Chat GPT 3 usage and examples 1/18/2023 (and some cool AHK Scripts)
I also enjoyed this video with Satya Nadella (Microsoft’s CEO). He discussed many things about AI, how it will displace jobs (similarly to the Industrial revelution), The growth of AI is exponention (not linear) and how it really provides “leverage” for making us more productive.
Eightify will proivde bullet points to summarize videos (thanks AHK Hero Thomas)
Use Chat GPT-3 as a thesauras (help find the right word)
Create Elapsed Time AHK Function
Helped proivde ideas for the “batching” post & video
Had Chat GPT-3 create write code to bold selected word in Excel (just testing to see what it would provide)
Optimizing Video and Article headlines (Here is the hotstring i use: :o:head.::rewrite the following headline to be more click-bait and under 100 characters. include emojis whenever possible: “”{left 1} )
Create a list of potential database fields from a description
Has the non-stop barrage of bad news got that angst of anxiety bubbling up in your gut?
Are you worried about the economy, creditors swarming, job going south and everything else that can happen when the world goes crazy? This cool trick can help you talk yourself off the ledge.
Write yourself a letter outlining all your troubles & your immediate plans. Be specific; just get it all out of your head (where it’s causing trouble) & onto the written page.
Then take a break. Hide the letter for 24 hours and let your unconscious work on solutions. When anxiety kicks in, remind yourself that it’s all safely written down, so you don’t need to dwell. Your unconscious has a remarkable talent for organizing things and getting perspective on what’s important and what’s fluff.
Have you ever created a GUI and used a dropdown list but wanted to be able to type in it if the option you want isn’t available? Hello ComboBox! In this video Isaias shows us just how simple they are to create and, near the end, adapt a DropDownList to a combobox is easier than you can believe! Just more proof that GUIs are Easy in AutoHotkey!
Massive improvement to dropdown list & using the Format command
Connecting to the Correct instance of a COM Object
We were working on a project for Thomas, an AHK Hero, where we connect to MS Word. Unfortunately we discovered a really weird problem that, sometimes, MS word would have multiple instances running and ComObjActive would return the wrong instance. I mentioned to Isaias that, in my Excel Function library, I used the ACC library to loop over all instances of Excel and find the right one. Isaias took a look at the example and generalized it so it could easily be used for other programs with a COM object. This is just one of the reasons learning Objects is really helpful!
How to connect to the correct COM object in MS Office Programs
Looping over an Object in a For Loop
Another 🦸♀️hero wrote us with a problem they were having looping over an object in a For Loop. We were looking at the code when I realized the problem. We thought we’d document it as it can be a bit confusing when you first start looping over objects.
Avoid this simple mistake when working with a For Loop
Creating a class that automatically executes code?
Isaias realized, in AHK Version 2, there’s an interesting way you can build your code where you have an object that will get executed (without being called). We also discussed how, conceptually, the idea of private and public methods can be compared to API calls.
Easily accessing properties from UIA
While the new UIA library is amazing, it is a bit complex! In this video Isaias shows how you can access some properties and methods that might trip you up. This came up because, during our free live call on Friday, someone wasn’t able to get the value of an href.
A long time ago I got one of my best friends into AutoHotkey. In this interview I chat with Gabe about what he’s done with AutoHotkey, how it’s changed his life, and how much fun it is when we have our “code-cations” (we take a week off of work and get together learning something).
Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Gabriel Cook
⚡️Productivity tips
Put it all down on paper. I’m pretty sure it isn’t just that I’m “old school”. Our brains work differently when we write things down. Also organizing on paper is way different than on a computer. I highly recommend writing your ideas, goals, etc. down and then let your subconscious work on them! There’s the added benefit mentioned above how you’ll remove some of the stress trying to keep it all in your head.
🤣 A spot of Humor
How many of these 7 signs do you have? Hillarious video❗
I had a chat with Jean Lalonde the other day. As y’all are painfully aware, if you compile a script and send it to someone it’s fairly likely it will get flagged as a virus. One work around is to get a certificate and sign the executable. Unfortunately this costs a significant amount of money. Jean just spent $500 which will cover the next 3 years and is looking for donations to help recoup his costs. So, if, like me, you’re a QAP enthusiast, you might consider making a donation. I contributed $25 because I don’t want a world where QAP doesn’t exist. What’s it worth to you?
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. Pretty Soon they will have access to a members-only Telegram group where we can all help each other.
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas Edison
What you plant now, you will harvest later — Og Mandino
Treat objections as requests for further information — Brian Tracy
It’s not how much you screw up that counts. Nope. It’s how you fix your messes that matters. — John Carlton
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing AHK hero membership
Rodrigo C., Nathan N., Michael C., Miral P., Thomas K., Rune O., Thomas D., Tyler F., Guy M., Dale W.,
Robert P., Gil C., Mathew F., and Ernestas G.
When we are trying to turn a “no” into a “yes” we often try and approach it “logically” presenting a “strong argument”. Sadly, more often than not, this doesn’t convince anyone of anything and just embeds people on their opposing point of view. A much better approach is to avoid the conflict entirely and come in through the side door.
People are much, much more accepting if they believe it is “their” idea. So start off by just agreeing with what they say. Don’t argue, don’t put up a fight. You can even compliment them on their idea. Then, at a later point in time, come back to them and ask if you can make a small tweak to their idea.
In my experience It’s amazingly effective and so much more pleasant of an experience. What’s reallyamazing is how much you can change the approach, yet people will still agree with it (partially because they believe it’s their idea but also because time has passed and they think “he was nice and agreed to me at first so I’ll let him have these changes.) I learned this approach from the amazing book by David J Lieberman: Get Anyone to Do Anything (affiliate link).
Now on with the show…
AHKCon is approaching fast!
As I mentioned before the first AHK Convention is planned for Saturday August 6th from 10 EDT to 4:30 pm. You can see what topics will be covered here. Or sign-up for the event.
Properties & Methods in UIA
During last Friday’s live call we had a guest that was trying to get the text of an element that had a URL. While UIA is amazing, it can be a little tricky so we made this video showing what you’ll have to do in order to get some properties or use some methods. You can watch all of our UIA videos from this UIA YouTube playlist
How to easily access properties from UIA
Working with Objects in For Loop
Speaking of Friday calls… We had an AHK Hero reach out and ask for some troubleshooting when looping over an object with a For Loop. This seemed like something that people new to objects would run into so we made a video walking through how to do it. If you’re interested in learning more about the Loops, I cover 5 types in the Intermediate AHK course or, if you’re ready for a deeper-dive, Check out our Intermediate Objects course. Both happen to be on sale at the moment!
Avoid this simple mistake when working with a For Loop
Getting the correct Instance of COM objects
On a client project we ran into a little snag where, when we’d try and get the active MS Word object, it wouldn’t always return the correct one. I told Isaias I think there was something in my XL Function library that we could learn from. Sure enough, we were able to port the approach over and expand on it. The new approach should be easy to update for most programs with a COM Object (we also created a V1 and V2 version)
How to connect to the correct COM object in MS Office Programs
Fast image search (on windows that are obscured)
Yesterday I was chatting with Shin from the Spawnova channel the other day. It reminded me of the video we did about his amazing class that is crazy fast and finds images that don’t even have to be on-top!
👀How to perform Fast image search on Covered windows w/Spawnova
Auto-Executing Classes in V2️⃣
Isaias is working a lot in AHK V2 these days. In this video he walks through how to create an entire script that will be an object and run when launched. We also discuss the general concept of private verse public methods. Classes are amazing and incredibly helpful writing better organized code! That’s one of the main reasons we created the Intermediate Objects course❗
A friend of mine sent me this the other day. Brilliant!
AHKHero
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
Today is always the most productive day of your week. — Mark Hunter
What I lack in Skills & Abilities I make up for with Optimism & Determination
Not everyone likes you. — John Carlton
Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded — Yogi Berra
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing AHK hero membership
Rodrigo C., Nathan N., Michael C., Miral P., Thomas K., Rune O., Thomas D., Tyler F., Guy M., Dale W.,
Robert P., Gil C., Mathew F., and Ernestas G.
Well summer has definitely hit here in Texas! I was out working on a car in 104 degree weather 🔥 and felt like I was melting! I bought a car that had been in an accident off a good friend (without actually seeing it). It’s a 2010 Dodge charger with a 5.7 liter V8 Hemi engine. It’s amazingly fun to drive (but not to fill with gas).
As I mentioned before, my son is 15 and will be driving soon so, at some point, I’d need to have another car so I can give him my current vehicle (a 2003 Toyota Echo). I bought the Echo 15 years ago and it’s been an amazingly reliable car. In all those years I’ve never washed it (other than strategically leaving it outside when I knew a hard rain was coming through).
Some people would probably be mortified to take a drive in it but I just don’t give crap! All my life I’ve found ways to save 💲 without sacrificing quality. When I worked in Corporate America and had to wear suits, I bought all of them from 2nd hand stores. Even the tuxedo I got married in was bought for $10 at a Goodwill. Many people would be embarrassed to mention this but not me. I’m proud to! You see, when I was ~14 I lived with my grandmother for a few years. She lived through the “great depression” and I picked up some really good habits from her. 😊
It’s probably one of the reasons I’m so passionate about AutoHotkey! It’s not “sexy”, nor is it expensive however it canbe super reliable which is what I really care about. If your AutoHotkey scripts aren’t reliable then you might want to take a deeper look at how you’re using it. Most people start using AutoHotkey by imitating human actions (like sending mouse clicks or key-strokes) rather than a programmatic approach (using COM, APIs, Controls, etc.)
If you’re wishing your automations were more reliable consider working through some of our courses or just schedule a consultation with us to point you in the right direction.
Now on with the show…
Amazing lessons on UI Automation with Descolada
It’s been an amazing week of discovery! We’ve had some epic calls with Descolada out of Estonia. He’s the author of the main updates to the UI Automation.
In this video Descolada teaches us about Patterns and other great tips for working with UIA & AHK
UI Automation patterns & Other GREAT tips for UIA [MUST WATCH❗]
Here Descolada gives us some amazing insights if you’re trying to Automate a Chromium based App
Last Friday Thom, from TABNation, mentioned he was building an IDE in AutoHotkey. I told him about the call I had years ago with Maestrith and why, in AHK Studio, he used a Scintilla Control. You might have seen this video where Isaias explains what a Scintilla Control is but I asked him to demonstrate how we can actually create and use one with AutoHotkey. I’m really glad I did because I didn’t realize just how easy it is!😃
How to easily add color highlighting to an edit window with a Scintilla control
Creating responsive GUIs
I had a call with a client a while back that was stuck on creating a responsive GUI. Isaias helped explain what is going on and the steps you need to take in order to build a GUI that is responsive in AHK. If you’re new to GUIs, Isaias lead our GUIs are Easy course which is AMAZING!
Really fun to re-watch this video with Jean from 2018. Jean’s lead several AHK Webinars for us and, in this video, we learn a bit more about him and his background with AutoHotkey & other tools.
⚡️Productivity tips
Having a routine is a very common pattern amongst top performers. Busy people need to be very organized and structured. For example Ellon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates were all strong believers in having a routine and sticking to it. Do you have one?
🤣 A spot of Humor
Can you imagine watching this? Old woman disappears in lake & emerges young
AHK Hero?
Are you enjoying our free YouTube channel? You might not be aware but I don’t earn much from YouTube for people watching the videos. On average I make around $130 a month for the ~1,300 videos we’ve made. Considering I pay Isaias for his time, and I don’t get paid, creating videos isn’t something we do as a source of income. It’s one of the reasons we created the AHK Hero program. Joining allows you to make small contributions (currently $6 a month). Of course, by joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club you do receive big discounts to courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work. They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 2nd “office hours” session which isn’t on YouTube. Sign-up to help subsidize creating more quality content!
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Knowledge is power; Automation knowledge is a “super-power”💪 — Joe Glines
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas Edison
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing AHK hero membership
Rodrigo C., Nathan N., Michael C., Miral P., Rune O., Thomas D., Tyler F., Guy M., Thomas K., Dale W.,
Robert R., Gil C., Mathew F., and Ernestas G.
My contractor, just like most, has very rigid policies, and I get annoyed every time I call. Every question gets a “No”
“Can I get an estimate over the phone?” Nope. “Can I get a ballpark range?” Not a chance.
What I hate more is that they are right❗ Let me explain…
At first, this really irritated me. I mean, why are they stubborn about this?! Then I realized that it’s actually best for them and me.
You see, just like in automation, every job is different. Some jobs are super-simple while others turn-out to be a royal pain. If we simple took the “simplest” approach (let’s say sending keystrokes & mouse clicks) we could probably come up with an idea of how much it would cost to automate something however, as I’m sure you’re painfully aware, that would lead to tools that often break and are troublesome.
This, of course, would also give clients the general impression that either AutoHotkey sucks or worse (that we suck!) This is why, when we do project work, we always take time diagnosing the best approach taking into account many factors such as:
Has someone else already automated the programs we’re working with (Search AHK forum, StackOverflow, Reddit, our libraries, etc.)
It’s a lot of the same considerations we do when we help clients with their code in a consultation where we are not the ones that will be doing the work, but someone wants to get expert advice as to what is the best approach to take.
If we, or contractors, were to take the approach of giving ballpark figures we would be:
making a wag (wide ass guess)
planning on taking a fast/cheap approach regardless of what should be done
padding the numbers to make sure it covers the costs of times where it is harder than expected
So cut your contractors (and us) some slack when you aren’t able to get an estimate without having a discussion of what actually needs to be done. Chances are someone is trying to be sure to give you a realistic figure.
Now on with the show…
Avoid these mistakes with the LIB folder
We notice many people new to AutoHotkey often don’t fully understand how to reference the AutoHotkey Library folder. In this video we walk through some of the key points to using it. I love using the LIB folder and have a ton of functions in there so I don’t need to use the #Include directive.
Properly using AutoHotkey ❰LIB❱ (and where AHK searches)
Using a 🇯ava🇸cript API
One of our clients wanted to leverage his Regular Expression written in JavaScript. He’s using it on an MS Word document to examine text and automate hyperlinking known items. Since it was code was quite complex we needed a more sophisticated way to access JavaScript. In this video we show how we’re accessing JavaScript from within AHK! Very cool😎
How to execute JavaScript within AutoHotkey V2
Just how much time do you waste?
I asked Isaias to create a simple GUI to help calculate how much time we waste. GUIs are very helpful to show data to non-coders. If you’re new to GUIs you might consider our amazing GUIs are Easy course.
How much do you waste? Creating a simple Waste Calculator
Getting an ID for UI Automation
One would think that when you get an “Automation ID” for UI Automation it would be unique (like an ID on webpage) however sometimes it’s pretty clear that the ID isn’t unique. In that case you need to do some investigating to determine how you’ll be able to, uniquely, Identify the element. In this video we talk through some of the approaches and also discuss the two stages (Discovery & Implementation). We’ve seen many people always using the discovery tools (even after finding their IDs) which greatly slows-down the process. If you’re enjoying this series, please make sure you comment in the video as it’s our lead indicator as to what we should focus on.
How to find a Unique ID for your automation & speed up your code❗
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. With it on sale it’s $1.50 per week. 😲 The members have really enjoyed the calls so far. Hope you consider joining…
In this interview I chat with Mason out of Colorado. Mason also lead our webinar on classes. Amazingly Mason has been programming since he was 13! I love talking to people that started programming early! I think their brains get “wired” a little different than the rest of us… 😊
Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Mason George
⚡️Productivity tip: Learn to say No
Saying no can be hard however it is one of the best ways to boost your productivity. Reducing the amount of work on your “to-do” list is, by far, the way to truly gain huge amounts of time back into your day! At one job I stopped doing a report (no, it wasn’t the “TPS report”) and gained a whole week back out of my month. I had one client, out of ~50, ask what happened to the report and I just told her we found people weren’t using them. Boom❗ 25% more productive!
🤣 A spot of Humor
I’m at the age, and shape, that this is pretty accurate for me now… Getting old sucks however it is better than the alternative!
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve. — Napoleon Hill
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. — Henry C. Link
You can observe a lot by just watching — Yogi Berra
Spending time with someone is more important than spending money on them. — John Carlton
P.P.S. a customer reached out a while back. He was in the Intermediate AutoHotkey course but weren’t sure if they were ready for the Intermediate Objects course. I mentioned the Intermediate Objects course does cover basics of Objects but the Objects course goes way, way beyond that. The dilemma was that the Objects course was on sale for ½ off but he wasn’t ready for it yet. I told him not to “sweat it” and to go ahead and finish-up the Intermediate AHK course. If/when he wanted to buy the Objects course I’d create a coupon to allow him to buy it at the sale price. Well today he said he was ready to move forward so I created a coupon dropping the price from $99 to 💲49. Since I was there I decided to create a few extra for y’all. I saw he used the 1st coupon but there is 1 still available. If you’re on the fence about buying it, now is a great time… The coupon code is: “cd50PERCENT” and needs to be used during checkout.
Last week, I talked about how important it is to consider your audience when you’re “selling” AutoHotkey/ your services. This really applies to anytime you’re trying to convince someone of anything but let’s keep the focus on AutoHotkey.
Here’s a little slap of reality: Until you learn how to sell, you’re not going to enjoy the kind of success you’re entitled to. You may want to fight this but I’m telling you, learning how to “sell” (sway others to your perspective) you’re always going to be fighting a battle.
First realize-it’s NOT YOUR FAULT. Don’t blame yourself for lacking the skill to know how to sell to your clients. Sadly we never focus on this type of thing in schools / college. And you may even be offended that I’m discussing “sales” with you…a professional. But the sad truth is it really isn’t the “best mouse trap” that wins. It’s the “best mouse trap” in the mind of the prospect.
Thinking of yourself as a “salesperson” might shock you. You’re probably thinking, “But Joe, I’m not a salesperson. I’m a professional. I help people, and I don’t need to sell.”
Let me gently but firmly tell you that you’re mistaken. And it wasn’t until I figured this out that I began “winning” with clients.
There’s nothing like the satisfaction of sitting down with someone and communicating with them on such a deep level that, by the time you’re finished, they’re thanking you profusely and want to hug you for helping them.
If you’re new to this mentality here are a few solid books that I refer back to over and over:
I was annoyed with how my icons resort each other and asked Isaias if he had any ideas how Windows is keeping track of the order. He suggested we use Microsoft’s Process Monitor which is a free tool included in system Internals suite. Check out our video which helps show how to use it.
Getting help from the-Automator (and other sources)
I’m so stoked that my AutoHotkey channel is getting more and more subscribers (it’s a bitter-sweet feeling that I passed Hellbent in the number of subscribers however I’ve bugged him about getting back to making more!) Anyway I’m getting more and more requests to help people but I just don’t have the bandwidth to help everyone (besides, I do need to earn 💲).
We do offer consulting services. Quick questions, where we review your code/issue and point you in the right direction or edit your code are billed by the hour.
We do have free consultations when you have larger projects, where you want us to develop the code for you. In either case, you can go here and let us know what you’re looking for help on. And, of course, we always have discounts to our Udemy courses here.
Quick Icons script by HellBent
Speaking of Hellbent, did you see his Quick Icon script on the forum for quickly creating an icon? We were on a call over the weekend and he demonstrated it to me. Really cool! I plan to borrow from it heavily!
Did you see our news about the Intro to Classes course? We’re still working on it but it already has over 2 hours of content and we’re working on adding more examples because classes are fairly abstract and having solid examples will really help us learn how to use them.
If you sign up to be notified you’ll get a 15% discount once we offer the course for sale. 😲
This is a great conversation between Maestrith and RaptorX / Isaias Baez discussing using classes and V2 (the course is based on V1 but we thought it important to mention some things available in V2)
🅰️HK’s best kept secret!
I’m always amazed at how many AutoHotkey users that don’t use HotStrings! They’re one of the simplest and easiest ways to be more productive! If you’re not using HotStrings, trust me, you should! In about 30 minutes Ryan Wells and I outlined around 80 uses of them. They’re just AMAZING! In this video I demo just how easy they are to create. I’m working on a QAP knock-off that will focus on creating snippets & HotStrings. I’m hoping to make some progress soon…
This was an interesting interview. I was fortunate enough to have met Rick in person as he’s here in the DFW area. Unlike most AutoHotkey users, he’s a computer science major. Rick mostly works in Object oriented languages like C++, Java, C and more. His first use of AutoHotkey was being able to automate a GUI in another program (which AHK is amazing at!)
Productivity tips ⚡️
Step 1️- 🚀Very quickly write pseudo code of what you want done
Step 2️- Write the actual code that will work (but not “pretty”)
Step 3️- Refactor your code!
Step 4️- Rinse & Repeat!
A spot of Humor 🤣
Are you one of the people that fit this image? I know a few… BTW- do you find it refreshing to press the F5️ key❓ 🤣
Quick Access Popup news
The other day I was on a client call and she wanted a very complex / advanced way to automate sending emails to employees (based on criteria in a database). While this is something we definitely could do, it would also have taken a decent amount of time to build into our tool (so it was cost prohibitive). I mentioned to her there was a super simple solution for having distribution lists and then recorded this video showing how I do it with Quick Access Popup.
🗣️Quotable quotes💭
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done — Bruce Lee
Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there — Yogi Berra
You must stop expecting perfection — either from yourself, or your employees, or your customers and clients. It will never — John Carlton
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multipleAutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
2 Łukasz H.
2 Sune M.
2 Roman O.
2 Radosław J.
2 Radoslaw P.
2 Piotr M.
2 Patrycja Z.
2 Monika S.
2 Michał B.
2 Michal D.
2 Marta D.
2 Marcin J.
2 Malgorzata J.
2 Maja G.
2 Magdalena K.
2 Magdalena G.
2 Luiza G.
2 Konrad K.
2 Katarzyna S.
2 Katarzyna L.
2 Karolina N.
2 Karolina K.
2 KamilaM.
2 Kamil D.
2 Justyna B.
2 Julija K.
2 Julia D.
2 John Arnel G.
2 Jarosław K.
2 Jacek G.
2 Iwo S.
2 Haylan W.
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2 Dorota K.
2 Dominika J.
2 Dawid M.
2 David S.
2 Charles W D.
2 Bartlomiej B.
2 Anna W.
2 Anna P.
2 Andrzej M.
2 Amadeusz G.
2 Aleksandra A.
2 AJANOU W.
🙏Favor for the-Automator (and AutoHotkey)
Do you watch Leila Gharani’s YouTube channel? If you use Excel you should as she, mostly, teaches Excel tips/tricks however today she released a video on AutoHotkey! Since she has over 1.6 million subscribers 😲 I hope it will give some attention to AutoHotkey. I commented a couple of times on the video. Can you please do me a favor and like my comments? The hopes being:
She’ll make more AutoHotkey videos (thus raising awareness of AHK to more people)
People that watch her videos will come check out my YouTube channel.
I’d really appreciate it!!! Let’s get the world to be more aware of AutoHotkey!
April 7th AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
I watched an AutoHotkey YouTube video the other day by an “expert”. He was trying to “sell” his script/service to people. Unfortunately, he was getting into the nitty-gritty technical details about his code🤓. As a result, I think most people would find the video painfully dull and/or make them feel stupid ☹. I doubt he gets many people to purchase/adopt his approach.
In ALL forms of communication, you need to pay attention to your audience’s knowledge & interests!
If you’re talking to a client, boss, or colleague, drop the tech talk / “geek speak”. They don’t care about the nitty-gritty details about how something works; they are looking for solutions to their problems.
When you get into details, you’re not showing your audience how smart you are; you’re putting them to sleep and, in some cases, pissing them off 😡because they can’t follow what you’re saying.
Just remember, as Elmer Wheeler (considered to be America’s greatest salesman) “Sell the sizzle, not the steak🥩”.
Talk about solving their problems, and how your solution solves them. Most people really want to know
You’re competent
your solution will solve their problems
Now on with the show…
Intro to AutoHotkey Classes & Objects Course
Have you ever seen a cool script on the forum but realized it’s using a “class” and not sure how to use it? Want to improve the readability and maintenance of your code? Are you familiar with Functions and ready for the next step? Then our Intro to Classes course is for you! We’re finishing up production of it but wanted to let you sign up here. All people that sign up will get a 15% 😮 if/when they purchase. We haven’t decided on the final price yet however it will be more than our typical courses because it is more niche & advanced. I’m thinking the course should be available in a couple of weeks.
Default hotkeys for Editing / Reloading / Pausing / Suspending your scripts
When you’re creating a new script, it’s super helpful to have some default Hotkeys built into it while prototyping. Here I demo a few that I have built-in to my template for new scripts.
What I’ve automated in AutoHotkey
Sometimes it’s inspiring to see what others have done with AutoHotkey (not the actual coding). My playlist helps with this in general. I made this new video a little while back. How do you use AutoHotkey? Anything worth bragging about?
Searching for text within files
Sometimes I can’t remember what I’ve named a file OR I want to find files that use a bit of code. GrepWin is a great, 🆓 free tool that searches within files
Sending 💲 to Developing countries
If you live in a developing country or pay someone in one, you’re probably (painfully) aware how difficult, costly, and slow. Isaias lives in the Dominican Republic and has tried many different ways to get money. Most end up costing a fair amount to get the $ into his bank account. We tried Xoom (a paypal service) and were very impressed with speed and costs.
I’ve you frequent the AutoHotkey forum you’ve probably seen his posts. This interview with Tank was before I got to know him well, but we had a wonderful chat. As many others in AutoHotkey, he doesn’t have a background in programming yet does amazing things with AutoHotkey! BTW- if you didn’t know it Tank runs the AHK Forum.
Productivity tip⚡️ Stop thinking🧠, start doing
Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis! Overthinking things won’t get you anywhere. Ask yourself “what is one small step I can do now to move towards my goal?” Get it done!
A spot of Humor
Gives a new meaning to “Hopeless Romantic” 🤣
Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭
The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. — Mark Twain
When someone tells me “no,” I just ask someone else. — Joe Glines
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore — Yogi Berra 🐻
Put aside a healthy pile of “Up Yours” money, so you can walk away from any situation you don’t like, and know you’ll survive. — John Carlton
AutoHotkey is an amazing tool. There’s so many ways you can use it to save you time⏰. There definitely is an investment to learn to code however it is worth every minute you spend!
BTW- The other day I borrowed a meme and adapted it to this. I think of AutoHotkey people as “doers” not people that sit around and talk forever about how to do things. What do you think?
A long time ago the AutoHotkey forum used AutoHotkey.net to store files. Unfortunately it was hacked and the community lost a lot of great resources. While much of it was gone, people put together a nice list of scripts that were lost. In case you’ve never seen it, I made a short video and uploaded them here. Please keep in mind, I didn’t test all of the scripts in here so “Buyer beware” 💀
mySQL / ODBC connection
Have you tried to work with a SQL database but needed to get your connection string? The trickiest part to it is that, once you configure the driver / string you don’t have to do it again (it’s a “one and done” setting). So it’s easy to forget how to do it. For that reason Isaias and I made ourselves a video to document where we were getting it from for the mySQL ODBC connection. BTW I have a SQL Playlist in case you’re wanting to learn more about AutoHotkey & SQL
I was watching this video by Spawnova and he was showing his example of hacking Wordle. Do you play wordle? You can get Shin’s Wordle source code here.
A while back we had a great webinar on V2️. I asked Dimitri Geerts and Isaias Baez to join me in another discussion to better understand what to look out for in V2, some of the new features, and what is most likely to trip you up. There were some really interesting things mentioned at the very end of the video. Not trying to make you stick around for the full two hours but the last 15 minutes had some things that you’ll want to know!
Back in 2018 I chatted with JoeDF regarding how he got into, and uses, AutoHotkey. At times there were bandwidth issues but it was still a great call!
Productivity tips ⚡️
Listen to music that doesn’t have lyrics (or the lyrics are in another language). Personally I’ll often throw on Zydeco music which is usually very up-beat and “feels” like it’s in another language.
People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. — Thomas Sowell
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. — Stephen King
Even Napoleon had his Watergate — Yogi Berra
Challenge your belief systems. It’s better to realize you’ve been wrong for years, than to stubbornly hold onto a delusion that holds you back. — John Carlton
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multipleAutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
March 10th AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
No matter where you live, it’s impossible to not feel the effects of gas prices & inflation! Current estimates have the rate of inflation in the US between 6-10%. That’s crazy high however, given what’s going on in the world with Ukraine / Russia, I think it’s just the beginning of sky-rocketing prices. Why? Because nearly everything is delivered by vehicles! These gas price increases are going to be driving up the prices very soon!
So why am I bitching about it in the 🅰️🇺t🇴🇭🇴tk🇪🇾 🇳ewsletter? Because I 💯% believe the best way you can get a raise 💵is to BE WORTH MORE! One of the best ways to be worth more is to invest in yourself! People that learn AutoHotkey:
Get work done faster
Are more productive
Produce fewer errors
Provide more consistent work / deliverables
Are less likely to quit
Of course employers LOVE all the above! As a direct result they try and reward them. The #1 way of doing such is to 💰 pay them more! So commit to yourself today to find ways to be worth more!
Learning AutoHotkey is just one of many ways to improve yourself! Of course the best part of this is where’s the risk? If your employer doesn’t increase you’re pay you’re STILL WORTH MORE!
In case you missed the video I did ranting about being worth more, you can see it here; it’s one of my personal favorites!
Now on with the show…
Calculating time savings
A few years back I created this spreadsheet 📈 to help calculate savings /earnings by automating programs. Do you ever try and calculate this? Also, do you think I should create a version of the spreadsheet in AutoHotkey?
I was amazed how many people that do some coding are not aware of Regular Expressions. When I first became aware of them I thought they were neat but that I rarely had the need. But the more programs I wrote, the more I realized parsing text is a very common task to have! In this Intro to RegEx video I cover the basics. You can see my RegEx playlist here. I also highly recommend Jack Dunning’s book on RegEx. I bought it years ago and it really helped me learn them quickly and easily.
Speaking of parsing text, the other day I released a video showing both the Command StringSplit and the function StrSplit(). It’s one of the things that often confuses people new to AutoHotkey so I talk through both and why I prefer functions over commands.
MS Word Macro recorder and COM
I’ve recently made a few videos demonstrating using AHK & COM to automate MS Word. In this video I didn’t have an example to borrow from so I showed how I used the built-in Word VBA macro recorder to generate the VBA code and then adapt it to AutoHotkey COM code. COM is an amazing way to, programmatically, connect to and automate Word!
Using AutoHotkey to auto-generate numbers & delimiters
I’m not in love with how the script was implemented, but I love the idea and that he’s made a video showing how you can easily generate numbers parsed by a character. I’d make some tweaks to it but very cool to see others pushing out AutoHotkey examples!
In this AutoHotkey Expert interview I talk with a master Marketing guru that uses AutoHotkey among many other tools to automate his work. Ryan’s a super-bright and innovative guy that readily picks up any technology to solve his need.
Productivity tips ⚡️
Everybody has a time of the day that we’re “on fire”. A time when our brains are just kickin-butts and takin names. Interestingly we’re all different as to when that time is but, I’m willing to bet, you know when your time is!
The tip for this week is to make sure, during that window of time, you do the most tasking/ difficult work you have. Don’t do things you can “do in your sleep”. For me, the time is about 1 hour after I wake up. In the early afternoon I typically cool-off and then I handle things like replying to emails, etc.
When is your “take no prisoner” time?
A spot of Humor 🤣
Priceless! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that key phrase…
Quick Access Popup news
I learned a bit last week regarding how to add a “close this menu” option to Quick Access Popup. Very easy way to make sure you don’t end up with a hung window. Note, you’ll only need this if you’ve created a hotkey to open a submenu (which I highly recommend)
Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭
Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own. — Bruce Lee
It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit — Joe Glines
Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six — Yogi Berra
Say “sorry” and “I love you” often and without self-consciousness — John Carlton
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multipleAutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
3 Bonnie O.
2 Greg S.
2 Tom S.
March 3rd AutoHotkey Newsletter
Hi %Name%,
March is here and I’m looking forward to getting outside to take advantage of our new horseshoe pit and volleyball net. 😊
For the 🐎horseshoe pit I found a nice place that will get afternoon shade. Unfortunately, the backstop for the first one got set up a bit off-angle which would put the other side a bit out in the Sun. I could have left it but I knew, every time I’d be out there sweating, I’d be cursing myself for not doing it “right” the first time. It reminds me why I learn to use API approaches (COM, Controls, Windows Messages) over Human approaches (Sending keystrokes or mouse clicks). If you take a bit more time at the beginning you’ll be much happier with the results! While API techniques are a bit more complex, they’re also much more reliable and faster than imitating a human. If the overall concepts are confusing to you, RaptorX and I discuss it in this video. Speaking of which, Isaias Baez (RaptorX) should be back starting next Monday! 😊
You also might be interested in this video where I discuss 17 different techniques to automate programs with AutoHotkey. The main point being, taking a little time to learn up front can really payout for the rest of your life! Why not invest in yourself and make the rest of your life easier by learning AutoHotkey?
The other day I was updating my AutoHotkey resources file that is in my Udemy Bonus Lectures and decided to document some of the process. In the video I cover various things I do on a regular basis. How I add tracking to the documents so I can tell what works (and what doesn’t). I even show my MS Word script for search & replacing hyperlinks.
Searching for Text across files 🔎
Are you sometimes looking for files with specific text in them? Or want to search/replace text within multiple files? GrepWin is a great FREE tool for doing just that! I recorded a short video showing how easy it is to use . I’ve used it for longer than I can remember and it’s saved my butt many times!
API Calls, Fiddler, SMS Texting and more
I was talking with Denilson Padilla about using APIs, monitoring network traffic with Fiddler and other things. Denilson is in Brazil and has a YouTube channel in Portuguese. I think we’re going to have regular calls on Monday evening so look for more videos with us discussing various AutoHotkey things. I’m considering letting others join the call (for a nominal fee). If you’re interested in being a part of this, shoot me an email.
Automating Outlook emails
In our AHK Facebook group I’ve been seeing several questions about using AutoHotkey with Outlook. I recently demonstrated how easy it is to get: Name, email, subject line, etc. but we also covered Outlook in this webinar which had several great examples. Automating Outlook with COM is an amazing!
Back in 2018 I chatted with Charlie Simmons / Tank (AutoHotkey forum admin). Tank’s got a long background in automation and used to travel around implementing Automation Anywhere. We discuss using the DOM (Document Object Model) can greatly improve your web scraping ability (and make your code more reliable). He also gives some insights to the pricing and negatives with Automation Anywhere.
A spot of Humor 🤣 – Look I’m Superman!
I was looking for an old video and stumbled upon this gem which I made ~25 years ago when I was going to college to work in TV production. The class requirement was to create a PSA (Public Service Announcement) that was exactly 30 seconds long. In the video you’ll see me jumping off a roof. I’d put a couch down below but it was really hard to force myself to jump (and not land on my legs). Sorry about the quality, I honestly didn’t think I had any copies of it so I’m glad I found this one!
I had a “hung window” in Quick Access Popup the other day and asked Jean how to avoid this. He gave me a tip and I quickly added a “close this window” to my submenu. Very quick tip to avoid it! Check out the video here.
Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭
People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. — Thomas Sowell
I will always hire a lazy person to do a hard job, because they will always find an easy way to do it — Bill Gates
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore — Yogi Berra 🤣(with inflation these days it’s very true!)
Lead by example, not big talk. In fact, shut up until you’ve earned the right to talk by honing your chops. — John Carlton
July 28th AutoHotkey newsletter
![UI Automation patterns & Other GREAT tips for UIA [MUST WATCH❗]](https://i0.wp.com/img.youtube.com/vi/tLYFU4fsDYo/0.jpg?w=250&ssl=1 "July 2022 🅰HK Newsletter 64")
