"DESKTOP_HOTKEYS" Command

Owned by Joseph Hamdan
Last updated: Jun 11, 2024
3 min read

Description: This command is used to automatically press one or several keyboard keys to interact with desktop locators, focused component or elements identified by OCR in Use Text option.

Usage Scenario (1): Suppose we want to select all folders and hit delete so that they are deleted.

Procedure: Create a step that combines the pressing of CTRL and (key a) to use with Focused Component and another step that presses Delete. Your steps will look like this:

Select all step (CTRL + key_a)

image-20240611-152618.png

Delete step:

image-20240611-152650.png

NOTE: The Similarity field in “Use Locator” is to adjust the matching approximation (minimum of 0.10 - maximum of 0.98 - default of 0.75) which improves the accuracy of matching the exact image in the case of multiple images with similar appearance.

Desktop commands are controlled by Locator Timeouts under User Execution Preferences. If the locator timeout is not sufficient enough for the command to find the element, you can increase Locator Timeout to give the step more time to work. It’s recommended to use 20 seconds for desktop commands.

Notes:

  1. If you do not see any highlight during execution, please enable the option Desktop Highlight under User Execution Preferences and save.

  2. Offsets can be used to to shift the search region from the supporting element. This field accepts positive and negative values. The X field will shift horizontally (positive value = move to the right / negative value = move to the left) and the Y field will shift vertically (positive value = move downwards / negative value = move upwards)

  3. Extensions can be used to extend/shrink the area to interact with as seen by the highlight during execution. This field accepts positive and negative values.

  4. Crop Region Offset can be used to designate an area for execution to look through to reduce execution duration and ensure additional accuracy. The values provided will crop the area. For example, if you provide 50 points in the Left field, only the 50% of the right side of your screen will be interacted with.

  5. Multiline can be used to interact with text which is visible on multiple lines.

The following video demonstrates how these steps get executed:

 

 

Usage Scenario (2): Suppose we want to go to a website and click CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE to show Clear browsing data screen.

Procedure: Create a step that combines the pressing of CTRL, SHIFT, and DELETE to use with Focused Component. If this step does not work, it means that Numbers Lock interferes with this interaction You can enable Sync Lock Hotkeys to switch off Num_Lock and keep sync in every execution. Your steps will look like this:

The following video demonstrates how these steps get executed: