#title "Macros"
A macro is any text enclosed in \{curly braces}. 

Macros allow you to include little scripts in your HTML text. The renderer evaluates the scripts and replaces them with the text they return. 

Macros give the sysop control of complicated pieces of HTML that might change every time the page is rendered, or to hide or automate complex operations.

We use macros to generate tables of files you can download, to automatically add the height and width parameters to <IMG> tags, to add date stamps to pages.

Here's a simple example:

<blockquote>\{(12 + 19) * 3} is replaced with {(12 + 19) * 3}.</blockquote>

Here are some other scripts and their values:<blockquote>

user.prefs.name = {user.prefs.name}

clock.now () = {clock.now ()}

Frontier.version () = {Frontier.version ()}

tcp.addressDecode (tcp.myAddress ()) = {tcp.addressdecode (tcp.myaddress ())}
</blockquote>

***Why macros are important

The macro interface is the key for image management, is the connection to AppleScript, and is the key feature that make page templates so powerful.