VBA: Simulate keyboard typing with sendKeys statement

The first (mandatory) parameter is a string that specifies the keys to be sent. The second (optional) parameter is a boolean that specifies if sendKeys returns to the caller before all key strokes were processed (true: wait until they're processed, false: return immediately).

Except the special characters +, ^, %, ~, ( and ), each key stroke is represented by its character. The special characters have the following meaning: +: shift ^: ctrl %: alt

Parentheses apply a special character's meaning to a series of characters. Thus +(abc) indicates that first shift is pressed, then an a followed by a b and a c and only then the shift is released.

The curly braces are used to type other special keys of the keyboard:

{backspace} or {bs} or {bksp}: backspace
{break}: break
{capslock}: caps lock
{del} or {delete}: delete
{down}: down arrow (etc.)
{f1}: F1 function key (etc.)

In order to »press« curly braces, they need to be enclosed in curly braces themselvs: {{} or {}}.

Writing into notepad and saving the text file

The following example starts notepad, types some text into it, and uses ctrl-s to open the safe as dialog where a file name is sent.

option explicit

#if VBA7 then
    public declare ptrSafe sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As LongPtr) ' 64-Bit versions of Excel
#else
    public declare         sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long   ) ' 32-Bit versions of Excel
#end if

sub main()

    const fileName = "c:\temp\sendKeys.txt"

    dim taskID as integer
    taskID = shell("notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus)

  '
  ' Delete final file if it was already written
  '
    if dir(fileName) <> "" then kill fileName

    sendKeys "Hello World!"                , true
    sendKeys "~The tilde means a new line.", true

  '
  ' Bring up the file save as dialog using
  ' the ctrl-s key combination
  '
    sendKeys "^s", true 

  '
  ' wait 0.2 seconds, hopefully, the safe as dialog will be initialized by then.
  '
    sleep 200  ' 

  '
  ' Apparently, this space (or any other character?) is needed to
  ' somehow activate the safe as dialog.
  '
    sendKeys " ", true 
                        
  '
  ' Send the filename
  '
    sendKeys fileName, true

  '
  ' Send enter to close the dialog and
  ' save the file.
  '
    sendKeys "~", true

end sub

Github repository about-VBA, path: /language/statements/sendKeys.bas

VBA: Simulate keyboard typing with sendKeys statement

Writing into notepad and saving the text file

TODO

See also