[RESOLVED] Sending keys to previous window... ?

[thegreatone]

Ok, i know how to sendkeys, thats easy, say if i wanted Control + F i would do

Sendkeys "^F", 0

Thats simple enough, BUT i need to send Ctrl + F to the last active window, would fire the Find dialog.

How would i go about sending the keys to the previously active window ?

Note: My application will be run from a shortcut key on a keyboard and this is why its needed to send its keys to the previous window, it Unloads itself after its task is complete.

[chemicalNova]

Doubtful you could get the previously activated window without your program being open to detect it.

Or is your program open and only activated by the keyboard?

chem

[thegreatone]

Doubtful you could get the previously activated window without your program being open to detect it.

Or is your program open and only activated by the keyboard?

chem

No, i'm afraid its opened entirely from the keyboard, i thought there might be some way of getting the previous hWnd property...
Are you sure theres no known workaround for this ?

If not i might need to rethink it...Hmm.

EDIT: I've got another idea here, i can sendkeys Alt n Tab, record the hWnd of the currently active program, then send Ctrl + F to it, then close my program, do you think this could work ?
Also, if you do, could you show me how... hehe.
Not too sure on sending keys to other windows you see...

[umilmi81]

Like This

AppActivate "Title of the window to activate"
   DoEvents
   Sendkeys "^F", 0

AppActivate allows you to put focus on any application window as long as you know what is on title bar.

Of course it is TOTALLY unreliable, but it does get the job done in a quick and dirty way.

[umilmi81]

If you are going to be controling other apps through sendkeys and appactivate be sure to also include the sleep lib

Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

and use liberal amounts of sleep and doevents.

[thegreatone]

Help with the following code, it doesn't seem to return the previous programs titlebar...

Private Declare Function GetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)
Private Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nCmdShow As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function FlashWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal bInvert As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowTextLength Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextLengthA" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Activate()
Dim MyStr As String
Dim PrevhWnd As Long
SendKeys "%" & vbKeyTab
Sleep (500)
PrevhWnd = GetForegroundWindow() 'Find out what window has focus
SetForegroundWindow PrevhWnd
MyStr = String(GetWindowTextLength(PrevhWnd) + 1, Chr$(0))
GetWindowText PrevhWnd, MyStr, Len(MyStr)
'Text1.Text = PrevhWnd
'ShowWindow PrevhWnd, 6
Sleep (250)
MsgBox MyStr
AppActivate MyStr
DoEvents
SendKeys "^F", 0
'SendKeys "^F", 1
'Unload Me
End Sub

[chemicalNova]

Chucking it in Form_Load does the job for me..

Should brush up on your Windoez Messages and the order they are executed in

chem

[thegreatone]

Should brush up on your Windoez Messages and the order they are executed in
chem

Explain what you mean there Chem...
I'll test this is Form_Load when i get back home in around 5 hours...

Thanks for the help.

[thegreatone]

Ok, back home, everything seems to work fine (Placed code in Load Event)
Such a nice workaround for getting the previous hWnd. I'm still sure theres a better way though.

For now, resolved.