How do I use UTF-8 in AutoHotKey?

Question

I am trying to make two hyphens trigger a short dash, and three hyphens trigger a long dash; like

:*?:---=::—
:*?:--=::–

except working. Here is where I have gotten to:

:*?:11::

SendLevel 1

Send 2

return

SendLevel 0

:*?:21::3

this works (11 produces 2, 111 produces 3)

:*?:--::

SendLevel 1

Send –

return

SendLevel 0

:*?:–-::—

This is the same script, but ‘1’ has been replaced by ‘-’, ‘2’ has been replaced by ‘–’, and ‘3’ has been replaced by ‘—’—“--” should produce “–” and “---” should produce “—”, but it doesn't work because Unicode is not fully supported in the version I am using (AutoHotKey_L v1.1.09.04 from autohotkey.com).

Answer 1

The .ahk text file needed to be saved with UTF8-BOM encoding rather than UTF8

As pointed out in this comment, posting as an answer for more visibility.

Answer 2

Click Save as, and change the encoding scheme as shown below:

Answer 3

EDIT: don't bother reading my answer, follow Udo Klein instruction, it's much easier and it works as it should.

how to send unicode characters using the last autohotkey version? (no need of previous unicode-compatible version to work)

Quite hard to find clear information. So to makes it clear for the beginners (like me):

1. copy/past the "code A" that at the end of your script (it should be in encoded in ANSI)
2. copy/past the "code B" on the top of your script
3. find your unicode character code here http://www.utf8-chartable.de/unicode-utf8-table.pl
4. copy the 4 figures after the U+
5. in the code B (on the top of your script): change the key you need (before the "::")
6. in the code B (on the top of your script): past the unicode you found on 2. AFTER the 0x (instead of the "2260")
7. save your script
8. double click on the icon of your script, it will replace/update the previous version

Code A:

SendUnicodeChar(charCode)
{
VarSetCapacity(ki, 28 * 2, 0)
EncodeInteger(&ki + 0, 1)
EncodeInteger(&ki + 6, charCode)
EncodeInteger(&ki + 8, 4)
EncodeInteger(&ki +28, 1)
EncodeInteger(&ki +34, charCode)
EncodeInteger(&ki +36, 4|2)


DllCall("SendInput", "UInt", 2, "UInt", &ki, "Int", 28)
}


EncodeInteger(ref, val)
{
DllCall("ntdll\RtlFillMemoryUlong", "Uint", ref, "Uint", 4, "Uint", val)}

Code B:

!+^D::  ; when press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT will output "≠"
{ 
SendUnicodeChar(0x2260) 
}
return

(watch the space!)

Improvement needed:

somehow this script doesn't work for all the unicode given by this website http://unicode-table.com/ , but someone will maybe be kind enough to tell us why some unicode are working and other don't, and maybe how to make it work for any unicode characters of this website. This one for instance http://unicode-table.com/en/0609/ doesn't work. Any idea why?

Answer 4

I copied the code below from the AutoHotKey forums:

;IMPORTANT, you must save this script as UTF-8 to make it work.

::!?::
::?!::
PutUni("‽")
Return

::neko::
PutUni("猫")
Return

:?:damn::
PutUni("✩☠#‼")
Return

;Paste UTF8 string (Hex encoded or not) as unicode.
;If you don't use Hex encoding, you must save your script as UTF8
PutUni(DataIn)
{
    SavedClip := ClipBoardAll
    ClipBoard =
    If RegExMatch(DataIn, "^[0-9a-fA-F]+$")
    {
        Loop % StrLen(DataIn) / 2
        UTF8Code .= Chr("0x" . SubStr(DataIn, A_Index * 2 - 1, 2))
    }
    Else
        UTF8Code := DataIn

    Transform, ClipBoard, Unicode, %UTF8Code%
    Send ^v
    Sleep 100 ;Generous, less wait or none will often work.
    ClipBoard := SavedClip
    Return
}

The PutUni function will "translate" the desired input to the desired Unicode output.

Answer 5

Quote from Why are the non-ASCII characters in my script displaying or sending incorrectly?:

Short answer: Save the script as UTF-8 with BOM.

Although AutoHotkey supports Unicode text, it is optimized for backward compatibility, which means defaulting to the ANSI encoding rather than the more internationally recommended UTF-8. AutoHotkey will not automatically recognize a UTF-8 file unless it begins with a byte order mark.

For how to save a file with UTF-8 BOM encoding, see here.