[X-Newbies] making macros

[Peter Saint James]

         I want to do something simple, but I'm finding only  
complicated ways to do it.

         Essentially I want something that works like macros in MS  
office programs:  record a series of keystrokes, assign a hot key,  
and have those keystrokes performed each time I hit the hot key.   
Except that I want to do this in programs like Mail and Text Edit.

         Is this built into OS X somewhere or is there a program that  
I can use to do this?


         TIA


                                                             Peter