Autohotkey Sync across all your computers
- by admin
Being in the IT field, I use a lot of computers and also end up wiping my computers frequently so this tip is one I could not do without now. It combines the power of Dropbox with the automation of Autohotkey. It ensures that whatever I do in Autohotkey (which I use a lot for text expansion..and a few other things) is sync’d across all computers I use. Steps are below to get this solution running for you (assumes you have a dropbox account):
Step 1: Install Dropbox and Autohotkey. Might I suggest another timesaver, http://ninite.com to do so.
Step 2: Create a folder called AHK in your Dropbox
Step 3: Use Notepad to create a blank script file called myscripts.ahk in your new AHK folder
Step 4: Run Autohotkey, right click on the H in your task tray and select “Edit this Script”
Step 5: Add this line into your default Autohotkey Script, it will “include” your dropbox script in the default script (Check the path for the correct name and location..yours may be different depending on where you keep your Dropbox folder):
#INCLUDE C:\Users\YOURNAME\Desktop\Dropbox\AHK\myscripts.ahk
Repeat Step 4 and 5 on any computer on which you are using AutoHotkey and your “MyScripts” file will be loaded for you…text expansion goodness anywhere.
Advanced note: My work computer has a user name of sheuchert and my home computer has a username of sean so to keep the script the same across all computers you can use the SYMLINK command to create virtual folders with the right name but which point to the right location depending on my computer.
Here is another reason I love Autohotkey:
Keyboard Shortcut to display file extensions:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/keyboard-ninja-toggle-file-extension-display-with-a-shortcut-key-in-windows/
And of course, typing this “Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board” by only typing this: “#pvnc” is golden.
Being in the IT field, I use a lot of computers and also end up wiping my computers frequently so this tip is one I could not do without now. It combines the power of Dropbox with the automation of Autohotkey. It ensures that whatever I do in Autohotkey (which I use a lot for…
Hello, i not new to ahk but quite inexperienced. Looking for a way to sync my main script on different computers, I came accross your article. Thank you for describing the option so precisely.
However, I try to figure out how this works, but I’m afraid I miss something in the logic behind this.
The include function seams pretty clear, but… how can the local main script be synchonized with another local main script (the one on the other computer) by including the dropbox blank script, which contains nothing, right?
Shoulnd’t it be the other way round: the main script on dropbox, with each of the local ones getting the script information thanks to the include function?
Thank you for any “light” in the darkness of syncing ahk 🙂
Hi Christine,
Thanks for visiting. I haven’t figured out a way to make the main script “roam” – I put the include statement in the default file manually. Having said that – I started using the new version of Autohotkey and it seems to handle all this stuff a little differently, to the point where I think I need to rewrite my whole script. Hopefully this summer I will have some time to tinker and will post an udpate for the new AHK.
Take care,
Sean
Thanks Sean!