Jack’s AutoHotkey Blog

The Best Type of Brain Food!
Get Started with AutoHotkey with this
“Introduction to AutoHotkey
A Review and Guide for Beginners“

See Also, Jack’s New Beginner’s Guide to AutoHotkey

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August 14, 2018

We add a second GUI pop-up window to “Edit the ListView Data Table.”

August 8, 2018

Moving on to step two, we write a short routine which finds redundant data in a file using the ListView GUI control.

August 4, 2018

I just posted the first part of a series on the ListView GUI control (ListView GUI Control for Viewing Data Table Files (AutoHotkey Legal ListView Part 1)) as an expansion of the Latin Legal Terms blogs.

Michael Todd authored a new AutoHotkey app he calls InfoWarp – A small multipurpose launcher with text store/view capabilities | Michael’s Tech Notes – Blog. I haven’t had time to look at it, but if you give it a try, let me know what you think.

July 25, 2018

Other commitments have precipitated a short period of inactivity on this blog. I won’t get started again until next week, but at that time, I plan to undertake the next part of the Latin Legal Lingo series.

The next series of these legal blogs will deal with the most powerful of the AutoHotkey Graphical User Interface (GUI) controls—the ListView. Ideal for displaying data tables, ListView can manipulate and update data, as well as, add more AutoHotkey features to any script.

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July 12, 2018

I’ve just posted a blog on sorting lists in AutoHotkey. This completes my AutoHotkey explorations of emojis. 😥 (At least, I think it does.) To review all of the AutoHotkey emoji magic, check out:

• Add Emoji Characters to Any Windows Document (AutoHotkey Hotstrings)
• Put Your Emoji Hotstrings in a Pop-up Menu (AutoHotkey Trick)
• Searching Data Files and Other Scripting Ploys with Emojis (Secret AutoHotkey Tricks)
• Sorting Lists for Emoji Menus (AutoHotkey Sort Command Tip)

Many of the techniques apply to any AutoHotkey project.

July 10, 2018

I didn’t know you could do this with emojis.

July 3, 2018

We put the emojis into Hotstrings. Now, we put the emojis into filtered menus using the same Hotstring file.

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Editing ListView GUI Control Data Tables (AutoHotkey Legal ListView Part 3)

Once Loaded into an AutoHotkey GUI ListView, You Can Add Tools for Editing Data

With the exception of the first column, AutoHotkey does not allow direct editing in a GUI ListView control. That forces us to create separate editing controls for changing and updating content in any of the other columns. We can either add the controls to the same GUI as in the AddressBook.ahk script (shown below)—discussed in my AutoHotkey Applications e-book—or we can create a second GUI which pops-up on demand. Since putting all the controls in the same GUI creates less confusion for the ListView functions (the functions always operate on the default GUI), you might find the AddressBook.ahk example easier to implement for your application.

Use the ListView GUI Control to Find Duplicate Entries in Data Table Files (AutoHotkey Legal ListView Part 2)

ListView Control Functions in a Loop Work Quickly Locate Repetitious Data

In my last blog, “ListView GUI Control for Viewing Data Table Files (AutoHotkey Legal ListView Part 1)“, I introduced using the ListView GUI control to view and correct a data table file—in this case, an INI file (LegalInput.ini). While sorting and viewing a data table in the ListView control offers many benefits, the most power comes from the 11 built-in functions available for manipulating the control and editing data.

All GUI controls (e.g. Edit, Text, MonthCal, etc.) offer options you can call with the initial Gui, Add command. ListView (and its sister TreeView) include similar options plus special functions for directly manipulating the control. Last time, we used LV_Add() to load the data table rows into the ListView control. This time, we use the LV_GetCount() function (the number of ListView rows) to limit the total number of iterations in a loop, LV_Modify() to focus on each table row in sequential order, and LV_GetText() to retrieve and store data in the row.

ListView GUI Control for Viewing Data Table Files (AutoHotkey Legal ListView Part 1)

The Powerful ListView GUI (Graphical User Interface) Control Offers Advanced Features for Reading and Sorting Data Tables, Plus How to Make a ListView GUI Control Resizable

Recently, I wrote about how to use a data table to create Hotstrings using the Input command, then, after discovering that I can’t remember all the Hotstring combinations, showed how to build lookup menus from the same data table. Later, I used the same menu technique to demonstrate how to insert Latin legal terms in italics. I made a promise to create a Legal Lingo ListView GUI (Graphical User Interface) pop-up but, before I could undertake the task, other topics intervened. The time has come for me to deliver on my commitment.

Sorting Lists for Emoji Menus (AutoHotkey Sort Command Tip)

If a Menu Gets Too Long, the Sort Command Helps to Put Your Emoji List in Alphabetical Order

I received the following e-mail with regard to the blog “Put Your Emoji Hotstrings in a Pop-up Menu (AutoHotkey Trick)“:

Hello Jack,

I enjoy your emails and have gotten a lot out of your books. I tried out EmojiMenu and it pops up but in Office 2013, (Word and Outlook), the emojis inserted are black, not color.

However, they are in color in Gmail as I compose this email. 🎂 Any idea why that is?

Also, some feedback/suggestions:

What are the categories available? From the column, I know about Animal and I guessed Food, but the others…? Is there a list of them?

A helpful improvement would be to alphabetize the lists. I don’t think to look for “catface” in the third column of Animal.

Thank you and best regards.

~Dale

Searching Data Files and Other Scripting Ploys with Emojis (Secret AutoHotkey Tricks)

Who Knew That You Could Use Emojis in AutoHotkey Scripts Just Like Any Other Computer Character? More Emoji Magic! 😏

As I played around with the EmojiMenu.ahk script from my last blog, I tested highlighting an emoji as a search key. I inserted the unicorn emoji (🦄) into a document, highlighted it, then hit CTRL+ALT+E. To my pleasant surprise, it worked! As shown on the right, AutoHotkey searched the EmojiInsert.ahk Hotstring file, located the emoji character for a unicorn, then inserted it into the pop-up menu. (I added the ::!fantasy::🦄 Hotstring—which doesn’t appear in the original EmojiInsert.ahk Hotstring file—after posting the file.)

Put Your Emoji Hotstrings in a Pop-up Menu (AutoHotkey Trick)

Unless Endowed with a Photographic 📷 Memory, Who Can Memorize All the Activating Texts ✍ for Over 1000 Emoji 😀 Hotstrings? Use This Menu 🍱 Technique to Find and Insert Emojis 😀 Taken Directly from Your Hotstring Script

Who wouldn’t want all the emojis available at their fingertips? The last blog “Add Emoji Characters to Any Windows Document (AutoHotkey Hotstrings)” does just that. However, with the exception of the icons you use all the time, you won’t find remembering the activating strings easy. We need a quick lookup table to remind us of the activating strings for each image. Even better, why not a pop-up menu which both gives us the Hotstring keys and inserts the emoji? Fortunately, we can do this with a short AutoHotkey routine which searches the original EmojiInsert.ahk Hotstring file for our favorite characters.

Add Emoji Characters to Any Windows Document (AutoHotkey Hotstrings)

Why Search Through Pop-up Tools When You Can Directly Enter Any Emoji into Your Documents, E-Mails, and Web Editing Windows with AutoHotkey?

“I went to the 🏖 on a 🌞day. The 🌞 was so 🔆 that I needed to wear 🕶. I was lucky enough to see a 👩 in a 👙🖐 to me. I saw 🌊s, ⛵s, 🌈s, and a 🦄. Maybe, I had a few too many 🍻s.” 🙄

Years ago I wrote about an AutoHotkey app called WinCompose: a Robust Compose Key for Windows which adds special characters to any Windows document or Web editing field. It appeared to use the Input command in conjunction with a “Compose” key to enter memorable keystrokes for inserting special characters. WinCompose has since converted to a different programming language and added emoji support. Similar to emoticons, emojis add special cartoon-like pictograms to your documents. Unlike emoticons, many programs recognize emojis—as long as the software includes UTF-8 support.