As I worked on one of my blogs, I accidentally transposed two letters (probably “form” for “from” or vice versa). I placed the cursor between the errant letters and hit the R key while holding down ALT. The two characters exchanged position. Pleased with myself, I decided to highlight the letter-swapping Hotkey combination in this blog as one of my favorites.
A while back I wrote a script which accessed the AutoHotkey online documentation quickly bringing up information about commands and variables. It took advantage of a hidden index in AutoHotkey.com which loaded key pages. However, as happened at the time, relying upon that index does not guarantee access. As with any Web page, things change.
The online documentation is currently going through some modifications. Possibly, in preparation for future use with the coming AutoHotkey version 2.0, we see a number of new revisions. With those alterations, the secret index has once again disappeared. That means much of my earlier work no longer functions as designed. I’ve decided to completely redo my AutoHotkey reference app with the following goals:
In July of 2012, I first starting digging into AutoHotkey. Originally, I put AutoHotkey in the class of “just another Windows scripting language.” But as I delved deeper and deeper, I soon realized that it had assumed the mantle of probably “the best utility software to ever 
hit Windows.” Not only does AutoHotkey immediately automate many simple Windows tasks, but it includes the powerful commands and functions you might find in any programming language—and much more. Six years later, nothing has changed my mind. In fact, as I learn more about AutoHotkey through my blogging and books, I get even more convinced that AutoHotkey offers “absolutely the best free Windows utility software ever!” Continue reading
I start by admitting that I have no special insight into AutoHotkey V2.0. I’ve had no contact with anyone who has the answers. I base all my thoughts on information freely available in the online documentation, forums, and other AutoHotkey sources. You might consider my words rank speculation—although drawn from my years of working with AutoHotkey V1.1. Since I written so many AutoHotkey books, you could even say that I hold a vested interest in the current version of AutoHotkey. In spite of all that, I offer this blog as an aid to current and future AutoHotkey users in their version decisions.
At times, I’ve found that I have six or more AutoHotkey scripts running at the same time. Each one adds the little green icon with an embedded “H” to the Windows System Tray. This gets confusing. I can only tell them apart by hovering the mouse cursor over an icon and reading the script name in the Tooltip pop-up message. Sometimes the Tooltip alone doesn’t do an adequate job. Continue reading
AutoHotkey includes a tool called the Main Window which aids with the debugging process. It gives you a peek into various aspects of a running .ahk script:
Open the Main Window by right-clicking on Windows System Tray icon of an active .ahk script and selecting Open from the top of the menu. The window pops open at the “Lines most recently executed” view. You can select the other three views plus “Refresh” from the View menu. Continue reading
Every programmer suffers moments where he or she achieves a breakthrough and the code actually works. Their first impulse—tell someone…anyone. “Look what I just did!” Alas, they find no one nearby to praise the accomplishment. At least, no one who either understands or cares about their success. Maybe that’s why I write about my AutoHotkey journeys. I need to tell someone when (ironically?) some code I wrote does what it’s supposed to do. Continue reading
