Create Canned Responses with AutoHotkey

Let's face it: from a certain point of view, nobody wants to receive them, but we also understand they're sometimes necessary. If you're taking your first steps in online sales, you're a teacher who gets asked the exact same question 243 times a week, or you find yourself in a situation that demands sharing the same data over and over, you might prefer to prepare a set of canned responses to win back some time. For that, we have the great AutoHotkey on our side.

Any time a user wants to consistently reproduce a command or a macro, the recommendation that tops the list is AutoHotkey. Powerful and flexible at the same time, if it's about keyboards, mice, or a combination of both, chances are AutoHotkey gets the job done without a hitch. Of course... there's a catch, and that is that AutoHotkey isn't as intuitive as we'd like. Technically speaking, AutoHotkey is scripting software, with commands, expressions, and a general syntax we have to learn.

Create canned responses with AutoHotkey

This is where most people decide to throw in the towel, but don't worry! Today I'll walk you through creating a basic script that will «type» canned responses. In fact, the script is part of the official AutoHotkey tutorial, with one or two slight tweaks in the code. The first step is to visit the AutoHotkey page, download the installer, and follow the suggestions from its assistant (32-bit mode works well and guarantees compatibility).

Once AutoHotkey is installed, right-click on the desktop, go to the «New» section of the context menu, and choose «AutoHotkey Script». That creates a new AutoHotkey file with a generic name, which you can change if you want.

Right-click on the new file and select «Edit Script». That command opens Notepad and shows us the file's contents. As a certain hitchhiker's guide would say, don't panic!

Erase all the content of the file until the notepad is completely blank. It's easier this way and helps avoid conflicts.

Now that you have the empty script, we need to create its structure. The first line will hold the keyboard shortcut we want to use to repeat the canned response. AutoHotkey's help file describes four basic values: # for the Windows key, ! for Alt, ^ for Ctrl, and + for Shift. And the good news is you can combine them. For example, let's associate our canned response with Ctrl+Shift+R. The first line of the script is:

^+r::

The double colon at the end closes the command, don't forget them! To «inject» the text of our response, there are two commands: Input and SendInput. Both work the same way, but SendInput is much faster. The command is:

SendInput,

Pay special attention to the comma at the end. After that comma, leave a space, and get your message ready! Everything you need to share or communicate. When you're done with your message, you must «close» that section of the script with the return command. If everything went well, you should have something like this in Notepad:

^+r::
SendInput, Your response goes here.
return

If it's correct, great! Save the changes, and double-click the file with the new script. If there's a syntax error, the program will let you know immediately; otherwise, AutoHotkey will load it into the system tray. To test it, nothing better than another blank Notepad...

But what if you want to program more than one canned response in the same script? You can do it without problems! Repeat the previous steps, continuing below the previous «return». Just remember to configure a different keyboard shortcut. In our training script, the new shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+T, or ^+t::. It should look like this:

^+r::
SendInput, First response.
return

^+t::
SendInput, Second response.
return

Save the changes and double-click the file. AutoHotkey will ask if you want to replace the previous instance; confirm with «Yes». That's all! Our first response is Ctrl+Shift+R, and the second Ctrl+Shift+T.

There are only two questions left to resolve at this point: how do we get the script to load with Windows, and how do we add an «Enter» at the end of the response to start a new paragraph? Both are simple. First, create a shortcut of the script in the Start menu. If you're on Windows 10, right-click the Start button, choose Run, type shell:startup, and copy the shortcut into the window that opens.

And second, we need two extra little commands at the end of our responses: `r`n. Look carefully at the backticks, since they're not straight. This example will help:

`r`n

And that's how we finish this humble tutorial. Just an initial step for you to become a true rider of canned responses with AutoHotkey. The program allows you to develop much more complex and efficient scripts, involving the clipboard and other operating system elements. If the opportunity arises, we'll keep exploring its secrets. Good luck!

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