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…
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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.
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! 🔥
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
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
🐁 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❗️
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 2-External Keyboards & Touchpads
📚 What we’re reading
- 16 ways to Repurpose Your Old Gadgets
- How to Port Forward on Your Router
- Google Messages for Web
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
🤖 AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage
- 5 Key Updates in GPT-4 Turbo You can learn more watching this video on OpenAI day
- Your Next Unbeatable Piece of Content
- Draw some amazing things in Ideogram
⚡️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?
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
⏩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!
Joe, Isaias, Irfan, and staff
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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!
