Resources

What & Link	Type
List of AHK resources: awesome-AutoHotkey	List
David Deley: AHK Expression Examples	Cheatsheet

Common Gotchas and Issues

• Options often use a single letter prefix before a "binding"

  • For example, controls that store the value of the control on submit into a variable, will accept the name of the variable prefixed by v.

    • So, if you want to store the result into MyVar, you would actually pass vMyVar.

  • Gui Controls also accept routines to be called via g-label

    • To call MyFunc(), you would use gMyFunc

• Try to avoid calling Click, Down or Send {LButton down} early - try to call it last in a given thread / routine

  • In my experience, AHK basically stopped execution of the current routine / thread until the an Up event was sent - either by my script or the user performing a mouse click.
  • I could not find any documentation that might explain this behavior

FAQ

• Easiest way to debug

  • Add OutputDebug lines, and keep SysInternals DebugView open!

    • https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/OutputDebug.htm
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/debugview

• Why aren't my variables receiving updated values from the GUI controls?

  • Assuming you bound a variable, such as MyVarName to a GUI control, by using the vMyVarName option, there could still be several reasons why MyVarName does not contain an up-to-date value

    • You forgot to submit the GUI form

      • Every time that you want to update your "bound" variables with fresh values from the GUI, you need to call Gui, Submit
      • To make things easier, you can create a wrapper function that calls Submit, such as SubmitForm(){ Gui, Submit, NoHide}, and then bind that function to be called on the control with gSubmitForm.

    • The wrong syntax was used

      • Remember v prefix - bind with vMyVarName, not MyVarName

    • There are multiple GUIs

      • If you have multiple GUIs floating around, you have tell AHK which GUI you are trying to get fresh values for when submitting.
      • If your GUI is named MainForm, you would get fresh values by first calling: Gui, MainForm:Submit

• How to refer to named GUIs?

  • Add name: before the subcommand
  • Example: change Gui, Show to Gui, MyGui:Show

• How to package as an EXE

  • Use right click and "compile script" option, or dedicated compiler program (%ProgramFiles%\AutoHotkey\Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe)
  • Dedicated program will let you customize icon - see https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/58205-change-icon-of-compiled-ahk-script/

• How to detect mouse movement

  • You can't - best way is to just use a timer and compare last coords with current to see if changed

    • https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/6861-detect-mouse-movement/
    • https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/76603-activation-on-mouse-move/
    • https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=36348

• SetTimer issues

  • Using a function

    • You can use a function instead of a label - just pass it as second arg

  • Using variable MS

    • pass with % in front

• GetMousePos returns bad results (relative positions)

  • By default, coordinates are relative to your UI, not the total screen. See this for the different coordinate options.
  • Use CoordMode, mouse, Screen for coordinates that are relative to the desktop (entire screen)

FAQ Continued - GUI Controls Specific

• How to pass both range and default to slider?

  • the default value HAS to come LAST - otherwise it is ignored - and must be integer
  • e.g. `Gui, Add, Slider, vMySliderVal, Range1-50 ... 25
  • If you want to use a variable as the slider default, remember to prefix with % - e.g.
  • Here is a full example: Gui, MainWin:Add, Slider, vRemoteControlLagMs gGetConfigFromUi +Range0-%Slider_Max%, % RemoteControlLagMs

• How the heck do you pass a control Id?

  • The docs really gloss over this, but the v__ option actually is dual-purpose; both the variable to store value into, AND the control Id

    • Thanks: https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/55795-how-to-get-the-controlid-of-gui-control-just-created/?p=350487