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 📚
- 5 Ways Windows 11’s Taskbar Is Worse Than Windows 10’s (I’m not switching until I can move it to the side)
- How to Search Quickly on Windows 11
- 4 step exercise for you to do (yes you %name%)
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!
Joe and staff
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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
- #115: What is an 💡 idea worth? How much $ should you pay the “idea person”?
- #114: 5 tips how to reduce the amount of personal support you provide
- #113: 7 reasons to talk to others 🗣️ about your programming (if you’re not doing this, you need to be!)
A spot of Humor 🤣
What we’re reading 📚
- How to Create and Customize a New Google Calendar
- How to Enable Dark Mode on Google Search
- How to Search Quickly on Windows 11
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!)
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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
- #114: 5 tips how to reduce the amount of personal support you provide
- #113: 7 reasons to talk to others about your programming 🧨 (Yes this is for you %Name%!)
- #112: The state of Automation & Future of Humanity
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
- Should you upgrade to Windows 11?
- What Is Google Sites, and When Should You Use It?
- Your Xbox Now Runs Microsoft Word, Excel, Discord, Edge, etc.
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
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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.
