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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 →