My most useful AutoHotkey shortcuts...

April 5, 2023 | Tips

I love AutoHotkey.

It basically enables you to do (nearly) anything on an OS level using a keyboard shortcut. That's super super useful, especially if you have longer, more complex actions.

So I wanted to share some of the most useful shortcuts, which I use in my daily life. (In no particular order)

Open a website instantly. Even if your web browser of choice is closed. Personally, I use this for my more frequented websites but you can use it for whatever. Super useful since you don't have to click/type anything.
```
^!s::
     run "<PATH TO YOUR WEB BROWSER EXECUTABLE>" "https://denisthiessen.de"
     return
```
Open the Snipping Tool. This is a Windows-specific one... But still pretty great. The Snipping Tool doesn't have a default shortcut. So why now make one, while you're at it. 😉
```
^!s::
     run "C:\Windows\system32\SnippingTool.exe"
     return
```
Printing special characters. By that I mean stuff like weird characters i.e. ♤♡\◇•》¥₩÷ or emojis. I don't want to learn weird Alt-Codes or "type" them in via a GUI. Do you know LaTeX? There this problem gets solved by using special human-readable commands like "\delta" for the mathematical delta symbol. I want this. That's why I have this. (Make sure you save the final .ahk file using UTF-8 BOM encoding...)
```
^!s::
     Send 😅
     return
```
Opening programs via a single keystroke. A bit similar to the "opening websites" one... I don't like Autostart that much... So this serves as a quick and easy alternative. Also, this has the advantage of having program-specific scripts available at the reach of your fingertips. Custom scripted functionality in each of your programs... Cool isn't it? But let's not get ahead of ourselves and just stick with the program opening shortcuts... 😉
```
^!s::
{
     run "<INSERT YOUR PROGRAM PATH>"

#Optional additional AHK-Script
     #Include SomeFile.ahk
     return
}
```
The legendary multi-clipboard script. OMG. I can't live without it. Configure your shortcuts. Use it. Thank me later, or rather Jo-W. Link to the script/post.
A world without multiple keyboard clipboards isn't a world I want to live in...
Search for words/key phrases by marking them and entering a shortcut. Such a great little thing. I don't have to explain that to you and since you don't have to open up your browser or create a new tab every time you want to search for something. You can hopefully see the usefulness behind that one... Simply. Lovely.
```
^!s::
{
     Send, ^c
     Sleep 50
     Run, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%clipboard%&t=h_&ia=web
     return
}
```

So yeah... I hope you at least found one of them as useful as I do. ❤

Have fun trying them out.

See ya

Denis' Micro Blog

My most useful AutoHotkey shortcuts...