Howdy %Name%,

I was thinking about last week’s email regarding my general attitude of being creative and solving problems.

I remembered one more trait that I had from this podcast.

I % believe in myself❗

I think I built up my confidence by growing up (somewhat) poor and not having tools like YouTube / Google to help figure out how to fix things.

I had to do it the “old fashioned way” meaning use my to figure it out!

I’m worried how AI will affect our kids’ development.   Are they going to be able to solve problems❓   What do you think %name%?

Are humans going to become less creative (and less confident) if AI takes over solving problems❓

Now on with the show…

AutoHotkey Simultaneous achieves my goals

Detecting when an AI tool has Finished

During last week’s AHK Hero calls, we were playing with UIA.  I have a love-hate relationship with it.  It is great that it is available but it can be a bear…

Anyway, I asked Isaias to work on a simple “detector” to tell when Claude finished updating the Canvas.  Isaias did a  great job walking through developing with UIA.  You can learn a lot by watching it in this video.

Detecting when Claude has Finished

Easily Sending Unicode Characters

During the same Hero call, a member asked how Isaias “easily sent” a Unicode character.   Isaias walked through how any of us can do it using the Alt-key combo but that requires you to remember some arbitrary number…    I mentioned that we have our Unicode Lookup tool which makes it super easy to map a character to a hotkey.  You can check it out the discussion in this Hero Extract

Creating a Hotkey to send Unicode Characters

Recording Audio without External Libraries

A few weeks ago Isaias started working with the WindowsRT library.   This is an amazingly powerful class that allows us to use a lot of built-in Windows functionality.  In this video, Isaias walks through how to easily record audio with it.

After the Hero call I asked Irfan to create a download with a simple example which you can get here.

Walking through recording audio with WinRT in AHK V2

Improving People’s Lives: Story #63

Years ago, when I worked in Corporate America, every year I had to pass stupid HR tests.  The tests would have very specific information that I’d be “quizzed” on and then have to get a passing grade.

It basically made us “study for the test” because we’d never use the information after the quiz.   So I started using my Window Snipping tool to grab quick screenshots of things I suspected would be asked.

So instead of wasting hours of my time, I only wasted minutes❗

What we’re reading

• Forcing Windows 11 Taskbar Search to Use My Browser
• 7 ways to Reshape Data in MS Excel
• 9 Hidden Android Features

AI News that you Need to Know

• 101+ gen AI use cases with technical blueprints (Thanks Ryan!)
• OpenAI to launch a LinkedIn competitor
• Cool Updates to NotebookLM

⚡️Productivity tips: Imposter Syndrome

Lean Into Imposter Syndrome, Don’t Give In to It

A spot of Humor: I would have lost it!

Funniest 2:30 seconds on TV EVER!

Game Show Blooper

What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #102

In the 102nd episode, I walk through a bunch of real-world ways I’ve used AutoHotkey to make work easier, like managing files, automating emails, and reducing errors.

You’ll see demos of different scripts and tools I’ve built, plus how they can be tweaked to fit different needs.

If you’re curious about practical automation that actually saves time, this video gives you a solid overview.

Clients say…

“My mind is blown” — Kelly Coughlin

AHK Hero

Consider joining the AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.    Currently we have over 463 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

You can watch 1 hour a day for a year and not repeat content! That’s a lot of AHK Learning!

During Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:

• Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
• Convert Newsletter tool to v2
• Improvements to prompt for Transcribe and Summarize
• Creating scripts that don’t break when shared with others
• StrSplit – Limiting to the first : but max of 2 parts
• Semantic Version :  comment/metadata + etc.
• Gmail hacks with “+” and “.“
• Action1 – Auto-updating computers
• Recording Audio with Windows RT
• Object Oriented Programming- getting a reference to an element & reusing it (Learn more: Objects Course)
• Update to Clipster– Pasting Files
• Updates to Recently Modified Files that will save me a ton of time!
• Hotkey Loop & MsgBox issue

They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and 3 hours a week where we help people with their AHK issues (the Saturday calls are geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)

️ Quotable quotes

• If you won’t believe in yourself, who will❓ — Joe Glines
• Learn a HotKey a day to keep inefficiency away! — Joe Glines
• In God We Trust; (All others must provide data)
• If you think education is expensive, try ignorance — Derek Bok

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The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff

P.S. Are you like me and enjoy a good problem to solve❓   If you’re not, and want help solving your Automation problem, take a look at my calendar and book a time❗

Double P.S.  My father turns 85 today!  Happy Birthday Dad!  Love you!