AutoHotkey Newsletter June 20th – Happy World Productivity Day

Howdy,

To start off: Happy World Productivity day!  Today is the last day of our big sale (which I emailed out on Sunday.)  If you want to purchase a course, at a deep discount, go find that email or reply to me here.

Meanwhile let me tell you what I’ve been up to recently.

Generally speaking, I’m a very optimistic guy.   I’ve found I can do anything when I focus on it.

Most things don’t get to me however, over the past month, I’ve had a bunch of issues come up (mostly financial) that were making me want to curl up in a ball and sleep.

One of things was I tore-up both my tractor bucket and box-blade (for leveling dirt). A new tractor bucket is ~$1,500 and box-blade is $800.

I was hoping I could get them both welded by Darryl, a local guy that has done some welding for me before.

I called him up and asked if he’d be able do the work this week because my back pond wall is eroding -away quickly due to heavy rains and I need to get more dirt in there ASAP.

He said that he thought he could however

after his chemo treatments, he’s often too tired to work

This really hit me in my core.

I was fortunate enough to have gone to college and got “cushy” office jobs making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working in an AC office and I’m stressed about small financial issues while Darryl, who is ~ 12 years older than me, is fighting cancer , and having to work in the Texas heat welding.

I know I am where I am because I invested in myself by reading, going to college, learning new things, working 80+ hours a week, etc.  Also because I didn’t take lavish vacations, have never owned a “new” car, and have zero debt.  It was always easy for me to get promotions because I learned how to automate the mundane with AutoHotkey.

Sure, I’m out some cash at the moment, but this guy is fighting for his life and taking it in stride.  You might find this hard to believe but

he was apologetic to me that he couldn’t promise to do the work.!

So, by seeing his situation I’ve realized how fortunate I am to have the problems I do.

While I found someone to do my welding, I do plan to send Darryl some cash to help him during his struggle.  I know many of you would do the same in the same situation.  But remember to hug a loved one tonight and be thankful for what you have.  It could always be worse!

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

Easily Graph your Data

Have you ever wanted to show basic graphs in v2 of AutoHotkey?   Now, with our simple Barcharts library, you can easily display bar charts on your data.   What’s really cool is our code does not require any external libraries!

We use Progress Bars and some AHK magic.  Be sure to check it out in this video!

How to create simple Bar Charts in AHKv2
How to create simple Bar Charts in AHKv2

I wanted to keep it simple so you we created the libraries both as Functions and Classes.
If you’re new to Classes, you might consider our Objects / Classes course.
Remember we offer a 30-day 200% money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose!

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


Finding and Clicking Images

As I’ve mentioned before, we know of 19 ways to automate programs with AutoHotkey.
The one that a lot of people start with (Image search) is typically the last one we go with because it is, by far, the least robust and tends to break/fail.

Having said that, sometimes there is a need to use image search.   We decided to create this video of using FindText v2

How to use easily find and click images with FindText v2

How to use easily find and click images with FindText v2


Talking to your PC

Reacently Scott, a hero member, mentioned that Windows 11 has some interesting new Voice features.
It seems Microsoft bought Nuance (which own Dragon naturally speaking) and has decided to provide some of the functionality in Windows 11.

Unfortunately, their interface is horrible   so we’ve created our own (which is still a work-in-progress).

If you’d like to see what we’ve done you can check this video out.  If you’d like to grab a copy of the current version of our tool you can get it here.
As I mentioned, we’re still adding to it /working on it.  We have some great ideas and high-hopes for this!

How to Easily Control your PC with Voice Access
How to Easily Control your PC with Voice Access


Improving People’s Lives: Story #4

A Hero member, that is also a Radiologist, reached out to me saying he’s upgrading to Windows 11 soon and wanted to know the likelihood of his AHK scripts breaking.

I told him that, most of the time, the version of Windows doesn’t affect our scripts.
He was extremely relived because he was “addicted” to what we’d built for him.   What can we build for you❓


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

Automate PDF Invoices Data Transfer to Google Sheets with ChatGPT & Zapier | Tutorial


⚡️Productivity tips: Refine your workspace

Take some time to make sure your workspace layout is both comfortable and efficient.
It’s amazingly easy to just use what we have and not put thought into being more productive.


A spot of Humor

One of my favorite scenes from movies of all time!   Steve Martin is priceless in this extract from Parenthood.
%Name% are you a roller coaster fan or do you like the merry-go-round?

Parenthood – Grandma’s rollercoaster story
Parenthood - Grandma's rollercoaster story


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #49

Here’s a recap of what we worked on this week with AutoHotkey.  Remember, we do project work and can save you an amazing amount of time.
I can guarantee our scripts will be robust and efficient as our AutoHotkey Experts are the best in the world(Yes, we’re THAT GOOD❗)

What we automated with AutoHotkey – #49
What we automated with AutoHotkey - #49


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 273 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

  • Hero Member Questions and Code Review
  • Creating a hotkey to “suspend” any program and changing a program’s “priority”
  • Adding basic functions to AutoHotkeyGUIs
  • Having hidden icons in scripts- ability to “toggle” their visibility
  • Voice Access / Voice Shortcuts

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
  • When experiencing problems with tools, typically you should blame the operator, not the tool — Joe Glines
  • The question isn’t who is going to let me it’s who is going to stop me — Ayn Rand
  • Focusing is more about saying no to everything than yes to something — 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. As I alluded to in the intro, life is short!   Spend your time doing something you love, or with someone you love.  If you don’t have enough time, consider having us automate some of your job!

Double P.S. Today is the last day of our World Productivity sale.  On Sunday I sent a personalized offer with steep discounts!  If you’re interested in Discovering the power of AutoHotkey, you can save a bundle but the sale ends today so find that email and act now!

 

AutoHotkey News March 28,2022- AutoHotkey v1 is officially dead!

Howdy %Name%,

It’s hard to believe but, according to this post by Lexikos, AHK v1 is DEAD!  He has no intention of updating it (even for bug fixes).   Back in December of 2022 he mentioned it was to be considered “deprecated” however he was still updating it and backporting some functionality from v2. However now it seems very clear that Lexikos is “done” with v1 and has put all his focus on improving v2.  Speaking of which he’s been very active on the alpha version of v2.1 which will be bringing some cool new functionality.  You can read about V2.1-alpha.9 here.

So, if you’re still working with v1, we highly recommend you switch to v2.  We’ve got a great course making the transition to v2 painless. 

If you’re new to AutoHotkey, we recommend you start of with v2.  Our Intro to AutoHotkey course.

We discuss the updates to v2 and death of v1 in this video.

Update to v2 and Death of AutoHotkey v1

Update to v2 and Death of AutoHotkey v1

Now on with the show…

Become a Power user Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

Intro to v2 Tutorial

If you’re wanting a quick review of AHK v2 you can get a simple introduction in this video.  Keep in mind this is a very short introduction and is meant for people that haven’t used AutoHotkey before.  Remember our AHK courses are made up of videos that are typically 3-5 minutes long and come with an amazing guarantee.

Intro to AutoHotkey Version 2 | Learn to automate programs with AHK v2
Intro to AutoHotkey Version 2 | Learn to automate programs with AHK v2


🆕 Amazing Clipboard History Tool 📋

If you’re using windows 10 or 11 then you’re probably in the same love/hate relationship with the Built-in Clipboard history tool accessed by hitting Windows + V.  While this is better than nothing, we are always disappointed when using it as there is no way to filter your results and it was also annoying that you had to look through the GUI.  In our ClipHistory tool you can have it suggest items from your clipboard as you type.  You can see a demonstration of this amazing tool here.

Check out this New Clipboard History tool
Check out this New Clipboard History tool


Easily Creating Resizable GUIs

Our notify class is quite cool but sometimes you want to dump a lot of text into a resizable GUI.  While our course: GUIs are easier in v2 shows that GUIs are very easy to create, it is still nice having a simple function you can call that can change the core things like: Font type, Font size, Color, background color, etc. by just calling a simple function.  Our Resizable GUI can save you a ton of time making it easy to create edit fields.  You can check it out in this video.

How to Easily Create Resiable GUIs in AutoHotkey v2
How to Easily Create Resiable GUIs in AutoHotkey v2


Working with the Case Statements and a GUI

Speaking of GUIs, a few weeks back Isaias gave us some good insights as to how to leverage using the Case statement with Checkboxes in a GUI.  Case statements are great ways to “clean up” your code and make it much easier to read.  You can check out the video here.

Working with Case statement & Checkboxes in a v2 AutoHotkey GUI
Working with Case statement & Checkboxes in a v2 AutoHotkey GUI


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Agenda’s rock!

Having a clear agenda is a great way to make sure your meetings are productive.  If you’re leading, have one.  If you’re attending, ask for one.


🤣 A spot of Humor Funniest Clinic Duties

I used to love watching Dr. House (just for the comedic parts) but now that we’re working with more Radiologists I’m having a new appreciation for the show.  Here are some funny parts

Funniest Clinic Duties | House M.D.
Funniest Clinic Duties | House M.D.


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #38

This week I didn’t get a chance to record this video on Sunday (I was working on my rental) so I had to do a “quick” version during lunch on Monday.  So sorry for the rushed version but you can check out what we automated last week in this video.

What we automated with AutoHotkey #38
What we automated with AutoHotkey #38


Testimonial:

Rob W. is a radiologist we’re helping and, in response to a script we wrote him said

“I feel like a kid on Christmas morning❗”

I’m telling you, you’re missing out if you don’t have us automate your work for you!

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 230 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

  • Hero Member’s questions & code
  • Customizing scripts depending how being used (A_Iscompiled display reload, etc.)
  • removing Caption window and being able to move a GUI
  • A_CaretX and A_CaretY are no longer variables in V2 – keeping track of where caret was created
  • Turning on/off Redraw on GUI/ “fixing” MRU option on ClipHistory

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

  • Find & hire people that are over-performing in crappy jobs — Dan Kennedy
  • 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
  • Put systems in place that will allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things — Joe Glines
  • Today is always the most productive day of your week — Mark Hunter

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. If you’re still using v1, I highly encourage you to take a look at v2.  While the v1 executable will be around for a long time, it doesn’t sound like it will continue to get updates.  Our v1 to v2 course is a great way to dive into v2 and has zero risk because of our double your money back guarantee.

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

March, 21st 2024 AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

I was 12 years old when Empire Strikes back came out in 1980.  I still remember when Luke was on Dagobah beginning his training with Yoda.  At one point Yoda says “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” This line is a fundamental part of Yoda’s teaching, emphasizing the importance of commitment and belief in oneself and the Force.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry Ford 🚗

” Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t; you’re usually right”

Many people don’t try AutoHotkey because they don’t even realize there is a tool that can automate or tweak their programs.  I’m not sure how to help them other than continue making YouTube videos spreading the word.

However, there are a lot of people that hear about AHK but don’t try to learn it because they think they can’t learn to “program”.  This is where Yoda’s advice is so relevant.  I believe anyone that believes in themselves can learn the basics of AutoHotkey.

Especially if they have a place to get pointed in the right direction when they “hit a wall”.  Being able to get help by AHK experts that remember what it is like to be first starting out is one of the core reasons I created the AHK hero group.
Alternatively, you could schedule a Tutorial Session with is where we review your code and/or help you learn a topic.  Like our courses, our Tutorial session is guaranteed!  If we can’t significantly level-you-up, you pay Zero, Nada, Zilch!
We take all the risk!

Now on with the show…

Become a Power user Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

Automating Excel with AutoHotkey: Overview

Last month Rizwan had some questions for us on working with Excel with AutoHotkey.  Things like what is a COM object, How do they relate to DLL calls, etc.   We discuss this and more in this video.

Learning about the Excel COM object, classes, functions, etc.
Learning about the Excel COM object, classes, functions, etc.


🙊🎙️Hotkeys to Mute your Mic and speaker🔇🙉

Ever want to have a hotkey to mute your microphone, speakers or both?  In this video we unveil our new tool which makes it easy to assign a hotkey to each and all of the above actions.

Scipt to Easily Mute your Microphone and Speakers with a Hotkey
Scipt to Easily Mute your Microphone and Speakers with a Hotkey


Easily Comparing overlap of Two lists

Do you ever have lists of items where you want to compare how much overlap there is between them?  Years ago I did and wrote a basic script.   In the new version I asked Rizwan to convert it to v2 but we added some additional functionality like:

  • Make the comparison case sensitive
  • Trim whitespace on the ends
  • Show the 3 lists using our v2 amazing Notify class

How to Easily Compare lists of Items
How to Easily Compare lists of Items


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Resetting Chrome Zoom

Control+0 will reset your zoom in Chrome to 💯%.   Might nice way to get things back to normal.


🤣 A spot of Humor: Territorial Army

If you’ve never seen the BBC version of the office, I highly recommend it.  Here’s a great clip from it with Tim and Gareth (US version of Jim & Dwight).

The BBC Office: Territorial Army
The Office (ORIGINAL) Territorial Army


What we 🅰utomated this week with AutoHotkey #37

This week we did an awful lot of client work so I had less to discuss in the video showing what we automated with AutoHotkey.   Still there were some cool tools that I shared that we’ll have out in a few weeks.  You can see what I covered in this video.

What we automated with AutoHotkey #37
What we automated with AutoHotkey #37


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 227 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

  • Member’s questions / Scripts
  • Customizing scripts depending how being used
  • Working with ini files
  • Using a Resizable GUI

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

  • Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it ― Theodore Roosevelt
  • People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything — Thomas Sowell
  • The thing about smart people is that they sound crazy to dumb people — Steve Jobs
  • The “best” is always the enemy of the good — Sigmund Freud

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. Every night I go to bed listening to the Dan Bongino podcast.  Usually, I only last a few minutes and fall asleep but last week I woke back up at the end of his show and was really caught-up in his story on how Pain and Suffering is a blessing.

It was so captivating I went and extracted it in this clip.  Having gone through a horrendous childhood I 💯% believe this to be true.  I’ve always been much stronger of a person than my friends and am convinced it is primarily due to the struggles I had as a child.

Unlike Dan I’m not able to wish you Pain & Suffering however I do believe what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  So remember, if it is you or someone close, eventually things do get better❗

Dan Bongeno on Pain and Suffering
Dan Bongeno on Pain and Suffering