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Make It Select Different Things

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Join Date: Apr 2006

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Make It Select Different Things

May 12th, 2006

How Do I make Visual basic click on other icons in other programs. Like The next and finish and Install cmd buttons. Is it possible to copy text out of a text out of text boxes and Enter them into a program. Kinda Like COPY AND PASTE

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Join Date: Dec 2004

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Re: Make It Select Different Things

May 12th, 2006

You'll want to look into the "sendkeys" command. This command allows you to send keystrokes to applications (shift-end, ctrl-c, ctrl-v). Keep in mind, sendkeys only sends keystrokes to the currently active (foreground) window. So, you'll want to make whatever window you want to mess with the foreground first, with either appactivate, or the setforegroundwindow (and setactivewindow) api calls. If you want to get more complicated than that (say, cross-task subclassing) you are going to want to be very... very careful.

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Re: Make It Select Different Things

May 13th, 2006

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Originally Posted by Comatose

You'll want to look into the "sendkeys" command. This command allows you to send keystrokes to applications (shift-end, ctrl-c, ctrl-v). Keep in mind, sendkeys only sends keystrokes to the currently active (foreground) window. So, you'll want to make whatever window you want to mess with the foreground first, with either appactivate, or the setforegroundwindow (and setactivewindow) api calls. If you want to get more complicated than that (say, cross-task subclassing) you are going to want to be very... very careful.

How would i use the send keys in my program

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Join Date: Dec 2004

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Re: Make It Select Different Things

May 13th, 2006

Sendkeys is usually not a great idea.... because there are a ton of problems that can occur. What if the user switches focus (or what if there is spyware or some other junk that spawns new windows for the hell of it), while your program is in the midst of sending keys..... all hell can break loose. Read up on this thread, and check out this page: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/post127770.html
http://www.scriptlogic.com/Kixtart/h...s/sendkeys.htm

 Help with Code Tags 
 Visual Basic 4 / 5 / 6 Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
Private Sub Form_Load()
Shell "c:\windows\notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus
Me.Show
AppActivate "Untitled - Notepad"
SendKeys "This Is A Test!"
SendKeys "+{HOME}"
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
Shell "c:\windows\notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus
Me.Show
AppActivate "Untitled - Notepad"
SendKeys "This Is A Test!"
SendKeys "+{HOME}"
End Sub

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Re: Make It Select Different Things

May 30th, 2006

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Originally Posted by Comatose

Sendkeys is usually not a great idea.... because there are a ton of problems that can occur. What if the user switches focus (or what if there is spyware or some other junk that spawns new windows for the hell of it), while your program is in the midst of sending keys..... all hell can break loose. Read up on this thread, and check out this page: http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/post127770.html
http://www.scriptlogic.com/Kixtart/h...s/sendkeys.htm
Help with Code Tags

Visual Basic 4 / 5 / 6 Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
Private Sub Form_Load()
Shell "c:\windows\notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus
Me.Show
AppActivate "Untitled - Notepad"
SendKeys "This Is A Test!"
SendKeys "+{HOME}"
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load() Shell "c:\windows\notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus Me.Show AppActivate "Untitled - Notepad" SendKeys "This Is A Test!" SendKeys "+{HOME}" End Sub

If Send Keys are a bad idea, what you you do to click on the buttons that need to be clicked in this program.

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Join Date: Dec 2004

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Re: Make It Select Different Things

May 30th, 2006

Well, generally it's a poor idea to try to automate a program that isn't made to be automated. Excel for example, let's you create an object in it's name, and work with it's properties and methods. Trying to force yourself on a program that doesn't expect it, can lead to crappy results. That's all I'm saying.... sendkeys may well be your only option, unless you dig into something like findwindow, and findwindowEX api calls, and then use the sendmessage API.... but findwindow and findwindowex can produce some flakey results when trying to find a specific child window...... stick with sendkeys, but just know that what you are doing is Taboo.