AlomWare Toolbox vs AutoHotkey

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

Quite often the question arises of how AlomWare Toolbox compares to AutoHotkey. Basically, AutoHotkey is a full programming language, whereas AlomWare Toolbox is more of a scripting tool that can achieve similar things to AutoHotkey but on a smaller and less technical scale. This is partly why AlomWare Toolbox was created: because AutoHotkey is just too hard and complicated for the everyday PC user to deal with. Not everybody is a programmer, and neither do they want to invest the time and effort into becoming one.

So, let's compare both products to see how they'd automate the task of opening the Windows Calculator, move it to the bottom-right of the desktop, and set its transparency level to 75%.

With AutoHotkey, the coding (which is always done by manual typing) is like this:

Code Select Expand

Run, calc.exe
WinWait, ahk_exe CalculatorApp.exe

SysGet, WorkArea, MonitorWorkArea
WinGetPos, , , WinW, WinH, ahk_exe CalculatorApp.exe
NewX := WorkAreaRight - WinW
NewY := WorkAreaBottom - WinH
WinMove, ahk_exe CalculatorApp.exe, , %NewX%, %NewY%

; Set transparency to 75%
; 255 = fully opaque, so 75% = 191
WinSet, Transparent, 191, ahk_exe CalculatorApp.exe

This is not very user-friendly to read, and has confusing data (specifying "191" for 75%), and as mentioned requires manual typing by hand. No, thanks.

By comparison, here's the exact same thing with AlomWare Toolbox, with easy-to-understand plain-English steps that are picked from a list instead of typing:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
0001 Computer: App launch "calc.exe"
0002 Window: Assign and wait to activate "CalculatorApp.exe"
0003 Window: Move to desktop position "numpad3"
0004 Window: Transparency "75"
(End)
Here's how the above action looks in AlomWare Toolbox:



As you can see, the AlomWare Toolbox version is much cleaner, clearer to understand, and has nice icons for visibility (unlike AutoHotkey).

FAQ: What does numpad3 mean in step 3 above? Well, think of your desktop as being like the numeric keypad on your keyboard. See how the numpad's "3" key is at the bottom-right of the keypad, as shown in the image below? This means to automatically position Calculator at the bottom-right of the desktop (no matter what size the desktop is at the time), saving you the hassle of calculating the bottom-right corner of the desktop manually. Nice! But having said that, you can always manually specify a desktop position by typing the screen co-ordinates in step 3 using an X,Y format instead of the numpad# format.