Your First Macro
First, select "New" to create a new macro. Another window will pop up with a field for the macro's name at the top. The name of the macro should be as short and descriptive as possible because its name will be displayed on the icon itself. The macro's name will be visually truncated on the icon if it's too long. Thus, abbreviations and acronyms are good candidates for a macro name. It's actually possible to display no name if you enter a blank space as the macro's name. For the purposes of this example, let's use "Greet."
Below the name field is a scrollable grid of available icons for the macro. Here are some general guidelines for picking an appropriate icon:
- The question mark icon found in the upper left slot automatically assigns an icon that corresponds to the first ability or spell in the macro. We'll go into more detail on this later. In general, this is a good default icon to pick, especially if you don't feel like poring over the huge list. You may find yourself creating a macro on the fly to adapt to whatever situation you're in, and so time may be of the essence!
- Pick an icon that is distinctive so that you will quickly identify and process what it does. An icon that reminds you of the macro's purpose helps for easy identification in the heat of combat. Even abstract connections can serve this purpose. For instance, if you're looking for an icon for the popular "Assist" macro, you could select an icon of a sword, a shield, or a humanoid figure - whatever helps you remember.
- If you pick an icon that matches another spell in your arsenal, the resulting overlap could lead to confusion. However, the macro will display its name in its icon so that you can still distinguish between your regular Pyroblast and your trinket/Arcane Power/Pyroblast macro.
For now, pick the question mark icon. Note that the question mark icon may appear to be highlighted already. Nevertheless, you must actually click the icon to enable it as your choice. Now you should see the macro in the top left slot in the window. The currently selected macro is highlighted, and its text is displayed in the command window below. This macro does nothing at the moment: its command window is empty. Without any text, the macro is just an empty shell waiting for instructions. Let's enter some text and give this macro a purpose! Click anywhere in the "Enter Macro Commands" window.
Enter these commands on two separate lines:
/greet
/say Hello all!
After you're done typing these commands, you don't have to confirm or manually save: the macro is updated in real time. The next time you return to the Create Macros menu, the window will be as you left it, with the last selected macro and its text displayed.
Drag the icon down to an empty slot in your action bar. You should see the icon with its "Greet" name displayed. Again, this name would have been truncated if it had been too long to fit in the icon. The icon should remain a question mark, since there are no spells or abilities in the macro. That's just fine for now.
Now for the moment of truth: click the macro! You should see your character give a cheerful greeting to everyone in the area, or to the specific person you have targeted, both verbally and non-verbally. Woot!
