focus last application

[daycartes]

I have been trying to design an application where I need to set the focus from my application to the last application eg word powerpoint excel etc and then to paste in some information to that application. I think that I should be using enumerate windows or get lastwindow functions but I just cant fathom how to use them.
Any help would be really appreciated as I have been working ion this (sporadically) for a very long time.
Thanks
daycartes

[radu84]

i believe getlastwindow isn't a delphi function. also i'm confused, why you must send focus to an application. why you don't search the application through winapi functions?

best regards,

[daycartes]

Thanks for replying radu84. getlastwindow is an api and as such is usable within delphi. I'm sending the focus to the last application and then using a paste function to insert a character. I can focus onto MSWord and can paste into that app, but I want to automate the programme to look for and setfocus and paste into that application be it word, powerpoint excel etc. I can search through open windows, but I need to find the code to bring that window to the front of the z order. Thanks again, daycartes

[radu84]

i haven't worked until on something similar so i can only give some advices and talk with you. here is what i found on msdn about z-order

Z-Order

The z-order of a window indicates the window's position in a stack of overlapping windows. This window stack is oriented along an imaginary axis, the z-axis, extending outward from the screen. The window at the top of the z-order overlaps all other windows. The window at the bottom of the z-order is overlapped by all other windows.
The system maintains the z-order in a single list. It adds windows to the z-order based on whether they are topmost windows, top-level windows, or child windows. A topmost window overlaps all other non-topmost windows, regardless of whether it is the active or foreground window. A topmost window has the WS_EX_TOPMOST style. All topmost windows appear in the z-order before any non-topmost windows. A child window is grouped with its parent in z-order.
When an application creates a window, the system puts it at the top of the z-order for windows of the same type. You can use the BringWindowToTop function to bring a window to the top of the z-order for windows of the same type. You can rearrange the z-order by using the SetWindowPos and DeferWindowPos functions.
The user changes the z-order by activating a different window. The system positions the active window at the top of the z-order for windows of the same type. When a window comes to the top of z-order, so do its child windows. You can use the GetTopWindow function to search all child windows of a parent window and return a handle to the child window that is highest in z-order. The GetNextWindow function retrieves a handle to the next or previous window in z-order.

(http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632599.aspx)

i hope with this i gave you some more information on what you want to accomplish.

best regards and i wait for you to come back and tell what you've done