AutoHotkey Newsletter for February 23rd, 2023 Howdy %Name%, During World War 1 Henry Ford sued a Chicago newspaper for libeling him when they called him “an ignorant pacifist” At the trial, the defense lawyers grilled…
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
You know how real estate prices recently went nuts?
I know, I know, there’s a ton of money in real estate. Long ago I realized there was something that returned a MUCH better return-on-investment, and the risk was pretty much zilch
It’s my brain 🧠❗
In my head, I can solve all sorts of problems and people pay me huge bucks to do so.
I am in the investment game. It’s just that I don’t deal in real estate, or stocks or bonds, or anything else “physical”.
I deal in brain power⚡. Giving advice and writing code that changes lives and alters the future.
Invest in yourself and learn.
Now on with the show…
The magic of AutoHotkey
Forcing any program to always be on top
If you’re using a laptop, my Window Snipping tool is super helpful to keep parts of your window and then easily removing it later. But sometimes it helps to change a program to be always on top. In AutoHotkey it is amazingly simple and I show you how to do it here.
How to easily set any program to stay on top of all others❗
Adding a thousands separator to your numbers
Often we have values that we’d like to display in AutoHotkey. In this video I show a simple RegEx provided to me years ago by Maestrith (author of AHK Studio). The nice thing about this function is you can decide on the separator (in the U.S. we use a comma however other parts of the world they use a period). If you’re new to Regular Expressions, I highly recommend you take a look at some of these tutorials. For testing Regular Expressions I like to use RegEx101 and have this AHK Quick reference page open. You also might want to work through Jack Dunning’s excellent AutoHotkey book on RegEx (I did❗).
How to easily add thousands separator to a number in AutoHotkey
Functional vs. Procedural programming
Do you know the difference between Functional vs. Procedural programming❓ Neither did I however Isaias walked me through some of the main differences in this video.
Functional / Procedural VS. Object Oriented Programming languages
Outlook emails
For our clients we’ve been doing a lot of Outlook automation. Since Outlook has a COM object it is really easy to automate with AutoHotkey. In this video I demonstrate how to easily get a few items. If you’d like to learn more, you might check out our Webinar where we showed several examples of automating Outlook.
Outlook Email Object- Getting Name, email, Send date, etc.
WMI: Windows Management Instrumentation
There is no easy way to describe the amount of ways you can easily poke & prod windows using WMI. In this video I demonstrate many of the functions you can use to pull information out of your Windows environment.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and AutoHotkey
⚡️Productivity tips : Make important behaviors measurable
To make progress toward any goal, it helps to track our progress. Monitoring your progress is a great way to make sure it gets done (and gives us great ways to evaluate how efficient we are being
🤣 A spot of Humor
Thankfully we have AutoHotkey❗
Quick Access Popup news
Want to easily access your mobile devices? Quick Access Popup has some great built-in tools for doing this! In this video Jean Lalonde, the author of Quick Access Popup, shows how to access and use them.
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.
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own — Bruce Lee
If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know to do it and stand back!
I never lose. I either win, or learn. — Nelson Mandela
P.S. Did you see that we added a Saturday session to the AHK Hero calls? So for those of you that are too busy at work during the week, we now have a weekend call to join!
AutoHotkey Newsletter: October 20th, 2022
Howdy %Name%,
Do you have a checklist for your important processes?
Humans are amazing at some things and not so great at others.
We can often be very creative, using our imagination to solve very complicated problems far greater than any computer that has been created! We’re even very good at identifying patterns and coming up with a routine or process. What we’re not good at is always using that process.
We often get sidetracked, distracted, or are just not thinking critically and forget.
How many times have you gone to the store to buy something specific only to get home and realize you didn’t buy the one thing you went there for? That’s where having a list is incredibly helpful!
We’re adding a Saturday session!😲 So now we’ll be having 3 hours of availability per week.
Find amazing friends & learn AutoHotkey in the AHK Hero Community
Our office hours sessions are getting to be quite fun and educational. Its really great to be able to connect with others that share a passion for automating the mundane!
If you haven’t joined yet, I highly encourage you to take the leap! If you’d like to read some testimonials, or learn more, you can do so here.
As a final note I’d like to mention we’re going to “cap” entries pretty soon. We don’t have the bandwidth for more sessions and I want to make sure members have time to ask their questions so, if you’re considering joining, now is the time! For the end of the week the ½ off coupon is still valid. Use “50PercOffLiveSubs” on checkout (good for 3 more days).
Using Fiddler to help with an API
During last week’s call an 🅰HK Hero was having problems working with an API. I asked if he had used Fiddler to analyze his traffic. He hadn’t however I stressed he watch some of my Fiddler videos to better understand what is being sent (and what he thought was being sent). Interestingly enough, later that day, Isaias was having issues with an API and we used Fiddler to identify the problems we were having. APIs are amazing but they can be complex. Our webinar on APIs is a great place to start!
AutoHotkey Webinar 06/2017 Hour 1-Web services / API calls with AutoHotkey
Using LIB folders
In a consultation call with a new AHK Hero member (welcome Erik O.) we were helping them better structure their testing framework for AutoHotkey. (Sort of similar to what Chunjee mentioned in this video but much, much more complex). Anyway, it reminded me of just how helpful LIBs are and properly using the #include directive can be. Isaias showed us all the testing environment that Lexikos uses with AutoHotkey.
If you’d like to learn more about #include read this post,
Properly using AutoHotkey ❰LIB❱ (and where AHK searches)
Setting a Window to Always on Top
Did you know that, with AutoHotkey, it is super-easy to set a window to always be on top? In this video I show just how easy it is to assign a hotkey to the process.
How to easily set any program to stay on top of all others❗
Simple GUI for snippets
Y’all know I’m a huge fan of Quick Access Popup. But sometimes you want something very simple and fast. In this video I show how easy it is to create a GUI to show you the snippets of text to any edit field.
Easily select from a list and send a snippet of text with AutoHotkey
Isaias rocks debugging in VS Code but many of y’all are probably more comfortable in SciTE4AutoHotkey. I have two videos where I show how to debug AutoHotkey code using SciTE. The first video I show some of the basics. In the second video I goa bit deeper.
BTW I still use it but do my AutoHotkey programming in AHK Studio.
Debug AutoHotKey with SciTE | Level up your AHK programming today!
Giving an option to Add to Startup Process
I’m on a call right now with a client and Isaias where they are building-in an option into the tool to ask the user if they would like the script to be added to the startup menu. We were discussing a couple of options (One being updating the registry directly the other creating a shortcut in the Startup folder.)
This reminded me that, in Windows XP & Win 7, it was super easy to add a script / program to your Windows startup process. But Windows 8 and Win 10 made it more difficult so we created a simple tool to make it easier. You can review the tool here and, if you’re interested, grab it here.
Add to startup: Easily add / remove programs from Windows Startup
⚡️Productivity tips: Institute the “Five-Minute Rule”
If you can do a task in five minutes or less do it right away!
If you spend a couple minutes understanding a task, but don’t take action, you’ll have to waste time refamiliarizing yourself with the task at a later date. Multiply that by dozens of times throughout a week, and you’ll see chunks of time gained back. It’s better to just “getter done”❗
😢 A spot of Humor Sadness
Make sure you watch this and listen very carefully. There are some important, albeit tearful, “life lessons” you can learn here:
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Fact: You have just as much time as: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Thomas Jefferson & Einstein. It’s all about prioritizing & staying focused (and using 🅰utoHotkey❗)
Never be handicapped by your education — Dan Kennedy
Never let success get to your head🧠, never let failure get to your heart💗
P.S. I seriously think you should sign up for being an AHK Hero. It’s far better value and experience than you think!
Besides what is the risk? Surely a few dollars is worth changing the direction of your life! Sign up now and, if you’re not 💯% satisfied, you can quit at ANY time
AutoHotkey Newsletter: October 13th, 2022
Howdy %Name%,
I talk a lot about self-improvement as I’m a huge believer in investing in yourself over investing in “things”. With AutoHotkey we’re able to work smarter, not harder! In Steven Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“, habit number 7 is “Sharpen the Saw” (here is a short video illustrating the point.
Earlier last week I read this quote the other day from Jim Rohn
“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”
My question to you is What are you doing to work on yourself at the moment?
Why not join us in the AHK Hero group? Its amazing how much we are learning from each other! While you get great discounts to courses the real value is the time, both in the private Telegram group and on our Office hours calls, where we ask questions and get answers! Often just seeing how others are using AutoHotkey is inspirational🧠!
Stop being part of the “hustle culture” and start working smarter!
If you use this discount code “50PercOffLiveSubs” , you can become a hero at 1/2 price! however this coupon code is only good for the next 3 people so act now❗
Isaias wrote the AHK Toolkit over 10 years ago! He’s made small improvements over the years but one great functionality that he’s (manually) added was making it easy to run V2 scripts. Unfortunately he hasn’t updated the GUI yet so, in this video, he walks through how to make the updates yourself.
Configuring AHK Toolkit for V2
Sending lots of Text
It’s amazingly simple with AutoHotkey to send text to an edit window! But your mileage may very when you’re sending a lot of text! In our HotStrings course I walk through a couple of ways to send large amounts of text. I decided to put the video up on YouTube so everyone can access it.
How to send a lot of text with AutoHotkey
Easily Navigate to Frequently used folders
While we’re on the topic of HotStrings, a while back I showed how handy it can be to have HotStrings set up for frequently used folders. I use these many times a day and highly recommend you have some for your frequently accessed folders.
Easily navigate to Folders with HotStrings
Refactoring Code
Isaias and I share a lot of code on the-Automator and in our videos however we often don’t show the process the code went through, we just share the finished code. This makes a lot of sense however it leads people to believe that, what we share, is what we originally came up with. I saw a pattern in some code I wrote the other day that changes the size of font in text that is selected in either Excel or Word and decided to record a video showing the refactoring process.
Example Condensing Code and Refactoring code
Comparing lists
A short time ago I shared this video where Chunjee demonstrated various uses of his bigA class. I didn’t mention it then however it reminded me of this little GUI tool I wrote that simplifies comparing lists. In this video I show how to use it and how helpful it is! BTW- it was one of the first GUIs I built! If you’re new to GUIs, check out our GUIs are Easy course.
Easily Compare lists / comparing sets Sets with AutoHotkey
Functions are your lowest-hanging fruit! 🍒
If you’re new to AutoHotkey Functions are, by far, the easiest and fastest way to “level up” your programming skills! They are essential and you need to learn them today! I cover some of the basics in this video but I dive deeper in our Intro to AutoHotkey Course.
How to use functions in AutoHotkey| Level-up today!
Work faster by adding YOUR buttons to the Excel Quick Access Toolbar
⚡️Productivity tips: Schedule every phone call
To some, a productive day means one spent making phone calls. And that’s OK, but it needs to be predetermined. Schedule your calls, even if it means locking in a schedule in 30-minute increments. It’s worth it!
🤣 A spot of Humor
All jokes aside, true leaders lift up those beneath them.
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.
If you use this discount code “50PercOffLiveSubs” , you can become a hero at 1/2 price! however this coupon code is only good for the next 3 people so act now❗
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done— Jocko Willink
You’re like a dull knife that just ain’t cutting. You’re talking loud and saying nothing — James Brown
Life is better when you start forgiving the people who neverapologized. — Zig Ziglar
There once was this guy who was struggling. He was working 80+ hours a week to get ahead however moving up the ladder was a slow and painful process.
He then attended some training that showed how he could use “macros” to automate his work. Unlike others in the class, he marveled at the overall concept and forced himself to learn how to use them.
It took a considerable amount of time and energy however, with perseverance, he kept at it and was able to automate much of his work.
For instance, when he started a new job, his predecessor told him a huge part of it was reporting on one project. She worked from Mon-Friday morning and then had ½ a day on Friday to do other work.
From using macros & automation he was able to create much more advanced reporting that his predecessor and get it done in 10 minutes on Monday freeing up the rest of his week❗
I know this story is true because this is MY story. Nearly 20 years ago I realized that:
“Knowledge is Power; Automation knowledge is a Super Power ⚡”
Back then I was just automating one program (SPSS). Now I use AutoHotkey to automate nearly everything❗
And the best part is YOU CAN TOO!
Just keep applying and pushing yourself. We have plenty of free content and AutoHotkey coursesthat can help nudge you along however, in my opinion, the best way is to join the AHK Hero club and start learning with, and from, your peers. If you use this discount code “50PercOffLiveSubs” , you can become a hero at 1/2 price! however this coupon code is only good for the next 3 people so act now❗
Now on with the show…
bigA is an amazing class for working with Objects, Arrays and Text
An AutoHotkey hero member told me about bigA by Chunjee. I took a quick look at its methods and was impressed. Having done some work in Python and JavaScript I was always jealous of being able to easily slice text and perform many functions (like merging arrays, detecting the difference between arrays, etc.).
Great Class for working with Arrays, Objects and Text with Chunjee
Remember, if you’re new to working with Classes / Objects, our course is a great way to learn them!
Basics of Troubleshooting your AutoHotkey Script
I recognize my audience is varied! Some of y’all are far better programmers than I while others are just starting out. This video is the second group! When you’re new to AutoHotkey, it can be very hard to understand what is working and what isn’t! I extracted this video from the Intro to AutoHotkey course. It gives some solid tips on what to look for, where to look and things to try.
Are you creating a GUI with a dropdown? Did you know that a ComboBox is a great way to jazz it up? In this video we show how easy it is to convert a DropDown list to a ComboBox. Such a great way to allow people to add something to the list if it isn’t already there!
Massive improvement to dropdown list & using the Format command
Semantic Versioning
Did you know that there is often a meaning behind the structure of versioning? For instance, I’m currently running AutoHotkey V1.1.34.03. In this video Isaias explains the meanings and how it can be very helpful to understand (even outside AutoHotkey)
Semantic Versioning: Those numbers have important meaning!
Window Snipping tool with OCR
In our privateAHK Hero Telegram channel Mathew F. mentioned a tool he used for OCR (and other things). I asked him if he used our WindowSnipping tool with OCR. To my surprise he wasn’t aware of it so I thought I’d mention it here. If you haven’t updated it recently you might want to grab it now. Isaias patched a small bug in the script and made some other tweaks. It’s by far our most popular download. Don’t miss out!
What amazes me is that having a tool like this changes how you work in many programs! Give it a try, I guarantee you’ll love it!
For a couple of Clients we’re automating Outlook. Outlook has a COM object which allows for some amazing functionality! In this video I cover some of the basics for automating Outlook. If you’d like to learn more about automating Outlook you might also want to check out our webinar on Outlook & AutoHotkey. You can also look at our page on Outlook and AutoHotkey.
Outlook Email Object- Getting Name, email, Send date, etc.
Planning is one of the simplest, yet productive, ways to get more done. Putting a little thought into what you’re working on, the order of things, pros/cons of them often lets you realize there are benefits you may not have realized.
🤣 A spot of Humor
This meme is painful because I know how he feels. %Name%, are you the “free tech support” for friends & family? I’ll bet you are!
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 “office hours” sessions which isn’t on YouTube.
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
Put systems in place that will allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things
You’ll never change your life until you change your daily routine
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. — Napoleon Hill
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.
![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 265")
