Send a backspace key in word

Help Studio
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1

I am trying to send a backspace command through the replace text activity. What should I enter in the “replace with” field to accomplish this?

1 Like
2

hi why would you do this?,
i dont think this is a good practice ,

i think to send backspace or delete a string
you can it like this

  1. get the full string text
    2.modify the string using string manipulation
    3.paste or write the full text again in the field you want

Regards
ahmad

3

I have a placeholder in a template file. It contains 10 placeholders to “titles”. The user can have anywhere from 1-10 “titles”. For example, if the user enters 5, I want to delete the following 5. Currently, I am just sending “” to leave a blank space but I have to manually format the doc after. I would like for it to remove those 5 lines of blank space. The easiest way to do this with current logic is to send a single backspace command if the user leaves a process blank in the form.

Not sure what you mean by it not being good practice.

4

Hey @Vinny_LaRocca

If you want to send a backspace hotkey then its possible with UiAutomation.

Thanks
#nK

5

Is ui automation the only way to do this?

6

The other way around I see here is to use Microsoft Interop Library or VB Script!

7

Hello @Vinny_LaRocca

can you give more clarity on your requirement. Please share a screenshot of the word and explain where you want to add the backspace.

Thanks

8

Screenshot 2022-08-04 162023
I want to delete {ASSUMPTION#}, backspace to get rid of the bullet point anmd backspace again to delete the line.

9

Okay @Vinny_LaRocca

What if I would say don’t have a placeholder itself and just add a new line with bullet point whenever there is an assumption.

Will that fulfill your need ?

10

I would still need to backspace to get rid of some of the empty space

11

Remove not just the placeholder but the placeholder + VbCrLf

12

Not sure if this will help you but see the screenshot I have included, the Type Into command includes the ability to send several different Key strokes through a dropdown selection (circled in red), the result of the selection is included in the input line (outlined in red). Also you can clear a selected field before adding the Type Into text (outlined in green) by checking the box (circled in green).

image
image1281×679 205 KB

13

Thanks Ron. With this activity can I (and if so how) specify the document and location within it to send the backspace to?

14

You can’t. You’re going about this the wrong way. You should just have a placeholder for {ASSUMPTIONS} and replace it with the entire string (which you prepare ahead of time in your code) of all your assumptions.

15

Here is a UiPath program snippet that may be more helpful.
Main.xaml (9.0 KB)