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March 2022 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter

March 17th AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

Are you crushing it? Have you learned what AutoHotkey can do and, like me, just blown away?

I just realized that I hadn’t shared this video on YouTube (it’s from our Intermediate AHK Udemy course). For those of you new to AutoHotkey, it’s a great, high-level overview of what you can do with 🅰️utoHotkey 💪. If you’re not new, I’d love to know what you think I should have mentioned in it.

Why you should learn AutoHotkey: What can AHK do?

AutoHotkey is an amazing tool. There’s so many ways you can use it to save you time⏰. There definitely is an investment to learn to code however it is worth every minute you spend!

BTW- The other day I borrowed a meme and adapted it to this. I think of AutoHotkey people as “doers” not people that sit around and talk forever about how to do things. What do you think?

crriticTalkerAHKer

Now on with the show…


🅰️HKCon‼️

Are you interested in attending the first AutoHotkey conference? I was talking to Thom Beech from TABNation during one of our Free Friday office hours and we decided it would be great to put something together for this summer. You can learn a bit about our plan here.

AHKConshort

AHKCon this summer: the 1st AutoHotkey virtual convention!


The Lost files

A long time ago the AutoHotkey forum used AutoHotkey.net to store files. Unfortunately it was hacked and the community lost a lot of great resources. While much of it was gone, people put together a nice list of scripts that were lost. In case you’ve never seen it, I made a short video and uploaded them here. Please keep in mind, I didn’t test all of the scripts in here so “Buyer beware” 💀

The lost files: Huge archive of AutoHotkey files from AutoHotkey.net


mySQL / ODBC connection

Have you tried to work with a SQL database but needed to get your connection string? The trickiest part to it is that, once you configure the driver / string you don’t have to do it again (it’s a “one and done” setting). So it’s easy to forget how to do it. For that reason Isaias and I made ourselves a video to document where we were getting it from for the mySQL ODBC connection. BTW I have a SQL Playlist in case you’re wanting to learn more about AutoHotkey & SQL

Adding the ODBC connection string for mySQL for AutoHotkey


Producing AutoHotkey newsletter 📧

I have a popular playlist entitled What I automate with AutoHotkey where I document some amazing things I’ve done with AutoHotkey. I recently documented the creating of this newsletter.


Producing the AutoHotkey Newsletter


AutoHotkey Wordle with source code💡

I was watching this video by Spawnova and he was showing his example of hacking Wordle. Do you play wordle? You can get Shin’s Wordle source code here.


AutoHotKey - Wordle Game with Source


What you need to know about Version2️

A while back we had a great webinar on V2️. I asked Dimitri Geerts and Isaias Baez to join me in another discussion to better understand what to look out for in V2, some of the new features, and what is most likely to trip you up. There were some really interesting things mentioned at the very end of the video. Not trying to make you stick around for the full two hours but the last 15 minutes had some things that you’ll want to know!


Switching to AutoHotkey v2: What you need to know about Version 2 AHK


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


AutoHotkey GURU 👨‍🏫 Interview:

Back in 2018 I chatted with JoeDF regarding how he got into, and uses, AutoHotkey. At times there were bandwidth issues but it was still a great call!

Examples of AutoHotkey / AutoHotkey expert: joedf


Productivity tips ⚡️

Listen to music that doesn’t have lyrics (or the lyrics are in another language). Personally I’ll often throw on Zydeco music which is usually very up-beat and “feels” like it’s in another language.


A spot of Humor 🤣

01189998819991197253 is a tad harder than 867-5309‼️


0


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. — Thomas Sowell
  • Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. — Stephen King
  • Even Napoleon had his Watergate — Yogi Berra
  • Challenge your belief systems. It’s better to realize you’ve been wrong for years, than to stubbornly hold onto a delusion that holds you back. — John Carlton

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow Live

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room. 👍


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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


March 10th AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

gasprices

No matter where you live, it’s impossible to not feel the effects of gas prices & inflation!  Current estimates have the rate of inflation in the US between 6-10%.  That’s crazy high however, given what’s going on in the world with Ukraine / Russia, I think it’s just the beginning of sky-rocketing prices.  Why?  Because nearly everything is delivered by vehicles!  These gas price increases are going to be driving up the prices very soon!

So why am I bitching about it in the 🅰️🇺t🇴🇭🇴tk🇪🇾 🇳ewsletter?  Because I 💯% believe the best way you can get a raise 💵is to BE WORTH MORE!  One of the best ways to be worth more is to invest in yourself!  People that learn AutoHotkey:

  • Get work done faster
  • Are more productive
  • Produce fewer errors
  • Provide more consistent work / deliverables
  • Are less likely to quit

Of course employers LOVE all the above! As a direct result they try and reward them.  The #1 way of doing such is to 💰 pay them more!  So commit to yourself today to find ways to be worth more!

Learning AutoHotkey is just one of many ways to improve yourself!  Of course the best part of this is where’s the risk?  If your employer doesn’t increase you’re pay you’re STILL WORTH MORE!

In case you missed the video I did ranting about being worth more, you can see it here; it’s one of my personal favorites!

Want to get a raise? Be worth it!- Investing in yourself is critical to succeeding!

Now on with the show…


Calculating time savings

A few years back I created this spreadsheet 📈 to help calculate savings /earnings by automating programs.  Do you ever try and calculate this? Also, do you think I should create a version of the spreadsheet in AutoHotkey?

Calculating Time and Money savings from automating a process


Regular ExpressionsSwiss%20army%20knife

I was amazed how many people that do some coding are not aware of Regular Expressions.   When I first became aware of them I thought they were neat but that I rarely had the need.  But the more programs I wrote, the more I realized parsing text is a very common task to have!  In this Intro to RegEx video I cover the basics.  You can see my RegEx playlist here.  I also highly recommend Jack Dunning’s book on RegEx.  I bought it years ago and it really helped me learn them quickly and easily.

RegEx-Intro to Regular Expressions in AutoHotkey | pattern matching is easy


AutoHotkey Commands verse Functions

Speaking of parsing text, the other day I released a video showing both the Command StringSplit and the function StrSplit().  It’s one of the things that often confuses people new to AutoHotkey so I talk through both and why I prefer functions over commands.

AutoHotkey example Command vs Function on String Split


MS Word Macro recorder and COM

I’ve recently made a few videos demonstrating using AHK & COM to automate MS Word.   In this video I didn’t have an example to borrow from so I showed how I used the built-in Word VBA macro recorder to generate the VBA code and then adapt it to AutoHotkey COM code.   COM is an amazing way to, programmatically, connect to and automate Word!

How to use MS Word macro recorder to write AutoHotkey code


Using AutoHotkey to auto-generate numbers & delimiters

I’m not in love with how the script was implemented, but I love the idea and that he’s made a video showing how you can easily generate numbers parsed by a character.   I’d make some tweaks to it but very cool to see others pushing out AutoHotkey examples!

AutoHotkey - AHK - GUI Number Iteration Tool


Selecting and saving a file path in an ini file

Getting user feedback is a great way to make a script more flexible. Here Thom, from TAB Nation, shows how you can easily get user feedback and save in an ini file.

AutoHotkey INI 6 - Let The User Pick File Paths and Save It


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


AutoHotkey GURU 👨‍🏫 Interview: Ryan W.

In this AutoHotkey Expert interview I talk with a master Marketing guru that uses AutoHotkey among many other tools to automate his work.  Ryan’s a  super-bright and innovative guy that readily picks up any technology to solve his need.

Examples of AutoHotkey / AutoHotkey expert: Ryan Wells


Productivity tips  ⚡️

Everybody has a time of the day that we’re “on fire”.  A time when our brains are just kickin-butts and takin names.  Interestingly we’re all different as to when that time is but, I’m willing to bet, you know when your time is!

The tip for this week is to make sure, during that window of time, you do the most tasking/ difficult work you have.  Don’t do things you can “do in your sleep”.  For me, the time is about 1 hour after I wake up.   In the early afternoon I typically cool-off and then I handle things like replying to emails, etc.

When is your “take no prisoner” time?


A spot of Humor 🤣

Priceless!  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used that key phrase…

The IT crowd - Truest moment about tech support


Quick Access Popup newsQAPbr

I learned a bit last week regarding how to add a “close this menu” option to Quick Access Popup.  Very easy way to make sure you don’t end up with a hung window.  Note, you’ll only need this if you’ve created a hotkey to open a submenu (which I highly recommend)

Adding a


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own. — Bruce Lee
  • It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit — Joe Glines
  • Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
  • You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six — Yogi Berra
  • Say “sorry” and “I love you” often and without self-consciousness — John Carlton

Live AutoHotkey Support TomorrowLive

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 3 Bonnie O.
  • 2 Greg S.
  • 2 Tom S.

March 3rd AutoHotkey Newsletter

Hi %Name%,

March is here and I’m looking forward to getting outside to take advantage of our new horseshoe pit and volleyball net.  😊

For the 🐎horseshoe pit I found a nice place that will get afternoon shade.  Unfortunately, the backstop for the first one got set up a bit off-angle which would put the other side a bit out in the Sun.  I could have left it but I knew, every time I’d be out there sweating, I’d be cursing myself for not doing it “right” the first time.  It reminds me why I learn to use API approaches (COM, Controls, Windows Messages) over Human approaches (Sending keystrokes or mouse clicks).  If you take a bit more time at the beginning you’ll be much happier with the results!  While API techniques are a bit more complex, they’re also much more reliable and faster than imitating a human.  If the overall concepts are confusing to you, RaptorX and I discuss it in this video.   Speaking of which, Isaias Baez (RaptorX) should be back starting next Monday!  😊


APIs compared to Human Interfaces: How do you use AutoHotkey?

You also might be interested in this video where I discuss 17 different techniques to automate programs with AutoHotkey.   The main point being, taking a little time to learn up front can really payout for the rest of your life!  Why not invest in yourself and make the rest of your life easier by learning AutoHotkey?


17 Ways to Automate Windows Programs | Learn all the approaches in AHK

Now on with the show…


What I’ve automated with AutoHotkey

The other day I was updating my AutoHotkey resources file that is in my Udemy Bonus Lectures and decided to document some of the process.  In the video I cover various things I do on a regular basis.  How I add tracking to the documents so I can tell what works (and what doesn’t).  I even show my MS Word script for search & replacing hyperlinks.


What I've automated with AutoHotkey: WordPress tracking, MS Word, more


Searching for Text across files 🔎

Are you sometimes looking for files with specific text in them?  Or want to search/replace text within multiple files?  GrepWin is a great FREE tool for doing just that!  I recorded a short video showing how easy it is to use .  I’ve used it for longer than I can remember and it’s saved my butt many times!


grepWin for Searching and Replacing Text within files: Must have tool!


API Calls, Fiddler, SMS Texting and more

I was talking with Denilson Padilla about using APIs, monitoring network traffic with Fiddler and other things.  Denilson is in Brazil and has a YouTube channel in Portuguese.  I think we’re going to have regular calls on Monday evening so look for more videos with us discussing various AutoHotkey things.   I’m considering letting others join the call (for a nominal fee).  If you’re interested in being a part of this, shoot me an email.


Discussing APIs, texting, and more with fellow AutoHotkey Youtuber


Automating Outlook emails

In our AHK Facebook group I’ve been seeing several questions about using AutoHotkey with Outlook.  I recently demonstrated how easy it is to get: Name, email, subject line, etc. but we also covered Outlook in this webinar which had several great examples.  Automating Outlook with COM is an amazing!


Outlook Email Object- Getting Name, email, Send date, etc.


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


AutoHotkey GURU 👨‍🏫 Interview:  Tank

Back in 2018 I chatted with Charlie Simmons / Tank (AutoHotkey forum admin).  Tank’s got a long background in automation and used to travel around implementing Automation Anywhere.  We discuss using the DOM (Document Object Model) can greatly improve your web scraping ability (and make your code more reliable). He also gives some insights to the pricing and negatives with Automation Anywhere.


Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Charlie Simmons /Tank


A spot of Humor 🤣 – Look I’m Superman!

I was looking for an old video and stumbled upon this gem which I made ~25 years ago when I was going to college to work in TV production.  The class requirement was to create a PSA (Public Service Announcement) that was exactly 30 seconds long.  In the video you’ll see me jumping off a roof. I’d put a couch down below but it was really hard to force myself to jump (and not land on my legs).  Sorry about the quality, I honestly didn’t think I had any copies of it so I’m glad I found this one!


Unplanned Parenthood- PSA from 1995


Quick Access Popup news
QAPbr

I had a “hung window” in Quick Access Popup the other day and asked Jean how to avoid this.  He gave me a tip and I quickly added a “close this window” to my submenu.  Very quick tip to avoid it!  Check out the video here.


Adding a


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. — Thomas Sowell
  • 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
  • A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore — Yogi Berra 🤣(with inflation these days it’s very true!)
  • Lead by example, not big talk. In fact, shut up until you’ve earned the right to talk by honing your chops. — John Carlton

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow

Live

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

6 Peter E. 2 Marc P. 2 Ewelina W.
3 Sam B. 2 Malgorzata M. 2 Ewa N.
3 Carlos M. 2 Magdalena O. 2 Emilie H.
3 Łukasz G. 2 Magdalena F. 2 Doug B.
2 VCALD. 2 Maciej W. 2 Damian G.
2 Sylwia B. 2 Lidia D. 2 Claudia J.
2 Swen B. 2 Kosma W. 2 Charles O.
2 Sean M. 2 Kinga C. 2 Cezary K.
2 R. 2 Katarzyna U. 2 Cesar A.
2 Qun G. 2 Karolina S. 2 Bartosz B.
2 Przemysław M. 2 K. 2 B.
2 Piotr Pawel B. 2 Justyna K. 2 Annet S.
2 Paulina D. 2 Joanna R. 2 Anna C.
2 Natalia P. 2 J. 2 Anna B.
2 Monika B. 2 Izabela K. 2 Alicja C.
2 MateuszH. 2 Iwona S. 2 Aleksandra P.
2 Mateusz T. 2 Iwona P. 2 Agnieszka W.
2 Mateusz J. 2 G. 2 Abdulmalik A.

February AutoHotkey Newsletter

24th of February AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

I’m one to do my best to “practice what I preach”.  Many times, Jackie and I have talked about how important it is to write “pseudocode” before you actually program.  Lately I’ve taken this to heart and make sure that, when I start a new script,  I quickly write out several lines of text that describes my goals / what I want to achieve.

The more I do it, the more it’s been helping! 👍

First, in case you’re not aware of what it is: Pseudocode is a human readable description of the steps planned steps in your script. Pseudocode is intended for human reading (not your AHK programming code).

Now that I’m writing pseudocode more frequently my scripts are far better organized and much more likely to take into account things that I wouldn’t normally think of. Also, by doing it more often, I’ve gotten to a point where it takes almost no time to do!

Think of it more as writing a 1️ st draft.  Don’t try and get anything “perfect”.  Don’t worry about misspellings or grammatical errors.  Just make short notes to yourself about what you’re going to do.  Trust me, after doing this for a while you’ll be so glad you started!

Are you writing pseudocode before you program?

Now on with the show…


ActiveX vs. GDIp

Did you catch the great video last week with where Dimitri Geerts created some amazing GUIs with an ActiveX GUI in 🅰️🇺t🇴🇭🇴tk🇪🇾 🇻2️?  At the end of the video we were wondering how GDI would stack-up in comparison.  Well Dimitri decided to put it to the test and build the game of life in both ActiveX and GDI.  This is a really fun video where we demo the comparisons and discuss what is actually being done with the code.


GDI vs ActiveX Which is faster 🚀? The answer may surprise you!


Arrays & Pseudo Arrays

Speaking of “pseudo” things, one thing that confuses people new to AutoHotkey are the usage of Arrays and Pseudo Arrays.   In this video RaptorX walks us through using them in a command.  BTW- I had a call with Isaias Baez / RaptorX last night and he’s ready to come back to work! 😁  Can’t wait to get back in our grove!


arrays vs Pseudo arrays and using a dynamic variable


Are you cheating at work?

Continuing on with this concept of “is AutoHotkey cheating at work” I Ryan W. (Automation expert and marketing guru) his thoughts on the idea.  It turned into a great chat (thankfully I’d recorded it).  We continued on discussing how to evangelize AutoHotkey.

The book I mentioned is from John Carlton: The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together.  Chapter 2 has a ton of amazing quotes to live by.  I’m going to include some of them at the bottom of the newsletter but there are a lot more in the book.  The book mentioned by Ryan is Darren Hardy: The compound effect. It’s an amazing book with great ideas and tips how to be more productive!


Cheating at work & how to better evangelize automation with Ryan Wells


🔎Searching / Replacing text within files

Do you need to find some code but don’t know the file name / location?  I’ve been using grepWin for a really long time.  It’s an amazing free tool that allows you to, easily, find and replace text within files.  It’s allows you to filter on many things to limit the search and allows you to see the content of the file w/o opening it.  Here I walk through a few examples how to use GrepWin.


grepWin for Searching and Replacing Text within files: Must have tool!


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


AutoHotkey GURU 👨‍🏫 Interview: Joe Winograd

For those of you on the AutoHotkey forum, you’ll be familiar with Joe Winograd.  He runs/operates a business where he develops code for clients.  In our AutoHotkey Guru interview I got to know him better and picked up some great AHK tips from one of the few people I know that works in AutoHotkey but IS A PROGRAMMER!  He has some great content on working with PDFs and AutoHotkey.


Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Joe Winograd


Productivity tips  ⚡️

Short and sweet: Kill your social  pages (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) while you’re working!


A spot of Humor 🤣

Do you watch The IT Crowd?  It’s one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen🤣. They really nail many aspects of corporate world and geeks🤓!   Here’s a short excerpt from S1 Episode 2.  Freaking genius!  The main tagline in the show is “Have you tried turning it on and off again”?  What a great burn 🔥 on Windows!


The IT Crowd - Series 1 - Episode 2: Fire!


Beta testing Clipboard 📋 manipulation tool

Many of us have this need but don’t even realize it!  Wouldn’t it be cool if you could write some rules that would monitor your clipboard and apply them w/o you having to think about it?  That’s just one of the uses of Quick Access Clipboard;  a new tool from Jean Lalonde (author of QAP).  He’s currently looking for beta testers to QAC.  To learn more take a look at this video if you’d like to learn more and you can go here.


Automating Clipboard replacement with QAC-Looking for Beta testers


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. — Mark Twain
  • You’ll never be criticized by someone who is doing more than you. You’ll always be criticized by someone doing less —Denzel Washington
  • Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation. — Brian Tracy

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow Live

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

6 Peter E. 2 Marc P. 2 Ewelina W.
3 Sam B. 2 Malgorzata M. 2 Ewa N.
3 Carlos M. 2 Magdalena O. 2 Emilie Viola H.
3 Łukasz G. 2 Magdalena F. 2 Doug B.
2 VCALD. 2 Maciej W. 2 Damian G.
2 Sylwia B. 2 Lidia D. 2 Claudia J.
2 Swen B. 2 Kosma W. 2 Charles Oduk II.
2 Sean M. 2 Kinga C. 2 Cezary K.
2 R. 2 Katarzyna U. 2 Cesar A.
2 Qun G. 2 Karolina S. 2 Bartosz B.
2 Przemysław M. 2 K. 2 B.
2 Piotr Pawel B. 2 Justyna K. 2 Annet S.
2 Paulina D. 2 Joanna R. 2 Anna C.
2 Natalia P. 2 J. 2 Anna B.
2 Monika B. 2 Izabela K. 2 Alicja C.
2 MateuszH. 2 Iwona S. 2 Aleksandra P.
2 Mateusz T. 2 Iwona Granacka-P. 2 Agnieszka W.
2 Mateusz J. 2 G. 2 Abdulmalik A.

Double P.S.  Quotes from John Carlton: The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together

  • It’s not how much you screw up that counts. Nope. It’s how you fix your messes that matters.
  • You must stop expecting perfection — either from yourself, or your employees, or your customers and clients. It will never happen.
  • Life isn’t a calm pond — it’s an unpredictable ocean… you gotta learn to enjoy the ride, no matter what.
  • Real tragedy is having a loved one pass away, or getting bad news from the doctor.  Everything else is just a small bump on the road as you haul ass through life.
  • Live below your means. And avoid all debt — if you can’t pay cash-in-full, don’t buy it. Let your thrill be in your accomplishments, not the toys you can suddenly afford on credit.
  • Put aside a healthy pile of “Up Yours” money, so you can walk away from any situation you don’t like, and know you’ll survive.
  • Be a good animal. Sweat a little bit every day, sleep well, eat well, purge your system, live like a warrior-poet. You can monitor how healthy you are by walking up a hill.
  • Learn some basic self-defense, today. The first thing a mugger does to a mark is knock you down –most people can’t handle any jostling at all, and freeze. The simple confidence of knowing what your options are — and where the “soft targets” are on an attacker — can save your life.
  • Do the right thing every time, as a habit. If you’re not clear on what the right thing is, that means you’re facing another life lesson. Figure it out. The test begins now.
  • Say “sorry” and “I love you” often and without self-consciousness
  • Take responsibility for your actions. This simple habit has profound consequences you will learn to enjoy. Fix what you break, clean up your mess, watch your buddy’s back.
  • You want it, you take it, you pay the price. There really is no free lunch.
  • If what you’ve done over the past 5 years hasn’t worked for you, then change what you’re doing. Or the next 5 years will be one long boring re-run of the same bullshit.
  • Wake up. Challenge your belief systems. It’s better to realize you’ve been wrong for years, than to stubbornly hold onto a delusion that holds you back.
  • Stop doing things that don’t work. Too many people go through their entire lives marrying the same type of mate over and over again, making the same behavior mistakes, and making excuses for themselves.
  • Stop making excuses. I don’t care how badly your parents, or your teachers, or the system screwed up your head. You’re old enough to make the decision to start over and rewrite your script. Nothing will change for you until you do.
  • Keep a master list of long-range goals
  • Accept defeat with grace. Learn your lesson, adjust, and plan for victory next time out.  Know how to cheat. Don’t do it, but understanding the game thoroughly requires knowing how others take advantage.
  • Work hard, play hard. Think harder.
  • Just do it. The meek may inherit the earth, but only after the bold are through with it
  • It it’s critical, do it yourself. If it’s not, delegate. Learn the difference
  • Don’t lie. If you’re in a position where you can’t tell the truth, learn how to weasel-word your way around trouble or hurting innocent bystanders. But don’t lie.
  • Some things are and always will be out of your control. Stop freaking out about it.  If you gotta cry, cry. Don’t make a big deal of it. Life has tears built-in.
  • Don’t borrow. Pay as you go. You borrow, you’re a kept man.
  • Right now, you owe someone a phone call. If it’s not yet past 8 p.m., make the call, even if your hand shakes as you dial.
  • Spending time with someone is more important than spending money on them.
  • Don’t try to change anyone. Learn the difference between actual help and co-dependent enabling.
  • Allow people to blossom or fail on their own. This takes ungodly patience, but it’s the only way it works.
  • Stop arguing.
  • Lead by example, not big talk. In fact, shut up until you’ve earned the right to talk by honing your chops.
  • You’re going to be an idiot occasionally. Embrace this opportunity for a good story, learn from it, forgive yourself, and try not to make idiocy a common event in your day.
  • Your reputation is built one act at a time, and a lifetime of good work can be squandered the same way. Respect is earned by consistent behavior.
  • Be where you said you’d be, when you said you’d be there, ready to do what you said you’d do.
  • Struggle is not a bad word. Accomplishment is impossible without it.
  • Intellectually-sound people change their minds when the facts change. Ideology sucks as a lifestyle.
  • Turn off the TV and go read.
  • Listen more than you talk. And when you talk, observe the rules of conversation. If these rules are a mystery to you, go hunt them down.
  • Don’t interfere with people disciplining their kids. Do interfere when clear abuse is occurring next door.
  • Tip twenty percent. If you’ve never worked in a job where you had to be nice to rude people, tip even more. You won’t start a trend, but you will make someone’s day and generate good karma.
  • Learn empathy. Get a vivid picture of what it’s like to walk in the other guy’s shoes.
  • Go the extra mile. Even when no one does it for you.
  • Eleanor Roosevelt was right: No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.
  • Sometimes you gotta take one for the team.
  • Learn to tell a joke. But don’t rely on them. True wit is intelligence and humor, not one-upmanship or memorization.
  • Not everyone likes you.
  • Right now is a good time to stop the bullshit. Get real. Take a painful review of yourself, and be honest. Face your faults, and begin the fix.
  • Love will always have baggage attached. Get over it. Love is essential to a full life. No matter what.
  • What people think of you is irrelevant. But how you leave this world matters. Even if it’s all futile in the end, play your part as well as you can. Real courage is fear, in action. Play your hand.

17th of February AutoHotkey Newsletter

Hi %Name%,

Let’s force ourselves to have an anxiety attack!  Sounds crazy but anytime we step into unknown areas we ALL experience anxiety.  It’s just human nature.   It’s undoubtedly the #1 reason people stop trying to learn AutoHotkey!

AutoHotkey is an amazing language that allows people (like you and I) to “program” without really being programmers.   However, the majority of people that start to use AutoHotkey stop right away (or never even try) because they see they have to “program” and believe they can’t do it.

Some will get started but then get very confused and even consider themselves “dumb” because they see others “getting it” in seconds.   When I first started WebScraping I nearly gave up.  I thought “I just don’t get it”.  What I didn’t realize at the time is that WE ALL went through that learning (feeling stupid) process!  Rarely are we all at the same “level” when learning something new.

But what gets some of us to keep plugging along into the dark abyss?   Is it that some of us are just smarter?

Hogwash‼️

Those of us that continue to learn have “had a win”.  We’ve automated something and then felt the joy of using that script, over and over, and avoid the mundane work.  %name%, can you remember the script that saved you time?  I used HotStrings and Hotkeys for the first 3 years of using AutoHotkey.

And they made me a Rockstar!

It’s a rough part of life but we need that carrot🥕!  That reward for the work to continue on.  If there’s no gain, then why submit to the pain?

This is one of the big reasons I created the AutoHotkey Udemy courses.  Because AutoHotkey is so vast (with some many applications) having a clear path really helps!  My courses aren’t “amazing” but they do provide a very clear path to start learning AutoHotkey.

Now on with the show…


Amazing ActiveX example with AutoHotkey V2

The other day I published a short video documenting how Maestrith had shown how to create an ActiveX GUI.  Dimitri Geerts was inspired by it and did some amazing work!  He then joined me in Zoom to demo some of it which was spectacular!     The 2d work was amazing but the 3d version and “game of life” was really, really over-the-top!  I should point out that it’s all done in V2 (mainly because GUIs are a bit simpler in V2 because they’re functions).  Check out the video and let me know what you think!  Click here if you’d like to learn more about AutoHotkey V2.

Taking ActiveX to a new level with AutoHotkey V2 by Dimitri


Awareness of Automation

It’s been a few years, perhaps Jackie and I need to go look at the current stats to see if the bar has moved at all?  Are people more aware of ways to automate?

AutoHotkey Podcast: 024 Awareness of Automation tools / RPA


Parsing Text with AutoHotkey

In this video I show some tips & tricks how to parse text with AutoHotkey.  The more programming you do, the more splitting text becomes “a thing”.   RegEx is great but StrSplit() and InStr() are faster and simpler to get started with.

Parsing more Text with StrSplit and InStr


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


AutoHotkey GURU 👨‍🏫 Interview:

I remember this call with RaptorX / Isaias Baez.  RaptorX (AHKTuts on YouTube) was one of my inspirations for creating a YouTube channel.  I’d watched his videos ~10 years before and was amazed at what was possible.  This call was so much fun and educational, it’s no wonder we started working together a while after.  BTW I’ve been in contact with him and he’s hoping to be back here in the next month or so.  😊

Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Isaias Baez / RaptorX


Productivity tips  ⚡️

One of the best ways to spot “what to automate” is by batching your work!  When you batch your work together you’re much more efficient!  As a side benefit, it becomes painfully obvious what processes can be automated!  Give it a try and tell me if I’m wrong!

Productivity tip #7 Batching #Shorts


A spot of Humor 🤣

I’d like to say “I’ve been there” but I’m not so sure I have!  lol

right


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. — Benjamin E. Mays
  • If it’s critical, do it yourself. If it’s not, delegate. Learn the difference — John Carlton
  • When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” —S. Lewis
  • You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you — Yogi Berra 🤣

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 6 Peter E.
  • 3 Sam B.
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10th of February AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

It was 24 years ago, however I remember it like it was yesterday.  I took my first class in Advanced statistics 🧮 and sweated my way through it!  I was cursing to myself because it was downright uncomfortable and painful.  At times it made me feel incompetent and stupid.

When we’re trying something new, we feel awkward uncomfortable, and we might not like it.  The question to answer is, “Is it worth it?” If the answer is “yes”, then continue to work through the discomfort.

Why did I continue learning stats after my first unpleasant experience? Simple. I knew that it was good for me. And I LOVED the outcome (finding hidden patterns in data)

Many of us learn AutoHotkey because, compared to other languages, it’s very easy to get started on.  There’s nothing wrong with starting off with the basics!  I used HotStrings and Hotkeys for the first 3 years!  And it made me a Rock Star 🎸 compared to my colleagues!  But, when I finally started learning more advanced AutoHotkey functionality, I really blew-doors by everyone and my productivity skyrocketed! 🚀

Keep at it!

Trust me %Name%, learning is ALWAYS worth it!  Carve-out a regular time to learn at least twice a week!

Developer’s Corner

Simple way to select items

Sometimes “simple” is the way to go!  In this short video I show how you can easily automate selecting items form a list.  I happen to be in Chrome in the example however, the general approach, will work in most programs.

Simple AHK Script to Select many items in Chrome with AutoHotkey


Getting properties from an Outlook email

Outlook has a COM object which allows us to, easily, connect to it and access various properties.   Here I demonstrate how you can get info from the currently-selected emailCOM rocks!   You can learn more about using COM with Outlook and Excel in this AutoHotkey webinar.   Don’t forget we have over 60 AutoHotkey webinars you can watch!

Outlook Email Object- Getting Name, email, Send date, etc.


Learning XMLmaestrith

I stumbled upon a video I hadn’t published where Maestrith (author of AHK Studio) was teaching me how to use his XML class.  If you’re storing data XML is a great approach  for smaller amounts of data (let’s say under 10,000 items)

Learning XML with Maestrith and the-Automator


Automating Graphs in Excel

I’m coaching some current grad students and remembered, a lifetime ago, I had automated graphs in Excel.  Sadly the code I have now no-longer works but I’m planning on updating it once I have the time.  Still the concept is amazing!  Do you regularly make graphs?  Why not have it down to hitting a button to make them?  Be sure to check out my over 50 Excel tutorials and download my XL Function library.


How I automated Excel graphs with AutoHotkey | Amazing time saver!


AutoHotkey Guru👨‍🏫 Interview with  JoeDF from the AHK forum

Back in 2018 I was able to have a chat with JoeDF from the AutoHotkey forum.  Joe’s done some amazing things with AutoHotkey and, for such a young guy, has an amazing amount of posts on the AutoHotkey forum (currently 7,270).


Examples of AutoHotkey / AutoHotkey expert: joedf


The-Automators’ PodcastAHK Podcast


What we’re reading 📚


Productivity tips ⚡️

Right now is a good time to stop the bullshit. Get real. Take a painful review of yourself, and be honest. Face your faults, and begin the fix. — John Carlton


A spot of Humor 🤣

David Letterman causing havoc while working a Mc Donald’s Drive-in.   Freaking hilarious!


Dave Works The McDonald's Drive-Thru | Letterman


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. — Ayn Rand
  • Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation. — Brian Tracy
  • The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase — Yogi Berra

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

P.S. Some of you may not have been receiving the AHK newsletter for a couple of weeks.  A bug crept into my script that pulls the list ☹.  Sorry for that!  Many of the past Newsletters are posted on the-Automator in case you want to check them out or share them.

 

3rd of February AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

Do you feel stuck in the same position? 😲  Do you get the feeling people (things) are going around you?

chillout

Start learning to automate your work and I guarantee you you’ll be your boss / colleague’s best friend!  Being more efficient and productive was always part of my plan in corporate America.  It reminds me of this video where I discuss how to get a raise💲.  Here’s a hint:  Be WORTH MORE!

Want to get a raise? Be worth it!- Investing in yourself is critical to succeeding!


Raptor❎ / Isaias Baez

Just an FYI- I had a call with Isaias the other day.  He stopped working for me as he had some personal things he had to take care of  however he’s hoping to be able to come back in the next month or so.  Here’s to hoping!  I have lots of things I’m looking forward to working on with him (not to mention making some more deep-dive videos).  Here’s one where we discuss various ways to store data with AutoHotkey

the-Automators AHK-talk: Various ways to store data and their uses


Debugging 🏴‍☠️debug

A little while back Jean Lalonde gave us  a tutorial on using classes with AutoHotkey.   I mentioned, in that video, that his use of SciTE4AutoHotkey debugging was amazing!  If you’re not using a tools that has debugging, you’re really missing out!  I have an intro to debugging in SciTE here.  Or, if you’re an AutoHotkey Studio user like me, you can check this video out.  Isaias / Raptor X prefers debugging in VS code.  Or take a look around at my debugging playlist.

Debug AutoHotKey with SciTE | Level up your AHK programming today!


Comparing lists

I used to build SQL queries and would have to compare lists to make sure I 1) had everything and 2) didn’t have duplicates.   This simple AutoHotkey script made it really easy!

Compare Sets


Learning what can be automated by watching others

I conducted a couple dozen interviews with other AutoHotkey users.  One of my favorite ones was with Gio Sperotto out of Brazil.  He uses AutoHotkey at his family’s company and has done some AMAZING things!  He also lead the webinar on Neural Networks.

Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Gio Sperotto


AutoHotkey Resources Level Up

Jackie Sztuk and I discuss many of the AutoHotkey resources.   Amazingly not much has changed!  Are you aware of them all?   Which ones do 👉you use %Firstname%?

AutoHotkey Podcast: 012 AutoHotkey websites / Communities Part 1


Using a variable as the index when getting it from an Object

If you’re still learning objects and arrays, this is a great, short, video showing you how to access them if the index is stored in a variable.  In objects, the dot notation literally looks for that value (not a reference)

Using a Variable as the Index when getting it from an Object in AutoHotkey


The-Automators’ Podcast
AHK Podcast

What we’re reading 📚

Productivity tips  ⚡️

Be decisive and make decisions however, when you have a mistake, remember it is just that; a mistake. Don’t get caught up in that you are the mistake in recognize that we all learn by doing mistakes the important point is not to do them again

A spot of Humor 🤣

This may seem edgy, but it’s 100% true! All code has a few WTF. If it doesn’t you proably spent too much time working on it!

codereview


Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • Never see failure as failure, but only as a learning experience – Tom Hopkins
  • The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. — Benjamin E. Mays
  • When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” —S. Lewis
  • If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer — Yogi Berra

Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrowthe Automator 11

Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel.  Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.  We are having a severe storm in Texas so, if I’m not there, the power is out! 🥶

frozentrees


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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 4 Peter W. M.
  • 4 Jeremy K.
  • 3 Michele B.
  • 3 Manazael Zuliani J.
  • 3 Jozef V.
  • 3 Fronu L.
  • 3 Drew S P.
  • 3 C.
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AutoHotkey Webinar: AutoHotkey Version 2 – What to look out for when switching to V2

In this webinar we explore some of the main differences in AutoHotkey version 2, Why you might adapt it, and a tool to help automate the adaption

Special thanks to Dimitri Geerts for leading the discussion, putting together the deck, and working on the converter tool!

Video Hour 1: High-level overview
Video Hour 2: Q&A:

  • Major differences withAHK Version 2
  • You can read up on the official listing of changes
  • v2.0 beta 1was 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:
  • Take a look at the tool Dimitri demonstrated to adapt V1 code to V2 here

 

Script Highlight:  RunWith: Use this function to control the bitness of your AutoHotkey script

Sign up for future webinars here

See past AutoHotkey webinars 

You can get the Deck Dimitri presented here, or just look through the below images.

1) All parameters are expressions, not text

1 Paramaters are expressions 1

2) Variables need to be declared

2 Variables need to be declared

3) “All” commands are now also functions

3 All commands are also now functions 1

4) Some functions now return objects

4 Some functions return objects

5) There is now a distinction between properties accessed with . and data (items, array or map elements) accessed with []

5 Distinctions 1

6) Hotkeys and non-autoreplace HotStrings are no longer labels; instead, they (automatically) define a function

6 Hotkeys need braces

7) All byRef variables need to have a “&” before

7 byRef 1

8) Function calls require a space or “(“. Use comma only between parameters

8 Functions require comma

9) GUI and GUI controls are now objects

9 GUIs