Editor Menu - Tools

Launch Mouse Locator

The Mouse Locator tool displays the X and Y coordinates of the mouse pointer relative to the entire screen or to the window that is active. This is useful when wanting to include mouse clicks in macro scripts.

The locator displays the exact position of the mouse in order to plot those coordinates into a macro. Just plug in the coordinates when using the Mouse Commands found in the Scripting Editor or Direct Editor. (This function is not necessary if using the Capture option.)

Also activate this window by clicking on the Launch Mouse Locator button provided in the Mouse Move command or the Get Pixel Color command.

Macro Express Script or Direct Editor > Tools > Launch Mouse Locator

If the Mouse Locator window pops up in an area of the screen that covers important data, click on the window, hold the left mouse button down on the title bar at the top of the window and drag to another area of your screen.

Screen Position

The set of numbers directly under Screen Position lists the position of the mouse relative to the computer screen. When the mouse is moved, the numbers change in relation to the mouse cursor position. The number to the left is the X coordinate, or how many pixels from the left edge of the screen. The number on the right is the Y coordinate, or how many pixels the mouse is positioned from the top of the screen.

Active Window

The set of numbers directly under Active Window lists the position of the mouse relative to the active window or the window that has focus. When the Mouse Locator window is first launched, it receives focus. Clicking on a window outside of the Mouse Locator gives focus to that window. The Mouse Locator window remains on top in order to easily read the coordinates for the window with focus.

When the mouse is moved, the numbers change in relation to the mouse position. The number to the left is the X coordinate, or how many pixels the mouse is positioned from the left edge of the active window. The number on the right is the Y coordinate, or how many pixels the mouse is positioned from the top of the active window.

Pixel Color

This option displays the color of the pixel to which the mouse is pointing. Windows assigns a numeric value to each color, normally from 6 to 8 digits in length. The left side is the decimal value. This is the value returned by the Get Pixel Color command. Use the decimal value in macros that compare color values. The right side displays the hexadecimal value in BGR format.

The middle row displays the pixel color in separate values for Red, Green and Blue. These values are used when entering colors in programs, such as word, that accept separate values for Red, Green and Blue.

The bottom row displays the hexadecimal pixel color value in RGB format.

Which Pixel Color formats are displayed can be adjusted using the Pixel Color options found in Options, Preferences, Appearance, Mouse Locator.

How colors are displayed

To display colors, computers use the RGB Additive Color System. The letters R, G and B represent Red, Green and Blue respectively. Separate values are used for the amount of Red, Green and Blue. On a Windows computer, each color ranges from 0, all the way off, up to 255 (or FF hexadecimal) all the way on. Combining different values for each basic color allows millions of different colors to be displayed. For example, White has a value of 000000, Green has a value of 00FF00 and black has a value of FFFFFF.

The hexadecimal number that represents a color can also be represented as an integer value. For example, one orange color has a hexadecimal value of 2D42D4. When displayed as an integer this value is 2966228. The Get Pixel Color command returns the integer value of the color for a given pixel. This allows the integer variable commands to test for specific colors in your macros.

The Mouse Locator displays colors in a variety of formats to make it convenient to enter colors into other programs. For example, when entering a color for a web page the color value is in hexadecimal RGB format. To enter a color in Word requires separate integer values for Red, Green and Blue. And some programming languages require a hexadecimal BGR (Blue, Green, Red) format.

Copy to Clipboard

You can use the Mouse Locator to get the value of a color on your computer monitor. Make sure the Mouse Locator is the active window, then move your mouse over the color you want and press Ctrl-c. The color will be copied to the clipboard so you can paste it into another program.

By default, several values are copied to the clipboard including the Screen Position of the mouse and the Pixel Color in a variety of formats. Here is an example:

  990,385,2966228,2D42D4,212,66,45,#D4422D

What is copied to the clipboard can be adjusted using the Copy To Clipboard options found in Options, Preferences, Appearance, Mouse Locator.