AutoHotkey News 2025-01-30 It’s time to take back your life!

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

I was reading this article which estimated the number of hours wasted per day by Industry on mundane tasks.

Horizontal bar chart titled Hours Wasted Per Day on Repetitive Computer Tasks by Industry, ranking 14 industries from 3.5 hours (public services and

So, my question to you is:

How many hours a day do you waste?

And what would you do with those hours you’ve gained back through automation?

Small businesses are increasingly turning to automation as a powerful tool to level the playing field with larger competitors.

In fact, 88% of small business owners report that automation enables them to compete more effectively by helping them operate more efficiently, reduce errors, and improve customer service.

As I’ve said before:

Knowledge is power.  Automation knowledge is a Super-Power

If you’d like help, check our consultation prices and then book a call with us by looking at my calendar.

Now on with the show…

Learn how to Master VSCode Make the switch to v2 Intro to AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey Intermediate ObjectsGUIs are Easy w/AutoHotkey Access all our Courses; Quit when you want

Running out of Hotkeys❓

Isaias and I were discussing a weird update to VS code.  The update mentioned you could now “use the Insert key…”

Both of us were laughing because it’s one of the most un-used keys ever made!

I blocked the Insert key and Numpad Insert key at least 12 years ago with the following code:

  • Insert::Return ;Disable Insert command
  • NumpadIns::Return ;Disable Insert key on 10-key Numpad

But then I realized, instead of blocking it, we should repurpose it.

With that idea in mind we went on to demonstrate a few additional ways you can play with hotkeys to have additional actions.  (Watch for long-press or double press etc.)

You can check them out in this video.

Showing mulitple ways to define hotkeys for an unused key on your Keyboard
Showing mulitple ways to define hotkeys for an unused key on your Keyboard2


Menus in AutoHotkey v2 rock❗

During an AutoHotkey Hero call a hero member wanted to learn about creating menus.

Isaias gave a great overview of how easy it is to create menus, sub-menus and add icons.

Learning Menus in AutoHotkey v2 [Excerpt from AHK Hero call]
Learning Menus in AutoHotkey v2 [Excerpt from AHK Hero call]

If you want to learn more about GUIs you should consider our Intro to GUIs course.

There is over 4.5 hours of content broken-down into bite-size videos.  And it, like all our other courses, comes with a 200% money back guarantee !


Improving People’s Lives: Story #36

I helped a client record tutorials.  Unfortunately sometimes, due to background noise or low bandwidth, some of her lecture was garbled.

She’s very busy so, instead of taking up her time to “patch” the videos, we used Eleven Labs to clone her voice.

I was amazed that, when I swapped out the cloned patches, it was virtually impossible to determine which was her and which was her cloned voice!


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Plan for “tomorrow”

When I say “tomorrow”, I don’t mean some random day in the far off future, I literally mean, at the end of the day, outline what it is you need to get done the following day.

It’s amazing how much your subconscious will help you during your sleep!


A spot of Humor  12 Funniest Times Facebook Fact Checked the Babylon Bee

The 12 Funniest Times Facebook Fact Checked The Babylon Bee
The 12 Funniest Times Facebook Fact Checked The Babylon Bee


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #73

This week we had 236 AutoHotkey files that we worked on.  You can check them out in this video.

#73 What we automated with AutoHotkey
#73 What we automated with AutoHotkey


Client’s say…

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


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.    Currently we have over 372 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

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

During this Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:

  • Help AHK Hero Members with their Questions & Code
  • Converting FlexiFinder to handle the equal sign in the .ini file (or changing to json)
  • When you should use ClipWait and when it is not needed
  • Working from Memory instead of a file
  • Example tasks you should use AI for verse Program directly
  • FileMove, FileDelete, and FileRecycle
  • Programmatically determining the File delimiter

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 problems with tools, typically you should blame the operator, not the tool — Joe Glines
  • If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense — Grandma
  • The question isn’t who is going to let me it’s who is going to stop me — Ayn Rand
  • As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another — Proverbs 27:17
  • Motion beats meditation — Gary Halbert

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, Rizwan and staff


P.S. So %name%, how much time do you waste daily on mundane tasks that could be automated?

Why don’t you automate more?

Personally, I used to spend 1/3rd of my day automating what I did.  How much do you spend?   Learning AutoHotkey is, by far, one of the best ways to automate the mundane❗

And don’t forget, all of our courses come with a 200% money-back guarantee !

November 8th, 2023 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy

A couple of weeks ago my son Jon and I were headed back from dinner at a local restaurant (I like supporting local mom-and-pop shops).  Like many teens these days my son had his earbuds in while he was watching this John Cena video on TikTok.

We were getting back in my car🚗and starting it up when, to his demise, his phone switched from his earbuds to the Bluetooth in the car stereo.

At this point I should also mention the stereo was up really loud because we were driving on a rough highway that is as loud as a dumpster full of silverware being emptied into a blender set to ‘puree’—with its lid off! (and, no, I’m not exaggerating)

So what were the first things we hear screaming loud?

If you guessed:  “Can I say Anus”  you’re 💯% correct! 🤣

Technology can really put you in a precarious position.   A couple of times I’ve had a goof when automating SMS text messages to friends as well as, accidentally, triggering a HotString.

As Stan Lee once wrote in Spider Man “With great power comes great responsibility”.   I’d like to add “With Automation power, remember: test thrice, deploy once, or brace for a code-tastrophe!”

It’s one of the reasons why people have us do work for them.   Since we work with AutoHotkey 24-7 we know how to build robust tools that they can count on.

Book a session with us and sleep better tonight❗

Now on with the show…

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

Happy Birthday AutoHotkey 🎂

Tomorrow, November 10th, is the 20 year anniversary of AutoHotkey!   To celebrate Chris Mallet’s Chris Mallett’s vision we’re having a 40% discount.
For the next 20 days you can use “AHK20years” during checkout or go here and click one of the following links and it will, automatically, be applied.

Teal birthday cake with dripping icing, yellow AHK letters on top, and colorful party confetti celebrating AutoHotkey's 20th anniversary


The Future is Here: Copilot is Amazingly helpful❗

The other day Isaias gave us a demo of using CoPilot.  It was amazingly helpful (even without knowing AutoHotkey V2).   Paying for CoPilot is a “no Brainer” as we’ll be incredibly more productive for our clients.

🚀Is This the Coding Revolution? Copilot’s Here & It’s Epic! 🔥
🚀Is This the Coding Revolution? Copilot's Here & It's Epic! 🔥


What we Automated with 🅰HK this week!

Sunday I recorded this video documenting what we automated with AutoHotkey.  This week we had a bit fewer files however, after recording the video, I realized our major project isn’t even being included because it’s all done on our client’s computer.  Most days Isaias and I are in zoom with the client between 2-3 hours in the afternoon.   We’re building an amazing tool for our client (unfortunately it’s privileged so we can’t share).

What we Automated with AutoHotkey 21
What we Automated with AutoHotkey 21


Sometimes you have to think outside the 📦

Irfan was updating my Media Player (a script I’ve probably used everyday for the past 15 years).  He was converting it to AHK V2 and, to get some extra benefits, using the Windows Media COM object.  (If you’re new to COM Objects, you really should check out our Objects course.)

Anyway, I realized Irfan “corrected” a line of code I had in my version.  I got him and Isaias in Zoom and explained my crazy reason for what I did.  It goes against any rational thought yet it is a great, simple, solution.  Check out the video and see if you can guess why I did something so whacky!

Crazy Programming solves the day for Media Player
Crazy Programming solves the day for Media Player


🐁 Easily Getting Text Under your Mouse

Are you working in a program that you want to grab the text but can’t select it❓   While our Window Snipping tool has built-in OCR, often you can programmatically get it as I demonstrate in this video.

🖱️ Get the scoop on the text under your mouse with AutoHotkey : Works in most Windows programs❗️

🖱️ Get the scoop on the text under your mouse with AutoHotkey : Works in most Windows programs❗️


Sharing your AutoHotkey Programs: Getting them in the Microsoft Windows Store

Last week we had a call with Jean Lalonde (author of Quick Access Popup) and Maciej Słojewski.

Maciej lead this webinar a few years back.   In hour one he showed us amazing HotStrings and the second hour he showed what he’s done with AHK and tablets (using them as secondary keyboards).  If you’ve ever felt like you were running out of Hotkeys, you might check that out.

Anyway, our call last week was discussing getting programs in the Microsoft Store!  We have a lot more work to do however it was a really good call and great catching up with both these AHK experts!

AutoHotkey Webinar 10/2020 Hour 1-Cool & Advanced HotStrings script
AutoHotkey Webinar 10/2020 Hour 1-Cool & Advanced HotStrings script

AutoHotkey Webinar 10/2020 Hour 2-External Keyboards & Touchpads
AutoHotkey Webinar 10/2020 Hour 2-External Keyboards & Touchpads


📚 What we’re reading

The Google Messages for Web article above lead us to this discussion regarding automating messages with Android Phones and API calls.

Sending new Android messages thru browser and Android phone
Sending new Android messages thru browser and Android phone


🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Redo / Control + Y

Most people barely touch the capability of using the “redo” button.

For instance, imagine you’re wanting to change the font size, Color, and alignment of several text objects in MS Word. If you select text, hit Control+D (to bring up the Font window) and make all the changes, then you could select other words and hitting Control+Y would apply all the changes you made the first time!


🤣 A spot of Humor  By far my favorite clip from Taxi🚕

What does a yellow light mean?
What does a yellow light mean?


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

  • You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems — James Cleary
  • If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know to do it and stand back!
  • What you plant now, you will harvest later — Og Mandino
  • You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you — Yogi Berra

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. My intro may have caught your attention but it’s a true concern when working with 🅰utomation.  Our clients take comfort knowing we build robust tools they can count on.

Every client is amazed at how much we get done on a given session.   Give us a try by booking a Consultation and I guarantee you’ll be blown away!

AutoHotkey Webinar- Intro to Neural Networks

Blue keyboard key labeled Webinar on a white keyboard, next to Ctrl and Menu keys

Video Hour 1:  High Level: Intro to Neural Networks

Our guest presenter, Giordanno (Gio) Sperotto did an amazing job covering an intro to Neural Networks.

  1. Present some current uses for neural networks (examples to light up curiosity in the subject)
  2. Introduction to the algorithms (Using a simple excel sheet and Paint.NET file, the aim is to provide an overview of a very (VERY) simplified step-by-step process)
  3. Discuss the example in the tutorial (going through the problem and the .ahk code)
  4. Discuss AutoHotkey as a possible tool and also some other possible tools (Python, TensorFlow, etc)
  5. Brief Talk about some existing online courses and content (Udacity, Udemy, Youtube Channels, etc)
  6. Brief Talk about Jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities
  7. Discuss other advanced concepts (Bias, Activation Functions, Learning Rate, Cost-Function, Multiple Layers, BackPropagation, Convolutional NN, Recursive NN, Supervised and Unsupervised Learning, etc)

Video Hour 2: Coding and Q&AA white stress ball with the green AutoHotkey logo being held in a hand, with a laptop keyboard blurred in the background

Script Highlight: EntryForm() by Coco

Screenshot of the EntryForm Test window showing single-line, multi-line, password, combo box, dropdown, list box, date, and updown input controls

 

Easy / quick way to create GUIs to capture user input with AutoHotkey.  Data captured is dumped into an AHK object.

Here is a link to EntryForm Example and script demonstrated during the webinar.

 

 

 

 

Resources for Neural Networks

AutoHotkey Forum post-

Articles

YouTube

Two women in an office smiling at a computer screen, one pointing at it while the other sits beside a green bottle on a desk.