I have just started to program my new rc5200 and have worked out most things. But I can't workout what the use of the macro group pages are. I have downloaded some files from this site and look into them for info and have found that some people use them and others dont. Could anyone please explane what they are used for?

When the Pronto family first came out, the software wasn't even anticipated. The macro group was designed to be used for programming on the remote itself. It's the only place that is available to record a macro without using the software.

There have been some creative uses for the macro groups, especially on the Pronto's. It can be used to emulate a back function. After jumping to a macro group from a device, tapping the device menu will take you back to the last page that was active on the device side.

Jim L

Jim explained well why it is there, and one of the biggest reason for how it is used. One other reason is to "hide" menu items (i.e. have less stuff appear on the device menu). An other thing is to make stuff safer (on the device side you can overwrite stuff on your Pronto by learning a new code, on the Macro side you have to intentionally delete something)

I was about to say it has no use whatsoever, but I just learned a couple of cool things from Jim and Anthony. Other than that, it indeed has no use.

What I did on mine is put all of my X-10 commands on the macro side. I have also changed the default firmware macro icon for a light bulb using ImgRep.
Now I can easely access my X-10 commands from any device and get back to the page of the device I was before.

Martin :-)