Editing WoW:Making a macro (section)

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This is an article on '''making a macro'''. A [[macro]] is a list of slash commands. Common slash commands include the following:

* /say (/s)
* /whisper (/w, /talk, /t)
* /reply (/r)
* /emote (/e, /em, /me)
* /dance

With macros, these commands can be used from action buttons, and many of them can be used at once. Each unique command goes on its own line and is written exactly as it would be typed it in the chat box. For instance, a macro that makes the player yell "Everybody, dance now!" and burst into dance would be written thus.

 /y Everybody, dance now!
 /dance

A mostly complete list of slash commands is available at [[List of Slash Commands]] though at the time of this writing some of the new commands in 2.0 have not been added. WoWWiki is a great source of additional information for macros, especially scripts using the /run command (which will be covered later).

'''Note:''' Remember, some macros run all at once. This means that when you click the button, the macro runs each command from start to finish before returning control to the game. This has two important effects. First, if you write a macro that takes a long time to execute (like /run for i=1, 100000000 do end), the game will freeze for as long as it takes to run the macro.

Second, and arguably more important, '''there is no way to wait in a macro''' without freezing the game. This fact will become much more apparent when we start dealing with the /cast command and its ilk. Some AddOns can provide a way to issue a command at a later time, but they can only be used for "benign" functions like chatting, emotes, and issuing commands to other AddOns (though equipping weapons in combat is allowed).

If you don't mind the game freezing, you can use this little workaround to make macros pause:

 /script debugprofilestart(); while debugprofilestop() &lt; wait_time do end

Where wait_time is the time, in milliseconds, you want to wait. You can use this with multiple /cast commands, no problem, as long as you wait for the correct cooldown periods.