| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,173 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Message
| One of the great things about using a powerful client program is that it can save you a lot of typing, letting you concentrate on enjoying your MUD/MUSH/MOO experience.
I find when using MUSHclient myself that I use a combination of techniques, depending on the circumstances. If you are used to using another client, you may not be aware of all of them, so I'll describe them here...
Tab completion
I use this a lot - because it can often save typing on practically every line. In brief, you type in the first couple of letters of a word from some previous line (from the world) and press <tab>. MUSHclient then searches backwards to find a word starting with the letters you typed, and fills it in.
For example:
Aethygwyn tells you, "see you at the City Square"
You type:
tell aet<Tab>
MUSHclient fills that in as:
tell Aethygwyn
(It even keeps the original capitalisation, although you can turn that option off).
If you want to talk to Aethygwyn a lot, you can add his name to the "tab completion defaults" which is a list of words that is searched for first.
Recall last word
This is a new feature in version 3.14. It is based around the fact that you often carry out a series of actions to the same target. eg.
look Kobold
cons Kobold
kill Kobold
cast 'magic missile' Kobold
look Kobold
kick Kobold
Now, once you have typed the first line, you can use <Ctrl>+<Backspace>. This copies the last word from the previous line and places it at the cursor position (a word is deemed to end at a space).
Now you can type:
look Kobold
cons <Ctrl>+<Backspace>
kill <Ctrl>+<Backspace>
cast 'magic missile' <Ctrl>+<Backspace>
look <Ctrl>+<Backspace>
kick <Ctrl>+<Backspace>
It looks longer on the web page, but is in fact only one keystroke.
Make a macro
If you find yourself chatting with someone a lot, you can take a couple of seconds to make a macro, binding some prearranged text to a function key.
eg.
F4 = tell Aethygwyn
To do this, go into World Configuration -> Input -> Macros.
Choose the function key you want, click on the Edit button, and type in the text you want sent.
Then, next time you want to tell Aethygwyn something, just press F4.
You might want to make sure you put in a trailing space, so that you can just start typing your message.
Aliases
If you do something often, eg. "look in bag" just make an alias that will do the same thing.
eg.
Alias: LIB
Send: look in bag
Aliases default to being case-sensitive, so I tend to make my aliases in upper case, so I know that I won't accidentally type an alias when I am typing in lower case.
Make a speed-walk alias
If you do something often, like go to the mage shop for some more potions, which involves going west 4 times and then north twice, automate the process by making an alias to do it. eg.
Alias: mage-shop
Send: 4w 2n
Speed walk: checked
You can use the auto-mapper to work out the directions for you. Just press <Ctrl>+<Alt>+M to invoke it. Once you are at the shop you can just re-open the auto-mapper and click on "make alias".
While you are at it you can also make a "reverse alias" which will take you back to where you started.
Make a custom menu
Rather than remembering all those alias names you can now make a custom menu. To do this, set up your aliases as described above, and also check the "menu" checkbox. Before doing that, type into the "label" box a suitable name. MUSHclient will display that label, with underscores converted to spaces.
eg.
Alias: mage-shop
Send: 4w 2n
Speed walk: checked
Label: Go_To_Mage_Shop
Menu: checked
Now you can <Ctrl>+Left-mouse-click on the command or output window, and a menu will pop up of all the aliases you have set up in that way. Let go of the <Ctrl> key, move the mouse down to the one you want, and then click on it.
Use the numeric keypad
I always navigate by pressing the keys on the numeric keypad (eg. 6 for East, 4 for West, 8 for North, 9 for NorthEast and so on). This not only saves typing, but preserves the contents of your command window for other uses. For example, you can be typing in a "tell" but still walking around using the numeric keypad.
Let triggers save you some tedium
Do you find yourself having to drink water every 10 minutes? Let a trigger do it for you. eg.
Match on: You are thirsty.
Send:
get bottle bag
drink bottle
put bottle bag
What happens when the bottle is empty? Make another trigger to warn you. eg.
Match on: The bottle is empty.
Change colour: White on red (a custom colour)
Play sound: tada.wav
Use auto-say in a long chat
Are you having a long chat with someone, and having to type "whisper", "page" or "tell" in front of every line?
You can configure auto-say to do that automatically. Just set it up to send, for example:
tell Aethygwyn
Then turn auto-say on (<Shift>+<Ctrl>+A).
Then just type your messages, and MUSHclient will automatically put the "say" text in front of it.
Let MUSHclient connect for you
Rather than typing your character's name and password every time you connect, you can specify them in the "Connecting" configuration box. There is provision for MUSH/MUCK/MOO style connects, or Diku style connects as well. If neither of those work you can just put your connect sequence into the "Connect Text", and it will be sent once the connection is established.
|
- Nick Gammon
www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com | | Top |
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