Howdy %Name%,

The vast, vast majority of people that use AutoHotkey do so in a silo .

Yes, they might visit one or two forums / social groups, but they rarely talk to other AHK users.

Isaias and I have been using AutoHotkey for a collective ~30 years and

we still learn from each other everyday!

This has more to do with how humans think than it does with being an expert.

When we begin working on a project we’re constantly throwing ideas / approaches out as to which way we’ll solve a given problem.

We know 19 ways to automate programs with AutoHotkey however that’s really not what I’m referring to here.

This has more to do with clarifying the goal,
understanding the target customer, and determining if we’re creating an easy to use solution for them.

Having other people to bounce ideas off of, get pointed in the right direction and to have “experts” that truly know what they’re doing are the core reasons we created the AHK Hero group!

We have 3 hours a week where we discuss ideas and approaches with our members.

If members don’t have questions we start providing mini-lectures on how we’ve solved interesting problems with AutoHotkey.

Of course our Private telegram group is available where people can ask questions during the week.

Our AHK hero’s are a great group that help & learn from each other

You really should join!   I guarantee your automation skills & knowledge will really take off!

I’ve removed most of the risk as the first month is a super-low price❗

If you’re “on the fence” about joining, here is a link to a lot of the “Objections” people come  up with as why they don’t join.   I highly recommend you check them out because, if you’re reading this, you really should be a member!

Now on with the show…

Automating your PC with Anthropic’s Computer Use

Last Friday, before the normal AHK hero call, we invited AHK hero members to attend a special session where we showed how to download & configure the Docker image from Anthropic for running Computer Use.

The session went well and showed the future of AI being able to automate your computer (granted, in this case the Docker image was a Linux environment but it’s a good start.

We did the event as a “special session” so we could share it on with non-hero members.  You can check it out here.

Yesterday Isaias and I played with Claude’s computer vision class and tested to see if we could incorporate it with AutomateMyTask.

Using AI to automate your Computer: How to Configure Docker & Computer Use from Anthropic

Not surprisingly, we were able to feed it images and then ask AI where it found them.  This is great because, in general, we stay away form image search as it is not reliable (especially across computers) however having AI do the search makes all the difference in the world.

You can think of the AI as doing a “fuzzy match” on each computer

Thus it will not be so error-prone.

Good things to come of this that is for sure!

The future of Automating your PC

Continuing on form the previous discussion, in this video I outlined our overall goals as to what we want to create.  Currently AI is sending keystrokes / mouse clicks.

AI is basically imitating a human!

We know of 19 ways to automate things and the current two it is using are, by far, the worst!

The future of Automating your PC

Texting from your Phone with Phone Link

If you have an Android phone, Phone Link is a built-in way to easily connect your phone to Windows.  I constantly send/read texts from my phone.

A lot of people (me included) had issues with Phone Link.   It took a lot of searching but I finally figured out how to fix it and Isaias and I made this video.

From Frustration to Success: Watch How we Fixed Microsoft Phone Link❗

Improving People’s Lives: Story #24

Connie, an AHK hero member reached out to us asking for help using AI to perform OCR on newspaper clippings.  Lucky for Connie we already had a tool that does 95% of what he wanted.

So this morning I’m having Irfan add the typical “bells and whistles”.  Things like:

• Let users select their trigger (Mouse click & Hotkey)
• Select your AI (Chat GPT or Claude)
• Select the Model
• Add their AI token
• If the data resembles a table, push it into a Listview
• Adjust the prompt that drives it

We should have it out by time you read this.

We added Claude because, according to this article, it is amazing at OCR.

What we’re reading

• How to fix Wi-Fi Won’t Connect
• How to Create / Use an Email Template in the new Outlook
• Google maps is getting Better With Gemini
• 5 Handy Android Features

AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

• YouTube will use AI to snip copyrighted music and not silence your whole video
• Claude’s analysis tool
• Open AI expands Realtime API with new voices & cuts prices
• LinkedIn upgrades its Recruiter with an AI Hiring Assistant

⚡️Productivity tips:

Ctrl + Shift + F11: Insert a new worksheet in Microsoft Excel

A spot of Humor

I was on a client call the other day and something she said reminded me of this video which, I guarantee, will force you to laugh out loud!

Didn’t quite think this one through

What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #62

Watch me show off AutoHotkey’s magic! In this video I discuss how we’re fixing errors to automating reports, learn how this tool can make your daily grind way easier. ✨

What we automated with AutoHotkey #62

Client’s say…

“That’s insane❗I had no idea you could do that with AutoHotkey.” — Josh Smith

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 333 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
• How to open Excel files without having Excel
• Microsoft’s Update to the Context menu in the Edit Control
• Accessing a Hidden GUI with Controls verse UIA
• Planned AI use for AutomateMyTask
• Adding tooltips on disabled buttons– Using groupbox or another control to “fake it”
• How to properly include a DLL file on scripts you are compiling
• GUI Edit control: How do you know when a person stopped typing❓
• Adjusting GUI controls (Up/Down) so take into account Scrollbar Width

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

• While success is often cooked up in a messy kitchen it cannot be sustained in one — Dan Kennedy
• Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results . — James Clear
• The thing most people like least is a mirror — Dan Kennedy

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The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan, Rizwan and staff

P.S. Remember you’re not alone in your AHK journey!  We’re here if you need help and have plenty of ways for you to get it!   Reply to this email if you’d like to have a chat!  Or take a look at our calendar and see when we have time that is free for you.