VB.NET How to insert text at cursor position in a different window?

Question

Hi,

I have a small application that displays a listbox under the cursor position when the user uses a shortcut key.

When the user double clicks a selection from the listbox I want to insert that selected text at the curser position of that opened window.

Example: user has microsoft word open. He/she uses a shortcut key that displays a listbox just under the cursor position. The listbox has a collection of text. When the user double clicks a selection that selected text is inserted at the cursor position.

I tried the following:

Private Sub ListBox1_DoubleClick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.DoubleClick
Text.Insert(Cursor.Position, ListBox1.SelectedItem)
End Sub

But that doesn't work.

Any help will be sincerely appreciated.

Answer 1

The best (most generic) approaches will be to trick the application into thinking you have entered some text. For example:

• Send keypress windows messages for all of the characters you wish to "type" to the target window (e.g. with WM_KEYDOWN or WM_CHAR type messages. Some experimentaiton may be needed to find the approach that works best).

• Copy the text onto the clipboard and send a single ctrl+V keypress message to the application. (This will overrite the clipboard and may not work in apps that don't support that key shortcut though)

If you know the specfic application (e.g. MS Word) then you may be able to use application-specific automation (OLE, etc) interfaces to insert text.