Fell at 1st hurdle. Can't activate URL

[HarryStottle]

Although I've been using AutoHotkey for a while, I've only ever used it for trivial stuff (like evading Copy/Paste into outdated password entry forms)

A friend brought Pulover's Macro Creator to my attention and I've just begin working through his video tutorials.

First thing he's showing us is a macro designed to upload a German doc into Google Translate, for translation into English, downloading the result into a Word doc.

So I decide to try to step along with his demo.

Fell at first hurdle

His first inserted command is to load the website into the default browser. He Clicks the "Run File/String" button and pastes in the address for Google translate. Then shows us how we can test the command by clicking the "Play" button. In the demo, that obligingly opens up Google Translate in his browser.

When I try it, it minimises the Macro Creator form out of the way but the browser (firefox) does not react.

I try it with the browser already open, thinking it might be easier if all it needs to do is create a new tab. Still nothing.

I'd had difficulty reading the exact string he'd pasted in (can't tell exactly what appears between the "?" and the "#") so I try deleting the ? call and shorten the command to just open Google Translate. (https://translate.google.com/) Still nada

So I try an entirely different url (https://www.bbc.co.uk/)

Again, nothing.

So tried, instead, to run:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"

and that failed too.

Then tried exporting it to an .ahk file and that works as expected!

What have I missed?


[Mod edit: Moved from 'Tutorials', since this is not a tutorial.]

[rockitdontstopit]

Sometimes when you press play with the Pulover window open, the code executes as the window is closing and doesn't do anything. A better way to run a macro is to press ctrl + Enter to activate hot keys. Then with Firefox open trigger the macro with a hotkey.

[rockitdontstopit]

Also try a winactivate command on Firefox before anything else.