Month: February 2019

Timing Script Speed (AutoHotkey Quick Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Loops, Script Speed, Timer, Windows scripting , , , ,

Certain Types of Subroutines Tend to Eat Up Time (Loops, On Screen Changes, Multiple Drive Accesses, etc.)—Use This Simple Timer Routine to Figure Out How to Increase AutoHotkey Script Speed

Anytime you use AutoHotkey to make iterative changes in the controls in a GUI (Graphical User Interface) pop-up window, force multiple access to hard drive files, or implement repetitious subroutines (almost always with some form of a loop), you run the risk of slowing down your scripts. Minor changes to your script can make a significant difference in how fast it runs. Continue reading →

Loading Hotstrings into the InstantHotstring.ahk Script from Any AutoHotkey (.ahk) File

Jack Dunning Arrays, AutoHotkey, Data Files, FileSelectFile, GoSub Command, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Hotstring() Function, Intermediate Level, Parsing Data, Regular Expressions (RegEx) , , ,

Reading Data from Saved .AHK Files Makes Loading Hotstrings into the InstantHotstring.ahk Script Easy

In the blog, “Use the FileSelectFile Command to Save Instant Hotstrings to an AutoHotkey File.” I discussed how to save a set of newly created InstantHotstring.ahk Hotstrings in .ahk files. The other half of the file storage problem involves reading those saved (or any other) Hotstring data files back into that same app. Using the tools already built into the script made writing the file loading code remarkably easy. The subroutine LoadHotstrings calls on the previously written subroutines SetOptions and AddHotstring. This saves replicating of code originally used in those subroutines.

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The Duality of Curly Brackets in Hotstrings (Beginning AutoHotkey Tips)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Hotstrings, Raw Text, Send Command, Window Spy, Windows scripting, Windows shortcuts , , ,

Curly Brackets {…} in Hotstrings Both Insert Special Features and Neuter Hotkey Modifying Characters—When Properly Used, They Add Flexibility to AutoHotkey Hotstrings

Sometimes you want to do more than simple text replacement with your AutoHotkey Hotstrings. The key to adding those special features lies with embedding either manual keys within curly brackets (i.e. {Left 5}) or adding Hotkey action directly (without curly brackets) such as CTRL+I (^i for italics) or CTRL+B (^b for bold). The fact that the curly brackets {…} behave in two different manners can cause confusion. Continue reading →

Dealing with Hash Marks (#) in Hotstrings (AutoHotkey Quick Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Hotstring() Function, Hotstrings, Raw Text, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Web Pages , , ,

When Using the Pound Sign (#) in Hotstring Replacement Text, We Must Take Special Steps to Prevent It from Going Missing…I Mean Disappearing

RobotHashtagCartoonSome would say that we should call the # character an octothorpe. Others insist upon using it in place of the pound weight (# not £). You’ll commonly find it used as the number sign—as in apartment #205 or #2 pencil. Editors use # to tell whomever to add space between two words. In some computer languages, the # sign precedes comments. In Web URLs, the # indicates a “jump to” link within the same page. On Twitter, people insert # to precede topic references as a hashtag (#jellybeans). (People often use the term “hashtag” to show off their technological smarts—#sarcasm.) In AutoHotkey, we use the # symbol as the Hotkey modifying character for the Windows key (microsoft_key). Continue reading →