great for tasks you often repeat that happen to have a lot of steps to them. For example, I regularly update a few web sites each week, and the initial processes are always the same: placing frames in the same places, putting in code for a table at the top of an HTML page, extracting old links that I’m going to replace with new ones, etc. This is where iMacros can really start to save substantial time for any web worker.

Do you have any tips on macros for web workers?

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