Hello,
Today we’re going to cover some tips to get you started on your first AutoHotkey script!
One of the first lines of code you probably should get familiar with right away is #SingleInstance
I don’t have a clue while this isn’t the default behavior as 99.99% of scripts I write I only want one instance of it. Adding #SingleInstance to your script will “force” AutoHotkey to only allow a single instance of your script running at one time. To me this is something you’d want in virtually all of your scripts otherwise you always have a message box pop up and ask you if you want to have multiple instances of the script running.
#SingleInstance
We need to have something in the script or it will exit faster than a politician will breaking his promise to you, so let’s start off with the goal so many languages show first: How to create a message box with “Hello World” displayed.
AutoHotkey is amazingly simple and here’s a great example of it:
MsgBox “Hello World” ;simple example showing a messagebox
Yes, it really is that simple. The command MsgBox is doing a lot of the “heavy lifting” behind the scenes.
Now of course it’s better to actually see the msgbox instead of taking my word for it which means you need to launch/run the script. Here are a couple main ways you can do this.
- Double-click the file from Explorer
- Use the IDE / Editor to launch it.
Your first AHK Script Extract from Intro to AHK v2
Don’t forget the course is over 4 hours long and you can or get a 15% discount to the Intro to AHK course by clicking here.
If you downloaded SciTE4AutoHotkey, F5 is the hotkey that will launch the active script or you can mouse-over the toolbar looking for a blue triangle to click.
Now that you have the script running you should see a green box with a white H in the system tray Green H in system tray
The location of your system tray may vary depending on your settings however for 99% of people it is the bottom right of your main screen (often where the clock is)
When first starting out, being sure your script is actually running is one of the simplest ways to “trouble-shoot”. Often people have an error in their script which prevents the script from actually running. If there is no icon, your script is not running and there is ZERO chance that it can work! (duh!)🤣
So, now that you’ve launched the script, you should see your “Hello World” message box
Keep in mind, when we make a change to our script – we need to save and restart script to see the changes in the running program.
Additional Resources
- Good default settings for your scripts
- Helpful hotkeys to have in the script your developing
Joe, Isaias, Irfan & Team
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