AutoHotkey - persistent keystroke expansion? - HotStrings

0
votes

I am having trouble understanding how this product works. In the old days of Windows 3.1 and 95 I used these things called "hotkeys" where, no matter where I was in Windows, I could hit a certain key combination and it would happen. I assumed that was what this program did. Is it really just a scripting language?

I followed the "quick start" tutorial in the help file and it talks about creating a script and how to set strings for keystroke patterns to expand into. However, I created this simple script and put it in an AHK file on my Desktop:

::gsell::
    Great Seller!  A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Return

When I run the script from my desktop it appears to complete pretty much instantly, and of course it does nothing because I am on my desktop. I assumed there was some way to actually use these hotkeys in other applications, but it is not obvious to me and I've made a fair effort. Is this just an automation scripting language, or is there some simple way to set up some simple hotkeys and have them persist across applications?

2
windowsautohotkeyhotkeyspersistentpersist
I decided to try an example from the help file and it did work. Apparently the place where I thought it was telling me the script was closed, was actually saying the script was still running, and it counts the number of seconds when you refresh. For some reason the text expansion is still not working, but this question is pretty much solved. – Rick
Anyone know why keystroke expansion isn't working, though? – Rick

2 Answers

1
votes

Hotkeys and Hotstrings are available globally by default. Your issue with the expansion is likely because you have special characters that need to be escaped. Try the following:

::gsell::Great Seller{!} A{+}

; Simple Hotkey - Ctrl+F1
^F1::Msgbox, You pressed a hotkey
0
votes

I decided to try an example from the help file and it did work. Apparently the place where I thought it was telling me the script was closed, was actually saying the script was still running, and it counts the number of seconds when you refresh. For some reason the text expansion is still not working, but this question is pretty much solved.