March, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter

Here you’ll find all the editions of March, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter March 23rd, 2023

Last week my son Jon and I went out to Las Vegas to visit my father. It was a really good visit and I managed to spend more on Pinball than gambling. 😊 I chose not to bring a computer and just used my dad’s 12-year-old desktop (with 8 gigs of ram). The first couple hours were extremely painful as I didn’t have AutoHotkey or Quick Access Popup installed 😲. Now I remember what a mere mortal feels like… Not having access to all the cool tools is a great way to realize how much they affect your performance!

I was also able to have a great in-person with Kevin K. (an AHK Hero and client)

Here are a few pics from our trip with my father and son.

Now on with the show…

Fixing Folder Sync issues

If you use a cloud based tool, or network backup, you might have some issues with files that cannot be synced. Isaias walks us through how to adjust the permissions for files and folders. Note: Even if you don’t have this problem with cloud based tools, it’s a really good approach to be aware of.

How to get rid of folder sync issues once and for all❗ | DropBox / OneDrive sync ⛔

AHK Hero members testing AHK Studio for V2

Isaias and Maestrith were able to adapt AHK Studio to handle v2 code (mostly). There are a few more, very advanced things, to do however currently AHK Hero members are testing out a version of Studio that can run and use AutoHotkeyV2. 😁 Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, we’ll have something we’re comfortable releasing. Membership has it’s privileges…

Beta Testing AutoHotkey Studio for AutoHotkey v2

Prompt Assistant also being Beta Tested

Speaking of beta testing with Hero members, we’re finally getting user feedback on a tool I’ve been working on for years (across 4 different developers). As you probably know, I love Quick Access Popup however, for many people, it has too many bells and whistles. The “average” user wants something dirt-simple for having snippets of their text handy. It also should be easy to export and import items & menus. The Hero members are beta testing Prompt Assistant but we hope to have something to release in a few weeks.

Beta Testing for Prompt Assistance

Minimize / Maximize a program

Years ago I was using PushBullet and it was annoying to click the system tray icon all the time so I created a simple away to Minimize & Maximize a program.

Minimizing and Maximizing a program that is in the System Tray

Chat GPT-3 In Telegram

We were not surprised but happy to see Chat GPT being available in Telegram. More and more tools will be doing this in the future. 😊

💬Unleash the Power of Chat GPT-3 for Killer Telegram Chatbots!

CoPilot in Office tools

As mentioned above, a lot of tools are incorporating AI. Microsoft announced one way Office tools will be using AI will be with CoPilot. Isaias and I explain why this is so powerful and is better than just using a Chat GPT prompt.

🤖 The Future is Here: Microsoft Copilot is Taking AI to the Next Level 🚀🚀

📚 What we’re reading

What Is Denuvo, and Why Do Gamers Hate It?
Google Docs and Slides Now Have Better Voice Support
10 Quick Steps to Increase PC Performance (#11 is AutoHotkey!)

🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

The AI world has been amazingly active with huge news!

Here is a good summary of a lot of the huge AI announcements
Did you receive an invitation to sign-up for Bard? I did and am on the wait list…
Create some amazing images with Bing

All of This AI News Is Getting Absolutely Crazy!

⚡️Productivity tips: Multiple Desktops Win 10+

Windows 10+ comes with a feature that allows you to create multiple desktops. This can be very useful when you need to switch between different tasks. Press the Windows key + Tab to open the Task View and create a new desktop.

🤣 A spot of Humor

NotHere

AHK Hero?

Want more time than the free hour? Have content that you can’t have on YouTube? Consider joining the 🦸‍♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive big discounts to courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.
They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 2nd “office hours” session which isn’t on YouTube.

🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done — Bruce Lee
You’ll never change your life until you change your daily routine — Joe Glines
Successful people rarely start out as most likely to succeed

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.

⏩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 and staff

P.S. The AHK Hero group is an amazing deal! We’re having loads of fun helping each other while learning how to automate. You really should consider signing-up!

AutoHotkey Newsletter March 16th, 2023

My son and I are visiting my father in Las Vegas, NV. We’re having a great time but I also managed to have an in-person meeting with an AHK Hero member. Even though meeting online, sharing screens, and seeing each other on a webcam there is no substitute for meeting people in-person! We found some great ways to help him with his business (leveraging many tools we already have).

So, while remote is amazing, don’t forget to meet with people that have different skills & needs than you have. It’s amazing what you can learn from other people!

Now on with the show…

Avoid this v2 pitfall 🤦‍♂️

Isaias and I were creating a short “intro to AutoHotkey” video in v2 and realized there was a change in scope that was really likely to trip up people that are familiar with AutoHotkey. We added it to our “Painlessly transition from v1 ➡v2” course however I figured it would trip-up a lot of people, so I extracted the video and put it on YouTube. If you are considering switching to v2, I highly recommend you get our course. It is currently on sale for ½ price but that will be ending soon… BTW- like all of our courses, it comes with a “double your money back” guarantee so you have nothing to lose.

⚠️Don’t Fall into this AutoHotkey v2 Trap when Setting Hotkeys😳

Using the clipboard is easy with AutoHotkey

In this video I show just how easy it is to access and use the clipboard with AutoHotkey. In some ways the clipboard can be considered the “ultimate global variable”. During last Friday’s Livestream, Jean Lalonde showed us how you can “lock the clipboard” 😲which is something we’re going to have to document as it’s adds stability to using the clipboard with AutoHotkey. To be reminded of our livestreams, and join zoom, you can sign up here.

the Naked Clipboard: Adding a GUI to Paste Plain Text AutoHotkey script

Hitting 100,000 views on Intro to AutoHotkey video

I’m really excited to see that my1-hour Intro to AutoHotkey video is about to hit 100,000 views! Isaias and I are putting finishing touches on a similar video for v2 but this one has been a great help to my channel as well as helping get people started using AutoHotkey! If you’re new to AutoHotkey, it’s a solid hour of great learning!

Master AutoHotkey like a pro with our #1 full course for beginners 🚀 Most complete tutorial 💪

📚 What we’re reading

Amazon’s Satellite Internet Won’t Need a Giant Antenna
How to Tether Your Android Phone and Share Its Internet Connection with Other Devices
How to Rename Any Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet

🤖Chat GPT / AI News

I was really excited to see that Chat GPT-4 is being rolled out. The video below entitled “GPT-4 Prompt Engineering” shows just how powerful it is! Currently we (the-Automator) doesn’t have access to it (even in the API) but it should be available soon. Can’t wait to use it!

OpenAI Has Revealed GPT-4, and It’s Already in Bing Chat
GPT-4 Prompt Engineering: Solving Hard Riddles, Puzzles and Math Problems – WOW!!
Does ChatGPT Have an App?
Microsoft 365 Co-Pilot for Office

GPT-4 Prompt Engineering: Solving Hard Riddles, Puzzles and Math Problems – WOW!!

⚡️Productivity tips – Customize your toolbar buttons

11 years ago I recorded this video showing how you can customize your buttons in PowerPoint. Most programs allow you to tweak your toolbars. Spend 30 minutes now and you’ll more than make up for it in the coming weeks!

Adding buttons in PowerPoint 2003

🤣 A spot of Humor – Modern Family- Valentine’s day

Being married for 15 years I can relate to this clip. So damn funny!

Modern Family 1×15 – Clive Bixby and Juliana

AHK Hero?

Want more time than the free hour? Have content that you can’t have on YouTube? Consider joining the 🦸‍♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive big discounts to courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.

They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 2nd “office hours” session which isn’t on YouTube.

🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

If the world should blow itself up tomorrow, the last audible voice would be an expert saying: it can’t be done —Peter Ustinov
Successful people rarely start out As most likely to succeed
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. —Napoleon Hill

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias and staff

P.S. Taking deserved breaks are a great way to refresh yourself. Just make sure you put in the work before you take your break. Learning AutoHotkey is one of the best ways you can make sure you have time to take a vacation.

AutoHotkey Newsletter March 9th, 2023

Howdy %Name%,

I happened to see the following quote from Sigmund Freud

Recognizing a problem is half the success in solving it!

It’s amazing how true this is (especially in programming). The vast majority of the time we are debugging it is to truly understand what the problem is. Often the solution is obvious once we have a clear understanding of the issue. If we don’t we can use amazing tools like Chat GPT, Stack overflow, the AutoHotkey forum, or, if you’re smart enough to be a member of the AHK Hero club, you can ask the experts directly!

Now on with the show…

AHK Hero webinar: 18 Ways to automate with AutoHotkey

We had a great AHK Hero webinar last Saturday on 18 distinct ways
to connect and control programs with AutoHotkey.

AHK Hero Webinar: 18 Ways to Automate Programs with AutoHotkey

AHK Hero members are able to attend webinars, ask questions and get an early view of our content (besides having access to our private Telegram group and 3 hours in Zoom to get help / pick our brains)

💬Unleash the Power of Chat GPT-3 for Killer Telegram Chatbots!

In the webinar we discuss 18 different approaches you can use to automate windows programs. We also explained which ones you should use depending on your skill level and expected use. We also provide a great document with lots of helpful links.

Just keep in mind, most people using AutoHotkey know a handful of methods. This is why you need to be careful when hiring people to automate for you. They might look at everything and take the same approach regardless of the tool.

Webinar on WebScraping with AutoHotkey

BTW the above AHK Hero webinar was for automating non-browser programs. If you’re looking to automate browsers, you should check out this AHK Hero Webinar which covers 9 ways to automate browsers with AutoHotkey.

Master web scraping with AutoHotkey: The ULTIMATE guide for dominating in 2023

Avoid this v2 quagmire

We were working on a simple “intro to V2” video and realized there was a complexity with scope and hotkeys in v2 so we documented it here in our Painlessly switch from v1➡v2.

If you’re wanting to learn more about v2, you might consider getting our v1 ➡v2 AutoHotkey course. Its currently ½ off and comes with a 200% money back guarantee!

⚠️Don’t Fall into this AutoHotkey v2 Trap when Setting Hotkeys😳

XML goes with Treeviews like coffee goes with Mondays – It makes them bearable 🐻

I decided to re-edit a previous video I did with Maestrith, the author of AHK Studio, where he taught me how amazing XML can be when working with Treeviews. If you didn’t get a chance to watch this video, I highly suggest you check it out!

BTW- I asked Maestrith several times if he was going to update AHK Studio to work with v2 code. He didn’t have any interest in it. So I asked what if the-Automator got it working in v2 and he was up for that (and offering assistance when we needed direction).

🤯 Incredible AutoHotkey Hack: Master Tree Views & XML!

Well the good news is we are close to being ready to sharing an AHK Studio version that can handle v2!

Incidentally I believe Maestrith’s lack of interest in updating AHK studio to v2 is a very interesting situation. You see, a lot of his reasoning behind creating the tool was so he could learn AutoHotkey. I know from speaking with him that he rarely gets donations. So now that he’s become a “master” of AutoHotkey, he no longer has a direct incentive to make updates to his software. 🙁

I know many people feel tools should be free however we, as consumers of these cool tools, should WANT to pay people for their work. It gives them a reason to maintain, update, improvise, and handle bugs.

It’s one of the reasons why I’m paying Maestrith when he helps us understand how to improve Studio. He knows, when I call, there is a Cha-Ching 💰 coming and is willing and happy to talk to me!