SendKeys.sendKeys

Sends keystrokes to the active application.

Syntax

public static void sendKeys( String keys )

Parameters

key

The string of keystrokes to send.

Remarks

Use the sendKeys method to send keystrokes or combinations of keystrokes to the currently active application or to control another application that your application has started or is using. The sendKeys method does not wait for any processes started by the keystroke to return before continuing with code execution.

Each key is represented by one or more characters. To specify a single keyboard character, use the character itself. For example, to represent the letter A, assign "A" to the method. To represent more than one character, append each additional character to the one preceding it. To represent the letters A, B, and C, assign "ABC" to the method.

The plus sign (+), caret (^), percent sign (%), tilde (~), and parentheses (( )) have special meanings to sendKeys. To specify one of these characters, enclose it in braces ({}). For example, to specify the plus sign, use {+}. Brackets ([ ]) have no special meaning to sendKeys, but you must enclose them in braces. To specify brace characters, use {{} and {}}.

To specify characters, such as ENTER or TAB, that aren't displayed when you press a key and keys that represent actions rather than characters, use the codes shown in the following table.

Key	Code
BACKSPACE	{BACKSPACE}, {BS}, or {BKSP}
BREAK	{BREAK}
CAPS LOCK	{CAPSLOCK}
DEL or DELETE	{DELETE} or {DEL}
DOWN ARROW	{DOWN}
END	{END}
ENTER	{ENTER}or ~
ESC	{ESC}
HELP	{HELP}
HOME	{HOME}
INS or INSERT	{INSERT} or {INS}
LEFT ARROW	{LEFT}
NUM LOCK	{NUMLOCK}
PAGE DOWN	{PGDN}
PAGE UP	{PGUP}
PRINT SCREEN	{PRTSC}
RIGHT ARROW	{RIGHT}
SCROLL LOCK	{SCROLLLOCK}
TAB	{TAB}
UP ARROW	{UP}
F1	{F1}
F2	{F2}
F3	{F3}
F4	{F4}
F5	{F5}
F6	{F6}
F7	{F7}
F8	{F8}
F9	{F9}
F10	{F10}
F11	{F11}
F12	{F12}

To specify keys combined with any combination of the SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT keys, precede the key code with one or more of the following codes.

Key	Code
SHIFT	+
CTRL	^
ALT	%

To specify that any combination of SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT should be held down while several other keys are pressed, enclose the code for those keys in parentheses. For example, to specify to hold down SHIFT while E and C are pressed, use +(EC). To specify to hold down SHIFT while E is pressed, followed by C without SHIFT, use +EC.

See Also sendKeysWait