The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
The term action is associated with macros, and has several meanings. First, an action is the basic building block of a macro. A macro is typically written as a multi-step process, where each line represents an action, or a task that is performed. When the actions are taken in sequence, an overall action results. In other macro languages, an action is sometimes referred to as a command.
A macro is a self-contained instruction that can be combined with other actions in order to automate a task. In the following example, containing a macro with instructions to indent every fourth line of a document by eight spaces, each of the lines is an action. Together, once a name for the macro is supplied, the actions make up the macro.
In the above example, the macro is made up of a series of actions, self-contained instructions. Also, the overall task that the macro was constructed to speed up (the indenting of a designated line) is itself an action. Thus, the term action can also refer to the task for which the macro has been constructed. A series of actions combine to produce an overall action. In the absence of a macro, the performance of many constituent actions would fall to the user. Considering each of the self-contained instructions as a command eliminates confusion, as does considering the overall function specified by the macro as an action.
Macros, and their constituent actions, are used in word processing and spreadsheet documents. Macros can be simple, consisting of only a few actions, as in the example above. Complex macros can be made up of hundreds of actions. In spreadsheets, the actions in a macro often take the form of performing a mathematical calculation on the data appearing in designated cells of the spreadsheet. Other actions can be constructed to relate one spreadsheet to other spreadsheets and one line of a program to other lines in the same program. Tax calculation software relies upon such actions.