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Tag: newsletter

October’s 2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter

I’m going to be also publish the AutoHotkey Newsletter here in case you don’t receive it you can check the-Automator to find a given week.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 10/21/2021


Hi AHK Enthusiast,

What have you automated today?  A couple of days ago I was looking out my window 🌞 (see below) and was realizing what a great life I have.  I made a lot of good choices (and some bad) but got to a point where I own several homes, have zero debt, and have a decent amount saved up for rainy days.  But here’s the thing.  It isn’t by accident

It’s from hard work and dedication.  From taking extra time up front to find long-term solutions instead of just running around “putting out fires” 🔥.   I did, of course, have fires to put out in my corporate days however
I always made up for it “on my own time”.  Why?  Because I was unwilling to do the mundane tasks over and over.  For about 10 years I’d spend one week a year on  a “code-cation” with a good friend.
We’d work 12-15 hour days teaching ourselves how to be more efficient.
When I was at work I always blocked several hours a week to dive-deep into a topic and learn.


It’s one of the main reasons I created the AutoHotkey Udemy courses.  AutoHotkey is an amazing tool but, when you start,
it can be quite overwhelming.    My courses are very well planned and structured to give a clear path to learn AutoHotkey.  Have you worked through them?
If not, why not?   Learning how to automate your tasks is one of the best ways to working smarter, not harder.  I highly recommend you schedule a 2-hour recurring weekly appointment for learning AutoHotkey.
This is not time that you use to write your scripts.  This is to dabble in new areas.  In this video I cover 17 ways to automate programs with AutoHotkey.
How many do you know?  Get on it today!  Remember, this isn’t wasted time.
It’s a solid investment in yourself! 😁

 

Speaking of which, here is an excerpt from one of those sessions where Tank, TABNation, and I discussed API calls.
I thought it was a really great chat so I ripped it out and wrapped it with other resources.

Developer’s corner 👪📢

As many of you know I’ve been offering free AutoHotkey support on Friday’s from 10-11:30ish on my YouTube channel.  I decided to go “all-in” and create a recurring zoom meeting.  If you sign up you’ll get email reminders and you can join the meeting (instead of just watching on my YouTube channel).

BTW I plan to have regular guests!  For instance this Friday Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, is  going to be there and mention some new improvements coming out soon regarding Live folders & Groups (I use Groups very frequently so I’m excited to hear the news!)

If you can’t attend, but have a question that you’d like to have answered, you can submit your question here

AutoHotkey New File Template

In this video I show you how easy it is to tweak the AutoHotkey New File template so every new script you create has your default value / settings in it!


The-Automators’ Podcast

#113: 7 reasons to talk to others about your programming  Start doing this today!

#114: 5 tips how to reduce the amount of personal support you provide

#115: What is an idea worth? How much 💲 should you pay the “idea person”?

AutoHotkey Webinar

Our AutoHotkey webinar last Tuesday was an intro to Functions.  In it we showed how to use built-in functions as well as create your own.  We discussed optional parameters, byRef, Scope, and Global & Static variables.  If you’re not using functions, you really should check out the webinar!  BTW- I have a page dedicated to  AHK Functions and I cover them in the Intro to AutoHotkey course.

In the 2nd hour of the Webinar Dimitri Geerts showed us how he’s using Styles to “pretty-up” AutoHotkey GUIs.   I liked it so much I created a video💋 and file resources on using them.  Very cool & easy way to give an update to our AutoHotkey GUIs.  If you’re new to GUIs, I highly recommend our GUIs are Easy Udemy course.  It’s a great way to step into them!

What we’re reading 📚

A spot of Humor 🤣 Yep- this is definitely the case for me!

Quotable quotes 🗣️ 💭

  • It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit — Joe Glines
  • Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. — Albert Einstein
  • The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it. — Henry David

1,317 File attributes

In case you missed it, a while back I shared this little gem from SKAN.  This cool script lets you peak at, up to, over a thousand file attributes!

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

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

  • 3 Samuel H.
  • 3 Rick O.
  • 3 James G.
  • 3 David Le F.
  • 2 Godrim B.
  • 2 Armando R.
  • 2 Anthony M.
  • 2 Allan McK.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 10/14/2021

Hi AHK Enthusiast,

I hope you’re doing well! We got our dog a new buddy. Now she’s entertained and they’re both tuckered-out at the end of the day! 😁

Developer’s corner

Improving the Windows 10 Clipboard Manager 📋

If you’re running Windows 10+ you now have a built-in clipboard manager which is very helpful. By clicking Win+V you can access previous items in your clipboard. Unfortunately the activation key is the space-key which isn’t intuitive to me. So, after ~ a year of using, I finally took 5 minutes to write a script to switch it to the tab key. Here I walk through the simple code and you can grab the code here.

Incidentally do you have a copy of my 36 Windows shortcuts? I created this document over 20 years ago and its still valid and extremely helpful! Many people mentioned my demonstration of the “redo” command “blew their minds”

AutoHotkey’s New File Template 🆕

How often do you create a new file only to have to remove what’s there and add your default template? In this video I show you how you can edit the default template to have what you want. I also point out how to do it in AHK Studio.

Directory Opus

I finally changed my default file browser over to Directory Opus. I had a great tutorial with Leo Davidson last week showing how to create buttons/ customize it. Leo actually took an idea I had and added it! I got a preview and it’s a nice little feature that I enjoyed about Windows Explorer. I’m waiting to release the video when they release the update.

COM and AutoHotkey 🆕

After a great live AutoHotkey support session with TABNation and Tank, I excerpted the discussion from Tank, wrapped it with more resources, and then built a new page on the-Automator dedicated to COM and AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey Webinar

Our webinar next Tuesday, October 19th we’ll be walking through using functions. If you’re not familiar with using or creating your own function, you don’t want to miss this! I believe functions are the single best “level-upper” that you can learn! You can sign up for the webinar here

The-Automators’ Podcast

A spot of Humor 🤣

What we’re reading 📚

Quotable quotes 💭

  • 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
  • I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. — Thomas Jefferson

(%Name% do you have a favorite quote? Let me know and maybe I’ll add it to my list!)

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

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 3 Samuel H.
  • 3 James G.
  • 2 Godrim B.
  • 2 Armando R.
  • 2 Anthony M.
  • 2 Allan McK.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 10/07/2021


Hi %Name%,

Can you believe 🎃ctober is here? I’m excited as the pond excavation is (finally) done and we’re hoping to get some rain here soon. We got a little the other day but it’s going to take a LOT to fill it up now. I think we tripled the volume of it (besides removing a dozen trees that were draining it). I still need to add the aeration line, but I’m stoked we’re finally ready to move forward!

Developer’s corner

A couple of weeks ago Tank, admin on the AutoHotkey forum and AHK Whiz, joined TABNation and I during Live AHK support. Tank offered-up some great insights on COM, AHK V2 and API calls. I’ll be releasing the videos over the coming weeks but I hope to see more of you during the live support. I’m going to start having more guests with a planned topic (depending on the expertise of the guest). If you can’t make it to the live session, but have a question you want answered, you can fill out this form 📋.

Creating Images / button’s with HellBent’s Image theme creator class

Hellbent reached out to me saying he’d like to work through a demo using a couple of his classes. I was really impressed at how you can easily create “themed” buttons that look amazing! He also demonstrated how you can click them/ take action on them. Really amazing tool!

Customizing Directory Opus 🌞

I had another great call with Leo Davidson from Directory Opus. In this video we walk through some very powerful ways to customize Opus.

If you missed it, Jean Lalonde and I had a call with him a while ago showing how to use QAP and Opus together.

Working with Images but no Image files

In this video I demonstrate how you can encode images and save them as text. Then grab the text and render them as pictures (without saving them as image files).  Base64 is AMAZING!

The-Automators’ Podcast

AutoHotkey Webinar

Our last webinar, led by Jean Lalonde (author of Quick Access Popup) walked us through using objects in AutoHotkey. The next one we’re going to cover using AHK functions

What we’re reading

A spot of Humor

Quotable quotes

  • Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
  • Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. — Albert Einstein
  • If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. — Benjamin Franklin
  • I’ll take a hard working noob over a genius any day! — Joe Glines
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 3 James G.
  • 2 Godrim B.
  • 2 Armando R.

September 2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter

September’s 2021 AutoHotkey Newsletters

Hi %Name%,

Things are coming along here now that I’m moved into my office we’re adding a carport.  I actually helped dig the wholes the other day. It was tough work, but I’m looking forward to being able to park under it soon!   Do you think my friend’s pickup is big enough??? 😲

Office hours tomorrow October 1st

Tomorrow we’re planning office hours with Thom from TabNation at 11 EDT.  If you have a question you’d like answered you can submit it here (or just go to my YouTube channel and ask it live).  After this week I’m going to start alternating the guests.  I plan to bring in people like: Jean Lalonde (Quick Access Popup) , Maestrith (AHK Studio), Tank (AutoHotkey forum), Hellbent (AHK GUI guru), etc.  If there’s someone you’d like to have on, let me know!

FileExPro from SKAN 📢

I found this amazing function from SKAN give you access 1,317 file attributes!  Granted, the actual number depends on the type of file you’re working with but it’s pretty amazing none-the-less.  I worked through using it in this video.

Cleaning 📞  phone numbers with a RegEx

Regular Expressions are amazingly helpful!  I have a good series on them here.  In this video I walk through how to use one for cleaning up US Phone numbers.

How to record Audio 🎙️  using AutoHotkey and BASS.dll

In this tutorial I show how you can use the BASS.dll to record audio on your computer.  I tested recording .mp3, .wav, .ogg, and .aiff file formats.  I think there are native tools in windows to record audio, but this was pretty cool and allowed for flexibility of file formats.


The-Automators’ Podcast

AutoHotkey Webinar

Have you watched the last webinar on Objects?  Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, did a great job showing Simple and Associative Arrays.   The next AutoHotkey webinar Jackie and I will be discussing functions.  You can sign up here

What we’re reading

A spot of Humor

I don’t know if my wife has a pseudo-name, but she definitely could have drawn this!

Quotable quotes 🤔

  • My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. — Francine Jay
  • Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs. — Farrah Gray
  • Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. — Albert Einstein
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 4 Richard C.
  • 3 Jean Claude L..
  • 3 Frank W.
  • 3 Bettye C.
  • 3 Angelo D.
  • 2 Ulrich S.
  • 2 Robert R.
  • 2 Pang L.
  • 2 Marcos T.
  • 2 Lucas A.
  • 2 Juan J.
  • 2 Eugene V.
  • 2 Cristi A.
  • 2 Chachrist S.
  • 2 Bartosz S.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 9/23/2021


Hi %Name%,

I hope you’re doing well! I’ve still been super busy around my house. Thankfully I’m (mostly) moved into my new office and are getting ready for the car port to be built. I was going to go across the entire driveway (fifty feet) but decided I enjoyed the morning sun hitting me while I’m at the computer. After spending ~20 years working in fortune 500 companies, I hated being in huge buildings w/o even being able see any sunlight. Now I can sit at my computer and get a tan! 🌞

This weekend was particularly hard work. I spent 20 hours running a chain saw and cutting the trees we fell in our pond so I could burn them. They were one of the big reasons why we didn’t have year-round water at the pond so I decided to cut them down. Hopefully, next week, the excavator will come in and dig the pond down more and expand it. Then I can begin to try and fill it! While I was watching the fire burn, I took a picture and happened to notice what looked like a sad-face in the fire. I circled it below but no other editing was done. Am I crazy???

Great call with Hellbent!

I had a great call with Hellbent yesterday! He’s working on additions to my screen clipping tool 😲 but mentioned he had a need class for making it easy to use GDIP to create layered windows. Here’s the video where he walks me through how to use it. You can get all resources mentioned in the video here.

BTW- Hellbent is hoping to join us this Friday during Office Hours. Will you be there %name%? If you can’t make it, but have a question, you can submit it here. If you’re not aware of Hellbent, he’s got a great YouTube channel that you can watch here.

Calculating distances between Latitude & Longitudes

A subscriber mentioned he was using Google maps for calculating the distances between two points. I realized I’d already solved this in AutoHotkey (with Maestrith’s help).
In this video, I walk through how to use the function.


Play / Pause a video in VLC- and get the time stamp

In this video I show how I automated starting/stopping VLC with AutoHotkey & the ACC library ⚡. More importantly my original script required the entire ACC library (and an #Include). I decided to “pull in” the functions I was relying on to have a self-contained script. Many users don’t understand how libraries work in AutoHotkey. Pulling in the functionality that you need reduces the issues you’ll have at a later date. Of course you also won’t have benefits if someone “improves” the ACC library, but I’d rather just trust what I have then hope new changes don’t mess-up my script!


📢 AutoHotkey Webinar on Objects

Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, lead a great
webinar on Objects! As I mentioned in the webinar, I cover objects in the
Intermediate AutoHotkey course.
Below is the first hour of the webinar however the 2nd hour was also really good! We talked more on objects, then Dimitri showed us how he recreated Notepad in V2 of AutoHotkey. We also did some Q&A with attendees.


The-Automators’ Podcast

#109: How much support should we offer when selling software

#110: Should we teach our kids AutoHotkey? 👪

#111: The Pros & Cons of Windows 365 / Windows in the cloud ☁️

What we’re reading

A spot of Humor

Been there, done that!

Quotable quotes

  • Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. — Ayn Rand
  • While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. — Henry C. Link
  • Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. — Alexander Graham Bell
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 4 Richard C.
  • 3 Jean Claude L.
  • 3 Frank W.
  • 3 Bettye C.
  • 3 Angelo D.
  • 2 Ulrich S.
  • 2 Robert R.
  • 2 Lucas A.
  • 2 Juan J.
  • 2 Eugene V.
  • 2 Cristi A.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 10/16/2021


Hi %Name%,

Here’s a pre-post comparison picture of my house. We converted the carport into a bedroom & office. He did an amazing job making it look like it was part of the original house! 😁 Next is to add Solar 🌞 which will be awesome!

Developer’s corner

📢 Last Friday’s “Office hours” with TAB Nation went really well! You can see a recording of it here, or join us tomorrow at 10 CDT live on my YouTube channel! If you have something you’d like asked, you can submit your question here

Level-up your Programming

A while back Maestrith, author of AHK Studio, taught me about RGB, Decimals and Hexadecimals in AutoHotkey. For those of us that are non-programmers, this can be a daunting topic. It was great having Q&A with him!

Directory Opus meets Quick Access Popup

I had a great call with Leo Davidson from Directory Opus and Jean Lalonde from Quick Access Popup. Jean demonstrated some great functionality that is integrated with Directory Opus⚡️. It was wonderful talking with others that love to save time! I hope to do more calls with Leo & Jean!
Learn more about Directory Opus by watching these great videos

Just a reminder, Quick Access Popup is now back to free / donation ware! This is an amazing tool! I use it around 100 times a day and it saves me from a ton of manual programming in AutoHotkey!

Automators’ Podcast

AutoHotkey Webinar on Objects 📢

Next Tuesday, Jean Lalonde will be giving us an Intro to Objects. Be sure to sign up so you get the email reminders and resources.

Intermediate AutoHotkey Using objects in AHK allows us to group values in sequences (lists) or to group values by subject for example, properties of an item.)
In this webinar , Jean will cover basics of using objects and show a complete application reading a file to build list of records and songs.
BTW- I covered an intro into Objects in the Intermediate AHK Course

A spot of Humor

What we’re reading

Productivity tips

As I mention in this video, Automate This is a really interesting book. Not so much on “how” to automate,
but the tenacity & ingenuity used as well as the “never give up” mentality!


Quotable quotes

  • Winners are NOT those who never fail but those who never quit.
  • If you have time to whine then you have time to find solution. —Dee Dee Artner
  • The person who says it’s not possible needs to get out of my way — Joe Glines
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 3 Jean Claude L.
  • 3 Frank W.
  • 3 Angelo D.
  • 2 Lucas Silveira A.
  • 2 Eugene V.
  • 2 Cristi Marian A.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 09/09/2021


Greetings %Name%,

I hope you’re doing well. It was a trying week for me as I moved into my new office and had to go to storage to get the 27 boxes of books 📚 and my book shelves that I’d stored. Here’s a short video showing my new office layout. Still lots to be done, but it’s usable and much larger than my last one!


Developer’s corner 📢

As I mentioned in this video, TAB Nation and I are going to hold “office hours” 🆘 tomorrow, Friday Sep 10th at 11 Eastern. We’re considering doing this regularly and would love❤️ your feedback on when to have them & where to host them (or if you have questions you want answered). Please complete this short form to let us know how we can better help you.

Speaking of TAB Nation, we made a video a little while back discussing how to improve the likelihood of getting help with your code. A bit of it was out of frustration because some people (I’m sure you’re not one of them) expect us to drop everything and solve their problems with very little direction.

Hotkeys that paste images 🖼️

I recently released this cool script that allows you to use a hotkey to paste images. If you have images you paste often It’s a huge time saver!

Quick Menu list of Text Snippets

Do you have a lot of text snippets ✍️that you frequently paste and can’t remember the HotKey or HotString for them? Typically I’d recommend Quick Access Popup however it can be daunting to people that want something so simple. So I wrote this little gem that displays a menu of your text snippets and lets you select from them.


Podcast #111 Pros & Cons of Windows 365 / Windows in the cloud

In this week’s podcast Jackie Sztuk and I discuss the pros & cons of Windows 365 and how it will affect our AutoHotkey usage

📢 AutoHotkey webinar on Objects

During our next webinar on September 21st Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, will give us an intro to using Objects. Be sure to register for it as I’m sure he’s going to give us some great insights into using objects.

Speaking of Quick Access Popup, Jean Lalonde has recently made a HUGE decision! He’s decided to change QAP back to being Donation ware. As you know %name%, I’m an enormous fan of QAP. It saves me so much time it’s crazy to think that now, hopefully with a donation, you can have full access to this amazing tool! Thanks again Jean for this amazing tool!

What we’re reading 📰

A spot of Humor

Quotable quotes 💭

  • Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. —Theodore Roosevelt
  • Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
  • My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. — Francine Jay
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

AutoHotkey Newsletter 9/09/2021

Greetings %Name%,

It’s hard to believe but my office and new bedroom are (basically) done! 😁 I’m waiting for my new desk to arrive to move in, but here’s a pic of it empty.

Developer’s corner

I was working with a client that frequently wants to paste specific pictures. A while back I’d shown how to automate putting a picture in the clipboard but
thought I’d make it a bit easier (and have it automatically paste). I also went through and pulled in the specific GDI functions so now the script is self-contained.


Calculating time / Money savings 💵

Someone commented on a video where I discussed how to calculate how much savings 💲 you have from automating. I’d honestly forgotten I’d made it! It’s a really important question though. %Name%, do you keep track of how much you save your company by using AutoHotkey?


Podcast that week

Last Tuesday’s podcast was a fun one as Jackie and I discussed if we should bother teaching our kids 👨‍🏫 AutoHotkey given the use of Tablets, Chrome books, etc. You can check it, and other podcasts out here.

AutoHotkey Webinar on September 21st

Last month’s webinar covering V2️ was really interesting (thanks again Dimitri!) Next month’s webinar Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, is going to give us an Intro to using Objects. Be sure to sign up! BTW- are you a QAP User? If so, would you be up for a call with me sharing how you use the tool?

📢 THIS JUST IN! 📢 I got a note from Jean that he’d like to create a coupon for Quick Access Popup. So, if you love it like I do, now’s a great time to buy. You can get the discount code here but you better act fast, it will expire before you know it and you’ll feel as smart as the guy that sold Excel to Microsoft!

A bit of Humor

What we’re reading

Quotable quotes

  • While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. — Henry C. Link
  • The thing about smart people is that they sound crazy to dumb people. — Steve Jobs
  • Happen to things, don’t let things happen to you. — Stephen Covey
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe

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

 

  • 15 Shane G.
  • 5 Blake B.
  • 5 Björn S.

 

 

  • 4 Shawn C.
  • 4 Jasmine G.
  • 4 Guilherme B.
  • 4 Daniel R.
  • 3 Steve F.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Ryan C.
  • 3 N.
  • 3 Kim J.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 Mike P.
  • 2 Michael P.
  • 2 Leon G.
  • 2 David C.
  • 2 Clemens T.

August 2021 AutoHotkey Newsletter

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/26/2021

Hi %Name%,

Are you feeling stuck in your job? ⛏️

The property we moved to ~1 year ago had a small pond which, apparently, dried out every year. I really wanted a “year-round” pond plus having the option to literally fish 🎣 in my back yard is extremely appealing! Over last weekend I worked on draining the pond so we can excavate & expand it. We’ll also be cutting down many of the trees around it (apparently, they can use up to 150 gallons a day!) and adding an aeration system.

Thankfully I have amazing friends with amazing gadgets 🛠️! My friend (and contractor) Garrett Short loaned me his pump which took me 3 days to fully drain our pond. It was hard work, but I’m really looking forward to the rewards!

So back to my original question. Are you stuck in your job? Want a promotion but can’t get your boss to see your value? Developing tools with AutoHotkey is a great way to increase your value and then easily prove your “worth more”. Why not invest in yourself so you don’t get stuck?

What I’ve automated with 🅰️utoHotkey

It’s been a while since I’ve documented what I automate with AutoHotkey. Here’s the most popular video I have on it. Do you think I should kick back off this series?

the-Automators’ Podcast

AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2

We had an awesome webinar on AutoHotkey Version 2 lead by Dimitri Geerts. Will you be switching %name%? After considerable thought, I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon but still encourage people to review it and see if it is right for them. You can get the resources shared during the webinar as well as watch the videos here. Don’t forget to grab Dimitri’s V1️ to V2️ converter to save yourself some time and pain!

Quick Access Popup

Jean Lalonde and I covered important settings you should know when you start using Quick Access Popup. I’ve been using Quick Access Popup more and more. It’s an amazing time-saving tool!

What we’re reading

Nearing my 5,000 on YouTube & Udemy! 😁

On YouTube I currently have 4,941 subscribers and on Udemy I have 4,754 students. Crazy how close the two numbers are! If you’re interested in buying a Udemy course, please make sure you go here so you get a discount (and I get a higher percentage of what you pay. If you use my link, I get 97% otherwise I get between 25-50%)

Quotable quotes

  • The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity. — Timothy Ferriss
  • My whole philosophy is working smarter and not harder. And making sure I’m using little effort and getting a huge effect. — Anthony Pettis
  • The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. — Ayn Rand
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff

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

  • 15 Shane G.
  • 5 Blake B.
  • 5 Björn S.
  • 4 Shawn C.
  • 4 Jasmine G.
  • 4 Daniel R.
  • 3 Steve F.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Ryan C.
  • 3 Kim J.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 N.
  • 2 Mike P.
  • 2 Michael P.
  • 2 Leon G.
  • 2 David C.
  • 2 Clemens T.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/19/2021


Greetings %Name%,

While Isaias is taking a break, I’ve shifted my attention to helping a local Mexican Restaurant. Its been an interesting experience to say the least! Since they barely speak English, I’m just taking action instead of asking for permission. 😲

The first thing I did was build them a simple website (amazingly none of the 4 restaurants here in town had one). I’ve also automated publishing pictures to social pages (with QAP) and have been working on building an App for them with AppSheet (I’m hoping to record a couple videos on AppSheet in the future but you can watch this short video giving you an idea of its capabilities)

AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2

We had an amazing great AutoHotkey webinar on AHK Version 2 earlier this week!  We covered the major changes as well as the reasons, or lack there of, you might want to make the change. Go here to get the links to recordings and resources. Special thanks to Dimitri Geerts for leading the webinar and creating the deck! Don’t forget to try the converter tool he’s been working on which will try an adapt your v1 code to v2!

Don’t forget to sign up for future webinars here or check out some of our 60+ webinars here

Developer’s corner 📢

Webservice API calls, Webhooks, and Fiddler

In this API tutorial I walk through a site I found where you can connect to a server and see the network traffic the server receives when you use a browser, or AutoHotkey, to connect to it. You can, and should, learn more about APIs

Streamlining writing this Newsletter

In this review I show some of my process for writing this newsletter. QAP is a huge help!

A bit of humor

I spent ~23 years working at Fortune 500 companies and don’t miss it 1 bit!

cJson parser

GeekDude’s cJSON parser now works with 32-bit mode! I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet but I look forward to being able to get the speed benefit in 32-bit! According to GeekDude, if you’re doing benchmarking, note that the first time you call a cJson function it will be a little slower as it loads all the machine code into RAM.  Following calls will be executed from RAM so you’ll see the performance on subsequent calls (not the 1st one)

Podcast that week

  • #106: 5 reasons being pigheaded is a good thing
  • #107: 7 tips to increase your scripts working on multiple computers
  • #108: Selling scripts: Subscription based verse 1-time fee

What we’re reading

Short Productivity tip

Working with no distractions! It’s a glorious thing!

Quotable quotes

  • Winners are NOT those who never fail but those who never quit. —  Unknown
  • The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity. — Ayn Rand
  • It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. — Thomas Sowell
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe and staff

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

  • 5 Blake B.
  • 5 Björn S.
  • 5 Shane G.
  • 4 Shawn C.
  • 4 Jasmine G.
  • 3 Steve F.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Ryan C.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 Mike P.
  • 2 Michael P.
  • 2 Leon G.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 8/12/2021


Can you believe it is August %Name%? 😲  I see it on the calendar but am having a hard time accepting it!

We finally got our back porch poured!  The office is coming along nicely as well.  A couple more weeks and we’ll be done and ready to migrate into my office!

Developer’s corner

Google Translate API

I’m helping a local Mexican Restaurant with various tasks.  They’re so “authentic” they don’t really speak English so I’ve been using Google translate a lot.   So much so, that I wrote this little script to leverage the Google Translate API and help with my texting to/from them.


Dynamically updating the DOM

Ever use an ActiveX control to display content?   Wouldn’t it be great to dynamically update the DOM?  Watch this video where Tank shows us how it’s done!  Please keep in mind this is an excerpt from a 6 hour call and Tank was solving all of this on the fly.


Update your LinkedIn profile

As RPA (Robotics Process Automation) becomes more well known & accepted, it is very beneficial to mention AutoHotkey in your LinkedIn profile!  In this video I show how you can upload your Udemy certificate of Completion as one sign that you’re skilled in AutoHotkey.


BTW- connect with me on LinkedIn.  I have over 16,000 1st level connections (1,400 having AutoHotkey in their profiles).  Also, on a different YouTube channel, I have 6 videos how to “rock your LinkedIn profile”. You can check them out in this LinkedIn playlist


What we’re reading

Podcast that week

AutoHotkey Webinar next Tuesday, August 17th on V2️

Remember to register for our AutoHotkey webinar next Tuesday we’ll have a guest speaker (Dimitri Geerts) discussing some of the major differences in syntax of AHK Version 2.  If you care to read up on the official listing of changes, you can see them here.   This is timely because v2.0 beta 1 was 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

Quick Access Popup news

I’m helping several local restaurants with their customer databases, social media posting, and reviews.  I’m convinced now more than ever that QAP is a Godsend! 🦸‍♂️ Later I’ll make some videos documenting how I’m using it for their businesses, but I’m convinced it is the #1 tool that all of us should be using more!  It capitalizes on many of AutoHotkey’s best features & benefits but lets us use them with “zero coding” (okay, perhaps not zero, but close to it!).   Jean Lalonde, you’ve really created an amazing tool!

One way I do use QAP is to help me write this newsletter!   At the end of this video I show how I leverage QAP to help write the HTML that drives it.

Quotable Quotes

  • Put systems in place that will allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things — Joe Glines
  • Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. — Paul J. Meyer
  • Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest. ― Leo Babauta

A bit of Humor

I think there is way too much truth in this meme!

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

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff

P.S. Special thanks to the following students for purchasing multiple AHK Udemy courses in August

  • 5 Shane G.
  • 3 Sidnei I.
  • 3 Gerard P.
  • 2 Leon G.

AutoHotkey Newsletter 08/05/2021


Hi %Name%,

Easily create Phone Apps:

I’ve been helping a local restaurant with their marketing and was looking for an easy way to create iPhone / Android app for them. Jackie Sztuk mentioned AppSheet.
This ~7 minute video entitled: How to create an App (database) that works with Excel will give you a quick idea
how easy it is to create an app that will run on Androids / iPhones or a browser on a computer.
Amazingly there’s NO CODING involved!
The one thing I don’t like about AppSheet is the pricing however there are some options that might work.

The contractor is back at work on our house! Soon it will be hard to tell the carport was ever there! 👍

A spot of Humor

I’m hoping this isn’t normally me, but I do know some people it applies to…

Developer’s corner

On a call with Tank, RaptorX and Hellbent Tank showed us How to dynamically add an element to the DOM


How to use the Google Translate API for texting in other languages


Preventing a redirect helps us understand what is going on with this API call


What we’re reading

Podcast that week / Webinar

Great quotes

  • Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. — Warren Buffett
  • It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. – Thomas Sowell
Intro to AutoHotkey HotStrings with AutoHotkey Intermediate AutoHotkey GUIs are Easy with AutoHotkey Intro to DOS & AutoHotkey

The-Automator

Joe, Isaias (RaptorX) and staff

AutoHotkey Webinar- Udemy, Newsletter and Beautiful HTML GUIs with Neutron.ahk

Video Hour 1: New Intermediate AutoHotkey course, Newsletter and more
Video Hour 2: Beautiful HTML GUIs with GeekDude’s Neutron.ahk (thanks again GeekDude!)

Script Highlight: I a script I had for peeking into large files and determining the number of rows and view the headers but, more importantly, check out this video where Maestrith refactored my code for me.

AutoHotkey Podcasts

055-mp3 Video Adapting OCR to using a stream for screen clipping tool
056-mp3 Video How often do we need to re-educate ourselves
057-mp3 Video Non-Desktop running programs
058-mp3 Video Are Programs getting harder to automate?
059-mp3 Video What are API calls?

Udemy Courses

Alerts / Update newsletter from the-Automator

  • What I’ve automated
  • Cool scripts from forum / Facebook / Reddit, etc.
  • Podcast that week
  • Time-saving tip (not AutoHotkey related)

Subscribe to my alerts and be entered into chance to win 1 of 10  Intermediate AutoHotkey course giveaway!  The drawing will be held on June 1st

Udemy Intermediate AutoHotkey Course Syllabus

  • Intro
  • Recommended Default Settings
  • Various Types of Send
  • Using a SetTimer
  • Creating, reading and writing initialization files (.ini)
  • Working with the Windows Registry
  • Utilizing Controls to connect and automate programs
  • Selecting menus in (older) windows programs
  • Loops
    • Basic Loop
    • While
    • Until
    • Parsing Text
    • Files and Folders
  • Arrays
    • Simple Arrays
    • Associative Arrays

Here are the links / content shared in the chat during the webinar

15:09:50 From Joe Glines : https://the-automator.com/subscribe-to-alerts/
15:13:12 From Joe Glines : https://the-automator.com/level-up-your-programming-by-having-a-genius-refactor-your-code/
15:13:18 From Brad Schrunk : What kind of file did you read
15:14:40 From Joe Glines : real estate data
15:14:50 From Joe Glines : it’s all free and available to the public
15:16:39 From Brad Schrunk : I use these type of file structures
15:16:43 From Brad Schrunk : for my record system
15:16:58 From Joe Glines : cool
15:17:49 From Robert Gray : Joe your short YT videos often say “This is something from my base AHK file”. Have you published that entire file somewhere, or are you just mining it for YouTube content?
15:18:35 From Joe Glines : It’s over 2,000 lines long. A ton is personal / not relevant so, no, I haven’t shared it
15:18:52 From Robert Gray : Understood. I have a similar one that I can’t really share.
15:20:11 From Mason G : An interesting note: Chrome.ahk works with Electron apps.
15:21:03 From Joe Glines : cool
15:28:10 From Robert Gray : Looking at your start page made me think to suggest you check out start.me. It’s the nicest Chrome start page tool I’ve seen. VERY configurable and it syncs content across your devices.
15:28:36 From Brad Schrunk : do have a link to the web code generator?
15:29:42 From Brad Schrunk : Yes the tank one or whatever is available
15:29:49 From Robert Gray : Take a look at start.me. It’s worth a look.
15:30:22 From Ryan Wells : Quick related point of web page launcher. IF you use HTML anchors and a AHK ‘link watcher’ on your page you can detect a click and then launch a script.
15:30:27 From Joe Glines : https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=63443
15:30:56 From Brad Schrunk : The problem is I am not in your league or even in the parking lot
15:37:35 From Robert Gray : Ryan, can you expand a bit on the link watcher details?
15:38:24 From Ryan Wells : You just detect the click Robert but in this case the anchor doesn’t go anywhere… AHK detects the click.. and then you can launch your AHK script just as Jackie as says
15:38:35 From Mason G : Geek has been working on something called “neutron”. A full integration between AHK and Edge, so it can be used as a GUI properly.
15:39:02 From Robert Gray : I see. Thanks Ryan. Interesting idea.
15:39:14 From Mason G : Oh cool. Didn’t hear that, I’m at work currently
15:39:35 From Brad Schrunk : Thanks Men I have to head out I will be sure to watch this full video.
15:39:50 From Joe Glines : bye Brad
15:41:11 From Mason G : It’s using IE COM. Both neutron and Chrome.ahk use it though. So he may be using the base from Chrome.ahk, but it isn’t actually using Chrome
15:45:12 From Joe Glines : https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42890&hilit=chrome+class
15:46:16 From Mason G : Neutron is on Github now. I just compared the classes, they don’t really have anything in common. And I forgot: Neutron uses ActiveX. Basically the same, but it’s easier to integrate to an AHK gui
15:46:31 From Joe Glines : https://github.com/g33kdude/Neutron.ahk
15:49:42 From Mason G : Here is a snippet he posted from yesterday https://p.ahkscript.org/?p=4bb119bb
15:51:20 From Dale Winchell : I have a couple of things..
15:51:25 From Geek Dude : Hey there Joe!
15:51:54 From Mason G : Hey Geek 🙂
15:56:56 From Robert Gray : Amazing!
16:03:16 From Joe Glines : Dale, lets let Geek Dude finish up then we’ll shift over to your stuff
16:05:50 From Dale Winchell : Ok, no problem at all
16:12:10 From Mason G : Relax support, huh? I’m sure you weren’t pressured 😉
16:26:47 From Robert Gray : Really nice work Geek Dude! I hope to someday know enough to use it. 🙂
16:34:44 From Geek Dude : https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=4588
16:41:55 From Robert Gray : Can you reference an external style sheet file or must the CSS be in the AHK file?
16:42:36 From Robert Gray : Ah. OK thanks.
16:43:36 From Robert Gray : Thanks for sharing your work!
16:52:24 From Joe Glines : Autocorrect https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Hotstrings.htm#AutoCorrect
16:53:46 From Robert Gray : Speaking of spelling corrections, I have a lot of those but I often overrun AHK’s attempt to fix a word as I continue to type the next work. I end up with a mixture of the new word and AHK’s correction. Is there a known fix for that? Maybe increase the typing speed on the fly, then reset it after the correction is complete?
16:54:49 From Robert Gray : “work” –> “word”
16:57:50 From Mason G : I could help, but.. yeah on my phone
16:58:02 From Geek Dude : I don’t think I finished my thought about joedf’s tutorial page. I meant to say about it, that it shows some cool tools but doesn’t make them easy to use. His examples show crazy hacks with ComObjConnect, invalid URLs, and other techniques that add confusion and aren’t really needed anymore because of updates to AHK_L’s COM support–and the example GUIs he builds with them, for lack of a better phrase, aren’t “pretty”. If you’re a web dev you might know how to take his stuff and build on it to make a nice UI, but if you haven’t worked much with HTML+CSS you might miss out on the opportunity. Neutron aims to fill the space of 1) make it easy to build an HTML GUI, and 2) make it look fantastic by default.
17:01:43 From Mason G : I’ve never seen anyone type faster than input, but you can use BlockInput, Send
17:03:40 From Joe Glines : Thanks for the work & sharing on Neutron Geek Dude! Also your notes above on the Joe DF’s tutorial page