AutoHotkey Community

[planetthoughtful]

Hi All,

It may be this is a generally known tip etc, but I thought it was useful enough to pass along.

If you've installed an app or an addon / plugin that doesn't behave properly and puts up an error dialog, and you want to email the developer(s) about it, instead of painstakingly typing out the error message in your email (because you can't select and copy text in error dialogs - I've actually emailed Microsoft to suggest this in future OSes), fire up Window Spy and use it to grab the text from the dialog to copy and paste into your email.

May not save many all that much time, but has saved me from the annoyance of typing out error messages more than a couple of times.

Much warmth,

planetthoughtful
---
"Lost in thought"
http://www.planetthoughtful.org

[Titan]

You could also take a screenshot of the error message
_________________

RegExReplace("irc.freenode.net/ahk", "^(?=(.(?=[\0-r\[]*((?<=\.).))))(?:[c-\x73]{2,8}(\S))+((2)|\b[^\2-]){2}\D++$", "$u3$1$3$4$2")

[BoBo]

In some cases a simple push of the Print-Button will capture the text of an error message to the clipboard - to be pasted to whatever target afterwards.

[Titan]

Cool, I never knew that..
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RegExReplace("irc.freenode.net/ahk", "^(?=(.(?=[\0-r\[]*((?<=\.).))))(?:[c-\x73]{2,8}(\S))+((2)|\b[^\2-]){2}\D++$", "$u3$1$3$4$2")

[planetthoughtful]

[PhiLho]

The screenshot is quite heavy, even more as most users doesn't know that they should reduce the number of colors to avoid to send million of colors uncompressed bitmats (often inserted in a Word document because they don't know what to make to the copy...).

Note that the content of most system made message boxes (like those produced by AHK's MsgBox) can be copied with a simple Ctrl+C. A trick that Chris gives in the MsgBox manual page.

BoBo, are you sure of the trick you gave? It doesn't work for Win98. Neither my Ctrl+C one...
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vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

[planetthoughtful]

Ah! That's even better! Damnit, I can't believe I've lived this long as a so-called 'computer expert' without knowing that tip!

Mamma would not be proud.

Much warmth,

planetthoughtful
---
"Lost in thought"
http://www.planetthoughtful.org

[ParanoidX]

[andrewjohn81]

A nice little known shortcut is
Alt+PrintScreen

This will only capture the currently active window.

Print screen is a big waste for me because it captures 3200x1200 (2 monitors). When I learned of this shortcut I was extremely happy.

It doesn't always work for "sub-windows" or floating windows within an app.

[TheIrishThug]

[danthecardman]

I got this tip out of CPU magazine. Whenever you get that error message dialog box, all you have to do is CTRL+C; then open any word processor and CTRL+V (no print screen hassle). However if you want a good free print screen tool that I use all the time, try Gadwin Print Screen.

[Thalon]

Ctrl-C works for standard dialogs very well.
But there are some they don't accept this. In most of this cases AU3-Spy can catch the text very well.
For all other dialogs I'm using FastStone Capture (free for non-commercial usage).
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[tonne]

FastStone Captura is no longer freeware...
_________________
there's a dog barking close within the range of my ear
sounds like he wants to escape the chain
he would probably bite me to death if he could
but the chain lets me spit in his face
- Kashmir

[Alan Stancliff]

[Thalon]