promoting AutoHotkey

[jeeswg]

Some people have expressed difficulties explaining the benefits of AutoHotkey.
I think it's actually quite easy.
I think the two main issues to address are:
- What can I do?
- Is it easy?

How do you promote AutoHotkey to individuals/businesses?
- ask them about any computer problems they have
- ask them what software they use
- list some ideas
- show a demo video
- show some hello world scripts

Some hello world scripts:
- hotstrings/text expansion
- open a program with a temporary/permanent hotkey
- temporary alternative hotkeys e.g. Q or Ctrl+Q instead of Ctrl+C
- temporarily disabling individual Windows/program hotkeys
- invoke a menu item e.g. 'Save'
- send clicks
- send key presses
- list open windows (similar to Task Manager)
- get/set the clipboard text
- a basic GUI, with one input field and one button
- download a file
- copy/move/rename a file/folder
- read from/write to: a text file, an ini file, the registry
- programming basics: assign, if, loop, functions
- programming basics: strings (text), maths, dates, arrays

What have you enabled individuals/businesses to do?
- automate Excel
- automate web scraping (for the company's own website) (via Internet Explorer/Chrome/WinHttpRequest)
- autosave: Notepad windows
- autosave: periodically list open windows
- autosave: periodic printscreens

What is the maximum that you can do with AutoHotkey?
- write any Windows program that I would write in C++, but more easily
- temporarily add features to Windows/external programs, and restore the normal behaviour by closing AutoHotkey
- note: all that is required is a 1-2 MB exe, and no installation
- a full list of built-in functions to give you some ideas:
Alphabetical Command and Function Index | AutoHotkey
https://autohotkey.com/docs/commands/
- also, you can use any Winapi function, and external dlls

Regarding what you use AutoHotkey for, please post here:
What do YOU use AHK for? - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43566

Further links:
How to Explain Automation to a Non-Tech-Savvy - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=20639
What do YOU use AutoHotKey for? - Offtopic - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/72222-what-do-you-use-autohotkey-for/
What do you do with AutoHotKey? give your idea here - Offtopic - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/47754-what-do-you-do-with-autohotkey-give-your-idea-here/
How do you use AutoHotkey? - Offtopic - AutoHotkey Community
https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/9043-how-do-you-use-autohotkey/

In terms of replies, I'm hoping for people to give any advice they have regarding how they've successfully explained the benefits of AutoHotkey, and details of the kinds of scripts they've written for individuals/businesses.
Thanks for reading.

[John]

I think the single most important factor that puts AHK leaps and bounds ahead of it's competitors is how small the initial investment will be to automate a task and eventually much of the work. For companies that employ <50 employees and/or have <10m annual income (before taxes, wages etc), most of the available solutions are just too expensive to even consider in earnest and that severely hinders their ability to grow when competing against other larger companies.
AHK offers the ability to be able to operate on similar margins as the big corporations while still not having the ridiculous volumes that would make the margins possible by removing the need for as many employees.

Long 'example',

Spoiler

Unlike with the other options, you can just start with a simple launch program+mouse macro that removes a job that would otherwise take 4-5 hours a week. In very little time with very low commitment and investment you've tackled all the easy to solve problems in your company and probably don't have to hire another employee to deal with growth (+30k annually).

At this point the already used ERP software is probably the biggest bottleneck as the one that's being used was one of the cheaper ones bought some 10 years ago. The company has been built around it as well and upgrading to a more suitable one is still too expensive (SAP with ~5m heads up) or would take too much time for very low benefits and a plethora of hidden costs (LemonSoft e.g.).
This is where AHK can be seamlessly integrated into the existing and well known workflows and software. There is no need for prohibitively expensive consultants either since the existing employees can be the consultants regarding the task at hand (in conjunction with whoever writes the scripts) because what is being automated has already been used for decades at times.
This is also where AHK shines as deploying 20 prototypes to tackle a problem will take the same amount of time as writing a single well written professional solution with e.g. Java. Problem solving is very risk free with AHK (from the money POV).

Then starts optimizing of the work that's not strictly related to software (yet) and this requires either custom software that is probably too expensive or existing software that doesn't mesh with your ERP. Here again AHK can be used to create that custom software or scripts/software to act as the intermediary between two or more affordable solutions.

Finally comes the point when business has become profitable enough to move to SAP or other industry standards and again, AHK can make the transition virtually effortlessly. As much of the company then putters on with the new fancy gear, AHK will still automate a lot of the menial tasks that aren't worth investing tens of thousands into, but still cost notable amounts to the company.

Basically AHK can take a small company struggling to get ahead into a future of prosperity and when the cost of seeing whether it could work can be as low as 0$, there really isn't a reason to not give it a go.

[SOTE]

John, in complete agreement.

[tank]

Damn @John, 14 years in automation and I cant make a stronger point that moving into an ERP. I often elevator pitch ahk as a robust windows scripting language that mimics human interaction.