First things first – my first computer was a Xerox with a CPM operating system.  There, now that I’ve established that I’m no spring chicken I can reminisce about the days of the 16-bit Windows Recorder applet.  This keyboard macro recorder would allow a few keystrokes to invoke useful or repetitive text.

Fast forward to XP, Vista, Windows 7, more processor cores in low end home machines than server admins used to dream of… and here I sit typing the same @gmail.com over and over.

WRONG!

Thanks to a free Open Source program called AutoHotkey I have a very large text file that will replace @gm with the entire @gmail.com.  When typing in any program, including a command prompt, I appear to have typing skills of several hundred words/minute with excellent accuracy.

Imagine your productivity increase when typing a report that has long repetitive phrases that are inserted by typing some defined keystrokes.  Another favorite use is for e-mail replies.  When working on a project I’m often fielding the same questions from many people.  Type a professional reply and associate some keystrokes to it.  No more digging through sent items to copy and paste the reply over and over.

Another way to approach explaining the usefulness:  think of having unlimited items in your clipboard that will be available at every reboot and can be pasted with a few keystrokes.

But not only can text be added, AutoHotkey allows for special keys and mouse actions.

I highly recommend saving time and tedious repetitive typing while reducing errors by installing AutoHotkey.  If you do feel free to return here and post a comment or two.

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Thoughts from the Trenches, Uncategorized