Have you ever found yourself answering an email with the exact same message you typed a day before? How about adding your conference call number to a meeting invite? Where was that number again? What is my access code?
Email is a burden. Typing repetitive messages doesn’t have to be. Welcome to AutoHotkey, one of the first apps I install on any computer.
AutoHotkey lets you create “triggers” (e.g. shortcuts) for each of your most repetitive messages. A message can be as simple as a single word or as complex as a multi-line paragraph with line breaks and links to websites. Simply type in your “trigger” and AutoHotkey will automatically fill in the rest.
Getting started
1) Download and install AutoHotkey (Windows only). After the installation, choose Yes to edit your script file.
2) The script file will open in notepad. This is where we will setup your first “trigger”. Lets start with a simple text snippet that contains a conference number and access code. Enter the following text in your script and click save.
::conf::1-800-555-1234,,,,1234-4521
3) Activate your script by right clicking on the AutoHotkey application in the system tray and choosing “Reload This script”.
4) Open up Notepad, Outlook, Word or any other area you want to use your trigger. Type conf + spacebar and watch as AutoHotkey automatically fills in your conference number. Cool right? Add as many custom text snippets as your heart desires and become an email automation machine!
Advanced functions
AutoHotkey is great for text snippets but gets even more interesting when you take advantage of some of the advanced triggers. Do you manually open the same programs each morning after you log into your PC? There is a trigger for that. Need a quick way to navigate to a folder on your computer? There is a trigger for that.
Feel free to download my sample AutoHotkey script file which includes several common functions and modify for your own usage. For other uses and full documentation check out the AutoHotkey docs.
If I ever see you copying and pasting your conference number into an email again, please unfriend me. 🙂
