Howdy %Name%,

During an AHK Hero call last week Isaias was working on a script when he received an error.

When the error was shown on the screen he said “Interesting”

I mentioned that this was a common thing I’ve noticed amongst advanced programmers.  When they see an error, they see it as a “fun” and “intriguing” challenge.

What I found fascinating is that, for Isaias, this was from a conscious effort❗

Years ago he decided to “train himself” as to when he sees an error he mentally forced himself to say “interesting” and, after a while of doing this, he really believed it to be interesting.

It reminded me of a great chapter in “Real Power: If God were your therapist” by David J. Lieberman.

He explains that often people “give away” their power to other people.

For instance if you say “You made me mad” you’ve given control of your emotions to someone else.  The truth is you can choose how you react to everything.

Just as someone can make you have “blue eyes” they cannot “make you mad”.   Better stated as “You did X and now I am mad”.   By phrasing it this way you stay in control.

The next time you’re driving and someone cuts you off instead of getting “mad” try telling yourself “Wow.  That person is driving bad; they must have an emergency” and you’ll be amazed how much better a mood you stay in!

Now on with the show…

Greatly Reduce your Video Size with Effortless Video Reducer

I’ve been a fan of Handbrake for many years.  It’s an amazing tool however it requires users to really know what they’re doing.

Several years ago we began working on a simpler tool that will let novices reduce their file size.  I’ve been using /tweaking it for several years but we finally got it ready for release.

You can see how easy it is to use in this video.  It’s really amazing how small the videos can be w/o losing much quality.  Just keep in mind that:

• This tool is an executable
• It costs $9.99 (and is worth every penny!)

How to Effortlessly Reduce the size of your videos

Quickly Save Files with Similar names

Have you ever needed to quickly save a lot of related files but get annoyed trying to increment their names?

Our Auto-Increment tool makes it super-easy to do just that!  It lets you decide on a “stem” name and then increments all saved files after doing that.  We even let you pad the numbers with zeros to help sorting them later!

You can take a quick look at it in this video.

How to easily increment your files as you save them

Are you New to AHK v2?

Our Intro to AutoHotkey in v2 mini-tutorial is a great way to get started with AutoHotkey.  Of course, if that doesn’t give you enough, you should check out our Intro to AutoHotkey course. 

You have nothing to lose because we offer a 30-day double-your-money back guarantee!

Intro to AutoHotkey Version 2 | Learn to automate programs with AHK v2

Pinning a Non-Executable to your Windows 11 Taskbar

If Microsoft was near-by I’d really like to flog them!   They keep “improving” Windows and making horrible decisions.

Now, in Windows 11, you can’t easily pin a script (or any non-executable) to the taskbar.

In this video I walk through a “stupid” work-around.  It’s not great, but better than nothing!

How to Pin a file to Taskbar in Windows 11

Improving People’s Lives: Story #18

Stephanie, one of our clients, needed some immediate help.

She had an hour-long webinar that she needed translated into Spanish.

Thankfully we’d already had a tool that would do a lot of this.  It takes a given video, transcribes it, then can translate it into ~50 different languages.

We then take those translations and, keeping them synced with the time-stamp, “burn” the Spanish translations into the video.   It’s not perfect but, in less than 30 minutes, we were able to give her what she needed!

Incidentally, we also realized, with AI’s new text to voice, we could actually assign each speaker a different voice and replace the English Audio with the Spanish speaking but that one will have to wait for another day.

What we’re reading

• Passkeys on Android Make Your Life Easier
• Why is it called a Terminal “Emulator”
• Gemini’s chatty voice is free on Android

AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

• Generative AI in a Nutshell – how to survive and thrive in the age of AI
• Worried about AI? Bet on these human skills
• AI is here to stay so update yourself with these 7 AI Terms

⚡️Productivity tips:

Teamwork can be greatly by structured systems / clear organization.  Check out this video where they go a bit crazy organizing everything!

How labels multiply your knowledgebase, cash, time, on LOW effort.

A spot of Humor

I guess they installed Vista!

Client’s say…

Joe! All I can say is WOW! — Stephanie Holland

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 315 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

• Help AHK Members with their code
• Updates to SimpleSpy,
  Ultimate Spy,
  the-Automator Spy
• GUI button clicking- Left, Middle, or Right (Middle or Double)
• Discussing various AHK Hats
• Branching in VS code with git
• Attach debug to running script
• Using “invert” on a slider so it is intuitive
• Adjusting GUI controls (Up/Down) so take into account Scrollbar Width
• Updates to Automator spy & Ultimate spy: Flaging for Virtual programs
• Example using KeyWait
• Example of using Suspend exe
• Adding tooltips on disabled buttons– Using groupbox or another control to “fake it”

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

️ Quotable quotes

• Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve — Napoleon Hill
• If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense — Grandma
• Automation is inevitable , and the way we embrace it will define our future. Let’s make sure it’s a future we’re proud of — Elon Musk
• Soon companies will have 2 employees: 1 man and 1 dog. The man is there to feed the dog. The dog is there to keep the man from messing with the AutoHotkey script — Joe Glines

⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan, Rizwan and staff

P.S. The introduction is an amazing example of how you can, very quickly, improve your life.
Another way is to commit to learning how to Automate the Mundane!

That’s exactly what our AHK courses
do and come with a 30-day double-your-money-back guarantee!

Get started now by clicking here!