Feeling totally clueless with Keymap-Master, help please

[bsoplinger]

Someone point me in the right direction please. I'm on a W2K system and I can open the spreadsheet, but clicking on the bottom marked load import etc doesnt do anything but put a little box thingie around the whole group of buttons.

I've never used a spreadsheet, so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or should be doing or am not doing or .....

I've looked at the beginners guide that I've manged to find and they all seem to just talk about using the ir program and manually editing something withing the spreadsheet by going to specific cells, but how did they get the spreadsheet filled in in the examples in the first place.

I just downloaded the program today, so its the latest version, but without any documentation other than the 3 included .txt files all which assume I already know what I'm doing hasn't helped me figure out some obviously basic thing I'm not doing.

[johnsfine]

I think that is caused by an Excel security setting that disables macros.

I have mine set to ask about macros every time I open it, not because I like it that way but because I'm not sure how to get better control of it.

It can be set to disable macros without even asking, which is probably what is happening to you.
Edit: After rereading my own post, I wasn't sure I made it clear that disabling macros is NOT what you want. Macros must be enabled for any of those buttons to work. /EDIT

(Of course, I use RemoteMaster, not KM when I actually want to create an upgrade, so having Excel messed up does me less harm than you might expect).

[ddsmith60]

I know this stuff can be a little confusing. Here is something for you to try. Go to the Yahoo JP1 group page and go to files section. Then select Device Codes, Select the device type you would like to see a spreadsheet for and download it to your computer in the same folder keymap master is in. Then open keymap master and select the load button. The file you just downloaded should be available to open and look at to give you an idea of how things work. Keymap master is capable of making the upgrade sheets like the one you downloaded. You just need to get a little more familiar with it. For instance if you had a device code already that did most of what you need you could copy that spreadsheet and add the additional function you want to accomplish by using the additional EFC you learned from your original remote(to do this you would use IR in addition to a learning remote) or utilizing already known EFC for the function. The buttons correspond to three digit EFC and all your doing is connecting the button to the function(EFC) that you want accomplished.

[Mark Pierson]

without any documentation other than the 3 included .txt files

The second paragraph of the 'keymap-master-readme.txt" file says it all:

KM uses Microsoft Office VBA code (macros). When opening the spreadsheet, you MUST select "Enable Macros", OR ensure that your security settings allow macro code to be executed, in order for KM to function properly (for specific details, see the Microsoft Excel help file). Without macro capability, you won't be able to LOAD or SAVE Device Upgrade files, or use any of KM's advanced features, like the command buttons on the Setup sheet.

all which assume I already know what I'm doing

Unfortunately, including details on the workings of Excel in the KM readme would render it (the readme) completely useless!

As John pointed out, your Excel security settings are probably set to "High" which prevent macros from running at all. Go to Excel's Tools menu and select Macro, Security...

In the dialog box that opens, select "Medium" on the Security Level tab, which will prompt you to Enable or Disable macro support every time you open a spreadsheet that contains them.

[bsoplinger]

See, told ya so!

I knew it was some basic sort of knowledge I was lacking. The comment in the readme about macros didn't mean anything to me and hence was unhelpful. It makes sense that whomever wrote it assumed a basic knowledge of Excel, but I didn't have that. Thanks for that detailed description of which menu and where it was. I had to figure out on my own that setting the security *after* I had already opened the spreadsheet didn't help, quite, as I needed to close then re-open it to get the message about enabling macros. But I got there and now life is good. On to actually trying to set something!

Again, thanks for the help folks.