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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

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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 !

Built-in Windows Hotkeys

Mastering Windows: Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

I. Streamlining Navigation and System Access

  • A. Swift Application Switching and Window Management: This section explores the power of Alt+Tab for seamless program switching and the efficiency of Win+M for minimizing all windows. It also covers Win+Arrow key combinations for maximizing, minimizing, and moving windows across monitors. (Shortcuts covered: Alt+Tab, Win+M, Win+Up, Win+Down, Win+Shift+Left/Right)
  • B. Effortless Access to System Features: This section focuses on shortcuts that provide quick access to key system functions and settings. It covers launching the Start Menu, Explorer, Search, Run dialog, Settings, Clipboard Manager, Accessibility Settings, Quick Link menu, and system information. (Shortcuts covered: Win, Win+B, Win+E, Win+F, Win+I, Win+R, Win+S, Win+U, Win+V, Win+X, Win+Pause)
  • C. Enhancing Accessibility and Interaction: This section explores shortcuts that improve accessibility and user interaction. It covers launching Voice Typing, using emojis, accessing the context menu, and utilizing zoom functionalities. (Shortcuts covered: Win+., Shift+F10, Win+H, Win+Plus/Minus)

II. Mastering Text Editing and File Management

  • A. Essential Text Editing Shortcuts: This section outlines fundamental shortcuts for text manipulation, including selecting, cutting, copying, pasting, undoing, redoing, finding, and replacing text. It also covers shortcuts for navigating within and between words and lines. (Shortcuts covered: Ctrl+A, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+Left Arrow, Ctrl+Right Arrow, Ctrl+Delete, Shift+End, Shift+Home, Double Click Mouse, Triple Click Mouse)
  • B. Navigating and Managing Documents: This section focuses on shortcuts for efficient document navigation, including moving between pages and jumping to the beginning or end of a line or document. (Shortcuts covered: Ctrl+Page Up, Ctrl+Page Down, Home, End, Ctrl+Home, Ctrl+End)
  • C. Formatting and File Operations: This section delves into shortcuts for basic text formatting, such as italicizing, bolding, and underlining. It also covers shortcuts for common file operations, including opening, creating, saving, and printing files. (Shortcuts covered: Ctrl+I, Ctrl+B, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+N, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+P)

Basics of Creating a Hotkey: Extract from Intro to AutoHotkey in v2

How to create a Hotkey: Intro to AHK in v2 Extract
Intro to AHK v2 Hotkeys Extract

This video teaches viewers how to create hotkeys in AutoHotkey v2 for launching actions and performing various tasks.

  • 00:00 📝 Learn how to create hotkeys in AutoHotkey, which are triggers used to launch actions, in this extract from the Intro to AHK v2 Hotkeys course.
  • 00:49 📝 Creating hotkeys in AHK v2 is as easy as creating hot strings, with the only difference being the syntax for specifying the hotkey and the action, and modifier keys like Control, Alt, Shift, and Windows can be referred to using special characters.
  • 02:09 💡 To create a hotkey in AHK v2, use the character for the modifier key (e.g., control) followed by the desired key (e.g., enter) and separate them with a colon.
  • 03:03 📝 The speaker explains the difference between hotkeys and hot strings, and demonstrates how to create a hotkey that opens a website when a specific key combination is pressed.
  • 04:08 💡 The Run command in AHK v2 allows the user to execute files or open websites with their default application, making it convenient and efficient.
  • 05:12 🔑 You can easily create hotkeys for various actions like opening files, folders, or websites using AHK v2, with the hotkey command taking a hotkey as the first parameter and the corresponding action on the right side.
  • 05:58 💡 The speaker explains how to define and use a function in AHK v2 for performing actions based on a specific hotkey.
  • 06:50 💡 Create dynamic hotkeys in AutoHotkey by defining a variable and using an if statement to determine if the hotkey should be set or not.
hey it’s Joe Glines from the-Automator and this video we’re going to show you it’s an extract from our Intro to Autohotkey course intro and V2 that is and this is going to walk you through how to create HotStrings and Hotkeys right phenomenally helpful you can use them to launch things you can do using them for a lot of different stuff they’re think of them as triggers when you want to do
something is the most often used so in this video here is this is going to walk you through how to set them up I’m going to put up a coupon code or a link that’ll give you 20 percent off if you’re interested in getting the intro to AutoHotkey course it’s a great solid course I think it’s around four hours long most of videos are between three to five minutes this one’s a little bit longer butthey’re very very to the point and easy to follow they’re built for people who don’t know anything about
coding so check it out I hope you liked it please like the video If this helps you because it really helps us out cheers creating HotStrings so again anAuto Hotkey it is just a matter of specifying the Hotkey that you want and the action the only thing that changes a little bit is the syntax of how you do that let me go ahead and show you how to create static and dynamicHotkeys so if we open a new file we have our directives here for single instance and what it requires and in this case let’s
go ahead and create a Hotkey you have the hashtag like this so if I want to create a Hotkey that says Ctrl enter
or Ctrl shift enter I don’t have to write control or you know shift I don’t have to write any of that I just use the character that is designed for it and that’s the reason why on the Hotkeys because you because each each of them has a specific meaning but now to create a Hotkey let’s go ahead and say that I want to show a message box when I hit control enter so what I would do is I would have
to use the character for control which is the correct and then enter as a word like that and then I put two columns one after the Auto which defines that I’m doing a HotString instead of aHotkey here I don’t have the two columns at the beginning but I do have the two columns to divide the action in this case let’s go ahead
and do message box right and this is a test so now when I run this script whenever I hit Ctrl enter on my keyboard I will get this new box this is great as I mentioned it’s really easy and even though this example is very simple you could do many Auto things and actually very cool things for example just to show you how easy it is instead of a message box let’s do something a little bit more practical let’s say that I want to have a website show up whenever I press aHotkey so let’s go ahead and do control okay shift
F1 I can do this Ctrl shift F1 now what I could use in this case is the-Automator
website here I run this up and again as I mentioned this is Ctrl shift plus F1 in this case and this is Control Plus enter right so I’m running my script Ctrl shift F1 just goes ahead and open scrum with that page so just imagine how cool it is that you can create HotStrings and is
the same concept with the Hotkey command instead so this command takes a Hotkey as the first parameter notice that I’m actually putting quotation marks because this is literal text so this would be control so let’s say Ctrl shift enter in this case and then the action goes on the right side but the second side the the action that I’m going to perform is usually a function that you’re going to call and for that reason I do not have to put that in quotation marks because it is a function object and not only that I have
to Define define the function myself so let’s say open desktop this is going to be my function I just name it like that but as that is not literal text this is referring to a function you do not have to put quotation marks there but you do have to define the function somewhere else we will talk about functions later during the course but as a quick overview this function will take one parameter it is the plot key that I press this up and in the braces here I’m going to put the actions that I want to perform with this function in this case
what I want to do is run the desktop so a desktop is a variable that contains the path to my desktop and if I try to run a folder what is going to happen is that AutoHotkey is just going to go ahead and open the folder in Explorer so in this case this is the way to define a dynamic Hotkey which you can of cAutose use option right if you have a variable called option you can determine if it is true or false and if it is true then go ahead and use theHotkey and set theHotkey if it is false don’t set it so this is the way
to create Dynamic Hotkeys the-Automator this is how simple you can create Hotkeys in here