Beginning

AutoHotkey Tip of the Week: Guidelines for AutoHotkey Function Libraries

Jack Dunning #Directives, AutoHotkey, Beginning, Function Libraries, Script Structure, Windows scripting , ,

When Using Function Libraries, You Don’t Need to Embed Your Functions into Each of Your AutoHotkey Scripts—But Sometimes Keeping Them Close Works Out Better

In the past two blogs, “Dynamic Regular Expressions (RegEx) for Math Calculating Hotstrings” and “The Eval() Function for Hotkey Math Calculations and Text Manipulation“, I highlighted two different powerful, auxiliary (not built-in) AutoHotkey functions: RegExHotstrings() and Eval(). Normally, you might embed a user-defined function inside your script but these two functions take up quite a few lines of code. Plus, you might want to use those same functions in a number of different scripts. Adding them to each script can get a little cumbersome—even when using the #Include directive.

Fortunately, when loading a script, if AutoHotkey doesn’t find a directly called function inside the script, it automatically searches the special Function Libraries. But, before you race to put all of your functions in one of those Libraries, you should consider a number of factors. Continue reading →

Quick Tip: Using the Sleep Command with Clipboard Routines

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Clipboard Routine, Hotstrings, Send Command, Sleep Command, Windows scripting , , , , ,

Use the Sleep Command to Debug Intermittent Routines

tipsLast night, I received the following comment from Thom Blake about last week’s blog “Auto-Capitalize the First Letter of Sentences” prompting this Quick Tip about adding the Sleep command at critical points in certain types of AutoHotkey routines:

Jack

Great script but I seem to have a problem with the capitalize a word function. It only works intermittently. The message box says “No text selected!” when clearly there is.

Thanks, Thom!

This is a needed reminder about a common problem when using the Send command with the Clipboard routine. Sometimes, for whatever reason, certain commands execute before the completion of the last action. In this case, AutoHotkey attempts to copy text to the Windows Clipboard before the SendInput text selection action completes: Continue reading →

AutoHotkey Tip of the Week: Understand How Hotstring Activating Text Works

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Hotstrings, Windows Automation , ,

Sometimes We Limit Our Scripts by Not Grasping How AutoHotkey Features Respond

In AutoHotkey, we use Hotstrings for automatic text expansion and replacement—as in the extensive list of common misspellings found in the AutoHotkey AutoCorrect.ahk script. After loading this series of Hotstrings, if you misspell one of these words, AutoHotkey instantly corrects it. I’ve included this as a standard part of my main AutoHotkey script and often watch the Hotstrings in action when they correct one of my typos or misspellings.

Beginning AutoHotkey Hotstrings 200pxWhenever a Hotstring fires, it resets and waits for the next one. Most commonly, this occurs when we type a space, period or other punctuation as a Hotstring recognizer. One might fall prey to the misconception that every such space or punctuation key press causes a Hotstring reset, but not so. Hotstring monitoring only resets when a Hotstring event occurs (or with a mouse click or cursor movement). That means we can include spaces and punctuation in the activating strings (or Hotstring definitions) which appear after the first double-colon.

Light Bulb!Most AutoHotkey users might understand this fact about Hotstring activators, but I write about it here for those of us who either never fully realized the importance of this aspect of Hotstrings or we just forgot. Knowing this fact allows for a number of additional types of Hotstrings rather than limiting ourselves to standard text expansion and replacement. A perusal of the AutoHotkey AutoCorrect script lets us peek into how we can take advantage of this aspect of Hotstrings. Continue reading →

AutoHotkey Tip of the Week: Instant Upper Case, Lower Case, and Initial Cap Text—September 2, 2019

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Clipboard Routine, Forcing Expressions, Format() Function, Hotkeys, Windows Clipboard, Windows scripting , , , , , , ,

Tips: Quick Hotkeys for Changing Text To/From Capital Letters and How to Initial Cap Everything, Plus, How to Write Robust Clipboard Routines

Light Bulb!This week I offer two useful tips: one for editing text and the other for improving your AutoHotkey scripts.

When reviewing my books, I look for those tips which I use all the time. I’ve found that I developed some scripts primarily for demonstration purposes and rarely ever use them again. Yet, I have a few which I use so much that I feel like they have become a part of my Windows system.

AHKNewCover200In this case, while perusing my Beginner’s Guide to AutoHotkey, I noticed in “Chapter Four: Hotkeys and Text Editing with Windows Clipboard” the Hotkeys for changing selected portions of text into all capital letters, all lowercase letters, or initial cap every word in the section. I originally wrote these Hotkeys when I edited articles submitted by freelance writers.

Some writers have a penchant for placing their article headlines and topic subheadings in all uppercase letters. By creating a Hotkey for converting the entire line to Title Mode (initial capital letter for each word), I quickly solved the retyping problem:
Continue reading →

Finding US Zip Codes (AutoHotkey RegEx Tips Part 1)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Parsing Data, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Windows scripting , , ,

Powerful Regular Expressions (RegEx) Perform Minor Computing Miracles—This Part 1 Uses Extracting US Zip Codes from Street Addresses to Introduce Regular Expressions as Merely a Set of Confusing Wildcards

In my last blog, “Parsing and Pasting One-Line Street Addresses (AutoHotkey Multi-Paste Trick)“, I added one-line street addresses to my MultiPaste.ahk script. That short AutoHotkey app uses a few Regular Expressions (RegEx) to identify and isolate key information:

  1. Cover 200Five-digit US zipcodes.
  2. UK postal codes.
  3. Remove excess tab characters in the results.
  4. Identify date formats.

I used RegEx functions for these problems because the basic string functions just didn’t offer the power needed without convoluted coding. RegEx provides fairly simple solutions (although possibly confounding to the neophyte).

Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

Adding Italics to Hotstrings in Word Processing Software (AutoHotkey Quick Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Hotkeys, Hotstrings, Windows shortcuts ,

If You Work with a Word Processing Program (Local or Web-Based) Which Supports Control Characters for Special Formatting, Then, Possibly, You Can Add Auto-Italics (or Bold, Underline, Etc.) to Your Autohotkey Hotstrings

A little while back, I wrote the blog “Italicize Your Hotstring Replacements with this Input Command Ploy (AutoHotkey Tip)” which demonstrated tricks for adding special features robotaicartoonfor both the Input command and Hotstrings. While clever solutions (possibly too clever), I now realized that in many programs (and Web apps), there might exist a much easier solution—a “duh” moment. Continue reading →

Beginning Hotstring Tricks for Expanding Acronyms (AutoHotkey Tips)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Hotstring() Function, Hotstrings, Windows Automation, Windows scripting , , , ,

Hotstring Techniques for Expanding Abbreviations Only When You Need Them, Plus How to Sound British…Sort Of

One benefit I’ve discovered when using my InstantHotstring.ahk script includes quickly checking the effects of the various Hotstring options. Without re-editing and reloading an AutoHotkey script, I can test the assorted options and see how they modify the behavior of each Hotstring. This helps me understand how to solve some Hotstring problems. Continue reading →

Add Single-Key Shortcuts to QuickLinks App (AutoHotkey Quick Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Menus, Windows shortcuts , , , ,

Reader Uses Menu Shortcut Keys to Speedup QuickLinks.ahk Action

Alan posted the following comment on Pressing GUI Buttons with a Single Keystroke (AutoHotkey Tip):

Hi, Jack,

Thanks for making such useful contributions to AHK.

I found QuickLinks to be useful but then was looking to make it even more helpful by having key shortcuts. I figured out how to do it! You can let others know if you can point out adding an ampersand in front of the letter of the folder or shortcut.

Thanks, 

Alan

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I’m gratified that a number of people are using and modifying the QuickLinks.ahk script. It’s evolved considerably since I first introduce the barebones version in the book Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey. In AutoHotkey Applications, I added icons using the Menu,…,Icon, command. In my most recent Motley Assortment of AutoHotkey Tips, I modified the script to add a number of other features. More recently, I wrote a blog which highlighted changes increasing the power of the script by another reader, “Open and Print Files with the QuickLinks App (AutoHotkey Tip from a Reader)“. In all that time, I never thought to talk about using the single-key shortcut menu technique available in all Windows menus with the QuickLinks.ahk script. Continue reading →