Autohotkey (AHK)

If you decide to take this step(i know it was a hard one) because coding is not the easiest but thank god that there are many awesome people who are willing to share their code so you can just copy&paste.

AHK is a shortcut master like nothing you have ever seen.With its help you can rocket boost the speed of your office work in no time.Any key combination can be set to start an avalanche of actions which saves you time and money.

Imagine having 20 email templates text which you can trigger with different key combinations and unleash hell on earth.You would have gazillions of snappy answers at the tip of your fingers ready to be released on your poor victim.

When you have tons of repetitive tasks that involve a series of clicks and keystrokes this is where AHK truly shines.You program this once and you can shave off many seconds on boring menial tasks giving you the sweet time of day to enjoy the wonders of life.

Imagine having 20 email templates text which you can trigger with different key combinations and unleash hell on earth.You would have gazillions of snappy answers at the tip of your fingers ready to be released on your poor victim.And since I love this program so much I wanna share all my tools that I religiously use with you guys and spare you the time to search for it.

Just remember that in the installation directory (c:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\) there is a tool/script called WindowSpy.ahk

With its help you can find out where your mouse is that way you can record your mouse movements or future clicks, it also give you the Ahk_class which can also be used to shuffle between tabs or Programs.

1.opening Notepad using the F1 Button   

F1::
IfWinExist, Notepad
{
    WinActivate
    return
}
IfWinNotExist, Notepad
{
    run “notepad.exe”
    WinActivate
    return
}

I use notepad mostly when i want to insert unformatted Text into other software(Excel,Allplan,Outlook…

2.Cycle through Tabs from Chrome using the F2 Button

If Chrome is not started then it will start the browser and it will cycle through your tabs at every press of the button.

F2::
IfWinNotExist, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1
Run, chrome.exe
if WinActive(“ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1”)
send ^{tab}
else
WinActivate ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1
Return

3.Open Specific folders on your hard drive or network

This is what I use the Control (^) + Shift(+) + F3 button.

^+F3::run “O:\001_Project\dir1\”

or if you want the F3 button to open a directory on your desktop you can use this

F3::run “C:\Users\Daniel\Desktop\”

4.Clicks or Mouse movements to specific places(Autohotkeymouseclick)

To move the mouse into tree different positions.It goes to Position 1 then waits 1 second then goes to Position 2 etc. The speed of the movement can also be changed.

Control+ Shift+ F4 button

^+F4::
{
MouseMove, 1447 ,155, 50,
sleep 100
MouseMove, 2327, 221, 50,
sleep 100
MouseMove, 2308, 680, 50,
}
return

To record the position of your mouse on the screen use the WindowSpy.ahk script in the Instalation directory of AHK.

5.Write out text

Control+ Shift+6 button 

Because on this German keyboard the sign for & is under number 6.The more logical your shortcut is the easy it is to remember

^+6::SendInput,Dear Sir/Madam,
Return

^+q::SendInput,If you require any further information, feel free to contact me.
Return

6.Start specific programs or documents

Control+ Shift+d button

^+d:: run “C:\Users\Daniel\Desktop\List.pdf”

Run windows snipping tool.

^+n:: run “%windir%\system32\SnippingTool.exe”

7.Select a text and change Uppercase to lowercase

You can do this simple thing even in Notepad by just selecting the uppercase text and just change it with one combo.

^+l::
Clipboard =
SendInput, ^c
ClipWait
StringReplace, OutputText, Clipboard, `r`n, `n, All
StringLower, OutputText, OutputText
SendRaw % OutputText
VarSetCapacity(OutputText, 0)
Return

8.Write Yearmonthday

The company I work for uses a file saving system like this 190726_Filetype_Name of File and I made in the past but not anymore.Goodbye mixing the month for the day,goodbye files saved in the past year because after new years It’s hard to get used to the new year.Use this puppy to write out this kind of combo yyMMdd_ or read more on the Formats

^+d::
Send, ^X
Sleep, 100
Date = %Clipboard%
Sleep, 100
FormatTime, OutputVar, %LongDate%, yyMMdd_
Sleep, 100
Send, %OutputVar%
Return

Some stuff to help you out on your journey

https://autohotkey.com/docs/Hotkeys.htm

# Windows key

! Alt

^ Control

+ Shift

`n – jumps to new paragraph

And this is just a small tip of the iceberg!

To further develop your skills regarding this program I recommend videos and also the forums where other people write about their ingenious shortcuts.

If you have some awesome tips for awesome shortcuts feel free to write me or comment in the section below.