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AutoHotkey Newsletter

Howdy %Name%,

I’m not the most innovative person but I’m very good. Probably better than 97% of most people.

I’m not the best AutoHotkey programmer , but I decent. I’m probably better than 95% of people.

I’m not the best Data Analyst but I am much better than most (probably better than 95%.)

When you meet 100 people it won’t be hard to find some people better than me at any one of the above. What will be hard to find is an innovative individual that is amazing at programming in AutoHotkey and can analyze data and explain it in laymen’s terms!

It’s usually not your strengths alone that makes you stand out. It’s the combination of your strengths that sets you apart. When you’re deciding what really sets you apart, think more about several of your key-strengths and how they will set you apart from others.

Now on with the show…

Talk to your Computer

While Windows has a built-in approach for performing Voice to Text, it isn’t the best in the world. When we were updating our Chat GPT API library I happened to noticed that their Whisper model (which is the best in the world that I know of) was now accessible through their API. So, with a little bit of work, we created this tool which allows you to easily, and accurately, transcribe your voice to text. You can get the tool here or just check out how it works in this video.

Easily Transcribe your audio with Whisper from Chat GPT

Working with APIs

If you’re new to working with APIs you might check out this tutorial we did on how to use Fiddler to monitor your network traffic. While you can go to the Developer view in a browser however
Fiddler allows you to also see your API calls from AutoHotkey!

Fiddler tutorial to help Webscraping & API calls / Monitor the Network traffic

Simplify you Life Using VSCode & this trick

We were on a team call and Isaias wanted to show Irfan a little trick how to better define his AutoHotkey functions in VS code. Thankfully I recorded the call because the tip was a GAME CHANGER!

Taking this approach makes using functions far easier because the possible parameters are auto assisted when you type. Check it out in this video.

How to Setup your function to use Intellisense in VS Code

I liked it so much we’re having Rizwan go back and update our other libraries so anyone getting our scripts, and using thqby’s amazing AutoHotkey V2 VS code extension, will be able to take advantage of them as well.

If you’re using thqby’s extension, please consider donating to thqby. He spends a ton of time and deserves your help!

Don’t forget we have an amazing Intro to VS code course which comes with a double-your-money back guarantee. If you’re not 100% satisfied within the first 30 days, ask for a refund and we’ll DOUBLE what you paid for it!

Improving People’s Lives: Story #9

Back in 2016 a good friend of mine, that worked in sales, was let-go and was very concerned because she hadn’t been keeping an up-to-date client list. She was using Outlook and, because she was remote, still had access to her emails.

So Maestrith and I got to work using the Outlook COM object and create a cool little tool to loop over all of her emails, count how many were from each email address and note the last time she’d corresponded with them. This gave her a “real world” address book that should could easily export! You can check out the tool in this video.

Create an Outlook email-addressbook based on email frequency

What we’re reading

New Windows 11 features rolling out
What is a WebM File
Cool YouTube Music Features
SmartThings Pro looks like the Ultimate Smart Home Panel

AI / Chat GPT-3 News / Usage

⚡️Productivity tips: Goldilocks monitors

Over the years I’ve worked with as many as 6 monitors and realized the “ideal” number of monitors is not easily determined. You should think of it as a “Goldilocks” approach. Two many is nearly as bad as too few. And, if you’re doing a lot of writing/programming, consider setting up one of your monitors Portrait. You’ll be able to see a LOT more of your work at one time!

How to Setup a Vertical Monitor on Windows OS

A spot of Humor Vacation!

This week I’m taking my first vacation in around 6 years. I hope things go better for me than these people.

Worst Vacation EVER! 19 Funny Vacation Fails

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

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

Pausing DropBox to avoid Files being locked when using FileAppend
Using DirSelect verse FileSelect for Directories
Using Tabs in a GUI and a Statusbar– Weird breaking of GUI
Working with DLLs in v2
WebViewToo — Easy Web-based GUIs using WebView2
Making Functions in scripts available by creating a COM object

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

Create exceptional Opportunities for Exceptional People — Dan Kennedy
PIBCAC Error: Problem is Between Computer and Chair — Rich Del Secco
The strength of your business is based more on your customers , than your products — Joe Glines
Motion beats meditation — Gary Halbert

⏩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. As I mention in the intro of this newsletter, we’re most productive focusing on what we’re best at. If you’re wanting to have amazingly robust scripts, you really might want to let us help you create them so you can get back to focusing on what you’re best at! If you’d like to discuss us helping you simply reply to this email and give me an idea what it is you’re working on.

Howdy,

I’m pretty sure I’ve spoken to more AutoHotkey users on the planet than anyone else.

We share a lot of similarities. Here are a few to see if you’d describe yourself similarly

You hate wasting time!
You love solving problems
Your curious and self-motivated
Your pragmatic & focus on practical solutions
You’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission
You care more about “getting things done” than getting the credit
You are a long-term thinker often sacrificing immediate solutions to save more time later

One thing you’re not is lazy

It’s this last one as to where I want to try and get you reconsider your mindset.

I think a lot of people don’t get help because they think having someone help would be a sign of being lazy or “cheating”.

Over the past 11 years I’ve spent countless hours on online calls with AutoHotkey experts like Maestrith, Isaias Baez, GeekDude, Irfan, Jean Lalonde, Tank, etc. and have made enormous gains in my programming knowledge by watching how they solve problems with AutoHotkey.

When I was working daily with Maestrith I realized people with their knowledge could

develop tools in hours that would take me weeks

And not only would their tools be more robust, but they would also be written in a way that made changes & updates easier to apply.

I also realized that, by working with them to develop the tools, it was far easier to expand my programming skills because they were working on a project that I was familiar with.
Many times we’d be covering a topic and I’d see code on the screen I didn’t understand and ask them to explain it to me.

These mini-sessions would leap-frog me forward in my skills and abilities. We do offer tutoring sessions and not nearly enough of you are taking us up on it.
I guarantee you’ll experience enormous growth when we work with you on your code!

Its one of the core things we do during the AutoHotkey Hero calls. We start off each call by asking if anyone needs help with something.

Now on with the show…

Easily summarize Local media files

Isaias has been updating our Chat GPT API class. I realized they had incorporated their Whisper model which does an amazing job transcribing audio. It reminded me of a conversation I was having with a client/friend of mine that works in Market Research.

He’ wanted to be able to, easily, summarize his meetings. Initially he also wanted to, somehow, use AutoHotkey to record the call (probably automating OBS) however I realized, if we just start by using an Audio/Video file, we could easily get something started for him. While this is a work in progress, you can check out what we got done so far in this video.

Great AI Tool for Sumarizing videos and Extracting Learnings

AutoHotkey Resource Finder

Many of our clients will reach out and ask us if we have a video, script, link on a given topic.
I realized, it wouldn’t be that hard to create a tool that would put together many of our resources. I also realized we could add both v1 and v2 AutoHotkey help from Documentation.
We created the-Automator Resource finder which has been a huge hit! You can check out how the tool works in this video.

Super helpful AutoHotkey Resource Finder

What would you do with the above tool❓

Add a CoPilot Key to your Keyboard

Microsoft is up to their usual shenanigans. In Windows 11 they had innitialy added a built-in Hotkey (Windows+C) however later they decided to remove it (I guess they want to sell more keyboards?
In this video I show how easy it is to add it back with a hotkey.

How to Create your own CoPilot Hotkey without buying a new Keyboard

Improving People’s Lives: Story #7

Last week we had a call with an amazing AutoHotkey developer that was partially sight impaired. He was doing amazing work but needed some help nudging his tool to be more robust for other users.
By the end of the call I we were able to greatly improve his code’s efficiency and reliability plus level him up!