AutoHotkey Newsletter
AutoHotkey NewsletterJune 29th, AutoHotkey Newsletter
Even the most centered and together Zen dharma-heads need to be reminded, every so often, that:
WE choose our path (and even our emotions) in life
It’s your movie, dude❗
And, the most amazing part is, you get to write most of the script.
That’s a concept the sleepwalkers among us would be stunned, and reluctant, to accept.
Because that would mean they’d have to, take more responsibility for what’s happened to them (“You mean it’s my fault I’m in this mess?” 😭 )
One of the best ways you can address this is to have a plan! Be fastidious in improving yourself. Whether you’re purchasing a course from us to Learn AutoHotkey, joining the AutoHotkey Hero club, or reading a self-help book. Make sure you block your calendar and Just DO IT!
Now on with the show…
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Why you should learn AutoHotkey
We had a consultation call the other day helping a developer see how they can use InnoSetup to deploy their software (apparently they watched this video where Jean Lalonde walked us through it)
Near the end of the call we asked the client if he’d used AutoHotkey (which he hadn’t). Since we’d just spent 1.5 hours with him we were able to show him some very helpful ”quick wins” that AutoHotkey could help him with. After which I sent him a link to this video which I created to help show some of the capabilities of AutoHotkey.
When asked “what does AutoHotkey do” I’m always hesitant to answer because a better question is “what can’t AutoHotkey do” There definitely are some things I wouldn’t try with AHK however, if you’re trying to automate other Windows programs, AutoHotkey is Amazing!
Matching a text pattern regardless of the order
Regular Expressions (RegEx) are an amazing way to parse text! We were doing some project work for a client work and needed a way to parse a date regardless of the format. For instance, the same date might appear in any of the following ways:
- July2, 2023
- Jul, 02,2023
- 2nd of July, 2023
By using a “look ahead” we were able to match the date regardless of the format & order! Watch this video to see how it is done!
Grabbing a date from a string with Regex Look ahead
Columbo Cracks it wide open!
I was watching another Columbo episode and he demonstrated a great principle we all should be using. Take a look at this short video where I show the clip and explain how it can help you get more done!
Columbo cracks it wide open: Lessons from the genious detective🔎
One verse many AutoHotkey scripts
Many people just starting out with AutoHotkey wonder what the best approach is. Should they have one AutoHotkey script with “everything” in it or, should they have many scripts with the things broken out. Of course the answer is “it depends”. In this video, Jackie Sztuk and I talk through why you would go with one approach over the other.
AutoHotkey Podcast: 066 Keeping a Script in AutoHotkey ahk or Separate
📚 What we’re reading
- How to Get the Old Context Menus back in Windows 11
- 10 DIY Ways to Repel Pests and Bugs
- How to Reverse Tether Your PC’s Internet Connection to Android
- How to Add a shortcut to Anything on Android
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- Wing GPT Brings ChatGPT to Windows 3.1❓❓❓
- YouTube is getting AI-powered dubbing
- Use AI to Spot Investment Trends
⚡️Productivity tips: Tracking Performance
Tracking metrics is crucial for process improvement as it provides valuable insights into the performance and effectiveness of a system. As Peter Drucker once said,
“What gets measured gets improved”
By monitoring and analyzing metrics, you can identify areas of inefficiency, set clear goals, and make data-driven decisions to drive continuous improvement.
🤣 A spot of Humor: We’ve all been there…
AHK Hero 🦸♂️
AHK Hero 🦸♂️Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. 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 call is geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- Work harder on yourself than you do on your job — Jim Rohn
- Ideas fade away if you don’t write them down — Dan Kennedy
- The “best” is always the enemy of the good — Sigmund Freud
- No one can make you feel inferior without your permission. — Eleanor Roosevelt
⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
 |  |  |  |  |  |
P.S. Responsibility is a double-edged sword. Some people fear responsibility however it is incredibly empowering. Once you realize YOU are the one 90% responsible for why you are where you are today, you realize YOU can decide to move up in the world! Becoming more productive is one best ways to shine and Learning AutoHotkey is a great way to be more productive!
June 22nd AutoHotkey Newsletter
You wake up on Monday morning, pour a cup of coffee, and look at your calendar for the week.
And then your heart sinks 😰
Maybe you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Why?
Because you have so much to get done that you’re not sure you’ll be able to grab lunch on any given day or get home at a reasonable hour to spend time with your loved ones.
You’ve read books by Brian Tracy, Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins and Stephen R. Covey but you just can’t get more time in the day.
I’ve been there, and it’s kept me awake at night as well.
Learning how to automate the mundane is one of the best ways to “buy back time”. Our courses help give you a clear direction for learning Desktop Automation. Or consider joining our AHK Hero club where we help guide you on a regular basis.
Either way, you need to find a way to be more productive. Learning AutoHotkey is a no-brainer and we make learning AutoHotkey easy!
Now on with the show…
| | | | | | |
The proper way to Eat an Elephant 🍽🐘
Over the weekend I was mowing my front yard (approx. 4 acres) and I realized the old joke “How do you eat an elephant?… One bite at a time” was good but missing a lot of ideas that help optimize things. While I was mowing I came up with a bunch more and then asked Ryan Wells to join me on a call to discuss. We had a fun and interesting call and identified a few more things that should be considered when you’re talking any task. You can see an updated version of the list here or watch the conversation with Ryan here.
Setting a default Sort Order for your Open & Save Dialog
When I’m opening and saving files I often want to see what I just worked on and would like the files listed to be sorted by most recently modified. Ryan Wells had mentioned this to me a couple years ago. Since he recently had a birthday (🎂Happy Birhtday Ryan) I thought we could tackle the task.
We came up with three interesting approaches.
- Trigger the sort with a Hotkey
- Use a Set timer to continuously watch for the Open / Save dialog
- Use a Shell Hook to let us know when the dialog box is created
You can see the various approaches we took in this video.
Open and Save Dialog Sorter
AutoHotkey Task Manager
Want a more granular view of what’s running than the default Task Manager? This AutoHotkey TaskManager allows you to easily see which AHK script is running. It also let’s you: Kill, Restart, or jump to their folder. It has room for improvement but is a very handy one to have at your fingertips!
Easily Automating Older Programs
If you’re needing to automate older programs, we have an amazing script for you❗ This script will automate programs using the old Menu system. It’s programatic, lightning fast, and easy to use! It outputs AutoHotkey Syntax for you to use in v1 and v2. Check it out in this video
🤫 Unveiling the Secret to Automate Old Unruly Windows Programs!
📚 What we’re reading
- How to Disable YouTube Shorts
- How to Use Gmail Slack and Zoom Better Than Anyone in Your Office
- 12 Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows File Explorer 📺
- How To Make Windows 11 look like Windows XP 📺
- How to Set Up a Home Media Server You Can Access From Any Device
- I love my vertical mouse: USB Wired Vertical Mouse🐁
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- AI powered text to voice generator (Thanks Ryan!)
- Bing Chat Now Supports Voice Input
- Google Bard can Now Reply With Images
- Make a custom ChatGPT using your own data
⚡️Productivity tips: Some great MS Outlook Hotkeys
- Ctrl + Shift + L: Create a new distribution
- Ctrl + Shift + J: Mark an email as junk. (please don’t practice on mine)
- Ctrl + Shift + O: Switch to the outbox.
- Ctrl + Shift + I: Switch to the inbox.
🤣 A spot of Humor: Pretty funny stuff!
Product Testing Institute – Guidos
AHK Hero 🦸♂️
Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. 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 call is geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- Work harder on yourself than you do on your job — Jim Rohn
- History is just new people making old mistakes — Sigmund Freud
- Do the right thing every time, as a habit. If you’re not clear on what the right thing is, that means you’re facing another life lesson. Figure it out. The test begins now. — John Carlton
- Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours — Yogi Berra
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
| | | | | | |
P.S. I’ve been keeping up with AI and it is leaping forward. If you’re working for someone else, there’s never been a more important time to increase your value.
Learning something new (AutoHotkey for example) is a way you can invest in yourself and not your employer. That way, YOU are the one that benefits, not them❗
June 15th AutoHotkey Newsletter
What is your #1 investment
Many people believe their home is the “ultimate investment” that they will make.
Some argue your business is truly the best because you can sell your business for 5 to 15 times its earnings.
Personally I think they’re all wrong
YOU are the best investment you can make
Reading books, taking courses, learning AutoHotkey
, etc. When you improve yourself, it is a multiplier on everything you do for the rest of your life!
Yet most people rarely add a recurring meeting to their schedule to work on self-improvement.
Because I feel so strongly about self-improvement yesterday I sent out an email regarding an amazing sale on courses & the AHK Hero club and an incredible bonus. You get 40% off of any course or Hero subscription and, if you’re one of the first 15 people, you’ll get a 1-hour free consultation (which is worth 💲72). Our courses come with 200% money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose! Use this coupon code “ProdDay2023” on checkout. The discount is only good until the end of day June 20th (and the free bonus only has 11 more slots) so act now!
Now on with the show…
| | | | | | |
Even Murderers are productive!
I was watching an old Columbo episode the other day and loved this great tip for remembering to add something to your calendar. I do this as well (the tip, not murder) and it really helps!
Columbo Murder demonstrates great planning skills
Faster Image Search (on windows even if not top-layer)
Spanova creates some amazing AutoHotkey classes / tools. In this video he demonstrated a crazy-fast image search which works on windows that don’t even have to be on the top layer! The video was recorded a while back and, since then, he’s added more functionality to the script. I highly recommend you check it out and also suggest you subscribe to his YouTube channel.
👀🕵️♂️Hunting for images on Windows? Get this amazing AHK class!
Use your middle mouse button/wheel to switch between programs
This is a super-simple script that can make it really easy to switch between programs. Check out this video to see just how easy it is!
💡 Discover the secret to seamless program hopping with your middle mouse button❗
Being able to use SQL on local text files
We recently recorded a tutorial how to use ADO to pop-open text files with SQL. The views are above what I expected so here are two more we recorded regarding Databases & SQL. Intro to Databases and follow up on Databases and SQL.
How to run SQL queries on local text files
Web Scraping from TABNation
TABNation released this video the other day on getting data from a web page. It’s not the most robust approach however, sometimes simple is the right approach! Don’t forget to subscribe to his channel.
AutoHotkey – Web Scraping My Upvotes (and other data) From Sites! Tooltip, Timer, Regex, URLdownload
📚 What we’re reading
- 5 Browser Security Myths that need busting!
- How to Fix ‘There Was a Problem Resetting Your PC’ on Win10 & 11
- How much does Always on Display drain your battery?
- Here’s how to make an Ultimate USB Boot Drive
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- Great tutorial on using Chat GPT to code
- Wow! Get locked out of your smart home by your provider?
- New Chat GPT Features and Lowered API Prices
- The Creator looks to be an interesting movie on AI and Singularity
⚡️Productivity tips: Favorite Chrome Hotkeys
You can grab our enormous list of 86 Chrome Hotkeys here but these are my most used:
- Ctrl + T: Open a new
- Ctrl + Shift + T: Reopen the last closed tab.
- Ctrl + W: Close the current
- Ctrl + Shift + W: Close the entire browser window.
🤣 A spot of Humor Freaking hilarious! One of my favorite bits from Taxi🚕😵
What does a yellow light mean?
AHK Hero 🦸♂️
Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. 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 call is geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- When experiencing errors with tools, typically you should blame the operator, not the tool. — Joe Glines
- How you deal with failure determines whether or not you ever get to deal with the success — Dan Kennedy
- Never see failure as failure, but only as a learning experience — Tom Hopkins
- Turn off the TV and go read. — John Carlton
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
| | | | | | |
P.S. The 40% off and $72 free gift is a great way to celebrate Productivity day! Purchase a course and block your calendar. Invest in yourself because nobody else will! Just remember, the free gifts will run out soon!
June 8th, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Some people think they “know it all” and don’t join our AHK Hero group because they don’t need help. But they’re missing the point. It isn’t a matter of knowledge, but ideas. In desktop automation,
if you don’t study what other people are doing you’re not doomed to repeat it you fail to repeat it
In the AHK Hero group we are all constantly getting inspired from how other members use AutoHotkey. There are people very new to AutoHotkey as well as very advanced yet we all learn from each other because it’s impossible to imagine every possible use of AutoHotkey on your own.
Consider expanding your mind and joining the AHK Hero group. I guarantee you will LOVE IT!
Now on with the show…
| | | | | | |
Prevent closing of Window
Ever try and tell yourself not to close a specific program? It’s not as easy as you might think. Programs that have a lot of overhead (take a long time to load) I like to leave open because I don’t want to wait for it to load. Sadly it is just too easy to forget this plan and close them. That’s where our new script comes in. It will disable the close button on most Windows programs. You can see a demo of the script in this video.
How to Prevent users, and yourself, from Closing a program
Optimizing your Desktop
I was on a client call with a Hero member the other day and he asked how I created the folders in my taskbar. I showed him during the call but, lucky for you, I have a video walking through this process. It’s a great way to have much more granularity inside running programs and be able to launch programs or folders very quickly.
Simple hack to optimize your taskbar and maximize your desktop
Previewing Files in Explorer
I’m loving being able to choose my file previewer! Here TJ and I walk through how you can easily change the preview handler for your Windows Explorer. Have you tried this script yet? It’s awesome because it can save you from having to open the file. I even wrote a simple script to “fix” the copy functionality from the PDF previewer.
Free Windows tool for Configuring Explorer Preview Handlers
Get a listing of Keys
A while back Isaias demonstrated his amazing function for easily getting a list of keys you want to loop over. This is a great tool when you want to present a list of keys for users to select a hotkey.
This approach will help you think more like a programmer and less like a dabbler!
🤖Automate ⌨ and 🖱 keys with this great AutoHotkey Function🔥
📚 What we’re reading
- Windows 11 will Help You Move Files and Apps to a New PC
- 10 Mistakes New Android Users Make
- Mini PC Is Under $350 and Has 16 GB RAM Here’s one for $239
- The 4 Best Free tools to Analyze Hard Drive Space on Windows
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- Bing Chat Can Now Have Even Longer Conversations
- Windows Copilot Brings Bing Chat & ChatGPT to Windows 11
- Make a custom ChatGPT using your own data with DropChat
- Videos can waste a lot of time, skipit.ai can help summarize and extract learnings
⚡️Productivity tips Open Explorer on a folder📁
If you want Explorer to open on a specific folder, create a shortcut and then set the Target as follows (updating “C:\myFold” to the folder you want to be opened)
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, C:\myFold
🤣 A spot of Humor
AHK Hero 🦸♂️
Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. 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 call is geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- Never be handicapped by your education — Dan Kennedy
- Tough times never last, but tough people do❗ — Robert Schuller
- The person who says it’s not possible needs to get out of my way — Joe Glines
- Learn empathy. Get a vivid picture of what it’s like to walk in the other guy’s shoes. — John Carlton
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
| | | | | | |
P.S. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The 2nd best time is today! Don’t let distractions prevent you from investing in yourself! Learning AutoHotkey is one of the best ways you can gain back time into your life! Purchase one of our courses and invest in yourself. YOU are worth it!
June 1st, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
A previous boss, and good friend of mine, told me this wonderful story. He owned a Renault car back in the 80’s and it was always breaking down. His mechanic told him:
“You see, I only have 5 clients and all of you own Renaults. I’m able to run my entire business because all of you bought a car that has so many problems it’s always needing work. I highly recommend you sell the car and get something different”
Unfortunately, my boss held onto his car for a few more years but at least his mechanic was able to send his kids to college…
What’s interesting is that many of us use software out of the box that is “flawed” and/or not optimized. We stick with it powering-thru the pain because we need to get it done. Yet,it’s one of the best uses of AutoHotkey! Learning AutoHotkey allows you to “fix” your software. Often you don’t need to reinvent it, just customize how you interact with it. 
By purchasing our courses and learning AutoHotkey you’re doing the impossible of buying back time and reducing frustration. All of our courses have a 200% money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose!
Now on with the show…
| | | | | | |
Easily send a lot of text with AutoHotkey
I got lazy the other day and extracted this video from the Intro to HotStrings course. Sometimes we want to use AutoHotkey to shove in a lot of text (more than 16K characters). When we’re sending a lot of text, there are better approaches to sending them than sending keystrokes. HotStrings are the “hidden gems” of AutoHotkey. If you’re not using them you should be!
How to send a lot of text⚡FAST⚡ with AutoHotkey: 💬 Blast through text😲
Beta Version of AHK Studio for V2
We’ve created a Beta version of AHK Studio which will allow you to edit and launch v2 scripts! This version is still built with v1 but, ironically, does not edit v1 scripts. It is only for launching and editing v2 scripts. If enough interest is made we’ll consider building it so it can handle both v1 and v2 scripts. You can see a demo of it here.
Beta Testing AutoHotkey Studio for ahk v2
UIA Automation
Learning how to automate programs with UIA is a bit steep but worth it! In this video Isaias gives us an entry level start. One of the benefits of UIA is that most Windows programs support it. If you’re new to UIA we don’t have any direct courses on it however understanding Objects is key.
🎓💻 Take your automation game to the next level – Learn to automate any program with ease! 📚
Window Snipping tool
Our Window snipping tools is, by far, the most downloaded tool. It has some great built-in features like OCR, auto-writing emails, saving to your desktop and more. You can watch this video to get the idea then grab the tool here.
Window Snipping Tool now tied to Google Translate
Updates to AutomateMyTask
If you’re ever wanting a simple way to find something on the screen and click it, or send text to it, AutomateMyTask might be just the right thing for you. We made some tweaks to it a while back so it works better on systems with different DPIs. We haven’t made a new video yet however you can check it out here.
Amazing free AutoClicker for Windows | Easily automate clicking with AmT
📚 What we’re reading
- This $40 USB-C Adapter Can Add Two Monitors to Your Laptop
- Bluetooth LE Audio is coming to Windows 11
- You Can Now Hide the Taskbar’s Date and Time on Windows 11
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- Adobe Photoshop will use Generative AI to Fill Images
- 7 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google Lens
- Google Bard can now Reply With Images
⚡️Productivity tips: Control + Shift + N :=📂
When using Windows Explorer Use Control + Shift + N to create a new folder
🤣 A spot of Humor So true!
AHK Hero 🦸♂️
Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive 25% off courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc. 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 call is geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know to do it and stand back!
- If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done — Bruce Lee
- It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. — Babe Ruth
- Right now is a good time to stop the bullshit. Get real. Take a painful review of yourself, and be honest. Face your faults, and begin the fix. — John Carlton
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
| | | | | | |
P.S. As I mentioned in the intro to this issue, when you are learning AutoHotkey you’re buying back time. AutoHotkey puts time in your day and reduces the amount of time working on the mundane. Get one of our courses and continue your path learning AutoHotkey
