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Tag: August

August 2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/26/2021

Hi %Name%,

Are you feeling stuck in your job? ⛏️

The property we moved to ~1 year ago had a small pond which, apparently, dried out every year. I really wanted a “year-round” pond plus having the option to literally fish 🎣 in my back yard is extremely appealing! Over last weekend I worked on draining the pond so we can excavate & expand it. We’ll also be cutting down many of the trees around it (apparently, they can use up to 150 gallons a day!) and adding an aeration system.

Thankfully I have amazing friends with amazing gadgets 🛠️! My friend (and contractor) Garrett Short loaned me his pump which took me 3 days to fully drain our pond. It was hard work, but I’m really looking forward to the rewards!

So back to my original question. Are you stuck in your job? Want a promotion but can’t get your boss to see your value? Developing tools with AutoHotkey is a great way to increase your value and then easily prove your “worth more”. Why not invest in yourself so you don’t get stuck?

What I’ve automated with 🅰️utoHotkey

It’s been a while since I’ve documented what I automate with AutoHotkey. Here’s the most popular video I have on it. Do you think I should kick back off this series?

the-Automators’ Podcast

AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2

We had an awesome webinar on AutoHotkey Version 2 lead by Dimitri Geerts. Will you be switching %name%? After considerable thought, I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon but still encourage people to review it and see if it is right for them. You can get the resources shared during the webinar as well as watch the videos here. Don’t forget to grab Dimitri’s V1️ to V2️ converter to save yourself some time and pain!

Quick Access Popup

Jean Lalonde and I covered important settings you should know when you start using Quick Access Popup. I’ve been using Quick Access Popup more and more. It’s an amazing time-saving tool!

What we’re reading

Nearing my 5,000 on YouTube & Udemy! 😁

On YouTube I currently have 4,941 subscribers and on Udemy I have 4,754 students. Crazy how close the two numbers are! If you’re interested in buying a Udemy course, please make sure you go here so you get a discount (and I get a higher percentage of what you pay. If you use my link, I get 97% otherwise I get between 25-50%)

Quotable quotes

  • The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity. — Timothy Ferriss
  • My whole philosophy is working smarter and not harder. And making sure I’m using little effort and getting a huge effect. — Anthony Pettis
  • The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. — Ayn Rand
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff

P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple AutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!

  • 15 Shane G.
  • 5 Blake B.
  • 5 Björn S.
  • 4 Shawn C.
  • 4 Jasmine G.
  • 4 Daniel R.
  • 3 Steve F.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Ryan C.
  • 3 Kim J.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 N.
  • 2 Mike P.
  • 2 Michael P.
  • 2 Leon G.
  • 2 David C.
  • 2 Clemens T.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/19/2021


Greetings %Name%,

While Isaias is taking a break, I’ve shifted my attention to helping a local Mexican Restaurant. Its been an interesting experience to say the least! Since they barely speak English, I’m just taking action instead of asking for permission. 😲

The first thing I did was build them a simple website (amazingly none of the 4 restaurants here in town had one). I’ve also automated publishing pictures to social pages (with QAP) and have been working on building an App for them with AppSheet (I’m hoping to record a couple videos on AppSheet in the future but you can watch this short video giving you an idea of its capabilities)

AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2

We had an amazing great AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2 earlier this week!  We covered the major changes as well as the reasons, or lack there of, you might want to make the change. Go here to get the links to recordings and resources. Special thanks to Dimitri Geerts for leading the webinar and creating the deck! Don’t forget to try the converter tool he’s been working on which will try an adapt your v1 code to v2!

Don’t forget to sign up for future webinars here or check out some of our 60+ webinars here

Developer’s corner 📢

Webservice API calls, Webhooks, and Fiddler

In this API tutorial I walk through a site I found where you can connect to a server and see the network traffic the server receives when you use a browser, or AutoHotkey, to connect to it. You can, and should, learn more about APIs

Streamlining writing this Newsletter

In this review I show some of my process for writing this newsletter. QAP is a huge help!

A bit of humor

I spent ~23 years working at Fortune 500 companies and don’t miss it 1 bit!

cJson parser

GeekDude’s cJSON parser now works with 32-bit mode! I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet but I look forward to being able to get the speed benefit in 32-bit! According to GeekDude, if you’re doing benchmarking, note that the first time you call a cJson function it will be a little slower as it loads all the machine code into RAM.  Following calls will be executed from RAM so you’ll see the performance on subsequent calls (not the 1st one)

Podcast that week

  • #106: 5 reasons being pigheaded is a good thing
  • #107: 7 tips to increase your scripts working on multiple computers
  • #108: Selling scripts: Subscription based verse 1-time fee

What we’re reading

Short Productivity tip

Working with no distractions! It’s a glorious thing!

Quotable quotes

  • Winners are NOT those who never fail but those who never quit. —  Unknown
  • The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. — Ayn Rand
  • It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. — Thomas Sowell
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple AutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!

  • 5 Blake B.
  • 5 Björn S.
  • 5 Shane G.
  • 4 Shawn C.
  • 4 Jasmine G.
  • 3 Steve F.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Ryan C.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 Mike P.
  • 2 Michael P.
  • 2 Leon G.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 8/12/2021


Can you believe it is August %Name%? 😲  I see it on the calendar but am having a hard time accepting it!

We finally got our back porch poured!  The office is coming along nicely as well.  A couple more weeks and we’ll be done and ready to migrate into my office!

Developer’s corner

Google Translate API

I’m helping a local Mexican Restaurant with various tasks.  They’re so “authentic” they don’t really speak English so I’ve been using Google translate a lot.   So much so, that I wrote this little script to leverage the Google Translate API and help with my texting to/from them.


Dynamically updating the DOM

Ever use an ActiveX control to display content?   Wouldn’t it be great to dynamically update the DOM?  Watch this video where Tank shows us how it’s done!  Please keep in mind this is an excerpt from a 6 hour call and Tank was solving all of this on the fly.


Update your LinkedIn profile

As RPA (Robotics Process Automation) becomes more well known & accepted, it is very beneficial to mention AutoHotkey in your LinkedIn profile!  In this video I show how you can upload your Udemy certificate of Completion as one sign that you’re skilled in AutoHotkey.


BTW- connect with me on LinkedIn.  I have over 16,000 1st level connections (1,400 having AutoHotkey in their profiles).  Also, on a different YouTube channel, I have 6 videos how to “rock your LinkedIn profile”. You can check them out in this LinkedIn playlist


What we’re reading

Podcast that week

AutoHotkey Webinar next Tuesday, August 17th on V2️

Remember to register for our AutoHotkey webinar next Tuesday we’ll have a guest speaker (Dimitri Geerts) discussing some of the major differences in syntax of AHK Version 2.  If you care to read up on the official listing of changes, you can see them here.   This is timely because v2.0 beta 1 was released in July 2021 and future releases are expected to be backward-compatible!  If you want to learn more, check out the v2 forum posts

Quick Access Popup news

I’m helping several local restaurants with their customer databases, social media posting, and reviews.  I’m convinced now more than ever that QAP is a Godsend! 🦸‍♂️ Later I’ll make some videos documenting how I’m using it for their businesses, but I’m convinced it is the #1 tool that all of us should be using more!  It capitalizes on many of AutoHotkey’s best features & benefits but lets us use them with “zero coding” (okay, perhaps not zero, but close to it!).   Jean Lalonde, you’ve really created an amazing tool!

One way I do use QAP is to help me write this newsletter!   At the end of this video I show how I leverage QAP to help write the HTML that drives it.

Quotable Quotes

  • Put systems in place that will allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things — Joe Glines
  • Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. — Paul J. Meyer
  • Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest. ― Leo Babauta

A bit of Humor

I think there is way too much truth in this meme!

Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff

P.S. Special thanks to the following students for purchasing multiple AHK Udemy courses in August

  • 5 Shane G.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 Leon G.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/05/2021


Hi %Name%,

Easily create Phone Apps:

I’ve been helping a local restaurant with their marketing and was looking for an easy way to create iPhone / Android app for them. Jackie Sztuk mentioned AppSheet.
This ~7 minute video entitled: How to create an App (database) that works with Excel will give you a quick idea
how easy it is to create an app that will run on Androids / iPhones or a browser on a computer.
Amazingly there’s NO CODING involved!
The one thing I don’t like about AppSheet is the pricing however there are some options that might work.

The contractor is back at work on our house! Soon it will be hard to tell the carport was ever there! 👍

A spot of Humor

I’m hoping this isn’t normally me, but I do know some people it applies to…

Developer’s corner

On a call with Tank, RaptorX and Hellbent Tank showed us How to dynamically add an element to the DOM


How to use the Google Translate API for texting in other languages


Preventing a redirect helps us understand what is going on with this API call


What we’re reading

Podcast that week / Webinar

Great quotes

  • Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. — Warren Buffett
  • It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. – Thomas Sowell
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff