Emojis

AutoHotkey Tip of the Week: Increase the Flexibility of Menus by Passing Data with the BoundFunc Object

Jack Dunning Arrays, AutoHotkey, BoundFunc Object, Emojis, Forcing Expressions, Functions, Hotstrings, If statements, Loops, Menus, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Variadic Function, Windows scripting , , , , ,

Streamline and Add Power to Hotstring Menus by Binding Action Parameters Directly to Each Menu Item

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If you use AutoHotkey menus, then you may find this blog the most useful menu tip yet. At first, using the BoundFunc Object to pass data may seem confusing, but, once understood, it opens up many more opportunities for taking advantage of menus in your AutoHotkey scripts.

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HotstringSubMenus

As often happens when working on an AutoHotkey script, a deeper understanding of the available tools completely changes the direction of the project. While all of the Menu tricks I’ve offered in the past HotstringMenu.ahk scripts still work (and you may want to continue using many of those techniques), the following approach which combines arrays, the variadic function parameter, and the boundfunc object creates a cleaner, more functional structure for generating Hotstring replacement menus. In short, implementing the boundfunc object allows me to drop many of those previous menu tricks and build menus using virtually any menu item format without regard for their later use through the value of the A_ThisMenuItem variable.

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AutoHotkey Tip of the Week: Hotstring Menu Techniques for Inserting Symbols and Emojis

Jack Dunning Arrays, AutoHotkey, Emojis, Hotstrings, Menus, Windows scripting , , ,

Place Special Characters and Emojis in Hotstring Menus to Make Them Easy to Find for Inserting into Documents, Plus Sample Hotstring Special Character Menus

MenuEmoji
Hotstring Menu

In my last blog, “AutoHotkey Hotstring Menus for Text Replacement Options“, I expanded upon the Hotstring menu technique discussed in Chapters Eight and Nine of my book Beginning AutoHotkey Hotstrings. While the menus work great, I noticed that, in many instances, the standard built-in Windows menu objects do not always make it easy to distinguish various characters. For example, when I placed a mix of symbols and emojis in a menu, it produced ambiguous results:

:x*?:b``::TextMenu("🦄,🐀,🐁,🐂,🐃,®,❓,❔")

The characters appear small in the menu (shown at right above)—often without clearly defined differences.

In the menu, the rat (🐀) and mouse (🐁) seem very similar—as do the ox (🐂) and the water buffalo (🐃). The two question marks at the end of the menu look identical, although, the first emoji inserts the punctuation mark in red (❓) while the second adds a white question mark (❔). We need another method for discriminating between the menu options. Continue reading →

Add Action to Your Hotstrings Using the New X Option (AutoHotkey Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Emojis, Functions, GoSub Command, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Hotstring() Function, Hotstrings, Intermediate Level, Labels , , ,

The Hotstring X Option Offers More Power by Running Commands, Functions, and Subroutines, Plus How to Temporarily Block External Hotstrings

In February of last year, the powers-that-be added a new Hotstring() function and a number of other Hotstring related features (See “New Flexible Hotstring Features Added to AutoHotkey.”) This major change added a host of new possibilities for creating and manipulating Hotstrings. The Hotstring() function acted as the impetus for my InstantHotstring.ahk script. In the process of writing that app, I developed a better understanding of how to enhance Hotstrings. Getting immediate feedback when implementing new replacements and options allowed me to quickly investigate many possibilities. Continue reading →

Using the AutoHotkey Hotstring() Function to Disable/Enable Hotstrings

Jack Dunning Arrays, AutoHotkey, DropDownList Control, Emojis, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Hotstring() Function, Hotstrings, If statements, Labels, Loops, Windows scripting , ,

While the Hotstring() Function Won’t Delete Hotstrings, It Can Toggle Them Off and On (Disable and Re-Enable)

Technically, once created, you can’t delete a Hotstring without exiting the script. However, you can disable and enable its function. When you disable a Hotstring using the Hotstring() function, it loses its power—similar to the effect of deleting it. But, since the disabled Hotstring still exists, you can bring it back to life by re-enabling it with the same Hotstring() function. Continue reading →

Sorting Lists for Emoji Menus (AutoHotkey Sort Command Tip)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Emojis, Loops, Menus, Sorting Data , ,

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,

Library Benefits

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 Continue reading →

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

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, AutoHotkey GUIs, Children's Educational Apps, Emojis, GUI (Graphical User Interface) Pop-ups, Hotstrings, Intermediate Level, Labels , , , , ,

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

Emoji unicornAs 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.)

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

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Clipboard Routine, Data Files, Emojis, Icons, INI Files, Input Command (Hotstrings), Intermediate Level, Loops, Menus, Regular Expressions (RegEx), Web Pages, Windows Clipboard , , , ,

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.

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Add Emoji Characters to Any Windows Document (AutoHotkey Hotstrings)

Jack Dunning AutoHotkey, Beginning, Emojis, 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. Continue reading →