Ability to locate a specific text field within a window and click on it. (text field is not in a static position)

[John Haluska]

I have captured the Current Screen in the clipboard.  I need to search for a specific text and then click on it.  The problem is that I have encountered a window where depending on messages in the screen, the specified text can move down.  It is not in a static location.  My current process does a clipboard copy to a %var%  and then I If variable %var% contains the text and then I process it by statically moving the cursor.  But now that it moves around, I have a problem.

 

Would like the ability to search for the text in the Current Window and have it return the location so that I can left click, or left double click.  (It would be nice if there was a parameter that called for occurrence, i.e." 2" for the second occurrence of the text, defaulting to 1)

 

Is there a current way to do this?  Or could this feature be added to a new release.

 

Thank You.

[Cory]

It depends. Is this a web browser, traditional WinForm app, or a UWP app?

[acantor]

I've built scripts that search for text adjacent to a field I want to focus. Then the script tabs or (Shift+Tab) to the target. In pseudo code....

 

Type "Control+F"          // Find on the page. In some applications, you can use F3.

Wait a split second

Type "City:"                  // Unique text near the field I want to get to

Type "{Enter}"              // Initiate the search

Type "{Esc}"                // Cancel the search

Wait a split second

Type "{Tab}{Tab}"      // Navigate to the field i want to reach

 

This approach is fussy. It takes trial and error to get the timing right, and to work out what text to search for. But with effort, I can usually get it to work almost 100% of the time.

[rberq]

Like acantor said. 

Also, sometimes you can search for text within a button that can be either clicked or activated with the ENTER key.  For example, the snippet below logs me out of several web sites:

 

    Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <HOME>
    Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <CTRLD>f<CTRLU>log out<ESC>
    Delay: 250 milliseconds
    Text Type (Simulate Keystrokes): <ENTER>

 

It would be handy if there were a browser operation to find text AND automatically position the mouse over that text.  

[acantor]

Firefox has a search-links-only feature which I've used instead of Ctrl + F to reduce search volume.

 

The feature is helpful in another situation: If a string appears many times on a page, but only once as part of a hypertext link, search-links ensures the script zeros in on the link.

 

The hotkey for search-links in Firefox is the open single quote character. That's a problem. If focus is in an editable field, the hotkey fails; instead the hotkey inserts the single quote character. (Maybe there's a way to change the hotkey to Ctrl + something, which would allow feature to work in more contexts.)

 

Strangely, the feature appears to be absent in Chrome and Edge.