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Using Send Keys to send a variable that contains parenthesis

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Posted on by dwillequer

I'm running into a possible bug and hoping that someone can point me towards a workaround or solution while not having to disable "Send Text as Hardware Keys". I might be missing something obvious, but I have scoured forums and documentation and am at a loss.

With Send Text as Hardware Keys enabled, it returns the following text:

John {(}(}Bob{)}

With Send Text as Hardware Keys disabled, it returns the expected result:

John (Bob) Doe

Steps to replicate:

1. Set new variable %FullName% with text 'John (Bob) Doe'

2. Focus window 'Untitled - Notepad'

3. Send Keys %FullName% to the foreground window

-In this step, enable "Send Text as Hardware Keys"

Error Location: Subflow: Main, Action: 3, Action name: Send keys

Error Message: There isn't an active application to send keystrokes to.

Error Details:

Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.SDK.ActionException: There isn't an active application to send keystrokes to. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: Stack empty.
at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowInvalidOperationException(ExceptionResource resource)
at System.Collections.Generic.Stack`1.Pop()
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.UIAutomation.Common.MouseAndKeyboard.CommonKeyboardActions.SendKeystrokes(String textToSend, Int32 delayBetweenKeystrokes, Boolean sendTextAsHardwareKeys)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Modules.MouseAndKeyboard.Actions.SendKeys.Execute(ActionContext context)
at Microsoft.Flow.RPA.Desktop.Robin.Engine.Execution.ActionRunner.Run(IActionStatement statement, Dictionary`2 inputArguments, Dictionary`2 outputArguments)

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

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VJR 7,635 on at

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The tool tip help says that it performs the actual keystrokes and this doesn't seem to go well with special characters since we cannot directly type the ( without pressing the Shift modifier key. Maybe that's not the case with captial J but only with special chars.

Because it uses the actual keystrokes, we shall send the actual keys too.

So, John {Shift}(9)Bob{Shift}(0) Doe works in this case without throwing the error you are getting.

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dwillequer 4 on at

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Interesting - I'd be curious what is causing the script to lose focus on the window in typing that particular string since it errors out before completing the line of hardware keys sent. I'll give your solution a go and see if I can get it to work for my particular scenario. I'm actually pulling in a CSV of names, so will need to figure out how to detect those parenthesis and replace them with (Shift)(9) inside the variable if that is the route I need to go.

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VJR 7,635 on at

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Also try setting that text to Clipboard and from there writing it to the destination.

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