Macro Reference — Tutorial — Insert Characters (Tutorial)

# Insert Characters (Tutorial)

To insert characters using a macro, use the Text Property. Modify our tutorial file as follows:

##

### [JavaScript]

    document.selection.Text = "EmEditor supports macros.";
    document.selection.NewLine();
    document.selection.Text = "\tEmEditor is a text editor.";

### [VBScript]

    document.selection.Text = "EmEditor supports macros."
    document.selection.NewLine
    document.selection.Text = Chr(9) & "EmEditor is a text editor."

TheNewLine Method added in the second line inserts a newline character at the cursor position. The code in the third line inserts a tab character at the beginning of the string. A tab character is represented by "\t" in JavaScript, and Chr(9) in VBScript. You can also use the VBScript constant, vbTab, for a tab character. The following tables list commonly used escape sequences in both scripting languages.

### [JavaScript]

\b | \u0008 | Backspace.
\t | \u0009 | Horizontal Tab.
\n | \u000a | Newline character.
\f | \u000c | Form feed.
\r | \u000d | Carriage return.
\" | \u0022 | Double quote.
\' | \u0027 | Single quote.
\\ | \u005c | Backslash.
\xXX |  | The Latin-1 character with the encoding specified by the two hexadecimal digits.
\uXXXX |  | The Unicode character with the encoding specified by the four hexadecimal digits.

### Reference: JScript \ Special Characters (Microsoft MSDN Library)

### [VBScript]

vbCr | Chr(13) | Carriage return.
vbCrLf | Chr(13) & Chr(10) | Carriage return + newline character combination.
vbFormFeed | Chr(12) | Form feed.
vbLf | Chr(10) | Newline character.
vbNewLine | Chr(13) & Chr(10) or Chr(10) | Platform-specific newline character. Equivalent to vbCrLf in Windows.
vbTab | Chr(9) | Horizontal tab.
vbVerticalTab | Chr(11) | Vertical tab.

### Reference: VBScript \ String Constants (Microsoft MSDN Library)

## Tips

Line-endings are terminated with a combination of a \r (CR) and a \n (LF). Use the CR and LF in distinct manners. For example, if you write:

document.selection.Text = "\n";

only carriage return (LF) is inserted, which is not a line-ending convention in Windows. When you press the RETURN key in EmEditor, EmEditor inserts whatever line-ending (CR only, LF only, or CR+LF) is used in that line. If you want the same behavior upon pressing the RETURN key, as in EmEditor, we recommend that you use the NewLine Method or the writeln Method.

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