Keystrokes

Like the Enter String Action Step, the Keystrokes Action Step emulates keyboard inputs. You can use this to enter search criteria or a URL in the browser address bar, for example. You can also use it to execute hotkeys or macros.

Properties

Keyboard Settings

Key Down delay (default 5 ms, maximum 1000 ms) Duration in ms specifying how long it takes for a key or combination of keys to be pressed down. The keyboard input is generated at the start of this time period.
Key Up Delay (default 5 ms, maximum 1000 ms) Duration in ms specifying how long it takes for a key or combination of keys to be released.
Pause (ms)/Pause between keystrokes, ms (default 500 ms) Pause between two input sequences. An input sequence starts with a pause.

For a better understanding, please also see the example at the end of this sub-section.

Window Settings

Common window title If the checkbox Use common window title for all keystrokes is activated, the window title used to identify the window that keystrokes are sent to is displayed here
Use common window title for all keystrokes Select if all the keystrokes should be performed in the same window
Use a regular expression for window title You can further distinguish between window titles by selecting this checkbox. For a short introduction to regular expressions, refer to Section Using Regular Expressions
Use window text Defines if, in addition to the window title, window text should also be used to identify the window that the keystrokes should be sent to

Wizard

Start Starts the recording of keystrokes
Stop Stops the recording of keystrokes
Raw Records all keys as they are pressed. This also includes all modifier keys like Shift. Pressing the Shift key and a records the following key press sequence: "{SHIFTDOWN}a{SHIFTUP}".
Norm Records characters as they would appear in an editor like Notepad. Here, pressing the Shift key and a records a capital A
Move keystroke sequence Moves the selected keystroke sequence up or down
Add keystroke Calls the Keystrokes Editor where you are able to enter a keystroke sequence manually. For more information about the Keystrokes Editor see further down in this section.
Edit keystroke sequence Reconfigures an existing keystroke sequence manually with the Keystrokes Editor
Delete Deletes the selected keystroke sequence from the list
Clear Deletes all keystrokes within the Action Step
Hide window when start Hides the wizard window when Start is clicked (if you are using this option, you need to press F10 to stop the capture)
Hide main window when start Hides the RPA Builder window when Start is clicked
List of keystrokes All the keystrokes defined for this Action Step are listed here
Use window text Defines if, in addition to the window title, window text should also be used to identify the window that the keystrokes should be sent to
Use a regular expression for window title You can further distinguish between window titles by selecting this checkbox. For a short introduction to regular expressions, refer to Section Using Regular Expressions.
Use a common window title for all keystrokes Selects if all keystrokes should be performed in the same window
Collect Window Titles Collects all titles of all windows that are currently opened; you may select the required title from a drop-down list provided by this function
Pause (ms)/Pause between keystrokes, ms (default 500 ms) Pause between two input sequences. An input sequence starts with a pause.
Key Down delay (default 5 ms, maximum 1000 ms) Duration in ms specifying how long it takes for a key or combination of keys to be pressed down. The keyboard input is generated at the start of this time period.
Key Up Delay (default 5 ms, maximum 1000 ms) Duration in ms specifying how long it takes for a key or combination of keys to be released.

For a better understanding, please also see the example at the end of this sub-section.

You can either manually add a keystroke sequence by clicking the plus button, which will open the Keystrokes Editor (see further details below) or you can record keystrokes.

Start the recording by clicking the start button. Each keystroke you now perform will be recorded. If you pause for around five seconds between two keystrokes, the following ones will be recorded as a new keystroke sequence. This means they will be recorded on a new line with a new ID in the Keystrokes wizard and the Pause between keystrokes delay will be performed before them during playback.

Stop the recording by clicking the stop button. A keystroke sequence can be edited using the edit button or by double-clicking it. If you want to remove a single keystroke click X, if you want to clear the whole keystroke sequence click the clear button.

Optionally, a window title can be specified for each keystroke and the pause time between the keystroke sequences can be altered. Error handling is configured as usual.

Click the plus button to open the Keystrokes Editor.

Here you can type a keystroke sequence into the Keystroke field or you can paste into it from the clipboard. You can also use content from the drop-down menus Insert special character (special characters e.g. Alt, Caps Lock, Esc, or the number pad keys) and Insert Macro (complete macros, e.g. to close a window, select all elements, etc.).

Finally, you can select and use any defined environment variable for a Keystroke Action Step by using the corresponding drop-down menu.

If you want to type into an application that was started with administrator privileges, RPA Builder has to be started with administrator privileges too. Otherwise the key strokes are lost and won’t be displayed.

If a Workflow run stops at the point a keystroke should be performed and immediately indicates that an error has occurred, check if the common window title setting is correct. If you are not able to set a common window title that works, you can leave this field empty as a workaround.