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Would like Power Automate to Left-click Orange-highlighted option from Ctrl+F results - HELP!

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Posted on by CU01042020-0

I am attempting to have my Automate flow search a page using Ctrl+F and inserting "outside comparison".

I then use the "Get details of the UI element in window" Action and select the UI element using the little Red box around the item I want, but for some reason I keep getting an error - UI element wasn't found.

The action I would like to take: After using the Send Key actions to press Ctrl+F, and {F3} to toggle through the options, I want the Flow Action to Left-click on the BLUE text item as long as it is highlighted Orange (Orange indicating the selected option from Ctrl+F results, and Blue indicating the option can be clicked.)

Example: BD Outside Comparison

BUT, if the text is Gray and highlighted Orange, skip this Ctrl+F result option and keep moving on to the next until it finds the next BLUE text item that is highlighted Orange (Gray selected options can NOT be clicked.)

Example: BD Outside Comparison

The two letters in front of "Outside Comparison" will be different (example: BD Outside Comparison, MR Outside Comparison, XR Outside Comparison, CT Outside Comparison, US Outside Comparison, etc.), so if that's affecting my outcome, maybe a Wildcard (*) might help, but I don't know where to put it. The Pencil options? It's sooo many options and checkboxes in there too and I don't know if they all should be checked or what:

> pane[Class="BrowserRootView"][Name="InteleBrowser - Study Validation - e222782 - Microsoft Edge"] > pane[Class="NonClientView"] > pane[Class="BrowserFrameViewWin"] > pane[Class="BrowserView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SplitWindowContainerView"] > pane[Class="View"] > document[Id="RootWebArea"] > table[Class="navybluefont"][Id="validationTable"] > dataitem[Class="tableregularrow"]:eq(194) > dataitem[Name="BD OUTSIDE COMPARISON"] > hyperlink[Name="BD OUTSIDE COMPARISON"]

The highlighted Yellow item above is the item I placed the Red box around when I selected my Get Details of the UI Element in Window

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Power Automate Desktop

UI element chosen...

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eetuRobo 4,204 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hello,

When you use Ctrl + F to find certain text the element it self wont change. Its just the applications search functionality that shows the matches. So you cant really make PAD find element that is highlighted with the Ctrl + F since that doesn't change the element.

I suggest rather than using send keys and ctrl + f you rather use the elements to find correct "OUTSIDE COMPARISON" -ending hyperlink element.
So your Hyperlink element should look like this:

> pane[Class="BrowserRootView"][Name="InteleBrowser - Study Validation - e222782 - Microsoft Edge"] > pane[Class="NonClientView"] > pane[Class="BrowserFrameViewWin"] > pane[Class="BrowserView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SplitWindowContainerView"] > pane[Class="View"] > document[Id="RootWebArea"] > table[Class="navybluefont"][Id="validationTable"] > dataitem[Class="tableregularrow"]:eq(194) > dataitem[Name="BD OUTSIDE COMPARISON"] > hyperlink[Name$="OUTSIDE COMPARISON"]

Only thing changed is the last part hyperlink where it is configured that the Name of the hyperlink Ends with the text "OUTSIDE COMPARISON"

To check if the link is clickable (blue) check the element you captured (pencil icon and the element list with many check boxes). Does that have some attribute like "Enabled" that is either True or False depending on if the link is clickable (grey or blue)?
Like so:

Or maybe Class that's value is "disabled". If so then check that attributes check box and choose True as value so your element selector only clicks on the enabled link.

But now your flow would only ever pick the first enabled hyperlink element that ends with text "OUTSIDE COMPARISON". So you need to give it Ordinal that you increase every time so you go through them all.

The selector would have Ordinal attribute in the last element. Check that check box and Toggle on Text editor

Then add ordinal in side the eq() like so and save the selector with Text editor kept enabled (PAD has long lasting bug that Ordinal forgets variables if its not in Text editor mode):

So maybe the selector would look like this for you:

> pane[Class="BrowserRootView"][Name="InteleBrowser - Study Validation - e222782 - Microsoft Edge"] > pane[Class="NonClientView"] > pane[Class="BrowserFrameViewWin"] > pane[Class="BrowserView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SidebarContentsSplitView"] > pane[Class="SplitWindowContainerView"] > pane[Class="View"] > document[Id="RootWebArea"] > table[Class="navybluefont"][Id="validationTable"] > dataitem[Class="tableregularrow"]:eq(194) > dataitem[Name="BD OUTSIDE COMPARISON"] > hyperlink[Enabled="True"][Name$="OUTSIDE COMPARISON"]:eq(%UrlOrdinal%)

The Pencil options? It's sooo many options and checkboxes in there too and I don't know if they all should be checked or what:

Those are called attributes in the element. You don't want to select all the attributes since then the selector will be too specific. Reason you don't want it to be too specific is that the element might change after some update on the site or every new instance the element might have new id.
Read this article about custom selectors:
http://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/build-custom-selectors

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RS-08041501-0 2 on at

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You are a genius! It worked!! I would have never figured this out with AI on my own. Thank you for your help with this. I will probably have other questions later on in my build, but can post again. Thank you so much!

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CU01042020-0 4 on at

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Thank you so much for your help! You are indeed a genius! This worked perfectly after the adjustments and removing the Ctrl+F. I may have additional questions as I go along with this project but will post another question. Thank you again, what a relief - I was so frustrated.

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