Automate sequence of key strokes in Mac

Question

I want to automate a long sequence of keystrokes that I have to type every time I use a specific web site. How can I do it in Mac OS X. I've tried the Automator. I record the sequence, but when I run it I got this error:

The action “Watch Me Do” encountered an error.

Check the actionʼs properties and try running the workflow again.

Solution 1

To do this, I created a automator workflow with a Run AppleScript object with this content:

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Google Chrome" to activate

tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "A"
    keystroke "B"
    keystroke "C"
end tell

return input
 end run

This worked fine for me

Solution 2

In addition to writing your own script, Keyboard Maestro can be used to compose key sequences like this.

Solution 3

You could create a macro with an application like Keyboard Maestro, iKey or QuicKeys. Many of them also support something like the quick macros in Keyboard Maestro. You can press ⌃F1 to start or stop recording a macro, and then play it back with ⌥F1.

You can also emulate keypresses with AppleScript. The delay at the start is not needed if the script is run with FastScripts.

delay 0.5 -- if the script is run with a shortcut that has modifier keys
activate application "TextEdit"
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "aa"
    key code 123 using {shift down, command down}
end tell

The keystroke command can only be used to insert characters that are included in the current keyboard layout. If the text is long enough, there's also a visible delay when it's inserted.

Another way to insert text is to use the clipboard:

set the clipboard to "aa"
delay 0.05
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down

Solution 4

I've authored a tool called sendkeys which can be used to send keystrokes and mouse events to an application.

Example, the following script will activate Google Chrome, open a new tab and navigate to Google:

sendkeys -a 'Google Chrome' -c '<c:t:command>www.google.com<c:enter>'

It can be installed with brew:

brew install socsieng/tap/sendkeys

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Comments

[Eneko Alonso]

On OS X El Capitan I got an error when including the first and last two lines. Removing them made the script work fine.

[JESii]

I've used Keyboard Maestro -- excellent product and great support!