Windows API and SendKeys

[abousetta]

Hi,

I've been trying to create a macro that used Windows API find an active program's window, activate it, and send the combinations Alt + M to it. I keep failing and thought I might seek some help from anyone with experience using Windows API. The Class name is "Oberon App" and the Window name is "WinBUGS14".

Thanks.

abousetta

[MarvinP]

Are you using a lot of DoEvents in the code to wait for the correct window to be found and after the SendKeys statement so the correct app processes the keys?

[abousetta]

Hi Marvin,

No, there are no DoEvents at all. I can find the handle using the following code:

[Modified code below - added new response in post #4]

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I'm having trouble then using the handle to activate the window and sending the key strokes to it.

abousetta

[abousetta]

Hi Marvin,

Your post made me realize the problem. The window is losing focus too quickly so that the Alt + M doesn't have enough time to get through. I repeated the SendKeys command five times and it seems to work. Do you know of any workaround to this? Can this be done using API's instead?

abousetta

[MarvinP]

That is the point. You need to insert "DoEvents" enough to wait for the other App to be sure to open before you do the SendKeys. Then more DoEvents for the other App to process them out of the keyboard buffer before your come back to Excel and continue your code....

I've spent many hours trying to determine how to insert DoEvents. It seems the DoEvent command in Excel allows the OS to work and/or complete other processes it is working on. Assume you have a lot of background apps working. I'm not sure how to determine if the correct app is processing and active before you shove keystrokes into the keyboard buffer....

[abousetta]

I use DoEvents right before the Next in almost all my loops to allow me to escape the loop if needed. I'm not familiar with SendKeys and so not sure how Excel will know if the other program is in a ready state. Like for Internet Explorer we use a loop and doevents waiting for the page to load, but not sure this can be done with this program because there is no direct connection with Excel.

[abousetta]

Alright... finally figured it out using the Windows API keybd_event instead of SendKeys.

Steps:

1) get window handle for window I want to send keystrokes to
2) Lock the window in the foreground so that it received the keystrokes
3) send the keystrokes

Sounds simple enough.

Here is code I ended up putting together:

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Hope this helps someone else.

abousetta