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[Send key] is prone to errors?

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Posted on by alee001

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I found that there are too many [Send key], the process is too fast and it is easy to cause the wrong position, so I need to add [Wait 1s] as a buffer, but I don’t know where to insert it, do you have any suggestions?

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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Of course, Send keys is prone to error, because it does not verify in any way whether the keys in fact resulted in the outcome you expected.

The best practice is to not use Send keys at all, if possible. If you absolutely need to use it, you should add verification actions, such as Wait for image, Wait for window, Wait for window content, etc., to check if the keystrokes did what they were supposed to do.

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alee001 409 on at

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Because my Excel files is not opened from PAD, [Send key] must be used to operate the cells and range.

Just don't know how to control its buffer and how much it needs?

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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You can use the Attach to Running Excel action to attach to it and then use the related Excel actions. Automating the Excel UI is always a bad idea. Doing it with Send keys is an even worse one.

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alee001 409 on at

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If you use [Attach to Running Excel], it is better to use [Run Excel] at the beginning.

The UI operation is used because the file (pre-opended) has a large degree of freedom, and the [Send key] operation process is obviously faster than others.

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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That is incorrect. Attach to running Excel is specifically used when Excel is already running and you cannot use Run Excel. These two are never used together, because there is no reason whatsoever to use Attach to running Excel when you are already using Run Excel. All that Attach to running Excel does is create an Excel instance variable to be used for other Excel actions, and Run Excel already does that.

So, you are wrong there. If you already have an Excel file that is open and need to do something with it, Attach to running Excel is exactly what you need to do.

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alee001 409 on at

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Although some operations of [Send key] are limited, it is easier to write than executing automated Excel.

Thank you for your explanation, I will learn more and try.

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Agnius Bartninkas Most Valuable Professional on at

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It seems easier to create Send keys actions, but it is much harder to make them work. If it wasn't, you would not be posting so many topics asking for help on your project 😊

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