Auto Book Wiki

Auto Book is a light-weight productivity suite focused on text handling. It's based on the design principles of transparency, user empowerment, and privacy. Auto Book runs entirely locally on your computer and never sends data over the internet.

Auto Book's Data Extraction feature automatically captures information from emails, assigning each item to its corresponding data column and storing it in a tab-separated text file. It's designed both for bilateral and unilateral use. Perfect for extracting purchase order details, it eliminates the need for tedious copy-paste operations.

In addition to extracting data, it can convert dates found in extracted data to a user-defined format, and project folders can be created with the click on a button based on the extracted data – e.g. C:\Clients\[Clientname]\[Date].[PO-Number]. There's also a convenient Dataviewer which shows the summed values of each column.

The name “Auto Book” comes from its ability to automatically book purchase data. Find more info on this feature in the Data Extraction Overview. You'll find the documentation in the Data Extraction Manual, although the newest features such as the Date Converter and OpenAI API interface are not covered yet.

The Data Extraction happens locally on your computer (via the Windows Clipboard), so it does not, in principle, create a vulnerability for hacking.

The new Clip Manager revolutionizes how you use your clipboard. It not only makes copy-paste operations more efficient, but also connects your clipboard to an infinite text repository. With what might be the world’s easiest and most flexible search function, you can find any information that’s ever passed through your clipboard within fractions of a second – even from years ago.

For more info, have a look at the Clip Manager User Manual.

Not a big reader? Get started:

• Open the Basic Configuration by clicking the Clip tab – adjust as needed.
• Press CTRL+C to capture some text.
• Press the Clip Preview hotkey (F6 by default) to see your captured clips.

Even so, please make sure to check out my pride and joy, the Search Function – it's literally more powerful than any other I am aware of. Also know that you can save and reload Pin Sets. As a compromise, maybe read the Introduction at least?

Not convinced yet? See the top 7 reasons to choose Auto Book Clip Manager.

Use the Notes panel on Auto Book’s Extra tab to quickly jot down information, mix text with calculations, or run structured math operations.

Press F7 (user-definable) in any application to create and open a new note in the Clip Manager. Notes support in-line math: simply type a formula and end it with an = to instantly evaluate it.

You can reference previous results using M1, M2, etc., and even perform column-wise summation by entering -- below tabular data and typing = on the next line.

For detailed usage examples, see Math.

Define abbreviations for frequently used text snippets. This system-wide feature saves time when writing emails or GPT prompts. Highlight the text you want to save as a hotstring and press Win+H – then, enter your abbreviation into the dialog that opens. Activate and manage hotstrings on Auto Book's Extra tab.

Create structured file and folder listings instantly by dragging and dropping items onto the Databases panel. You can copy the file list to your clipboard or save it as a plain text file in the parent folder.

The File Lister supports options such as including subfolders, showing file sizes and modification dates, excluding hidden or system files, and customizing how paths are displayed. A live preview on the right shows the output in real time.

For a detailed description, see the File Lister manual.

Auto Book is completely free to use. There is no catch. And no, you're not the product either

The package includes the Data Extraction functionality, the Clip Manager and all other modules.

I may introduce a pro version at a later time, but the current free software will continue to work perpetually.

Download Auto Book ZIP Archive v2.16

No installation is required. You can also run Auto Book from a USB stick or similar device.

To start Auto Book:

1. Create a folder “Auto Book” wherever you like.
2. Unzip the ZIP package in that folder.
3. Double-click autobook.exe

Some browsers may display “Unknown App” or similar worded warnings when you download Auto Book. I don't have influence over these and the “known state” may be reset again when I update Auto Book. In any case, these are harmless – please select “Download anyway” (or a similar option) to proceed.

Windows, in particular Windows 11, may shown an “Unknown App” dialog, especially if Auto Book was recently updated. As it's a free app, I have refused so far to pay the ~USD500/year that a code-signing certificate would cost to remove these permanently. But from recent new users I have heard that no window popped up – hopefully it'll stay that way.

Choose “More Info” or “Run anyway” to start Auto Book.

To update from any 1.XX version to 2.XX, you don't need to download the full zip. Instead, download only the executable and just replace autobook.exe in your existing Auto Book folder. All your user data will remain intact.

Download ZIP with only autobook.exe for Updating to v2.16

Auto Book is free to use.

You may not modify, translate, de-compile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise decode Auto Book; or sublicense, sell, rent or lend Auto Book to anyone else. No liability is assumed by the author. (See license-terms.txt in the ZIP package.)

The software does not send any user data over the internet. All data remain local on your computer.

v1.981 2025-04-24
Fixed an issue when, from the Dataviewer menu, switching between databases with different column counts

v1.982 2025-04-28
Fixed issue of ESC key not closing Dataviewer when the data listview was the active control

v1.983 - 2025-05-06
Fixed an issue with switching the Afterpaste mode to “Repeat”

v2.0 - 2025-05-08
Improved Pin Set feature:
Loaded Pin Sets are now displayed with a checkmark in the Pin Set list. Clicking a Pin Set with checkmark again removes the Pin Set from the Clip Preview.
The Save Pin Set and Add to Pin Set functions now work on selected clips instead of pinned clips for more flexible handling of multiple Pin Sets.

Context menu for Clip Preview:
Right click into the clip table to access Add To Pin Set, Copy Clip Content, Copy Keywords, Bump, Delete options, etc.

v2.01 - 2025-05-09 Bug fix

v2.10 - 2025-05-22
Enhanced File Lister with additional options and a live preview of the generated file list.
Dataviewer now opens a larger, multi-line edit box on double-click. The previous incell-edit box is still available via Ctrl+Double-click.

v2.11 - 2025-06-06
When the ClipGui is in Input State, pressing CTRL+V now pastes directly into the Search box.
Pressing Enter after a search now automatically opens the Full Clip View and scrolls to the first in-clip match.
Bug Fix.

v2.12 - 2025-06-12
A user-definable hotkey (F7 by default) now creates a new clip/note from any application and opens it in the Full Clip View.
Calculations can now performed in clips (type = after a formula), see Math.
Fixed a bug that made check marks of Pin Sets in the menu disappear when saving a new Pin Set.

v2.13 - 2025-06-23
Introduced Keyword Presets – user-definable Keyword strings that can be applied and searched for via a single mouse-action.
Presets can be added via the new Tag menu available from the menu bar and the Context Menu.
The Clip Searches menu, now renamed to simply Search menu, provides access to both user-defined patterns and Keyword Presets.
You can now perform calculations also within the Edit box of Dataviewer (opened on double-click onto a cell).

v2.14 - 2025-06-26
Dataviewer has now a new function for duplicating rows, useful for rapidly filling in data with partially matching fields (via CTRL+D or the Dataviewer's context menu).
Dataviewer's Input box now has a new copy button that copies the cell content of the row above, useful for rapid data entry. Hold CTRL while clicking the button to copy from the first non-empty cell above instead.
Removed an unnecessary warning when renaming a database while no output masks exist, and other minor bug fixes.

v2.15 - 2025-07-06
Code optimization
Introduced Rotational backups for Databases, ES, Pin Sets, all clips files
In Dataviewer, columns are now automatically set to number when switching the decimal separator
In Dataviewer, a double-click in the blank below the data rows or to the right side of the last data row now adds a new blank row at the end of the Database.
Reduced update delay for Full Clip View from 300ms to 100ms for a better real-time feel
When new clips are added to the Clip Manager while rows are selected in the Clip Preview, the selection is not reset anymore, but shifted down along with the added clips so that editing in the Full Clip View is not interrupted.

v2.16 - 2025-07-08
Further improved search performance for certain search types by pre-analyzing search patterns and adjusting the search strategy correspondingly.

My name is Ulrich Leininger and I'm the developer behind Auto Book. I was born in Germany, spent a decade in China and a few years ago settled in Saigon, Vietnam, where I run my company Logitope LLC.

I created Auto Book to solve a frustrating problem: some of my best clients were sending purchase orders via email, and I had to manually copy-paste the data into my accounting system. This mindless task led to procrastination and wasted time. Auto Book solves this with a single hotkey, automating data capture, saving time, reducing errors, and eliminating the tedium of copy-paste operations.

Seeing the Auto Book programming code in action – how countless functions work together to deliver the desired result – lifted my spirits and inspired me to expand its capabilities. This led to the development of additional features, with the new Clip Manager emerging as the most important.

I hope you find Auto Book as useful. Please send feedback or suggestions to autobook-feedback@logitope.com – I’m always happy to hear from users!

For the moment and as long as I can, I will provide support myself.

Just email me to autobook-support@logitope.com.