Why My Driveway Upgrade Was the Best Time Hack of the Year❗

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

I moved “to the country” mid Covid.   We bought a house with 7 acres (and I still love it!)

One of the few things I didn’t like about our move was how dusty my office would get because I was closest to our gravel/dirt driveway.

Around twice a year I’d “amuse” my wife and use a leaf blower to “dust” my office.

This saved me a ton of time and did a decent job with little work.

About a month ago I sold our last rental home and I had extra cash so I decided to redo our driveway with crushed asphalt.

HOLY COW ! 

My only regret is that I didn’t do it years ago!

Now I know just how people feel when they hire us to automate their tasks.

I can rest peacefully knowing I’ve made a sound investment and will not have to blow-out my office.

And my entire family can breathe easier❗

%Name%, what things can you pay for now that will prevent future work❓

Now on with the show…

Learn how to Master VSCode Make the switch to v2 Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

AutoHotkey to the Rescue

This is how I feel when I meet new clients for the first time. How about you %Name%?


AutoHotkey to the Rescue


Easily Transcribe Multiple Media Files

Our Transcribe & Summarize tool is quite amazing!  It’s got lots of “bells & whistles” however, if you only want transcripts, it was overkill.

So we created our Transcriber tool that lets you drag multiple files to it and it will transcribe them.  There is an option to create a summary, but that’s all.   Check it out in this video.

Transcribe Multiple Video or Audio files with Transcriber
Transcribe Multiple Video or Audio files with Transcriber


Adapting our OCR tool to do more!

Our AI OCR tool is quite amazing at performing OCR on whatever you select from your screen however I realized it is easily adjustable to do much more!  In this video I explain my ideas and show how powerful it could be.

Adapting OCR for flexiblility
Adapting OCR for flexiblility


Change your Drive Icons

During an AHK Hero call I walked people through how easy it is to give yourself a visual reminder by adding icons to your Hard drives that show up in Windows Explorer (and most tools).

I’ve been doing this for 30+ years, but sometimes it’s good to cover the basics!

If you’ve never done this check out how easy it is in this video.

Easily Changing the Icons of your Drives
Easily Changing the Icons of your Drives


Improving People’s Lives: Story #71

Our client needed a quick way to transfer a lot of info from a Word Doc to an Online Survey.

I quickly wrote a “simple” loop that would allow him to copy 5 data points.   Then it would automatically switch to the questionnaire, parse the clipboard content, and paste in the respective fields.

It probably took me about 20 minutes of work but saved him hours (because he had a crazy long survey❗)


What we’re reading


AI News that you Need to Know

Welcome to Google Antigravity
Welcome to Google Antigravity


⚡️Productivity tips:  Play Hide-and-Seek with the Ribbon❗

Control+F1 Toggles the visibility of the Ribbon in most office programs (Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Word, etc.)


A spot of Humor:

Between Two Ferns bloopers Non stop laughter!

Between Two Ferns bloopers Non stop laughter!


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #111

This week I dove into a ton of AutoHotkey tools we’ve been building – everything from XML processing solutions for clients to launching our new ASM editor for just $4.99 (or Free if you have an All Access Pass)!

In this week’s video I walk you through about 20 different automation tools including hotkey managers, media players with extensive controls, invoice calculators with Stripe integration, and even a clever one-click incognito mode solution that AI helped me figure out.

What we Automated with AutoHotkey #111
What we Automated with AutoHotkey #111


It’s amazing how AutoHotkey keeps solving real-world problems and making tedious tasks disappear.

Come see what we’ve been cooking up!


Clients say…

I had no idea you could do this with AutoHotkey — Jim F.


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 490 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • Regular Expressions: Differences between AHK and RegEx101
  • Ahk Script Maker
    • Searching your clipboard history
    • Adding notes that are “important”
    • Adding Check for Update
  • Creating a Hash versus Encoding
  • Adding a @Important and Note in VSCode to remind you of a problem
  • 5 Git commands that feel like Magic
  • Using a Ternary to easily apply changes based on logic (instead of using an “if”)

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

  • Work Hard; Be Curious; Be Honest❗— Joe Glines
  • It’s easy to see stupid in other people — Dan Kennedy
  • Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt — Mark Twain
  • Motion beats meditation — Gary Halbert

AHK Newsletter⏩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 and staff


P.S. We have a lot of tools that help us work Smarter, not Harder.

What AHK programming tools help you get more done quicker❓

AutoHotkey News 2024-12-05 How Sherlock debugged our code!

AutoHotkey NewsletterHowdy

Irfan, Scott (an AHK hero member) and I were hanging out in zoom and working on a client’s project of using AI to perform OCR on W2s.
We were getting incomplete results and Claude was telling him he was over the “out of tokens” yet Irfan showed he set them at 5,000 and had only used 2,100.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories Sherlock would frequently say

when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth

This logical principle has become known as “Holmes’s Razor” and is frequently referenced in discussions of deductive reasoning and problem-solving.

With that in my brain I doubled-down on asking Irfan to verify he really was setting the threshold at 5,000.

Sure enough, buried in the class, was some incorrect logic that wasn’t changing our threshold.  We updated our Claude class and moved forward on the project!

Excellent programmers are often a good balance of creative & logical people.  The creativity helps you solve problems.   The Logic helps you solve the problems the creativity creates!

We discuss both a lot in our AHK hero group during the three hours of live zoom calls each week and in our  private Telegram group.

Now on with the show…

Learn how to Master VSCode Make the switch to v2 Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Isaias and I dove into Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol the other day.   We were able to connect Claude to our desktops and to SQLite databases.

It’s early days, and we worked through a bug they have in this video, but it shows great promise!

Anthropics Model Context Protocol: First look & fixing a bug in FileSystem
Anthropics Model Context Protocol: First look & fixing a bug in FileSystem


Building Better Prompts with Claude

Speaking of Claude, many people don’t know that, if you’re a paying subscriber, you can have Claude greatly improve your prompts!

In this video I show an example how it takes my simple question and fleshes-it-out which leads to much-better results!

How to Generate Better Prompts in Claude ai
How to Generate Better Prompts in Claude ai


How to Detect when a User stops Typing

Sometimes it is helpful to detect when a user stops typing.   During an AHK Hero group call I presented this question to Isaias.

Isaias developed this script which we, later, recorded this demo video showing how to use it.

How to detect when a User stops Typing
How to detect when a User stops Typing


Voice to Text: Easily Transcribing what you say

Our AI Transcribe / Voice to Text is a super-cheap (currently $2.99) AutoHotkey v2 script that does an amazing job transcribing what you say!   You can check it out in this video.

Easily Transcribe your audio with Whisper from Chat GPT
Easily Transcribe your audio with Whisper from Chat GPT


Improving People’s Lives: Story #28

Isaias’ brother works at a bank in the Dominican Republic.   He showed Isaias a daily task that took him an hour to complete.

Isaias spent ~3 hours (1 hour to write it and 2 hours of testing) and gave him a script that solved a big part of the task getting it down to 5 minutes to complete.

So, for a given week, he was spending 5 hours but now spends around 30 minutes.

Bar chart comparing task time: manual approach takes 60 minutes, AHK automation takes 5 minutes, labeled 12 X Faster.

Do you have anything you’d like us to automate?  Book an appointment now.

Remember: We sell time❗


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

➡️ We’re considering creating another group where we solely talk about and work with AI.

If you’re interested in this group, you can add your contact information here and we’ll get in touch with you when we have more details


⚡️Productivity tips: Eat that frog!

In “Eat that Frog”, Brian Tracy argues tackling the hardest thing first is a great way to get more done.


A spot of Humor  Remember when Kramer was the “Assman?”

Speaking of which, in Highschool my license plates were “CYCO JOE”   LOL

Cosmo Kramer – The ASSMAN (Seinfeld)
Cosmo Kramer - The ASSMAN (Seinfeld)


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #66

Our client’s are getting the majority of our time these days having us code things for them.

In this video I walk through a bunch of what we’ve done for them as well as some new tools we’ve worked on.

What we automated with AutoHotkey #66
66 What we automated with AutoHotkey #66


Client’s say…

“You guys changed my life! Thanks man” — Marrion Mentoor


Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 345 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their code
  • Using Claude’s Model Context Protocol & where it is going next
  • Converting Random Code Generator to AHK v2 
  • Adding a thosands separator (1,000) to your numbers
  • Forcing the Expression Order
  • Local Smart Switches & triggering them with an API call
  • Discussing AHK and AI in the below image

Balance scale comparing RPA and AutoHotkey approaches on the left with AI approaches on the right across data volume, activation, and data handling

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

  • Create exceptional Opportunities for Exceptional People — Dan Kennedy
  • Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend — Theophrastus
  • Time is linear; Success doesn’t have to be — Joe Glines

AHK Newsletter⏩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. Another great lesson that can be gleaned from the intro paragraph is how working in groups really helps!   It’s one of the valuable aspects of our AHK hero group.  When we get together we all bring different knowledge to the conversation and learn from each other.

We typically have 10-15 people attending a given AHK hero call.  Why not join and see if we can help you with your Automation problem❓

December 7th, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

Working harder isn’t always the solution to your most problems.

You gotta work smarter too❗

Some of the hardest working people I’ve ever known were just digging themselves into deeper holes.

In life the real “sweat equity” comes from a cooperative brain-muscle coalition.

Just thinking and not acting, or just acting without thinking, are both recipes for disaster .

It’s one of the main reasons we create AutoHotkey courses.  Investing in yourself to automate your problems allows you to work Smarter, not Harder!

But YOU need to be the one to take action and start learning how to automate the mundane!

Speaking of which, if you missed it we’re creating a course that will help teach you the core basics so you can stop using your computer like a typewriter.   Our course “ Rising Above PC Incompetence: what EVERY PC User should know about using a Windows Computer ”, which we’re currently working on will help you learn the things that can really help you level-up in everyday life!  Check out the planned syllabus here.  If you’re interested you can sign up to be notified when it is ready (and get 35% off )

Now on with the show…

Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

Reducing Redundant Code

Hopefully you’re aware of how to #Include Functions and use the Library.  What you may not be aware of is how you can do the same thing with any of your ahk code!   Be sure to check this video out, and stick around to the end, because we found a “gotcha” that might trip you up!

👨💻 Code Like a Pro: AutoHotkey Tips to Avoid Duplication!

👨💻 Code Like a Pro: AutoHotkey Tips to Avoid Duplication!


Lexikos Responded to the AutoHotkey Challenge!

When I logged into the AHK forum a while back I was stoked to that Lexikos had replied to our AutoHotkey challenge!  Isaias and I read through his reply and created this video covering his response.   As always, thank you Lexikos for all the hard work you do!  AutoHotkey wouldn’t be anywhere where it is today without all your efforts!

Lexikos AutoHotkey Challenge  5 favorite scripts

Lexikos AutoHotkey Challenge  5 favorite scripts


Creating a List of files in a simple ListView in v2

I was beginning to create a new video documenting what we automated that week in AutoHotkey and I realized I was doing the same thing each week in a tool.   Why not have Isaias create a simple tool to display the files for me?  During this video he shows how easy it is!   We realized if you’d taken the Intro to GUIs course and Intermediate AutoHotkey Course, you would have all the knowledge needed to have created the script.

Don’t forget our courses come with a 200% money back guarantee.   If you’re not happy with the quality of the course in the first 30 days you can not only get your money back but you can get DOUBLE what you paid for it!

200% Money Back Guarantee badge with a yellow and green starburst seal for AHK courses

Creating Search Tool for What we Automated with AHK

Creating Search Tool for What we Automated with AHK


What we Automated with 🅰HK this week #25

I was “taken down” by a cold last week (hence no newsletter) but the guys still managed to work on quite a few things.  In this video we walk through what we automated last week with AutoHotkey

What we Automated with AutoHotkey this week  #25

What we Automated with AutoHotkey this week  25


Sometimes you need to think outside the 📦

I was having the guys update my media player and realized they would have a hard time understanding the reasons behind my code.  So I got them on Zoom and walked them through my crazy reasoning in this video.

Crazy Programming solves the day for Media Player

Crazy Programming solves the day for Media Player


📚 What we’re reading / Watching


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Alt + Enter

When you’re in Windows File Explorer, select  a file, or folder you are interested in and hit “Alt+Enter”.  This will bring up the Properties dialog box


🤣 A spot of Humor

I’ve been working on a research project.  This is how I feel people often answer surveys…

How people take surveys


 

Cartoon superhero mascot in green costume beside the bold text AHK Hero on a yellow background 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 calls are geared towards people new to AutoHotkey.)


🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes

  • Thought is the original source of all wealth all success all material all great discoveries and affections and all achievements — Claude M. Bristol
  • The question isn’t who is going to let me it’s who is going to stop me — Ayn Rand
  • Poverty is a state of mind not the state of your wallet — Joe Glines
  • Motion beats meditation — Gary Halbert

AHK Newsletter⏩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, and staff


P.S. If you want to improve your life, you need to take action!  Stop looking for the “magic pill” and do something!  If that action doesn’t give you the results you want, do something else!

One thing you might do is check out our upcoming course to teach computer basics that everyone should know!  It will help you conquer PC Inadequacies at the Office!  Signing up now will save you 35% if you choose to purchase.