AutoHotkey Newsletter 2023/11/23🦃

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

Last weekend I was listening to a Dan Kennedy seminar and he’d mentioned he realized he was “unemployable”.  I hadn’t really thought about it but, I knew at a very young age, I was as well.

I think I first realized it when someone asked me, when I was around 17 years old, if I’d considered joining the military.   I told them I didn’t think I ever would because I’m horrible at “taking orders” (especially when they don’t make sense.)

It’s why, after 20 years, I finally left Corporate America and started the-Automator.com.  I got tired of working for, and with, people that had NO CLUE what they were doing.   Don’t get me wrong, they were nice enough people, but completely incompetent on so many levels!  And when it comes to using a computer don’t get me started!   Everyday I would see people using their computers as a “fancy typewriter”.

It’s one of the reasons, unlike our previous AHK courses, our next course won’t mention AHK and will be geared to empower people’s PC Skills & rise above incompetence on a Windows computer.

You can get an idea of what we’re planning to cover here.   It will likely be a few months before we release it however, if you sign up for notifications, you eligible to get 35% off when we do make it public.

And don’t forget, all of our courses come with a 200% money back guarantee.  So, if in the first 30 days, you’re not happy with the quality, we refund you DOUBLE what you paid for it!

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

Now on with the show…

Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

We’ve Unleashed the only Program Spy you’ll ever need!

It’s been a long time coming but, after hundreds of hours of work, we finally released the Ultimate Spy.

This tool is a huge time saver!  Not only does it give you an idea about which methods you can use to automate programs with AutoHotkey, we built-in 9 inspection tools that can be used.  Not to mention checks to let you know If the program is being run as an admin!  You can check this “must have” tool in this video.   Of course, like most of our scripts, it is 🆓

Unbelievable! 🌟 The Ultimate AHK Spy Tool of Your Wildest Dreams❗
Unbelievable! 🌟 The Ultimate AHK Spy Tool of Your Wildest Dreams❗


Creating a File Search tool with AHK

I was just about to record the above video when I realized that, every week, I was doing the same thing every week.

  • Launch my tool
  • Filter by file type
  • Filter by date modified
  • Display results in list.

This is something super-simple in AutoHotkey!  And since Isaias was working, we created this GUI script in AutoHotkey to achieve the above.  We show how to create the tool and GUI in this video.  Isaias and I both agreed, if you had worked through our Intermediate V2 and GUIs are Easier in V2 courses you’d have all the knowledge needed to have created it on your own!  BTW there are still a few days to get 40% off.  You can find the links to save 40% here.

Creating Search Tool for What we Automated with AHK
Creating Search Tool for What we Automated with AHK


What we automated with AHK this week

As I mentioned above, Isaias was with me during this week’s video on what we Automated with AutoHotkey.  We also created a simple script for displaying items in a menu and clicking it.  You can get that script here.

What We Automated with AutoHotkey this week #23
What We Automated with AutoHotkey this week #23


The-Automator Team Meeting: Working through Encoding Issue

During a team meeting I mentioned  an issue I was seeing and thought it had to do with File Encoding.  I had Isaias give us a walk through and you can see how complicated programming can be.

Reasons like this are one of the main reasons why I hired people like Isaias and Irfan. Having programers where you can get help is the main driver why people join the AHK Hero Group
and is also why people hire us to fulfill their work.

Working thorugh Encoding issues can be pretty tricky…
Working thorugh Encoding issues can be pretty tricky...


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Setting Reminders for your Special Day

Use your phone or computer’s calendar to set reminders for important Thanksgiving-related dates and tasks.

This can help you stay on top of preparations and prevent last-minute stress.


🤣 A spot of Humor:  This is still one of the funniest clips I’ve ever seen on TV 🦃

WKRP Turkey Drop
WKRP Turkey Drop


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.

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

    • When experiencing errors with tools, typically you should blame the operator, not the tool. — Joe Glines
    • If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done — Bruce Lee
    • Being born in poverty isn’t a sin; staying in poverty might be — Dan Kennedy

When YOU should be a:Socialist, Democrat, Conservative, and Libertarian
When YOU should be a:Socialist, Democrat, Conservative, and Libertarian


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, and staff


P.S. If you’re wanting to level-up your computer skills, I highly recommend you sign up to be notified when the next course is available.  We’ll never use your email for anything else, nor will we give it to anyone.  Ever!

Double P.S. You still have a few more days to save 40% on our AHK courses.  Act now and treat yourself to some self-learning!

November, 15th AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

I truly have a moving story for you today!

Around 12 years ago my son was 4 and had made a great friend, Alex, at his daycare.  We’d met his parents (Jennifer and Cody) several times and, even though they are ~10 years younger, we realized we have similar attitudes and beliefs.  Plus they lived in the same city as we did!

It was great because, if you’re not aware of it, when you have kids you spend more time with your kid’s friend’s parents than your own friends!

After a couple of years Jennifer was excited because they were buying a house.  Unfortunately it was in a neighboring town but it would still be close enough where we’d see them regularly.

At this point I was working for TI full time and, even though I hadn’t started “the-Automator” yet, I did side projects to make sure we stayed debt free.

Given the fact that I:

  • was out of shape
  • super busy
  • had more money than time

I told them:

“If you’d like us to watch Alex during the move, he’s more than welcome to stay with us for a few days.”

They said that would be great and we waited for the purchase of their home to go through.

Once they got all of that scheduled we were hanging out and Cody said: “We’re moving next weekend and would like to take you up on your offer”

”So please be at our place at 8:00 am Saturday, we’ll have a 🚚truck and be mostly boxed up”.😳

That’s when I realized they didn’t really hear my offer…  They heard what they wanted to hear.  This is a common thing that happens to all of us in everyday life!

Being a good listener and always paying close attention to what someone actually says is one of the things we do very well at the-Automator.   We also push-back at what we here the client say they want because, more often than not, they’re not aware of all the possibilities.   Sometimes it is more important to hear what isn’t being said so you can ask the right questions.

In fact, it’s of my firm belief that most disagreements happen because of miscommunications/misunderstandings. Once people really understand each perspective they resolve themselves.

It’s one reason why I ask people not to use pronouns when communicating with me.   Its very easy for our brains to swap out who/what is being referred to when we say “It”, “he/she”, “they”, etc.  Do yourself a favor and use the actual names and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to communicate clearly!

Now on with the show…

Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

Computer Vision and AutoHotkey

A couple of weeks ago I had a vision (excuse the pun) of how, at some point, our usage of AutoHotkey will change because AI will be “doing” the image search which means it will be more robust and reliable.  I was thinking this was a year or two away however, after watching several videos on creating GPTs, I see the future is much closer than I was anticipating!😀

Future of AutoHotkey with AI Computer Vision
Future of AutoHotkey with AI Computer Vision

OpenAI Playground Assistant is POWERFUL! Here’s how to BUILD one…
OpenAI Playground Assistant is POWERFUL! Here's how to BUILD one...


How to use AI to understand your pictures

Since we’re on the subject of AI and Computer vision, you might check out this video where I show a free way to submit pictures to an AI and have it tell you what it sees!

🆓 How to use AI to examine pictures for FREE❗
🆓 How to use AI to examine pictures for FREE❗


Celebrating AHK’s 20th Birthday!🎂

Don’t’ forget AutoHotkey turned 20 last week!  To celebrate we’re having a huge sale (40% off)on our AHK courses that will be ending soon!  You can learn more about AHK’s birthday, and how well AI is writing v2 code in this video.

AutoHotkey hit’s a milestone! Celebrate with us!🎂
AutoHotkey hit's a milestone! Celebrate with us!🎂


What we Automated this week with AutoHotkey

As you might know I spent ~20 years as a Data Scientist and have a masters in Market Research.  While I’ve mainly hung up my Data science “hat”, I do help a friend out when he needs it.  A good friend of mine, Mike Courtney, runs Aperio Insights and is one of the few people I’ll still do work for as they’re honest, professional and do amazing work.   We regularly use Alchemer (formerly SurveyGizmo) for fielding studies.  So this week Isaias and I spent a ton of time connecting to their API and simplifying building a “clean” data file.  In this week’s video I discuss some of that process and cover a bunch of other cool things we did!

What we automated with AutoHotkey this week #22
What we automated with AutoHotkey this week #22


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Windows key + Shift + S

Did you know you can launch the Windows snipping tool by hitting Win+Shift+S❓   Or you can use our amazing Snipping tool and define your own!


🤣 A spot of Humor:

This is Fascinating, not funny, but just try and take your eyes off of this video!  The vast majority of them are breathtaking!

1 in a Billion Moments
1 in a Billion Moments


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.

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

  • Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first 4 sharpening the axe — Abraham Lincoln
  • Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt — Mark Twain
  • What I lack in Skills & Abilities I make up for with Optimism & Determination
  • Knowledge is power; Automation knowledge is a “super-power”💪 — 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, and staff


P.S. If you’re wondering what happened on the day of my friend’s move I’m proud to say I did show up and help them.   You see, even though I was at a point I’d never move myself, I’m a firm believer in doing what I say (even when people innocently misconstrue what I said)

If you’re looking for people that do what they say you might consider joining our AHK Hero group.  We have a lot of like-minded people there getting things done faster, smarter, better❗

BTW- I did insist they have a dolly because, like AutoHotkey, a dolly is an enormous productivity booster

 

November 2nd, 2023 AutoHotkey newsletter

Howdy,

“We do a crappy job teaching Spanish❗” was the subject line of a message I sent to Isaias Baez last week.

I sent the message because of I’m finishing up John Carlton’s excellent book: “The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together”.   Since Isaias is a native Spanish speaker it would get his attention (and hopefully it got yours).

In the book John explains that he’s been learning Spanish all his life yet he can barely get by.   When he was a kid he couldn’t fathom why it would be helping to ask where the library was in Spanish.  However, if his teacher’s had bothered to

explain HOW learning Spanish would help him ask where he could buy fire crackers, or “hook-up” with a lovely Latin lady

he would have been breaking his neck to learn it!

That’s when I realized that I don’t do a good job explaining why people should learn AutoHotkey.  I assume that most people already realize that learning AutoHotkey is life-changing! 

They must realize how redundant the vast majority of work we do is and that AHK can easily automate the “fulfilment” side of things (leaving the decision making to the human).

I also assume people realize it:

  • Allows ordinary people to do extraordinary things
  • Let’s you develop an app in a fraction of the time of other languages
  • Standardizes workflows
  • Reduces errors
  • Is FREE
  • Can log what was done
  • Has 19+ architectures for connecting to programs

The only real issue I see with PC users learning AutoHotkey is it is a very versatile tool and knowing where to start can be problematic.   That’s one of the main selling points of our AHK Courses.

Our courses offer a clear path for ANYONE regardless of their programming knowledge

And that, since our courses come with a 200% money back guarantee, I’m accepting all the risk.

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

So consider learning to work smarter, not harder.  It’s going to be a requirement for all jobs in the next couple of years because AI will be replacing the least efficient employees! 
Don’t let your future disappear before your eyes!  Invest in yourself even when no one else will!

Now on with the show…

Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Make the switch to v2

Discover the right approach to Automate your program

For years I’ve had people write me and ask a general question like:  “I’m using ‘X’ program, how can I automate it with AutoHotkey.   I’d tell them we know of 19 ways to automate programs with AutoHotkey however I need to have access to the program to be able to tell which ones will work for that particular program.  

I realized there are some ways we can programmatically detect what is available❗

So now our Automation Discovery tool can help you realize some of the more-common approaches are available (and provides some links for learning about them.)  We reviewed our Discovery tool in this video.  We’ve made some great improvements to it since we recorded that video.  One of which is that we notify the user if the program they are trying to automate is being run in Admin mode!

This tool is going to be a HUGE game changer for noobs!

🚀 Discover Hidden Program Automation Approaches with this 🆓 discovery tool!
🚀 AutoHotkey Unveiled: Discover Hidden Program Automation Approaches with this 🆓 discovery tool!🔍


Automating Programs with Controls

Currently our Discovery tool checks for 7 architectures (but we’re adding more).   One of my favorite ones are Controls.   If you’re new to working with Controls, you’re in luck as I‘ve extracted one of the 11 videos (an hour and 12 minutes worth) where we discuss controls in our Intermediate AutoHotkey course.

Automating programs with Controls Extract from Intermediate AHK
Automating programs with Controls Extract from Intermediate AHK


Simple Spy for starting-out with Controls

If you’re completely new to working with Controls I highly recommend you grab our Simple Spy script. It makes working with them a breeze by limiting the amount of information being shown to you. You can see how it works in this video.

Amazingly Simple Spy tool for Inspecting Controls: SimpleSpy in AHK v2
Amazingly Simple Spy tool for Inspecting Controls: SimpleSpy in AHK v2


Amazingly Flexible way to Notify yourself / Users

We finally released an update to our Notify object.   This tool is super simple to use yet extremely robust.  It makes it very easy to pop-up notifications / alerts to users.  You can use bare-bone notifications of just text, an icon, sounds, etc. Or you can go crazy adding pictures, songs, hyperlinks, or even callbacks (which wait for you to click the notification before moving forward).  Take a look at this video because we step through a ton of examples how to use it.

Amazingly Flexible AHK script for Notifying users
Amazingly Flexible AHK script for Notifying users


AutoHotkey Challenge

Isaias created this video of his Favorite 5 AHK scripts in response to my AutoHotkey Challenge.  There were some really interesting ideas here which help demonstrate some of the great things that can be done with AutoHotkey. 

AHK Challenge: Isaias Baez 5 Favorite Scripts
AHK Challenge: Isaias Baez 5 Favorite Scripts


What We’ve Recently Automated with AutoHotkey

I’m going to try and regularly create these videos to help stimulate ideas as to what can be automated with AutoHotkey.  In this video I showed the AutoHotkey files we’ve updated in the past 7 days.   Kind of hard to believe but it was 60 files! 😲   I guess that’s what happens when all you do is AutoHotkey 24-7!  Many of the things I show are just discussing what we’ve done for clients but that is plenty to give you ideas as to what can be automated…

What we Automated this week with AutoHotkey
What we Automated this week  with AutoHotkey


📚 What we’re reading


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Navigating an Edit Field

  • Ctrl + Home: Moves cursor to beginning of document
  • Ctrl + End: Moves cursor to end of document

🤣 A spot of Humor:  Enjoy the timeless art of seduction❗

George's Underwear Photoshoot | The Package | Seinfeld


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. 

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

  • Work harder on yourself than you do on your job — Jim Rohn
  • Decisions without actions are worthless — Dan Kennedy
  • It’s better to get started in the wrong direction than not get started; We can fix the direction, we can’t fix not getting started. — Norm Schwarzkopf
  • You’ll never change your life until you change your daily routine — 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, and staff


P.S. Don’t forget that by taking control of your future you are ensuring you have one.  Some people sit back and hope life happens to them but you can be the one taking the bull by the horns and ensuring your future is great!   Borrow my mantra of ABL:  Always Be Learning!