I use AutoHotkey for short-term automation of programs, helped by this entry for "when I save the Autohotkey config in notepad with ctrl+s, reload the script in AutoHotkey so it works immediately":

    ~^s::
        WinGetActiveTitle, currentWinTitle
            If InStr(currentWinTitle, "AutoHotkey.ahk - Notepad")
                Reload
        Return

Then entries which automate typical Windows keyboard actions, like this one below which triggers on alt+3 and moves around the fields on some specific GUI program which had no other automation support for what I was doing:

    !3::Send {alt down}a{alt up}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}{Tab}Position{Shift down}{Down}{Shift up}{Del}{Tab}{Tab}

Workflow becomes:

- have something mildly repetitive to do, notice how to do parts of it with keyboard only.

- right click AutoHotkey icon in taskbar, edit (opens Notepad).

- change some of these automations, alt+1, alt+2, alt+3, ...

- press ctrl+s to save and reload.

- switch back to the program and use the hotkey immediately to begin helping.

- repeat switching to AutoHotkey and the program, tweaking and adding more.

It's amenable to the kind of occasional task which has no easy proper automation, or is a one-off and isn't worth more time to do it through proper interfaces. Things like a vendor support telling you to "go through every affected record and toggle X field off and on again".

my autohotkey is super simple and mainly to be vimmy in things like native controls (ALT-K and ALT-J for things like drop downs) which means I almost never need to touch the arrow keys

  <!k::Send {Up}
  <!j::Send {Down}
  Capslock::Esc

What do you use this for?

Messed up user interfaces and games, e.g.: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

TIL about Paperclips. Curse you for posting that link! At least I managed to release the hypno drones though...

Ah Universal Paperclips... See you in the future then. Also: Kittens game by bloodrizer (and no, you won't be getting out of this one as easily as you might get out of Universal Paperclips, so search with care if you need to do anything productive for the near future.)

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