kmaster Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Here is my problem. I have a button that I want to click on to upload files to a website. But every file I upload will cause the button to move futher down the page. I tried to use cntrl f to find the button on the page, but it cannot find the button. Any suggestions on how I can find this button and click it? Thanks in advance. Kris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevecasper Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Here is my problem. I have a button that I want to click on to upload files to a website. But every file I upload will cause the button to move futher down the page. I tried to use cntrl f to find the button on the page, but it cannot find the button. Any suggestions on how I can find this button and click it? Thanks in advance. Kris In my experience, this is one of the trickiest, sometimes most difficult, actions to automate with Macro Express. Ideally, you should just be able to use the Get Control command to assign the button to, let's say, %C1%, and then use the Mouse Click Control command to click the button. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer web pages and other applications are compatible with the Control commands, so there isn't any guarantee that this will work. However, if you haven't already tried it, that is what I would suggest, because if it does work, then this is by far the best way to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rberq Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Try a mouse click somewhere in the body of the page, and see if x number of tab keys will then take you to the button. You can test it out manually, then write the macro if the process works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acantor Posted December 21, 2008 Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Here is my problem. I have a button that I want to click on to upload files to a website. But every file I upload will cause the button to move futher down the page. I tried to use cntrl f to find the button on the page, but it cannot find the button. Any suggestions on how I can find this button and click it? Searching for a button can be made to work. From your description, it sounds like the button you want to activate is an actual pushbutton, not a hypertext link styled to look like a button. It is not possible to search for pushbuttons because they do not consist of actual text. This web site (pgmacros) has many examples of non-text buttons. For example, when you are composing a message on this forum, you cannot search for the "Add Reply" button because the words are not actual text. So you cannot use your browser's find command to move to the "Add Reply" button. But try this: Identify unique text that occurs NEAR the "Add Reply" button, e.g., "Enable email notification of replies?" or "Use None." Then search for that text. Then Tab one or more times until the button gets focus. (If you search for text that appears after the button, use Shift + Tab.) Then press spacebar to activate the button. The macro will look something like this: //Initiate find Text Type <CONTROL>f // Wait for Find dialog to appear... Wait 200 ms // Search for text... Text Type "Use None" // Start Search Text Type <ENTER> // Close Find dialog... Text Type <ESC> // Wait for Find dialog to go away... Wait 200 ms // Tab to Add Reply button... Text Type <TAB> // Activate it... Text Type <SPACEBAR> This is not a bulletproof solution, but I hope it gets you started. You should also check the source to see if whether the web developers use the accesskey attribute for anything. If yes, you may be in luck. Accesskey is a hotkey to navigate to a fixed location on a page. For example, if the accesskey for a link is "X", then you can navigate directly to that link with Alt + X (IE) or Shift + Alt + X (Firfox). Then Tab or Shift + Tab to your target, as above. If you check the source for this page, you will discover this line: <input type="submit" name="dosubmit" value="Add Reply" tabindex="7" class="button" accesskey="s" /> That's the code for the "Add Reply" button, which has accesskey = "s", which means you can activate it directly with Alt + S (IE) or Shift + Alt + S (Firefox). No searching required! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmaster Posted December 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2008 Searching for a button can be made to work. From your description, it sounds like the button you want to activate is an actual pushbutton, not a hypertext link styled to look like a button. It is not possible to search for pushbuttons because they do not consist of actual text. This web site (pgmacros) has many examples of non-text buttons. For example, when you are composing a message on this forum, you cannot search for the "Add Reply" button because the words are not actual text. So you cannot use your browser's find command to move to the "Add Reply" button. But try this: Identify unique text that occurs NEAR the "Add Reply" button, e.g., "Enable email notification of replies?" or "Use None." Then search for that text. Then Tab one or more times until the button gets focus. (If you search for text that appears after the button, use Shift + Tab.) Then press spacebar to activate the button. The macro will look something like this: //Initiate find Text Type <CONTROL>f // Wait for Find dialog to appear... Wait 200 ms // Search for text... Text Type "Use None" // Start Search Text Type <ENTER> // Close Find dialog... Text Type <ESC> // Wait for Find dialog to go away... Wait 200 ms // Tab to Add Reply button... Text Type <TAB> // Activate it... Text Type <SPACEBAR> This is not a bulletproof solution, but I hope it gets you started. You should also check the source to see if whether the web developers use the accesskey attribute for anything. If yes, you may be in luck. Accesskey is a hotkey to navigate to a fixed location on a page. For example, if the accesskey for a link is "X", then you can navigate directly to that link with Alt + X (IE) or Shift + Alt + X (Firfox). Then Tab or Shift + Tab to your target, as above. If you check the source for this page, you will discover this line: <input type="submit" name="dosubmit" value="Add Reply" tabindex="7" class="button" accesskey="s" /> That's the code for the "Add Reply" button, which has accesskey = "s", which means you can activate it directly with Alt + S (IE) or Shift + Alt + S (Firefox). No searching required! That was what I did earlier and it worked great. thanks for all the help and suggestions. you guys are the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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