Howdy %Name%,

A couple of months ago I hired my son to help me edit videos and work on the-Automator business.

I was impressed how fast he was learning to edit videos and upload our AHK Hero Call summaries to WordPress.

But, like many people, he hadn’t learned to prioritize keeping the boss happy over “his wants”.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t asking him to be like me.

During my junior and Senior years of High school, I worked ~ 60 hours a week.   And, when I finished working my way through college, I frequently worked 80+ hours a week for Corporate America.

But the crazy hours I put in for Corporate America were mainly of my choosing and was mostly where I was investing in myself (learning to work smarter, not harder).

I fired my son because I felt he was “soft” and needed a “reality check”.    (excuse the pun)

He can continue to live here while in College and I’ll keep him fed but he’ll have to fend for himself for money.

If he shows signs of realizing his poor judgment choosing to play online games with friends and leaving me waiting for him to work then I’ll reconsider.

The best part about being a Strategic / “Long-Term” thinker is that I don’t even feel bad because I know I’m “helping him“.

What do you think %name%, am I a “meanie“❓

Now on with the show…

How AI can save you Thousands of Dollars and Reduce your Stress

I think most of us have used AI for some basic things but I came across a wonderful use case where AI can save you a crazy amount of money (and greatly reduce your stress).

Fittingly I used AI to create a video explaining how to use AI to save a fortune!

How to Use AI to fight Unfair / Complex Bills

Configuring New File Templates for AHK v2

During an AHK Hero call we got an interesting question about configuring a New File Template for AutoHotkey.

In this video Isaias walked us through how easy it is to configure multiple templates!  It’s easier than you think!

Configuring your AutoHotkey v2 New File Templates

Greatly Simplify Your Code by Using Groups

Sometimes you want conditions based on multiple programs / windows etc.  In that case using the Group methods can be a lifesaver!   Check out how Isaias used them in this video.

Using Groups to Make your AutoHotkey Coding Life Easier❗

Using a Ternary to Simplify your Code

I was using Claude to create a tool.  I’d given it our Notify class and told it I wanted a different notification based on conditions.

I have to admit I was surprised (in a good way) when I looked at the code.

We walk through it in this video.

Using Ternary with Notify

Improving People’s Lives: Story #69

A few months back our client AJ had mentioned he was tired of “buying new Stream Decks” because he kept killing his.  We finally got the Hotkeys for 2^nd keyboard script working properly.

It needs more work before we share it with the general public but we got our client configured during a consultation.

Now he can map keys on a 2^nd keyboard to actions!

What we’re reading

• Your Hard Drive is slowly dying – How to Make sure Your Data Is Safe
• How to fix the most Annoying Things About Windows 11
• How to block Internet access for Specific Android Apps

AI News that you Need to Know

• How I used Copilot to share my screen (and have it show me where to click)
• These free Deepfake AI tools are ridiculously good
• Google’s new vibe coding AI Studio lets anyone build & deploy apps live in minutes

AI Superpower Guide: Know which to use depending on your task

⚡️Productivity tips:  Just do 5 minutes

If you don’t want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it.

Usually, after five minutes, you’ll be up for doing much more!

A spot of Humor:

The best heckle I ever heard at the tennis!

What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #109

This week we knocked out a bunch of client projects and I have to say, some of these solutions were pretty slick!

In this week’s video I walk you through things like our new long-press hotkey feature (which is way cooler than it sounds), bug fixes to our script maker tool, and how we’re helping clients automate their workflows in ways that would’ve taken forever to do manually. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of real-world problems AutoHotkey can solve, this one’s definitely worth a watch.

What we automated with AutoHotkey #109

Clients say…

The content is great in general and often questions can actually help and improve interest in AutoHotKey. —  Rodrigo Costa

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

You can watch 1 hour a day for a year and not repeat content! That’s a lot of AHK Learning!

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
• API call to Google Sheets
• Using an Edit Field to Filter a list
• Using a Ternary to easily apply changes based on logic (instead of using if)
• Update on Hotkeys for 2^nd Keyboard
• Using SendTo for passing multiple files to a script
• Script highlight: Windows 11 Context Menu Switcher

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

• Burn the bridges back to mediocrity — Napoleon Hill
• Learn a HotKey a day to keep inefficiency away! — Joe Glines
• Whatever happens randomly can be made to happen on purpose — Dan Kennedy
• Failure is not the opposite of success; It’s a part of it!

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The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan and staff

P.S. One of my favorite quotes is :

Hard times create Strong men.

Strong men create Good times.

Good times create Weak men.

Weak men create Hard times.

Many will not understand, but you have to raise warriors, not parasites.— G. Michael Hopf