2025-02-06 Celebrate my birthday with me!

AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy,

Today’s my 57th Birthday!

To celebrate, I’m offering 50% off for 57 hours!

So, all of our courses are on sale until 7:00 p.m. CDT on Saturday.   You can use the below links which will, automatically, apply the birthday discount!

If you choose to use the discount manually, use this code during checkout: “Joes57bday”

If you’re planning to purchase a course, act now!  That 57 hours will end before you know it!

AutoHotkey V2 Courses

AutoHotkey V1 Courses

General Courses

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

Ripping Audio from Video

I’m helping a local Mexican restaurant out and downloaded a bunch of YouTube videos of Mexican music for an mp3 player in their parking lot.   The mp3 player of course needs mp3 files so I user our Mp3 ripper to quickly extract the mp3 audio from them.   This tool is sooo amazing!  You can check out the process in this video.

BTW- at the end of the video I discovered a very interesting issue where Explorer was, incorrectly, reporting the length of the video.   Do you have any guess as to what was going on❓

How to quickly Convert Videos to mp3 files in bulk
How to quickly Convert Videos to mp3 files in bulk


Lessons Learned with OCR with AI

Isaias and I noticed a very interesting thing when using OCR and AI.   We document it in this video.  If you use AI to examine images you do not want to miss this!

Tip for when Using OCR with AI in your tools / Scripts / Browser
Tip for when Using OCR with AI in your tools / Scripts / Browser


Quick GIT tutorial

One of our AHK Hero members was on a consultation call and wasn’t overly familiar with using GIT so Irfan gave him a quick tutorial.  Thankfully our client said he didn’t mind if we shared it so others can learn so you can check out the video here.

Quick Tutorial on using git
Quick Tutorial on using git


Having some Fun with Hotkeys

If you didn’t check this video out yet, you really should!   Isaias and I “discovered” an un-used key and then showed multiple ways that you could use it, or others, as a trigger.

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 Keyboard


Improving People’s Lives: Story #37

One of our clients reached out to us saying they were getting hammered with support requests and didn’t have the time to support them in a timely manner.   So we put our “thinking caps” on and, in less than 1 day, put together an  AI chatbot on their website that will help field a lot of the Frequently Asked Questions.

BTW- I didn’t have a list of FAQs from the client so I just used AI to generate the most likely questions.  And then I went in and did my best to write answers!   We’re waiting for the client to confirm ours are right but a lot had to do with automation so we should be good to go on most!


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Navigating Tabs in your Browser

  • Ctrl + Tab (or Ctrl + PgDn): Switches to the next open tab.
  • Ctrl + Shift + Tab (or Ctrl + PgUp): Switches to the previous open tab

A spot of Humor Super moments from the-Naked gun

The Naked Gun Super Moments
The Naked Gun Super Moments


What we utomated this week with AutoHotkey #74

We had quite a few AutoHotkey files worked on in the last week.  You can check them out in this video.  Remember, we could be working on your scripts for you!   Check our calendar for availability

What we automated with AutoHotkey- Episode #74
What we automated with AutoHotkey- Episode #74


Client’s say…

I love your scripts because I don’t have to focus on so many things.   I just look at the image and rely on muscle-memory. — Michael N. (Radiologist)


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 375 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
  • Writing to memory instead of file
  • Programmatically Determining the Delimiter
  • Incorrect “length” being reported by Windows Explorer
  • Deciding on customizing input from each program or just selecting text and using the clipboard
  • Copying specific files from sub-folders
  • Demonstrating resource drain during debug mode
  • Context Menu Trigger

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

  • Decisions without actions are worthless — Dan Kennedy
  • A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve , not by the desire to beat others — Ayn Rand
  • There are many tools out there for systematizing your marketing. There are not very many for systematizing your process — Joe Glines
  • If you think education is expensive, try ignorance — Derek Bok

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan, Rizwan and staff


P.S. I find it hard to believe I’m nearing 60!   It sucks being the same age as “old people”.  LOL

Do yourself a favor and celebrate my birthday with my by getting 50% off of one of our courses by using the above links or discount code during chekout.

All our courses come with a 200% money-back guarantee so you have NOTHING to lose!

AHK News- 2024-07-18-Reflections on the Trump Assassination Attempt

Howdy %Name%,AutoHotkey Newsletter

I find myself thinking about the assassination attempt on ex-President Donald Trump.

Regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum violence is not the answer.  “Ideas and Beliefs” are where our “battles” should be fought not with a guns and “in the shadows”.

Thank God the attack was a failure as I truly don’t know what would have happened to the United States had it of been successful.  I truly hope we all see this as a sobering moment and silence the political rhetoric.

As we move forward, let us reflect on the values that define our democracy: freedom, justice, and respect for all individuals.

We need to get back to the belief that our differences make us a better country and settle our disputes intellectually, not physically.

Joe Glines

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

Matching Dates with a Regular Expression

To offer more bonuses for our Intro to Regular Expressions course I tasked Rizwan with putting together a list of common Regular Expression “recipes”.  Rizwan is the newest member of our team and is continuing to discover the power of AutoHotkey.   One he found very interesting because it was so powerful.  We decided to record a short session discussing Regular expressions and naming subgroups.  You can check out the meeting here.

Learning how to Match Dates with Regular Expressions
Learning how to Match Dates with Regular Expressions | Regex is cool


Offset & Indirect with Excel

If you’re an Excel user, knowing how to use Offset is insanely powerful.  During a private client call with Scott (an AHK Hero member) Irfan mentioned using Indirect (which I’d never heard of).  After the private call we recorded this short video explaining how and when, to use each one.

Using Offset and Indirect in Excel with AutoHotkey
Using Offset and Indirect in Excel with AutoHotkey


Interactive Chart of AutoHotkey Developer-Lifecycle

I was playing around with Claude projects and decided to create a tool that I’ve been wanting for a while.  I provided some general info, titles, and corresponding editors/IDEs and AutoHotkey course depending on where the user is on the lifecycle.  You can see the interactive chart here.

Interactive bar chart titled Developer Lifecycle showing rising stages from Hotkeys & HotStrings to Create & Use Libraries, with recommended editors


Improving People’s Lives: Story #8

When I worked at Texas Instruments I was chatting on the phone with a colleague. He told me he was trying to update the Mind of Engineer survey to encorporate the 11 languages. The process was painfully slow and required thousands of copying and pasting.  I asked him to give me a few minutes and I’d get back to him.

A few minutes later I called him back and asked him to join me on WebEx.  I demonstrated a script that allowed me to hit one hotkey and it would transfer 5 of the labels.  If I hit a different hotkey it would transfer 20 labels.

With just 5 minutes of work I made a new friend for life!


What we’re reading


AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage


⚡️Productivity tips: Isolate yourself from distractions

I was on a client call discussing one of my favorite books from Dan Kennedy: No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs.  I remember this interview with Dan on the topic which will give you some good tips to follow.

The No B.S. Time Management Masterclass with Dan Kennedy

The No B.S. Time Management Masterclass with Dan Kennedy


A spot of Humor Trump on Who wants to be a millionaire

Donald Trump on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Donald Trump on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire


What we automated this week with AutoHotkey #53

We had 84 AutoHotkey files that were modified this week.   This recording I breezed through our week of automation a bit fast as it was the 3rd time recording the video.  Take a look at what we did here.

What we automated with AutoHotkey #53

What we automated with AutoHotkey #53


Testimonial

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 285 hours of recordings teaching AutoHotkey that is exclusive to AHK Hero members❗

During this Friday’s call we’re planning to discuss:

  • Avoiding “magic numbers” in your code
  • Using DirSelect verse FileSelect for Directories
  • Pausing DropBox (or other Cloud tools) to avoid Files being locked when using FileAppend
  • Using a Scintilla control in an edit field with v2 code
  • Different ways to identify your program (PID, HWND, AHK_class, AHK_exe)
  • Saving a screen shot (for debugging) to a folder without any 3rd party libraries
  • Using Tabs in a GUI and a Statusbar– Weird breaking of GUI
  • Working with DLLs in v2

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

  • Success comes from failure. Not from memorizing the right answers. — Donald Trump
  • Decisions without actions are worthless — Dan Kennedy
  • How you deal with failure determines whether or not you ever get to deal with the success — Dan Kennedy

AHK Newsletter⏩SHARE WITH A FRIEND⏩

Do you know someone that would benefit from learning useful automation tips like the gems in today’s issue?  Take a second and forward this newsletter and bask in the glow of their undying gratitude.  Was this email forwarded to you?

Sign up for this Newsletter here.  We never share your email with anyone.  Ever!


The-Automator

Joe, Isaias, Irfan, Rizwan and staff


P.S. Personally I feel our nation’s divide, while kindled by politicians, is blazed by mass media.  Don’t let the media convince you of things you don’t see or feel!