A while back someone wrote me saying how IE is dead and wondering how we can automate other browsers. While IE is definitely on it’s death-bed, I do still automate IE for sites that will let IE load. Someone mentioned that Windows 11 completely removes Internet Explorer thus, if you’re running Windows 11, automating IE is not an option. I looked into this and had some very interesting discoveries:
The IWB2 Learner tool works within Edge when in “IE Mode”
In Windows 11, you can add IE back and still use it in IE mode. (I’ll document how I did this in a later video)
When I realized the above, I played with Edge (in IE Mode) in Windows 10 & Windows 11 and was able to connect to the DOM! Granted my approach sucked but I asked Tank (Charlie Simmons) to take a look at it and he borrowed on the concept and re-wrote what i did into something that is decentily reliable. You can get the download here
Here’s a video showing how I use AutoHotkey to Automate IE from within Edge!
Did you have a good Thanksgiving 🦃? I know it’s just a U.S. Holiday however it’s one I wish had a more global presence. It’s probably the least “commercialized” holiday and is still about family, friends and giving back. Speaking of which, did you check out our free AutoHotkey Udemy course? It’s meant for true noobs so it may not be a good fit for you however it’s a great one to pass along to someone that is considering using AutoHotkey. BTW, is it just me, or is the below meme one of the most basic, yet important, concepts to understand?
Have you carved out time to learn AutoHotkey and investin yourself?
Developer’s corner
Have you done much with Excel and AutoHotkey? I’ve automated an amazing amount of stuff with the two. Saved countless hours and created amazing reports at the click of a button! This week I released two videos automating Excel with AutoHotkey (which means I now have 52 tutorials of AutoHotkey & Excel. BTW- I also updated how I’m getting the current range (but haven’t made a video on it yet) however the updates are in my Excel Function library. The new way won’t use colored cells (which the old one did)
Excel Paths
The first video was how to get various paths from Excel. This can come in handy when you’re working with multiple files and/or want to have a script that will work on other computers.
Meta Data from Excel
Sometimes you’re wanting to learn more about given Excel files. This video shows many meta data fields that you can grab. If you have Excel files that have meta data, this could be really helpful to find specific files…
Window Snipping tool 📷
Are you using my Window Snipping tool with built-in OCR? It’s my most popular download! Being able to quickly grab screen clippings is amazing! The built-in Translations is also handy if you’re working with others around the globe. Personally I used it dozens of times a day. The OCR is fast and accurate but does require Windows 10+
This is going to be a relatively short AutoHotkey newsletter as it is Thanksgiving day and I have to drive a couple of hours to enjoy an amazing Turkey dinner🍗. Whether you’re in the US or not, I’m curious what you are thankful for %Name%.
I’m thankful for: My immediate family (Wife, son/step kids, dad), good health, amazing friends, all of you, and AutoHotkey! It might seem insincere to throw 🅰️HK in that list however can you think how painful your life would be without it?
Thanksgiving is a time to give-back!
If you’re new to AutoHotkey, I have a special gift for you. I just launched a 💯 % FREE AutoHotkey Udemy course. It is designed for people that are COMPLETE Noobs! So if, somehow, you’ve ended up on this newsletter and are considering starting to learn AHK, it’s a great resource for YOU! Of course, if you know someone that should be using AutoHotkey, you can forward it on to them! The title of the course is AutoHotkey FAQ- What to know before you code in AHK.
I’ve included some amazing tools 😁 for those new to AutoHotkey!
Developer’s corner
Did you watch our Intro to Classes tutorial? Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, did a great job! I look forward to following up this tutorial on classes with another, more advanced, one! Classes aren’t as tough as you might think; especially if you’re familiar with AHK functions.
Quick GUI for selecting snippets
I published this simple script a while back. Quick Access Popup is an amazing tool! One thing it does well is creating a GUI that allows you to have access to your snippets however, for some people, it’s just too complex. That’s where this little gem can come in and give you easy access to a list of snippets.
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multipleAutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
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11/18/2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,I hope you’re doing well today! A couple of days ago I bought my 3rd boat 🛥️ so I think that means its official now: I’m living in the country! 🤣 LOL The newest boat looks to be something that we’ll be able to turn into a fun fishing boat with just a little bit of love.
Developer’s corner
Last Saturday Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, gave a friend a great Intro to Classes in AutoHotkey tutorial. Years ago I played with classes and I often find myself trying to edit classes written by Maestrith, Tank, or RaptorX but I’d never really dove-deep into them so I asked Jean if he’d give us a tutorial. I think you’ll really benefit by watching it. You can see the video and get the resources here. BTW we did have a webinar on classes before, you can see the webinar resources here.
I’ve been releasing some tools we’ve been working on for a while. AHKHotkeyString lookup is a gem if you’re either a complete Noob to AHK or, like me, you’ve been using it for a long time and have so many Hotkeys and/or HotStrings that you can’t remember them! Jackie and I have always said HotStrings are the hidden gem of AutoHotkey. If you’re not using them, trust me, you SHOULD BE! Work through our Intro to HotStrings course and become an Automator today! ⚡️
AHKHelp 🆘
Have you tried our AHKHelp tool? It allows you to pull up AHK Help in ANY editor! It also will search YouTube for videos on the topic you’re wanting help with. Very cool stuff!
Tuesday was our last, regularly scheduled, AutoHotkey webinar. We’ve done 66 AutoHotkey webinars and mostly run out of topics! We’re not saying we won’t have any future ones, but we’re not going to stick to the schedule we’d done in the past. I’ll probably still reference past webinars in future newsletters though. They’re an amazing resource and, when you’re trying to learn something like API calls, they’re a great deep-dive.
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multipleAutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
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11/11/2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
I hope November is treating you well. It’s been pretty busy around here. It turns out our new dog, Zeus,
really likes to play with the water!
We picked up a client and are helping save them a TON of money by automating some of their older systems! 😲 Do you have older systems at your work? AutoHotkey is an amazing tool that can automate older systems w/o having an API or costing a fortune. In this video I used Web Scraping to transfer data from a SharePoint system to our CMS (Content Management System).
I’m getting ready to release a couple new Udemy courses. One will be free! The free one will have some great AutoHotkey tools for noobs. If you go to the-Automator.com you’ll be able to see them before they videos are released.
Two that are really helpful are the AHK Help which let’s you easily access AutoHotkey documentation in any editor but also searches for videos that are on the same topic and AHKScriptHub which let’s you easily control any running AutoHotkey script (even w/o a system tray icon)
Easily Create BarCharts
Ever want to create BarCharts to display data? It’s super-easy with this GDI function I found. Graphs are great ways to communicate data to users! Check out how simple and versatile these graphs are in this short video or get the code here.
Minimizing instead of closing a program
I use the PushBullet API for automating texts however I also use their Windows tool to send texts to friends.
Sadly when you “close” the GUI, it minimizes to the system tray. When talking with Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, we realized there’s a different approach. I could minimize the GUI, which would allow me to easily maximize it later.
Jackie and I are considering making next Tuesday’s webinar the last regularly scheduled AutoHotkey webinar. We’ve had over 65 of them and believe they’ve run their course. Perhaps we’ll have one occasionally when a suitable topic comes up…
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple AutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
3 Rodrigo F F.
3 Raimondas L.
3 Margaret H.
3 Fred F.
3 Christopher S.
2 Vicki J.
2 Ray T.
2 Kanishka S.
2 Aditya P.
2 Achim S.
11/04/2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Hi %Name%,
Forwarding: as I right this I just want you to know that I’m high! Well, maybe better said “higher” as we jacked up my house the other day and put piers under the foundation… We lifted it around 4 inches (and boy are my arms tired!) Take a look at the before and after picks
Developer’s corner
I use PushBullet to automate texts. When I’m sending bulk I use their API as I demonstrated in this video a few years ago. I also use their built-in program to send 1-1 texts to friends / family. When you hit the close button on the GUI the program in stays running however you have to click into your system tray and click on their icon. When I was talking with Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, we realized there is another way. It’s a great example of how, by talking to others about your code, you “think differently”. I discuss the solution here.
Simple Snippet tool
HotStrings are amazing! I often refer to them as the “hidden gem” 💎 of AutoHotkey & it’s why it was our first Udemy course. However having a GUI to remind you is also really helpful for sending snippets. In this video I show how simple that can be.
Last Friday we had really interesting call and managed to help people in several ways. One was just playing with the ACC Viewer tool. You can see more uses of the ACC architecture in this AHK webinar. The ACC (Microsoft Active Accessibility) technology is old, and deprecated, however its’ still a great way to automate programs that don’t have controls. Here are a couple of posts from the AHK forum on it: Jeeswg ACC tutorial and Jethrow’s work.
Be sure to sign up for our live support tomorrow from 11-12 EDT to ask any questions!
Today we had a great Intro to Classes in AutoHotkey by Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup.
As mentioned in the video, we had webinar teaching an Intro to Classes in AutoHotkeyback in 2018. I wanted to revisit the topic and Jean agreed to give us a good introduction to classes.
A while back someone wrote me saying how IE is dead and wondering how we can automate other browsers. While IE is definitely on it’s death-bed, I do still automate IE for sites that will let IE load. Someone mentioned that Windows 11 completely removes Internet Explorer thus, if you’re running Windows 11, automating IE is not an option. I looked into this and had some very interesting discoveries:
11/25/2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Today we had a great Intro to Classes in AutoHotkey by Jean Lalonde, author of 