Speed Up Your Workflow with Code! | AutoHotkey for Video Editors

A step-by-step guide to setting up AutoHotkey and a complete walkthrough of the two most useful scripts I've written so far that are saving me a TON of time when I edit in Premiere Pro.
The first script automatically creates the folder structure I use to organize all my video projects, and the second script calls up each one of those folders with a single keypress for quick and easy access while I'm editing.
Links:
Download AutoHotkey: www.autohotkey...
Download SciTE4AutoHotkey: fincs.ahk4.net/...
Download Notepad++: notepad-plus-p... (You'll also need to refer to this forum post - www.autohotkey... - for instructions on how to set up syntax highlighting for AutoHotkey.)
"World's Most Advanced Video Editing Tutorial (Premiere Pro) - Editing LTT from start to finish" by Taran Van Hemert: • World's Most Advanced ...
"Can your Keyboard do THIS?? - Make ANY key a MACRO!" by Linus Tech Tips: • Can your Keyboard do T...
Additional resources:
The documentation for AutoHotkey is amazingly thorough and very easy to search if you're having trouble with the syntax of a particular command: www.autohotkey...
If you're really interested in learning the ins-and-outs of AutoHotkey, I've also learned a lot from the series of (over 100!) AutoHotkey tutorials by CivReborn: / civreborn . They're definitely worth checking out!
"12 Favorite AutoHotKey Scripts You Can Use to Make Life Easier" by Vamsi Krishna, maketecheasier.com: www.maketechea...
Finally, if you're curious about the reasoning behind the folder structure I use to organize all my video projects, you can check out my recent video explaining in detail why I do what I do: • How to Organize Your V...
Instagram: / alexander_behne
Twitter: / alexander_behne
Facebook: / alex.behne.7
Music from KZbin Audio Library (www.youtube.co...)
"Arps Solina" by Mylar Melodies
"As Loud as Possible" by Max McFerren
"Finally" by Max McFerren
"I Feel Like Partying Right Now"
"The Boy Got Skills" by Max McFerren
"Cubic Z" by Diamond Ortiz
"City of Jewels" by Density & Time
"Clean Break" by Density & Time
"Gaia in Fog" by Dan Bodan
"Milos" by Eveningland
Additional Music:
"Thinking Music" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons...

[@IamCoolAngel]

After almost 39 years this is the first time ever I watch a 1 hour video without yawning or getting bored, very well done and great effort, thanks a lot :)

[@goadplayz9003]

have youtube even been for 39 years?

[@enderguy7764]

@@goadplayz9003 Nope 17.

[@ikasika87662000]

You still young😂

[@herbert_Souza]

How did this video not get 1 million views?! simply a gold mine of productivity🤩🤩

[@LivingGuy484]

I don't even do video editing, but your teaching style is really good! Thank you for helping make this feel less overwhelming

[@igamse]

you made such a great tutorial with only 100 subs!!! you are WAAAAAAAAAAAY better than some Giant channels out there, thank you so much for the tuto

[@shway1]

sucks that he stopped making videos. this could have become a really good channel

[@nicocorescp]

This tutorial was the best tutorial I've ever seen for ahk. Thanks dude.

[@MrTerryRay1]

Alexander, this is the best AutoHotKey tutorial I've come across. Others I've read tell you how to do a basic AutoHotKey, and direct you to articles that tell you how to create others-and that tutorial is really good. What I like about your tutorial is you explain what the scripts are, and why they are used, and you show us in a great order so that we can understand. Then you show us why you use the hotkey, and how you do it. Now I'm an IT guy (not a developer), and a videographer and there is a lot I don't understand about scripting, and you have made AutoHotkey understandable. Thanks for taking the time to explain well how to use AutoHotKey relevant to video editors, and others. 🤓🔥

[@alviyt3958]

this helped me a lot. I make 2d animation, many assets that I use in my workflow. many things need to be done. and it's very tiring. and finally this video appears. thank you God

[@jimmytwotimes1]

you need to do more AutoHotkey tutorials! You explain things better than anyone I've seen. I've already been using ahk for a while now but you seem to grasp the concept and explain it much better than I myself, or anyone I've seen so far for that matter.

[@MrBradWilliams]

Dude. This is the best AHK tutorial I have ever seen. It just keeps giving. I've been using AHK for years, and have watched hours - probably days - of tutorials, but I really wish this had been the first one I had seen. I think some of the others will be more meaningful now. Much appreciated!

[@Arora-Sir]

true that, same here!!

[@SlipQTx]

This tutorial was incredibly well-made- The information is concise and clearly presented, and the editing was on point. I see you haven't posted in awhile, but I sincerely hope that you continue to produce content in the future regardless of the topic material. You clearly have a talent for teaching, presenting, and editing.

[@davidchallik2551]

Alexander, you're the best! I love the systematic way you explain all the steps in a script. I learned a lot...

[@xoxopop3928]

You are showing the pictures and videos in the right time, it makes the tutorial so much understandable. thanks.

[@ayzi6071]

man... by someone who writes code in Python, and learned C# as well i can say this tutorial is one of the best in explaining the basics of coding in general - not just AHK! thank you so much, had a lot of fun watching :)

[@GustavoHenrique-ub8ts]

this is one of the most magnificent tutorials I've seen on youtube..... ever.

[@MyLittleMagneton]

If you want to get really fancy, you could get a Stream Deck to use for macro buttons. It allows you to make submenus (or folders) of hotkeys, so you could have a OpenFolder button, which goes into a submenu and displays "Assets", "Documents", "Data", etc. all with different icons :)

[@PearOnPearOff]

Great video! You are superbly articulate and explain things in a very concise way. Looking to automate my video editing process, and AutoHotkey looks like the tool for the job for me!

[@minhtrieugaming]

Thank you very much, although I am a foreigner, I see your video very easy to understand. Hope you will make more videos about autohotkey because I really like this programming language.

[@thegreatredfox264]

Amazing quality and effort put into this video! I really appreciate the in-depth tutorial and the explanations! Thanks!

[@llicit1833]

Nice overview. The main way I use AHK is to create context sensitive msgboxes that display keyboard shortcuts for whatever application I'm currently using

[@Adolfo.Silva.h]

excellent video. I don't use second keyboard, I use tab key, and caps lock key, to use 2 different layouts of my single keyboard, for my es the best, I Was 3 keyboard at beginner but is a caos if you are in other place. and just copy the ahk file in any computer and you are ready to work as usually do.

[@LaRedCR]

Nice to see a very fine and prepared video explanation (music, lights, transitions, etc) great job!

[@haseenmultimedia3103]

first of all you have a knack for logically explaining everything. I just watched out of curiosity as I did explore AHK for automating premiere and edius initially. However I now use winautomation as it far far easy to code in there. It is paid app though. One way to remeber the directory is to save it as a text file somewhere and read the contents of it so that it knows even after a reboot like a global variable. And confirm it on the next project. For the folders I simply create an empty directory structure somewhere and copy it to the %directory% folder. There is so much to learn from each other. Well done

[@TippyMueller]

wow!!! What a clear explanation that is. I love your sense of humor as well. I'm definitely subscribing.

[@MaxDrake]

Beautifully presented and explained, thank you for that. 2nd part, where you have pop-up box for the current project you are working in, I thought you were going to use an .ini file to store the folder path & sub-folder paths, but you went a different route. The .ini file will store the current project and next time you go to work on a different project you can just write the new one over the original. The nice thing with that is you can shut computer down and next time you start the script it remembers the "current" project (as in the last project you were working on) without having to re-input it again. Saves a lots of you if/else stuff. I've found ini files a great, simple way to store information that you want some persistence over. And you can delete the ini file and ifi its not present the script will just re-write another file. Please make more videos, you are a great presenter & explainer, kind regards,

[@thomascurro1405]

wow mate! Incredible stuff! Watching the whole thing on 1.75 speed. it's great

[@jakehiggins8467]

I like the way you teach....Your a natural Thank you for the lesson

[@BrockPlaysFortnite]

now this is content

[@justgames1642]

Great tutorial and explanation of why and how the code works, and the solutions to solve problems encountered!

[@iiiarmchair]

Well done. You've created a great tutorial - you're a natural at presenting! I'm not into video editing, but this is a good intro for anyone wishing to learn about AutoHotKey.

[@robertwodzak3333]

Thank you for your tutorial. That's what I've been looking for. I used some macro programs before that don't work any more with new Windows versions. That's why I hope, AHK will save me a lot of time in my daily routine in hospital, where I copy and convert some data through Excel and print them the way I want.

[@marcusmo4863]

Wow...what an excellent tutorial. Explanation of concepts and implementation of practical scenarios as well the graphics are incredibly good.

[@lucasnahas]

I must agree with the people here, you are a very good teacher

Great tutorial, but part of example is solved by Total Commander (and ctrl+d and ctrl t )..

[@cthuloox476]

So awesome! Why are there only 390 subs.; people are dumb. Your production is on point. Thanks for having such a clear approach.

[@godofthegaps6741]

You explaination skills are over the charts great vid

[@etofok]

For the second one I propose an alternative, that 1) uses 1 hotkey, 2) more suitable for laptops (because of no numpad) 3) and you don't need to move your hand from the ASDF position. So the alternative is a dropdown menu near your mouse cursor from which you select your destination folder. If you want to be super fancy you can even make a radial menu for "hotkey-'swipe'" workflow.

[@skripnigor]

Great tutorial! I am a big AHK fan. Instead of multikey combinations I found it useful to repurpose the Capslock to work as an extra function key.

[@obitwokenobi69]

Amazing video! I wish you would return with more Autohotkey wisdom 🙏

[@arifijan]

Very nice tutorial. I see a possible improvement for the solution around 41:30 for when you use a hotkey to open a folder while the directory has not been set. Instead of disabling and enabling the hotkeys, you can also have each hotkey check if a directory has been set, and if not, call a function to set it. To keep it simple, you'd need a function like 'setDirectory' that contains the code that is now bound to ^Numpad0. Then bind ^Numpad0 to that new function. The result will be that if you press a hotkey to open a folder while no directory has been set, first you will be asked to specify the directory and then the relevant folder will be opened.

[@ASoIaFTheorist]

Very underrated channel.

[@studiotips808]

Just going to agree with the other folks here: excellent work. Thanks for the very informative and well made video. Easiest sub decision I've ever made. I'd love to have this code so I could copy paste if you can. I agree its better to do it by hand... and I already spend WAY too much time fiddling with AHK scripts. :D You know how it is.

[@prodbyvm1012]

This was really useful, please keep making content!

[@EranAmir]

What an awesome tutorial! Do you have a simple idea of how to create Subfolders with the folder structure script? For example, inside my "Audio" folder I'd love to create "Music", "VO", "SFX", etc. Thanks!

[@hamidrana085]

Yep, Very Addictive, Very Quickly

[@DE-signYourLife]

Keep it up. Good work. We want more of the ahk Tutorials!

[@Project7Pictures]

Great video - that really helps setting up a better workflow! Also awesome Quality - you deserve more subs :)

[@zerogearedfilms397]

Fantastic teaching ability! Thanks

[@Techieguy93]

This was an excellent tutorial! Thanks for taking the time to create and share it with the world. You have a new subscriber!

[@jeffk412]

wow. so well done! you are a natural teacher!

[@ml8561]

Epic video! You are the most underated youtuber out there. Keep it up!

[@Vivi-xz3fg]

Awesome video! Really easy to follow and lots of useful tips and tricks. Just a tip, you should start using "Quick access" in File explorer. (If you have not already done so) It saves a ton of clicks (and time) when going to favorite folders that are saved below tons of other folders. :)

[@kwanelenkungwana4130]

You opened my mind brother. that was awesome. Thank you veeeeeeery much

[@erminsehovic2000]

Incredible video! A lot of useful information and thoughts throughout the video!

[@bw2247]

Great video, professional video editing, easy to understand - I subbed!

[@kilmersklassiskakanal]

I found this very useful! Very well done tutorial!

[@V081WLBlue]

Excellent, clear tutorial!

[@carlosdelaportilla3585]

Thanks for the value info! :)

[@LaoVS]

Thank you so much! Awesome tutorial '🙏

[@markspeeps]

This is really a fabulous video.

[@YlliEdits]

LEGEND! This was a great video! one error I stumbled upon was that the note program "SciTE4AutoHotkey" would not let me run the script from within the notes itself because of some file path type issue? so I refered back to notepad++ and just use it that way

[@georgemickel6608]

Incredibly helpful! Thanks for the video, liked and subbed ✅

WHAT? 875 suscriptions only? OMG, we are gonna be the best editors in the world, or, at less, the fastest. I'm using already some scripts and I'm trying to make them auto, despite that... very useful (actually, the folders like that are a very good idea).

[@bopevfx]

Love this so much thank you

[@dougb70]

5:10 - that's not how you get constructive feedback from programmers. You are supposed to say, "I spent hours optimizing this code so it is perfect".

[@afhmh2780]

U deserve much more subs bro..

[@Proferk]

18:47 The "partial folder names" being sent is NOT because of a hard drive being slow, and sleep will not (dont quote me on this though) fix it. The reason this is happening is because you used the "Send" command. Which is slow and sometimes it doesn't send all keystrokes. To make it work, you have to use SendInput instead.

[@vertexgraphics1597]

You difenately deserve more subs

[@jakeliujakeliu]

Great video, suggestion next time make the code bigger font hard to read. Skip the background, just show code at bigger font. Thank you

[@brianheight]

24:30 the keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl +L then Ctrl + C to copy that path

[@michaeltyers7336]

If you want to quickly create a new bunch of folders in a directory: Type "cmd" in the address bar at that location In command prompt type: mkdir Assets Documents "Edit Data" Music "Raw Footage" This will create all those new folders in the blink of an eye. You can throw that into a cmd file and reuse it as needed: @echo off mkdir Assets Documents "Edit Data" Music "Raw Footage" pause The pause is only necessary to read any error messages. Don't forget to hit F5 to refresh the folder as the new folders might not sure up immediately.

[@thecyberzone5114]

Can You Upload You Auto Hot Key Script to google drive so we don't have to manually type these or upload the raw text to pastebin

[@johndoremi3872]

Such a greate video , even better than the guy that you mentioned , how can i do the multiple folders inside Premier pro? that would be AAAAWESOMEEEE!!!!

[@RicKuklinski]

This video is super cool!

[@browsetube4366]

Great, 1hrs watching video is very worth

[@garybaitson]

love this video thank you so much, Ive learned so much

[@HolyPineapple]

Wow, crazy good Tutorial! This will help me a lot :)

[@DrBFromEarth]

Great work. Subscrribed!😊

[@rahulsuthar8590]

Thanks for the Video man , Great work.

[@wrathstorm1453]

Excellent video. A question. Why did you have to enclose the Enter in curly brackets but not the F9? Thanks in advance.

[@V081WLBlue]

I think because the :: after F9 lets it know that is a KEY stroke whereas 'Send' could be text or a keystroke

[@justsurfin5013]

RIGHT SMACK in the middle of this journey :) How I ended up on this video. Did notice it makes use of DOS-BATCH commands such as 'Run'

[@tbv7447]

Thank you!

[@ZpzpPiwpiw]

Hey man. Great work ! Love your approach. Anything on working in ffmpeg with AutoHotkey? Please make more videos!

[@misophoniac]

you can also just put Try before run and don't write any of this hotkey off and if else statement on the inputbox

[@ameer-dex]

Thank you so much

[@zakon1nsour11]

Thank you for this Video. you are the best 👌😊 At first, it didn't work I really do not know what is the real reason behind this, but I think that the 32-bit version should be downloaded, not the 64-bit version. after that, It's working very will 👍

[@seg_fault]

18:00 In the spirit of making the code elegant, I believe you can also make a for loop instead of copy-pasting and calling the function several times. Right?

[@evanskan6326]

I am going to try this with Blender, Maya and zBrush shortcuts.... If it works I will be a happy man!

[@FFVison]

I'm just thinking that if you were setting up an input to open the folders up for a given project, I wonder if it would be worth it to include some default text for the initial path where you have your projects stored, that way, You would just have to enter the project name (folder name where the project is stored within your projects folder). I haven't finished watching the video yet, just thought that might be a nice QoL improvement.

[@PuchoWebSolutions]

Hello from New York City! Such a good script. Is the source code available? Thank you for your informative video.

[@qzorn4440]

gee whiz... i would like to do some of this AHK stuff with Bandicam, to auto make a new folder each time Bandicam is started up or a new video subject is selected and store 2-8 recordings in that folder, then close-it when done and be ready for the next folder. this video is a big help. also, can the 2-8 recordings be saved as time: Hour Min Sec? thanks a lot...:)

[@denizevin.]

you are a great man :)

[@joy44712]

is there a way also create sub folders for those folders? Any Tutorial?

[@MrWhitelander]

great video. tnx.

[@joostvanoranje4411]

17:19 You can use ctrl + d to copy the current line. :D

[@CarlosMartinez-ps1je]

Can you help me create a script to "Reload" the file after I've made changes? Thanks

[@iivarimokelainen]

doesnt premier have a file explorer? i thought you could open your project folder there and drag any assets from there.

[@denizylmaz852]

Hello, I want to ask you 2 questions in the Autohotkey program, is it possible to do them? 1. Detect only "uppercase or lowercase" letters that I have entered in Autohotkey! 2. Installing 2 different features on the same key, for example; When I press the "L" key while using a program, it should make "ctrl + L", then when I come to the search part of the program it should write "L" when I press "L"! Thank you..

[@Millville_Maker]

Nice Script is it posted and is there a way to switch to Power Point i have a large Database of them to call quickly during a production having trouble and would like some help

[@soorya7519]

Very interesting and nice

[@nssdesigns]

Wouldn't it be good IF it could read the Folder names in the given dir and assign them to hotkeys ctrl numpad 01-09 for example... as I'm no video editor rather Document Controller and my project folder are never the same