---
title: "**Automate the Boring Stuff with Python**"
id: "476"
type: "page"
slug: "automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew"
published_at: "2026-07-17T05:12:02+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-07-17T14:10:41+00:00"
url: "https://preppers-paradise.com/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/"
markdown_url: "https://preppers-paradise.com/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew.md"
excerpt: "A practical, beginner-friendly introduction to Python focused on automating everyday computer tasks. Covers core programming basics while walking through real projects such as file and folder automation, web scraping, working with Excel, PDF, and CSV data, sending emails, and controlling..."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Books"
  - "Free Teaser"
  - "Programming & Development"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "automation"
  - "beginners"
  - "data processing"
  - "file management"
  - "gui automation"
  - "programming"
  - "python"
  - "scripting"
  - "web scraping"
---

# **Automate the Boring Stuff with Python**

This book, "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python," authored by Al Sweigart, provides a practical and accessible introduction to Python programming specifically tailored for total beginners. It guides readers through fundamental programming concepts while demonstrating how to use Python to automate a wide range of common, repetitive tasks, including file manipulation, web scraping, working with various data formats like Excel, PDF, and CSV, sending emails, and even controlling the keyboard and mouse for GUI automation.

This page is free — overview and chapter list only.
Full book: $2.99 USDC · Per chapter: $0.25 USDC
[Buy / open complete book](/library/complete/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/) · [Complete book Markdown](/library/complete/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew.md)

## Chapters

1. [Whom Is This Book For](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/01-whom-is-this-book-for/) (Free teaser)
1. [What Is Programming](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/02-what-is-programming/) ($0.25)
1. [Entering Expressions Into The Interactive Shell](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/03-entering-expressions-into-the-interactive-shell/) ($0.25)
1. [Variable Names](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/04-variable-names/) ($0.25)
1. [The Str Int And Float Functions](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/05-the-str-int-and-float-functions/) ($0.25)
1. [Boolean Values](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/06-boolean-values/) ($0.25)
1. [Program Execution](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/07-program-execution/) ($0.25)
1. [Practice Questions](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/08-practice-questions/) ($0.25)
1. [Return Values And Return Statements](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/09-return-values-and-return-statements/) ($0.25)
1. [Local And Global Scope](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/10-local-and-global-scope/) ($0.25)
1. [A Short Program Guess The Number](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/11-a-short-program-guess-the-number/) ($0.25)
1. [The List Data Type](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/12-the-list-data-type/) ($0.25)
1. [Working With Lists](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/13-working-with-lists/) ($0.25)
1. [Methods](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/14-methods/) ($0.25)
1. [List Like Types Strings And Tuples](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/15-list-like-types-strings-and-tuples/) ($0.25)
1. [The Dictionary Data Type](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/16-the-dictionary-data-type/) ($0.25)
1. [Using Data Structures To Model Real World Things](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/17-using-data-structures-to-model-real-world-things/) ($0.25)
1. [Working With Strings](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/18-working-with-strings/) ($0.25)
1. [Useful String Methods](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/19-useful-string-methods/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Password Locker](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/20-project-password-locker/) ($0.25)
1. [Finding Patterns Of Text With Regular Expressions](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/21-finding-patterns-of-text-with-regular-expressions/) ($0.25)
1. [More Pattern Matching With Regular Expressions](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/22-more-pattern-matching-with-regular-expressions/) ($0.25)
1. [The Wildcard Character](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/23-the-wildcard-character/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Phone Number And Email Address Extractor](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/24-project-phone-number-and-email-address-extractor/) ($0.25)
1. [Files And File Paths](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/25-files-and-file-paths/) ($0.25)
1. [Opening Files With The Open Function](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/26-opening-files-with-the-open-function/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 4 Write Content To The Quiz And Answer Key Files](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/27-step-4-write-content-to-the-quiz-and-answer-key-files/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 3 List Keywords And Load A Keywords Content](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/28-step-3-list-keywords-and-load-a-keywords-content/) ($0.25)
1. [The Shutil Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/29-the-shutil-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Compressing Files With The Zipfile Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/30-compressing-files-with-the-zipfile-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 1 Create A Regex For American Style Dates](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/31-step-1-create-a-regex-for-american-style-dates/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 1 Figure Out The Zip Files Name](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/32-step-1-figure-out-the-zip-files-name/) ($0.25)
1. [Getting The Traceback As A String](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/33-getting-the-traceback-as-a-string/) ($0.25)
1. [Using The Logging Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/34-using-the-logging-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Logging To A File](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/35-logging-to-a-file/) ($0.25)
1. [Breakpoints](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/36-breakpoints/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Mapitpy With The Webbrowser Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/37-project-mapitpy-with-the-webbrowser-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Downloading Files From The Web With The Requests Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/38-downloading-files-from-the-web-with-the-requests-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Html](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/39-html/) ($0.25)
1. [Parsing Html With The Beautifulsoup Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/40-parsing-html-with-the-beautifulsoup-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Im Feeling Lucky Google Search](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/41-project-im-feeling-lucky-google-search/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Downloading All Xkcd Comics](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/42-project-downloading-all-xkcd-comics/) ($0.25)
1. [Controlling The Browser With The Selenium Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/43-controlling-the-browser-with-the-selenium-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Sending Special Keys](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/44-sending-special-keys/) ($0.25)
1. [Reading Excel Documents](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/45-reading-excel-documents/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Reading Data From A Spreadsheet](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/46-project-reading-data-from-a-spreadsheet/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Updating A Spreadsheet](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/47-project-updating-a-spreadsheet/) ($0.25)
1. [Adjusting Rows And Columns](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/48-adjusting-rows-and-columns/) ($0.25)
1. [Practice Projects](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/49-practice-projects/) ($0.25)
1. [Pdf Documents](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/50-pdf-documents/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Combining Select Pages From Many Pdfs](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/51-project-combining-select-pages-from-many-pdfs/) ($0.25)
1. [Word Documents](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/52-word-documents/) ($0.25)
1. [Header 2](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/53-header-2/) ($0.25)
1. [The Csv Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/54-the-csv-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Removing The Header From Csv Files](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/55-project-removing-the-header-from-csv-files/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Fetching Current Weather Data](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/56-project-fetching-current-weather-data/) ($0.25)
1. [The Time Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/57-the-time-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Super Stopwatch](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/58-project-super-stopwatch/) ($0.25)
1. [The Datetime Module](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/59-the-datetime-module/) ($0.25)
1. [Multithreading](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/60-multithreading/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Multithreaded Xkcd Downloader](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/61-project-multithreaded-xkcd-downloader/) ($0.25)
1. [Launching Other Programs From Python](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/62-launching-other-programs-from-python/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Simple Countdown Program](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/63-project-simple-countdown-program/) ($0.25)
1. [Sending Email](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/64-sending-email/) ($0.25)
1. [Retrieving And Deleting Emails With Imap](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/65-retrieving-and-deleting-emails-with-imap/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Sending Member Dues Reminder Emails](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/66-project-sending-member-dues-reminder-emails/) ($0.25)
1. [Sending Text Messages](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/67-sending-text-messages/) ($0.25)
1. [Practice Projects 2](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/68-practice-projects-2/) ($0.25)
1. [Computer Image Fundamentals](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/69-computer-image-fundamentals/) ($0.25)
1. [Manipulating Images With Pillow](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/70-manipulating-images-with-pillow/) ($0.25)
1. [Project Adding A Logo](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/71-project-adding-a-logo/) ($0.25)
1. [Drawing On Images](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/72-drawing-on-images/) ($0.25)
1. [Practice Projects 3](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/73-practice-projects-3/) ($0.25)
1. [Controlling Mouse Movement](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/74-controlling-mouse-movement/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 3 Get And Print The Mouse Coordinates](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/75-step-3-get-and-print-the-mouse-coordinates/) ($0.25)
1. [Analyzing The Screenshot](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/76-analyzing-the-screenshot/) ($0.25)
1. [Key Names](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/77-key-names/) ($0.25)
1. [Hotkey Combinations](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/78-hotkey-combinations/) ($0.25)
1. [Step 5 Submit The Form And Wait](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/79-step-5-submit-the-form-and-wait/) ($0.25)
1. [Running Python Programs With Assertions Disabled](/library/automatetheboringstuffwithpythonnew/80-running-python-programs-with-assertions-disabled/) ($0.25)