How to Record Macros in Firefox and Google Chrome

Matthew June 4, 2016

Macros are recording tools with which you can record a sequence of selected options in a software package. You’ll find macros in office suites, and another TechJunkie post told you how to record macros in Windows 10. In addition, you can record macros in the Firefox and Google Chrome browsers with the iMacros extension.

How to Record Macros in Firefox and Google Chrome

Open the iMacros for Firefox page on the Mozilla website to add this one to your browser. Press the + Add to Firefox button there to add this extension to that browser. You can add it to Google Chrome from this page. Then click the iOpus iMacros button on the toolbar to open the sidebar in the snapshot below.

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So now you can try out some of the macros by selecting the Demo-Firefox folder. That will open a list of pre-recorded macros that you can run by selecting them and pressing the Play button on the Play tab. To repeat the playback of one of those macros, click the Play (Loop) button. Enter a value in the Max text box to increase the number of times the macro plays back.

Now record a macro of your own by selecting the Rec tab. Press Record to begin the recording, and then open three website pages in new tabs. Then press the Stop button to halt the recording. Close the three page tabs you opened, and press the Play button again. The macro you just recorded will open the three pages you opened whilst recording.

So with this extension you can quickly open one, or more, website pages by recording a macro. Thus, it gives you an alternative way to bookmark favorite sites. Click the Save Macro As button, enter a title for the macro and press OK to save the macro in the sidebar.

To edit macro code, select the Manage tab. Press the Edit Macro button to open the editor window shown below. Then you can add or delete code from the macro. For example, if you entered ‘TAB T=1 URL GOTO=http://www.bing.com/’ that would open the Bing page in first tab. Click Save & Close to save any changes made.

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Select Settings on the Manage tab to open the window shown below that includes further options for iMacros. You can adjust the replay speed of the macros by selecting the Fast, Medium or Slow radio buttons on the General tab. Select Recording preferences to choose alternative recording modes for the macros. Click the Paths tab on the window and enter a path in the Folder Macros text box to select a new default folder to save the macros to.

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Overall, iMacros is a very handy extension. As mentioned, you can effectively set up a new bookmark sidebar with macros that open websites. In addition, it can also come in handy for logging in to sites or entering repetitive keywords into search engines.