In Review : Autohotkey

Autohotkey is excellent tool that lets you automate your keyboard, mouse & joystick short keys. It comes handy when you want to write short utilities to automate your small tasks. With little programming skills you can write short programs like data entry forms, menu bars, GUI etc. You can also convert the script you’ve written in Autohotkey into the executable so that run on computers that don’t have Autohotkey installed.

Getting started
All you need to use Autohotkey is Notepad or WordPad. Ahk installed on your computer & little bit of coding skills. We’ll move onto the installation part. First of all point your browser to the http://www.autohotkey.com/ .Then go to the download section to download the AHK current release. Run the executable & it will appear in menu Start > All programs > Autohotkey. Now you are ready to write the script, so fire up the notepad.

Scripting
Script is simple text file that have series of instructions that tells windows to perform some actions. Script is stored with the extension *.ahk .To get feel of the script writing let’s write a small program that open the notepad & your default browser. Open the WordPad or notepad write the following lines into it.

Run notepad
Run www.yahoo.com

Now save the file as test.ahk. Just make sure you save the file with extension *.ahk. Now right click on the file, in the context menu “Compile script” will appear. Click on it, now .ahk is converted into the test.exe. Now when you click on it will open up the notepad as well as the default internet browser. This script was just short demo of what you can do with the Autohotkey. There are many ways you can get most out of it e.g. Create Sticky post it notes GUI & put it in system tray or automate some of the task by accessing clock settings.

Resources
Autohotkey is updated on regular intervals. It has active forums, wiki & easy documentation on their website. You can even get the GUI creator for the AHK from the official website. Before diving into the scripting be sure to check the help file that is shipped with the AHK.If you’ve played with the AHK & have something to share let others know about it.Post your stuff in the comments link.If you want to see AHK based utilities in action then you can check out the http://www.donationcoderscom/skrommel .
Some of the well known utilities are like Ghoster,Trans_other etc.

Some of the good tutorials & scripts are listed below:

Nifty windows
Minimize Window to Tray Menu (Help File Script)
Titan’s Scripts
AutoHotkey Forum

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