Key Presses in Python

Question

Is it possible to make it appear to a system that a key was pressed, for example I need to make A key be pressed thousands of times, and it is much to time consuming to do it manually, I would like to write something to do it for me, and the only thing I know well enough is Python.

A better way to put it, I need to emulate a key press, I.E. not capture a key press.

More Info (as requested): I am running windows XP and need to send the keys to another application.

Solution 1

Install the pywin32 extensions. Then you can do the following:

import win32com.client as comclt
wsh= comclt.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")
wsh.AppActivate("Notepad") # select another application
wsh.SendKeys("a") # send the keys you want

Search for documentation of the WScript.Shell object (I believe installed by default in all Windows XP installations). You can start here, perhaps.

EDIT: Sending F11

import win32com.client as comctl
wsh = comctl.Dispatch("WScript.Shell")

# Google Chrome window title
wsh.AppActivate("icanhazip.com")
wsh.SendKeys("{F11}")

Solution 2

You could also use PyAutoGui to send a virtual key presses.

Here's the documentation: https://pyautogui.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

import pyautogui


pyautogui.press('Any key combination')

You can also send keys like the shift key or enter key with:

import pyautogui

pyautogui.press('shift')

Pyautogui can also send straight text like so:

import pyautogui

pyautogui.typewrite('any text you want to type')

As for pressing the "A" key 1000 times, it would look something like this:

import pyautogui

for i in range(999):
    pyautogui.press("a")

alt-tab or other tasks that require more than one key to be pressed at the same time:

import pyautogui

# Holds down the alt key
pyautogui.keyDown("alt")

# Presses the tab key once
pyautogui.press("tab")

# Lets go of the alt key
pyautogui.keyUp("alt")

Solution 3

AutoHotKey is perfect for this kind of tasks (keyboard automation / remapping)

Script to send "A" 100 times:

Send {A 100}

That's all

EDIT: to send the keys to an specific application:

WinActivate Word
Send {A 100}

Solution 4

Alternative way to set prefer window into foreground before send key press event.

hwnd = win32gui.FindWindowEx(0,0,0, "App title")
win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(hwnd)

Solution 5

If you're platform is Windows, I wouldn't actually recommend Python. Instead, look into Autohotkey. Trust me, I love Python, but in this circumstance a macro program is the ideal tool for the job. Autohotkey's scripting is only decent (in my opinion), but the ease of simulating input will save you countless hours. Autohotkey scripts can be "compiled" as well so you don't need the interpreter to run the script.

Also, if this is for something on the Web, I recommend iMacros. It's a firefox plugin and therefore has a much better integration with websites. For example, you can say "write 1000 'a's in this form" instead of "simulate a mouseclick at (319,400) and then press 'a' 1000 times".

For Linux, I unfortunately have not been able to find a good way to easily create keyboard/mouse macros.

View more solutions