June 30th, 2022
Howdy %Name%,
A mother was talking to her son in the morning. Her son was saying he didn’t want to go to school. That nobody likes him, and that all the kids make fun of him. To which she responded “Well you have to go to school today, you’re not sick. You have no excuse. Besides you’re the principal! 🤣
While I find this joke hilarious, the point is we all have things we don’t want to do. Learning something new is “work” but typically well worth the payoff! I made our AutoHotkey courses to provide a clear path to learning AutoHotkey.
Working with something new can feel very uncomfortable! Our courses can help ease the pain and get you to an AutoHotkey Rockstar in no-time!
Now on with the show…
Avoid losing data when working on files in the cloud ☁
Years ago Maestrith and I realized that, when working under DropBox and using file append in a fast loop we could end up losing data because DropBox was locking the file. Thankfully this was very rare as you had to be really spamming your hard drive. Sadly Isaias and I experienced something similar the other day so we thought we’d document a “best practices” for when working with files that are being auto-synced to the cloud. With the FIleObect you can lock the file so other tools can’t take control of it. It’s more complex than FileAppend however it has other benefits as well. One being, if you’re working in a large file, you can automatically jump to specific coordinates in it.
Automating a game on a Discord Server with my Son
My son, Jon, is 15 and spends a ridiculous amount of time on his Xbox and Meta Quest. He’s also been getting into games on a Discord server so I mentioned we could automate some of what he’s doing. Granted, in this video I was taking the “worst” approach to automation by just sending keystrokes however I was trying to show my son just how easy it can be. Have y’all tried to get your kids into automation? Or been even braver and get your spouse❓
Creating a Responsive GUI
I was on a call with André from Brazil and he had an issue with a GUI that wasn’t updating / being responsive. Years ago I’d used a few scripts to help with this but I asked Isaias to help explain what is going on and how to create a responsive GUI in AutoHotkey. If you’d like a simple resizable edit control you can get the code here. If you’re new to GUIs, you might want to take our amazing GUIs are Easy course! The course is AMAZING!👏
Functional / Procedural vs. Object oriented languages
Not being a programmer I’m often “lost” when I read articles written for programmers. One topic that often comes up is a discussion between “Functional or Object Oriented”. I asked Isaias to help explain the difference between the two. Do you have a topic you’d like explained? Let us know⁉
Understanding Email severs, Protocol and Sending emails
I have a couple of different scripts I use for sending emails with AutoHotkey. While I understand there are specific settings to configure I never gave much thought to what was behind them. In this video we discuss many of these settings, what they mean and why they exist.
Discussing email servers, protocol and sending emails
Simple Arrays in 🅰utoHotkey
Years ago I made this video to help explain how to work with arrays in AutoHotkey. Arrays are super useful to a programmer and understanding how to access them is really beneficial to you! I do go deeper into Arrays in the Intermediate AHK course.
How to work with Simple Arrays in AutoHotKey | It’s easier than you’d think!
🔥UI Automation🔥- The most amazing thing for AHK since sliced bread! 🍞
In case you missed them we’ve done two videos on using Microsoft’s UIA technology. This is a giant step forward for using AutoHotkey to automate programs
Intro video discussing the new Forum post and how to get Inspect.exe from Microsoft
How to easily automate nearly any program with the UI Automation API
Second video walking through how to connect to elements that don’t have a name
Automating a program where your element doesn’t have a name with UI Automation and AutoHotkey
📚 What we’re reading
AHK Hero?
Want more time than the Friday free hour? Have content that you can’t have on YouTube? Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive big discounts to courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.
They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 2nd “office hours” session which isn’t on YouTube.
I got a very solid understanding of the DOM by reading (and re-reading) Jethrow’s Web Scraping post (it’s still bookmarked on my Start page). I reached out to Jethrow and he declined to be interviewed however he did answer some questions which I read in this video. If you’re new to web scraping you can see webinars and videos here
Examples of AutoHotkey |AutoHotkey Experts: Jethrow
⚡️Productivity tips
It might seem counter-intuitve to take breaks however, having a solid break from your work, ensures you
keep your energy level’s up and be productive.
🤣 A spot of Humor
Roll-up the sleeves, shut off all distractions and learn something new today!
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- What you plant now, you will harvest later. — Og Mandino
- Do the hard jobs first. Easy jobs will take care of themselves. — Dale Camegie
- Effective performance is preceded by painstaking preparation. — Brian Tracy
- Be where you said you’d be, when you said you’d be there, ready to do what you said you’d do. — John Carlton
Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow
Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.
AHKCon
Have you watched our initial video on AHKCon? Are you signed up to get notifications? You can always go here to see if there is news on the event.
The-Automator
Joe, Isaias, and staff
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing 🦸♀️AHK hero membership:
Rodrigo C., Nathan N., Michael C., Miral P., Rune O., Thomas D., Tyler F., Guy M., Thomas K., Dale W., and Robert R.
and for these people purchaseing multiple Udemy courses
Double P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple AutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
- 5 Jesus a.
- 3 Ron o.
- 3 Rodrigo a.
- 3 Juan z.
- 3 John y.
- 3 Henrique a.
- 3 Dimas o.
- 2 Trevor n.
- 2 Shawn e.
- 2 Robert d.
- 2 Rennie d.
- 2 Pamela a.
- 2 Michael n.
- 2 Joey o.
- 2 Chui H.
- 2 Allen n.
- 2 Alexander v.
- 2 Aakriti
Triple P.S. a customer reached out a while back. He was in the Intermediate AutoHotkey course but weren’t sure if they were ready for the Intermediate Objects course. I mentioned the Intermediate Objects course does cover basics of Objects but the Objects course goes way, way beyond that. The dilemma was that the Objects course was on sale for ½ off but he wasn’t ready for it yet. I told him not to “sweat it” and to go ahead and finish-up the Intermediate AHK course. If/when he wanted to buy the Objects course I’d create a coupon to allow him to buy it at the sale price. Well today he said he was ready to move forward so I created a coupon dropping the price from $99 to 💲49. Since I was there I decided to create a few extra for y’all. I saw he used the 1st coupon but there are 3 still available. If you’re on the fence about buying it, now is a great time… The coupon code is: “cd50PERCENT” and needs to be used during checkout.
June 16, 2022
Howdy %Name%,
The more I collaborate with people, the more I realize just how helpful & powerful it is! I’ve been saying this for a long time but ya’ll need an AHK coding buddy! And not just for debugging purposes, being able to bounce ideas off each other is a huge win for everyone involved. Google is very helpful however it only helps you go down a specific “rabbit hole”. When we talk with others, they provide ideas outside our own which can be invaluable!
So find someone you can bounce ideas off of. They don’t have to be a programmer (but it would help if they were). The main point is to have someone you have both regular chats with and can go to when you’re trying to decide on a new direction or stuck debugging something. Trust me, it will be worth it!
Now on with the show…
🆕Object Oriented Course
Hopefully you’ve taken advantage of our sale price (ends 6/18)on the Intermediate Objects course. Object Oriented Programming sounds “scary” to non-programmers however, in reality, it actually simplifies your code.
We just released this video discussing Inheritance which is one benefit of OOP. Inheritance can help you design better structured/organized code. It’s not an overly complex topic but would be impossible without classes.
🆚Code & GIT
Do you work with others? Do you release versions of your code? If either of the previous statements are true, you really should take a serious look at VS code. In this video Isaias talks with Spawnova about the many benefits of using VS code. If you’re new to VS code, you can check out this webinar we did on it.
Personally I still use AHK Studio and recommend SciTE4AutoHotkey to people new to programming. Don’t forget we have a great tool for swapping your default AHK editors.
Uploading files and clicking buttons with Rufaydium
Have you played with Rufaydium yet? In this video Xeo786 shows us how we can upload files in Chrome using Rufaydium with AutoHotkey. Automating browsers is an amazing skillset to have. If you’re new to Web Scraping you can check out this AutoHotkey webinar where we discuss the basics.
Stop losing your $hit 🙄
Technology can be an amazing help! My wife is constantly forgetting where she put her: keys, phone, purse,🧠, etc. A Bluetooth tracker can be a great way to find what’s missing! Currently these TileMate trackers (affiliate link) are on sale for 💲16.99. Not exactly cheap but they make a great gift! They’re also a great “insurance plan” to put in something you think might get stolen or go missing. Don’t forget Father’s day is just around the corner…
📚 What we’re reading
Michael is out of Australia and has been working with AutoHotkey for several years. He does some really cool stuff with AutoHotkey and shares some examples in this video.
🤣 A spot of Humor
Crank up the music and watch this video of North Koreans marching to Bee Gees! (Reminds me of “the Office” when Michael is doing CPR on the dummy and Kelly get’s up to dance.💃)
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know to do it and stand back!
- If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. — Benjamin Franklin
- The other teams could make trouble for us if they win — Yogi Berra
- Keep a master list of long-range goals — John Carlton
Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow
Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.
AHK Hero?
Want more time than the free hour? Have content that you can’t have on YouTube? Consider joining the 🦸♀️AHK Hero club! Members receive big discounts to courses, consultations, tutoring, done for you project work, etc.
They also have access to exclusive & pre-released content and a 2nd “office hours” session which isn’t on YouTube.
The-Automator
Joe and staff
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing
AHK hero membership
- Nathan N.
- Rodrigo C.
- Thomas K.
- Miral P.
- Michael C.
and for these people purchaseing multiple Udemy courses
AutoHotkey Udemy courses this month!
- 3 Rodrigo a.
- 3 John y.
- 2 Robert d.
- 2 Rennie d.
- 2 Joey o.
- 2 Alexander v.
- 2 Aakriti
June 9, 2022 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
I’m excited to announce the 🦸♀️
🅰HK Heroes club!
Hopefully you already knew we offer AHK products (water bottles, squishy balls, stickers), Consultations, Tutoring, and Done for you services.
We’re launching a membership plan called AHK Heroes that will give you discounts to each of these and includes 1 hour of “Office hours” that won’t be streamed to YouTube. Office hours will be a time for people to ask questions & get help. Not quite 1-1, as other members may be there, however the content won’t be shared to the public. We’ll do our best to get your question answered during the hour!
Being an AHK Hero member will also give you deeper discounts to our courses (both on Udemy and on the-Automator.com) Very soon we will have the Intermediate Objects course available which is the gateway to Object Oriented Programming.
Now on with the show…
Auto detect which version of AutoHotkey to use…
In the free-Friday call last week someone asked if V2 had an installer. In this video Isaias and I discuss a V2 Installer which also has a tool that will automatically detect the version your script should be launched with. Pretty cool stuff if you’re dabbling with Version 2. Now you can have both V1 and V2 installed, use the same extension, and AutoHotkey will determine which version to launch your script with! Very, very cool!
Shell Hooks are Amazing!
The other day Isaias and I were working on a project where we needed to detect when a given window was active. I mentioned Shell hooks were a great tool to use as, in this video Jackie showed how easy it was to use them in a script. They’re an amazingly fast⚡ and a super powerful tool to have in your AHK Toolbox!
Testimonial for the-Automator 🙏
Given you’re reading this, I think it’s safe to say that, in some way or form, you’re getting helped by what we do. I was wondering if you could take a minute to help me. I love hearing how people have used what we’ve taught and how we’ve helped them. Can you spare a couple of minutes to complete this short form? I’ll be using the feedback on my website, as testimonials, and will print them up for me to look at and remind me why I do what I do. Thank you in advance!
Dynamic Context sensitive HotStrings
I often refer to HotStrings as the “Hidden-Gem” of AutoHotkey. In this video Isaias shows how to create Dynamic HotStrings that are context sensitive. This is helpful when you have a GUI that you don’t want to reload the script.
Automation Approach
I was trying to automate Davinci Resolve and was discussing various approaches with Isaias. I decided to hit record so we could talk through what we might be able to do. Many people have commented that, even though they don’t use Davinci Resolve, the video was helpful in understanding the process. Hope you enjoy it!
📚 What we’re reading
👨🏫 AutoHotkey GURU Interview: Nicolás Castillo
In this video I speak with Nicolás out of Mexico. He has a background in IT but also has a side-business in Real Estate. In this video he shows how he’s automated much of his mundane work with AutoHotkey
🤣 A spot of Humor
Ever see someone “call” a computer on an old rotary phone? My favorite part was, when the guy is dialing, he says it’s “extremely simple” to connect to the other computer. This is so freakin awesome!
Quick Access Popup news
Last week Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, showed me a “Hidden Gem” 💎in Quick Access Popup. The alternative menu is very helpful for those of us that are QAP Power-users! Check it out, it’s a great way to speed-up something you use a lot!
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- Whatever Your Mind Can Conceive and Believe, It Can Achieve. — Napoleon Hill
- Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. — Thomas Edison
- You can observe a lot by just watching — Yogi Berra
- Allow people to blossom or fail on their own. This takes ungodly patience, but it’s the only way it works. — John Carlton
Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow
Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.
AHKCon
Are you signed up to get notifications for AHKCon? You can always go here to see if there is news on the event.
The-Automator
Joe and staff
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple
AutoHotkey Udemy courses last month!
- 4 Morian e.
- 4 Mira s.
- 4 Jason e.
- 4 Eric a.
- 4 Ali k.
- 3 Wayne y.
- 3 Nicholas k.
- 3 Neil e.
- 3 James y.
- 3 Geoff s.
- 3 Etienne x.
- 3 Efe
- 3 Davor r.
- 3 Cami e.
- 3 Ben g.
- 3 Alex n.
- 2 Zijun n.
- 2 Tom p.
- 2 Sung e.
- 2 Summa
- 2 Stephen n.
- 2 Sj
- 2 Shawn n.
- 2 Sean e.
- 2 Satyen t.
- 2 Robert n.
- 2 Rajiv s.
- 2 Peter r.
- 2 Orkun s.
- 2 Louis o.
- 2 Jeff s.
- 2 Guilherme o.
- 2 Duc c.
June 2, 2022 AutoHotkey Newsletter
Howdy %Name%,
Here’s the #️⃣1 thing you need to wake up and realize. YOU define your future! The more clear your goals, the more likely you are to hit them. I’m not talking about the lofty goals “when I grow up I want to be president”, I’m talking about realistic short-term and long-term goals.
For short-term goals I like to use sticky-pads and prioritize my items based on rank-order. I find it really helpful to think about them the night before, so my subconscious works on them in my sleep!💤
Furthermore, the more committed you are to your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them! One way you can “tell yourself” you are committed to them is by telling your friends, family, mentors. I say this with a word of caution though as there are some “negative” people out there that will try and dissuade you of your goals. Be thoughtful in who you share your goals with and only share them with people that, you think
Do you have any goals written down? I highly recommend you write them down, organize and prioritize them.
When you have long-term goals, make sure you block time during the week so make progress on them as well. For instance, if you’re wanting to get better with AutoHotkey, block 2-3 hours a week to learn AutoHotkey. By blocking your time, you’re telling yourself this is “IMPORTANT TO ME‼”
On a closing note, let me ask you this %name%. What is more important to you than investing in yourself?
Now on with the show…
Walking through the process of automating a tool
The other day I was editing a video with Davinci Resolve and wanted to automate switching between X and Y coordinates. I jumped on a Zoom call with Isaias to discuss different approaches and we played around with the ACC Library as well as other approaches. We didn’t come up with an amazing solution, but we got a start on it. Just thought you might like to see the process…
Changes in Versions of 🅰️utoHotkey (Vanilla to AHK_L)
Isaias and I were discussing the major changes to AutoHotkey and I had a real insight as to how Object Oriented Programming (OOP) really streamlines your code making it more intuitive, clearer, and better organized. I’ve been using COM objects for years now but, until this video, I didn’t realize it was Objects & Classes that really allowed for the code to be so-much clearer! BTW we’re very close to launching the Intermediate Objects course!
Demonstrating the power of VS Code
We were on a call with Spawnova and Isaias was demonstrating how powerful VS code was (especially with it’s GIT integration). If you program with other people (or release versions of your scripts), VS Code is amazing! If not, I recommend AHK Studio if you’re an Intermediate level. If you’re beginning to program, it’s awfully hard to go wrong with SciTE4AutoHotkey! I discuss the differences of editors in this video and if you’d like a simple tool to easily switch your default AutoHotkey editor you can grab AHK EditSwap
Functional / Procedural versus Object Oriented Programming languages
Not being a programmer, I often find it hard to understand nuances discussing topics comparing languages. I was chatting with a friend about using Classes verse functions and we, somehow, got on the topic of Functional vs. Object oriented languages. I remember reading something about it years ago but asked Isaias to give me a refresher…
Dynamic, context sensitive, HotStrings
During the Free live help a few weeks back someone asked about using Dynamic HotStrings. We ran into a hang-up during the call but circled-back in this video to show how they can be created (in a weird way).
Spawnova’s Fast Image / Pixel Scanning class
I don’t know if you saw the video I did with Spawnova discussing his class but thought I’d link directly to his video showing how to use it. So cool that you can find images that are behind other images!
📚 What we’re reading
In this call I speak with Jesús Prieto out of Madrid Spain. Jesús joined us on many webinars and had used AutoHotkey to for translation work. He’s worked with C but shifted to AutoHotkey because it is so much easier and more intuitive. Like my son, his son also plays with Scratch from MIT.
🤣 A spot of Humor
Someone put the Bee Gees music over North Korean marching. Freakin brilliant!
Quick Access Popup news
I asked Jean Lalonde, author of Quick Access Popup, what was a “Hidden gem” that I was missing out on. We jumped on a call and he showed me how to use Alternative Menus in QAP. If you’re not currently using Quick Access Popup, you’re missing out! It’s an enormous time saver!
🗣️ 💭 Quotable quotes
- What you plant now, you will harvest later. — Og Mandino
- Put systems in place that will allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things — Joe Glines
- A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore — Yogi Berra
- Wake up. Challenge your belief systems. It’s better to realize you’ve been wrong for years, than to stubbornly hold onto a delusion that holds you back. — John Carlton
Live AutoHotkey Support Tomorrow
Don’t forget on Friday’s you can get free AutoHotkey support on my YouTube channel. Or you can sign up for reminders and join the zoom room.
AHKCon
Are you signed up to get notifications about AHKCON? We trimmed it down to just 1 day, August 8th from 10EDT to 5ish. Here’s a a general outline of our planned topics:
- 10:00 (Intro): Welcome and outline
- 10:30 (Panel): Discussion about Creating a Smooth transition from V1 to V2
- 11:30 (Panel): How to decide on which approach to use (COM, Controls, Messages, Image search, etc.)
- 12:30 (Lecture): Advanced Objects & Classes
- 1:30 (Lunch): “Open mic” where panelists will field questions while we refresh
- 2:30 (Panel): Text Manipulation (RegEx, StrSplit, Object-Parsing files, etc.)
- 3:00 (Panel): IDEs – What are preferences for different user levels
- 4:00 (Panel): Pros & Cons of various Data storage approaches
- 5:00 (Closing) Wrap-up / Answer some more questions
The-Automator
Joe and staff
P.S. Special thanks to the following for purchasing multiple AutoHotkey Udemy courses last month!
- 4 Morian e.
- 4 Mira s.
- 4 Jason e.
- 4 Eric a.
- 4 Ali k.
- 3 Wayne y.
- 3 Nicholas k.
- 3 Neil e.
- 3 James y.
- 3 Geoff s.
- 3 Etienne x.
- 3 Efe
- 3 Davor r.
- 3 Cami e.
- 3 Ben g.
- 3 Alex n.
- 2 Zijun n.
- 2 Tom p.
- 2 Sung e.
- 2 Summa
- 2 Stephen n.
- 2 Sj
- 2 Shawn n.
- 2 Sean e.
- 2 Satyen t.
- 2 Robert n.
- 2 Rajiv s.
- 2 Peter r.
- 2 Orkun s.
- 2 Louis o.
- 2 Jeff s.
- 2 Guilherme o.
- 2 Duc c.
AHK Hero 🦸
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