I've read many discussions in this forum that relate to that question, but I haven't found anything that answers my questions (for example, several threads relate to self-built AutoIt GUI scripts, but I just want to automate any of a number of already-existing third-party apps). I know that those trying to help us newbs prefer concrete code examples, and I will provide such next.  But please keep in mind I want to know how to do this in any general case, not just this specific example.  Here,