Send[Raw|Input|Play|Event]: Send Keys & Clicks

Sends simulated keystrokes and mouse clicks to the active window.

Send Keys
SendRaw Keys
SendInput Keys
SendPlay Keys
SendEvent Keys

Parameters

Keys

The sequence of keys to send. As with other commands, the comma in front of the first parameter is optional.

Raw mode - SendRaw or {Raw}: The characters ^+!#{} are interpreted literally rather than translating {Enter} to Enter, ^c to Control+C, etc. To use raw mode with SendInput, SendPlay, SendEvent, or ControlSend, write {Raw} as the first item in the string; for example: SendInput {Raw}abc.

Raw mode does not affect the interpretation of escape sequences, variable references and expressions. For example, SendRaw, ``100`% sends the string `100%. When using ControlSend, it is also necessary to escape literal commas (`,).

Text mode - {Text} [v1.1.27+]: Similar to Raw mode, except that no attempt is made to translate characters (other than `r, `n, `t and `b) to keycodes; instead, the fallback method is used for all of the remaining characters. For SendEvent, SendInput and ControlSend, this improves reliability because the characters are much less dependent on correct modifier state. Text mode can be combined with Blind mode to avoid releasing any modifier keys: Send {Blind}{Text}your text. However, some applications require that the modifier keys be released.

`n, `r and `r`n are all translated to a single Enter keystroke, unlike normal mode and Raw mode, which translate `r`n to two Enter keystrokes. `t is translated to Tab and `b to Backspace, but all other characters are sent without translation.

Normal mode: When not in Raw mode or Text mode, the following symbols have special meaning: !+^#{}

The modifiers !+^# affect only the very next key. To send the corresponding modifier key on its own, enclose the key name in braces. To just press (hold down) or release the key, follow the key name with the word "down" or "up" as shown below.

Note: As capital letters are produced by sending the Shift key, A produces a different effect in some programs than a. For example, !A presses Alt+Shift+A and !a presses Alt+A. If in doubt, use lowercase.

Blind mode - {Blind}: Blind mode gives the script more control by disabling a number of things that are normally done automatically to make things work as expected. {Blind} must be the first item in the string to enable Blind mode. It has the following effects:

• Blind mode avoids releasing Alt/Control/Shift/Win if they started out in the down position. For example, the hotkey +s::Send {Blind}abc would send ABC rather than abc because the user is holding down Shift.
• Modifier keys are restored differently to allow a Send to turn off a hotkey's modifiers even if the user is still physically holding them down. For example, ^space::Send {Ctrl up} automatically pushes Ctrl back down if the user is still physically holding Ctrl, whereas ^space::Send {Blind}{Ctrl up} allows Ctrl to be logically up even though it is physically down.
• SetStoreCapsLockMode is ignored; that is, the state of CapsLock is not changed.
• Menu masking is disabled. That is, Send omits the extra keystrokes that would otherwise be sent in order to prevent: 1) Start Menu appearance during Win keystrokes (LWin/RWin); 2) menu bar activation during Alt keystrokes. However, Blind mode does not prevent masking performed by the keyboard hook following activation of a hook hotkey.
• Send does not wait for the Win key to be released even if the text contains an L keystroke. This would normally be done to prevent Send from triggering the system "lock workstation" hotkey (Win+L). See Hotkeys for details.

Blind mode is used internally when remapping a key. For example, the remapping a::b would produce: 1) "b" when you type "a"; 2) uppercase "B" when you type uppercase "A"; and 3) Control+B when you type Control+A.

{Blind} is not supported by SendRaw or ControlSendRaw; use {Blind}{Raw} instead.

Blind mode is not completely supported by SendPlay, especially when dealing with the modifier keys (Control, Alt, Shift, and Win).

SendInput and SendPlay [v1.0.43+]: SendInput and SendPlay use the same syntax as Send but are generally faster and more reliable. In addition, they buffer any physical keyboard or mouse activity during the send, which prevents the user's keystrokes from being interspersed with those being sent. SendMode can be used to make Send synonymous with SendInput or SendPlay. For more details about each mode, see SendInput and SendPlay below.

SendEvent [v1.0.43+]: SendEvent sends keystrokes using the same method as the pre-1.0.43 Send command. The rate at which keystrokes are sent is determined by SetKeyDelay. By default, Send is synonymous SendEvent; but it can be made a synonym for SendInput or SendPlay via SendMode.

Key Names: The following table lists the special keys that can be sent (each key name must be enclosed in braces):

Repeating or Holding Down a Key

To repeat a keystroke: Enclose in braces the name of the key followed by the number of times to repeat it. For example:

Send {DEL 4}  ; Presses the Delete key 4 times.
Send {S 30}   ; Sends 30 uppercase S characters.
Send +{TAB 4}  ; Presses Shift-Tab 4 times.

To hold down or release a key: Enclose in braces the name of the key followed by the word Down or Up. For example:

Send {b down}{b up}
Send {TAB down}{TAB up}
Send {Up down}  ; Press down the up-arrow key.
Sleep 1000  ; Keep it down for one second.
Send {Up up}  ; Release the up-arrow key.

When a key is held down via the method above, it does not begin auto-repeating like it would if you were physically holding it down (this is because auto-repeat is a driver/hardware feature). However, a Loop can be used to simulate auto-repeat. The following example sends 20 tab keystrokes:

Loop 20
{
    Send {Tab down}  ; Auto-repeat consists of consecutive down-events (with no up-events).
    Sleep 30  ; The number of milliseconds between keystrokes (or use SetKeyDelay).
}
Send {Tab up}  ; Release the key.

By default, Send will not automatically release a modifier key (Control/Shift/Alt/Win) if that modifier key was "pressed down" by sending it. For example, Send a may behave similar to Send {Blind}{Ctrl up}a{Ctrl down} if the user is physically holding Ctrl, but Send {Ctrl Down} followed by Send a will produce a Control+A keystroke. DownTemp and DownR can be used to override this behavior. DownTemp and DownR have the same effect as Down except for the modifer keys (Control/Shift/Alt/Win).

DownTemp tells subsequent sends that the key is not permanently down, and may be released whenever a keystroke calls for it. For example, Send {Control DownTemp} followed later by Send a would produce a normal A keystroke, not a Control+A keystroke. Any use of Send may potentially release the modifier permanently, so DownTemp is not ideal for remapping modifier keys.

[v1.1.27+]: DownR (where "R" stands for remapping, which is its main use) tells subsequent sends that if the key is automatically released, it should be pressed down again when send is finished. For example, Send {Control DownR} followed later by Send a would produce a normal A keystroke, not a Control+A keystroke, but will leave the Control key in the pressed state for use with keyboard shortcuts. In other words, DownR has an effect similar to physically pressing the key.

If a character does not correspond to a virtual key on the current keyboard layout, it cannot be "pressed" or "released". For example, Send {µ up} has no effect on most layouts, and Send {µ down} is equivalent to Send µ.

General Remarks

Characters vs. keys: By default, characters are sent by first translating them to keystrokes. If this translation is not possible (that is, if the current keyboard layout does not contain a key or key combination which produces that character), the character is sent by one of following fallback methods:

• SendEvent and SendInput use SendInput() with the KEYEVENTF_UNICODE flag. [v1.1.27+]: ANSI builds of AutoHotkey convert the character to Unicode before sending it. Prior to v1.1.27, ANSI builds used the Alt+nnnnn method.
• SendPlay uses the Alt+nnnnn method, which produces Unicode only if supported by the target application.
• ControlSend posts a WM_CHAR message.

Note: Characters sent using any of the above methods usually do not trigger keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys.

[v1.1.27+]: For characters in the range a-z or A-Z (plain ASCII letters), each character which does not exist in the current keyboard layout may be sent either as a character or as the corresponding virtual keycode (vk41-vk5A):

• If a naked letter is sent (that is, without modifiers or braces), or if Raw mode is in effect, it is sent as a character. For example, Send {Raw}Regards sends the expected text, even though pressing the R key (vk52) produces some other character (such as К on the Russian layout). {Raw} can be omitted in this case, unless a modifier key was put into effect by a prior Send.
• If one or more modifier keys have been put into effect by the Send command, or if the letter is wrapped in braces, it is sent as a keycode (modified with Shift if the letter is upper-case). This allows the script to easily activate standard keyboard shortcuts. For example, ^c and {Ctrl down}c{Ctrl up} activate the standard Ctrl+C shortcut and {c} is equivalent to {vk43}.

If the letter exists in the current keyboard layout, it is always sent as whichever keycode the layout associates with that letter (unless Text mode is used, in which case the character is sent by other means). In other words, the section above is only relevant for non-Latin based layouts such as Russian.

Modifier State: When Send is required to change the state of the Win or Alt modifier keys (such as if the user was holding one of those keys), it may inject additional keystrokes (Ctrl by default) to prevent the Start menu or window menu from appearing. For details, see #MenuMaskKey.

BlockInput Compared to SendInput/SendPlay: Although the BlockInput command can be used to prevent any keystrokes physically typed by the user from disrupting the flow of simulated keystrokes, it is often better to use SendInput or SendPlay so that keystrokes and mouse clicks become uninterruptible. This is because unlike BlockInput, SendInput/Play does not discard what the user types during the send; instead, such keystrokes are buffered and sent afterward.

When sending a large number of keystrokes, a continuation section can be used to improve readability and maintainability.

Since the operating system does not allow simulation of the Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination, doing something like Send ^!{Delete} will have no effect.

Send may have no effect on Windows Vista or later if the active window is running with administrative privileges and the script is not. This is due to a security mechanism called User Interface Privilege Isolation.

SendInput [v1.0.43+]

SendInput is generally the preferred method to send keystrokes and mouse clicks because of its superior speed and reliability. Under most conditions, SendInput is nearly instantaneous, even when sending long strings. Since SendInput is so fast, it is also more reliable because there is less opportunity for some other window to pop up unexpectedly and intercept the keystrokes. Reliability is further improved by the fact that anything the user types during a SendInput is postponed until afterward.

Unlike the other sending modes, the operating system limits SendInput to about 5000 characters (this may vary depending on the operating system's version and performance settings). Characters and events beyond this limit are not sent.

Note: SendInput ignores SetKeyDelay because the operating system does not support a delay in this mode. However, when SendInput reverts to SendEvent under the conditions described below, it uses SetKeyDelay -1, 0 (unless SendEvent's KeyDelay is -1,-1, in which case -1,-1 is used). When SendInput reverts to SendPlay, it uses SendPlay's KeyDelay.

If a script other than the one executing SendInput has a low-level keyboard hook installed, SendInput automatically reverts to SendEvent (or SendPlay if SendMode InputThenPlay is in effect). This is done because the presence of an external hook disables all of SendInput's advantages, making it inferior to both SendPlay and SendEvent. However, since SendInput is unable to detect a low-level hook in programs other than [AutoHotkey v1.0.43+], it will not revert in these cases, making it less reliable than SendPlay/Event.

When SendInput sends mouse clicks by means such as {Click}, and CoordMode Mouse, Relative is in effect (the default), every click will be relative to the window that was active at the start of the send. Therefore, if SendInput intentionally activates another window (by means such as alt-tab), the coordinates of subsequent clicks within the same command will be wrong because they will still be relative to the old window rather than the new one.

SendPlay [v1.0.43+]

Warning: SendPlay may have no effect at all if UAC is enabled, even if the script is running as an administrator. For more information, refer to the FAQ.

SendPlay's biggest advantage is its ability to "play back" keystrokes and mouse clicks in a broader variety of games than the other modes. For example, a particular game may accept hotstrings only when they have the SendPlay option.

Of the three sending modes, SendPlay is the most unusual because it does not simulate keystrokes and mouse clicks per se. Instead, it creates a series of events (messages) that flow directly to the active window (similar to ControlSend, but at a lower level). Consequently, SendPlay does not trigger hotkeys or hotstrings.

Like SendInput, SendPlay's keystrokes do not get interspersed with keystrokes typed by the user. Thus, if the user happens to type something during a SendPlay, those keystrokes are postponed until afterward.

Although SendPlay is considerably slower than SendInput, it is usually faster than the traditional SendEvent mode (even when KeyDelay is -1).

The Win keys (LWin and RWin) are automatically blocked during a SendPlay if the keyboard hook is installed. This prevents the Start Menu from appearing if the user accidentally presses a Win key during the send. By contrast, keys other than LWin and RWin do not need to be blocked because the operating system automatically postpones them until after the SendPlay (via buffering).

SendPlay does not use the standard settings of SetKeyDelay and SetMouseDelay. Instead, it defaults to no delay at all, which can be changed as shown in the following examples:

SetKeyDelay, 0, 10, Play  ; Note that both 0 and -1 are the same in SendPlay mode.
SetMouseDelay, 10, Play

SendPlay is unable to turn on or off CapsLock, NumLock, or ScrollLock. Similarly, it is unable to change a key's state as seen by GetKeyState unless the keystrokes are sent to one of the script's own windows. Even then, any changes to the left/right modifier keys (e.g. RControl) can be detected only via their neutral counterparts (e.g. Control). Also, SendPlay has other limitations described on the SendMode page.

Unlike SendInput and SendEvent, the user may interrupt a SendPlay by pressing Control+Alt+Del or Control+Escape. When this happens, the remaining keystrokes are not sent but the script continues executing as though the SendPlay had completed normally.

Although SendPlay can send LWin and RWin events, they are sent directly to the active window rather than performing their native operating system function. To work around this, use SendEvent. For example, SendEvent #r would show the Start Menu's Run dialog.

Related

SendMode, SetKeyDelay, SetStoreCapsLockMode, Escape sequences (e.g. `%), ControlSend, BlockInput, Hotstrings, WinActivate

Examples

Send Sincerely,{enter}John Smith  ; Types a two-line signature.
Send !fs ; Select the File->Save menu (Alt+F followed by S).
Send {End}+{Left 4} ; Jump to the end of the text then send four shift+left-arrow keystrokes.
SendInput {Raw}A long series of raw characters sent via the fastest method (SendInput).