Macro: Advertising Your Profession
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Over the last week I have seen a lot of searches coming to my blog relating to macros used to advertise your profession, so I’m going to give it to you.
Now, while it may not make a whole lot of difference as far as what you have to do to make it work and so forth, you cannot actually do this with a macro. What you can do it with, is a Script. So, while you still go to the /macro screen to set it up and access it and so forth, it is technically different.
Macros are used to simulate existing keystrokes, functions, or actions. Basically they are shortcuts.
Scripts actually use code within the gaming system to make something happen.
Not a huge difference, and I’m not going to go into full details or anything, just know that there are differences between the two and that you may find better results when searching for certain things if you use the proper terminology.
Now, on to the whole reason why this post is being made in the first place: advertising your professions.
Step 1: Open Your Macro Window
This can be done either by simply entering /macro in the chat window, or by hitting Escape and then clicking on Macros in the options that pop up.
Step 2: Name and Icon Selection
Every time you make a macro/script you have to pick an icon for it and you have to give it a name. Any time I make a macro for something other than casting spells, I pick a cool looking icon that my character wouldn’t normally have available to them and name it something appropriate.
Since I am a programmer by profession I also use what we call Naming Conventions. So if I make a macro for a certain class then I start its name with the class name, and then add to the name based on it’s functionality. If I make a macro that I know will not be modified often, then I start its name with a ‘z’ so that it appears at the bottom of my list since the macro interface sorts them all alphabetically, and likewise I start the name for a macro that is frequently changed with an ‘a’ so it appears at the top of the list.
Example Naming Conventions:
- Portal to Org: magePortOrg
- Target Specific NPC/Player: aTarget
- LFG Broadcast: aLFG
Step 3: Write the “code” for the Macro/Script
This is where you write the actual code to do whatever it is you want to accomplish. This post is about advertising your professions, so that’s what we’ll do.
The part that is Red is where you put the name of whatever profession you want to show up, in the example we use Enchanting, but it can be whatever profession you have (Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, etc). And yes, it does have to be in double-quotes.
The part that is Green is where you type in whatever message you want to appear along with the link. In this example I note that I have “Mongoose, Crusader, Surefooted and more” because those are enchants frequently asked for in trade chat on my server. So I try to draw a little extra attention to the link by noting those enchants. And that message also needs to be in the double-quotes.
/script CastSpellByName(”Enchanting“);SendChatMessage(”Mongoose, Crusader, Surefooted and more “..GetTradeSkillListLink(),”CHANNEL”,nil,GetChannelName(”Trade – City”));CloseTradeSkill();
You can copy/paste that right into your own macro, change the Profession (if needed) and the message to whatever you want and start spamming it right away. When you use this particular macro, the result will be something like this:
“Mongoose, Crusader, Surefooded and more [Enchanting]“
Step 4: Drag the Icon to your Action Bar
Place the icon wherever you want. I personally have action bars set up all over my screen, and keep all of my profession-related icons on the right side of my screen. I also frequently have them on the bottom of my screen since I use the Dominos addon and go a bit overboard with action bars.
But, just make sure it’s somewhere convenient to access and out of the way since you will not be using it frequently in any setting other than cities.
Step 5: Click Away!
Now all you have to do is click it when you want to use it. This particular macro is set up to broadcast only into the Trade chat, and that’s really the only place it belongs. If someone is asking in General chat out in the middle of a zone for someone to link their profession, it’s not too hard to just do a quick click over there to do it manually.
Note: If you try to use this macro anywhere where you are not in Trade chat, it will give you an error. You will also receive errors if you already have your profession book open. So if you are browsing through your profession to see what items you can make and then activate the script it will not work. So just make sure you have the window closed when you activate it and that you do so when you are actually in Trade chat and you will be fine.
These errors will not cause any damage or freeze you up or anything, they just won’t work and will give you error messages.
