SendKeys Action

Description

You can use the SendKeys action to send keystrokes directly to Microsoft Access or to an active Windows-based application.

Setting

The SendKeys action has the following arguments.

Action argument	Description

Keystrokes	The keystrokes you want Microsoft Access or the application to process. Enter the keystrokes in the Keystrokes box in the Action Arguments section of the Macro window. You can type up to 255 characters. This is a required argument.
Wait	Specifies whether the macro should pause until the keystrokes have been processed. Click Yes (to pause) or No (not to pause). The default is No.

Remarks

Microsoft Access processes the keystrokes it receives through the SendKeys action exactly as if you had typed them directly in a Microsoft Access window.

To specify the keystrokes, use the same syntax as the SendKeys statement.

Note An error can occur if the Keystrokes argument contains incorrect syntax, misspelled text, or other values that aren't appropriate for the window the keystrokes are sent to.

You can use this action to enter information in a dialog box, particularly if you don't want to interrupt the macro to respond manually to the dialog box. Some Microsoft Access actions, such as PrintOut and FindRecord, automatically select the options in certain frequently used dialog boxes. You can use the SendKeys action to select the options in less commonly used dialog boxes.

Notes

Because the dialog box suspends the macro, you must put the SendKeys action before the action that causes the dialog box to open and set the Wait argument to No.
The timing of the keystrokes reaching Microsoft Access or another application can be tricky. As a result, it's recommended that if there's some other method (such as the FindRecord action) you can use to achieve a desired task, use that method rather than using the SendKeys action to fill in the options in a dialog box.

If you want to send more than 255 characters to Microsoft Access or another Windows-based application, you can use several SendKeys actions in succession in a macro.

Using the SendKeys action to send keystrokes triggers the appropriate KeyDown, KeyUp, and KeyPress events. Sending non-ANSI keystrokes (such as a function key) doesn't trigger the KeyPress event.

This action isn't available from Visual Basic. Use the SendKeys statement instead.