Keyboard & Mouse Automation

(Updated July 31, 2008)

Installing AutoHotkey on Windows Operating System is very easy. —Install the software (about 2 MB) directly from the AutoHotkey Website at this address:

http://www.autohotkey.com/download/AutoHotkeyInstall.exe.

… When Windows asks if you want to save or execute, click on “execute.”  By default, AutoHotkey will automatically be installed in the “C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\” folder that it will create.

The installation process is programmed to register files with the extension “.ahk” so to associate them with the AutoHotkey program. It means that if you doubleclick on a file with the extension “.ahk” in your File Explorer, Windows will automatically start the AutoHotkey program to execute it.

The installation process will also create a new menu item in your Windows start menu to launch AutoHotkey.

AutoHotkey will also add three menu items when you rightclick on your mouse in File Explorer.  In other words, when you rightclick on a file with the “.ahk” extension in Windows Explorer, the popup menu will have three more items: “Run Script”, “Compile Script” and “Edit Script”.

Windows Explorer will also have a new type of file in the “File->New” command.  This command will be called “AutoHotkey Script”.

The AutoHotkey installation should not do anything else into your system.  If it does, please let me know.

Note: You can easily uninstall AutoHotkey with the regular Windows “Add/Remove programs” (WinXP name).

Sonia

What is AutoHotkey and AutoIT? What is the difference between them? These two programs are similar. In fact, AutoHotkey has been derived from AutoIT. AutoHotkey and AutoIT are two programming languages like Basic, Java, C, PHP, etc.

I found that AutoIT is more structured than AutoHotkey and this is something that can be useful to create and modify bigger Windows applications. But, the difference lies in the fact that for a casual-user, AutoHotkey is probably easier to start and to work with. It is also more powerful than AutoIT when it comes to managing shortcuts and/or hotkeys linked to simple tasks.

So, if you intend to create full-featured Windows applications, I would suggest AutoIT. But, if your intention is to create several small tasks activated by hotkeys and/or shortcuts, I would suggest AutoHotkey. Some examples would be like using one key to sign your name, to access your bank account, access Google Homepage, type canned answers, etc.

The wonderful thing about AutoHotkey is that you are able to create so many hotkey-to-macro tasks like the examples shown above. But, after the creation of a few hotkeys, we usually find that remembering these hotkeys is quite complex. The good news is that Cedeq created a keypad, the Enterpad with 120 keys that can be used out-of-the-box with AutoHotkey. That way, you won’t have to remember what your hotkey is since you’ll only have to press on the corresponding touchkey of the Enterpad. And, believe me, after you create a few hotkeys, you will definitely want to create more and more. They really simplify any work we have to do.

Sonia

If you are anything like me, you probably spend an upward of 14 hours on your computer, and even with the best ergonomically designed hardware, you are still well on your way to having RSI.

How many times have you wished that you could get your work done by just glaring at the screen when your wrists or neck began to ache? That the pop-up windows would close on their own; that the typos would correct themselves; that the abbreviations you typed would magically turn into words/phrases especially when writing official emails (this last one is my fantasy and I suspect of quite a few corporate executives too).

But AutoHotkey can automate all these tasks and more. It allows you to remap the keyboard, use abbreviations to type in words/phrases, automatically close unwanted programs, change soundcard settings, launch programs/documents, automate signatures, schedule reminders, and even control the mouse cursor with a joystick or keyboard.

The best part: It is free, doesn’t take much memory space, and allows you to define any combination of keyboard and mouse strokes as a hotkey (you can even override Windows defaults).

If you don’t feel up to the task of remembering the various hotkeys, the Enterpad takes care of that. The Enterpad is a compact keyboard that can be configured for 120 different hotkeys and can effectively replace your regular keyboard.

It is exactly the problem we faced at the beginning with AutoHotkey. We needed 100+ “hotkey-to-macro” to open websites/ files, select accounts/ fonts/ printers, start programs, type special characters and so on.

Actually we had 4 problems:

1. It was almost impossible to remember all of our hotkeys and even less possible to ask a part time employee to remember them. 
2. It was frequent and very damaging to press the wrong hotkey which was activating the wrong macro. 
3. It was time-consuming to find and modify a macro and/or replace a hotkey in our script file. 
4. Some of the hotkeys that we were selecting for our macros were disabling useful existing hotkeys in Windows environment. 

We solved everything with a customizable keyboard like the Enterpad. The graphic overlay on the Enterpad solved the problem of remembering and pressing the wrong hotkey. Actually, the way we built our AutoHotkey script file makes modifications a lot easier. Finally, our script file uses only one hotkey (F10) followed by a three digit number (001 to 120) to trigger 120 different macros. This means that we do not disable other predefined Windows hotkeys.

Our AutoHotkey script template, the Enterpad ready-to-print overlay and a tutorial are available free at www.cedeq.com/enterpad-p120/autohotkey-english.html

Enjoy!

Are you manually doing these simple tasks over and over again?

1. Starting webpages like “google.com”, “yahoo.com\currency”…
2. Typing special characters like †, ‡, ™, ®, ©, é, ê, ç…
3. Typing account or department numbers like “237UJ65”…
4. Starting programs like “dictionary.exe”, “email.exe”, “fax.exe”…
5. Opening specific folders like “c:\windows\user\images”…
6. Opening files like “ToDo.txt”, “Phone.txt”, “ToBuy.txt”…
7. Typing canned answers like “You can reach me at 800-123-4567”…
8. Selecting menu commands like “ALT+F+S”…

Several people are frequently executing these tasks without AutoHotkey simply because it is not practical to remember all the hotkeys linked to so many tasks.

Everything is different with an Overlay Keyboard like the Enterpad because you don’t have to remember any hotkeys. Pressing the right labeled key will instantly generate the hotkey which will generate your number and so on for canned answers, special characters, menu /file /program /website access, etc.