I’ve been running into a lot of programming applications lately. The fun part about using the Elements (or other) programming system is the amount of utility and flexibility it can offer to end users. Most people think about programming in our industry only as it relates to image analytics. I wanted to point out some other things macros can do for you:
Acquisition & Device Automation
Do you have a stimulus device or method you want to trigger from your acquisition software? Almost every device on the market (FRAP illumniators, Profusion systems, heating systems, electrical signaling systems) can accept a command input from TTL. You can use Elements (or other software) to control the parallel port on your computer – giving you control of the device you already have. A macro can tell the device to start, stop, adjust a setting and can then record that command into elements (i.e. at what time point in a timelapse the command was issued).
User convenience
Are you always pressing the same buttons in software to control the microscope? You can use macros to assign keyboard keys to run special functions. For instance when you press the “0” key on the number pad you can make the microscope load a “DAPI” illumination setting and acquire an image.
User interaction
Do you only run a few experiments over and over? You may be working harder than needed by re-configuring your software to image with a specific protocol. You can use a macro to configure all of the settings you want in one operation, and then dial in specific changes you may want to adjust before acquisition.
In general any button you press, number you enter or menu you click can automatically be performed inside of a macro. Keep this in mind any time you are repeatedly clicking on the same things and slowing down your work!!
EXAMPLE DOWNLOAD
You can find an example macro for use in Elements here. Open Elements, open the Macro menu and click Edit (or press F8) and copy the code from this page into the empty macro. Then just save and run it!