Writing a macro-like tool

Recently I've been finding myself doing repetitive tasks. I would click button A, highlight text field A, type in some text, click an APPLY button, click on a drop-down box and select a specific option depending on the item I'm working with, select it and hit APPLY, then repeat this process only a couple hundred to thousand times.

So I thought maybe there's a way I could automate this? Macros then came to mind. However I've never wrote macros before so am not sure of several details such as

-what tools should I even work with?

-how do I determine which button to click?

-ideally, I would want to be able to read input from a text file to specify what should be typed in and which option should be selected from the dropdown list. Is this even possible? It seems like an o开发者_运维百科peration that require some intelligence.

I am not picky on tools nor about cleanliness. I just want to be able to automate the process. It will be for personal use unless I find a convenient way such that others can use it as well.

Some details about the dropdown box: when the box is focused, I can hit the DOWN key to scroll from option to option. The items that I have to associate with these options are named exactly the same, so they appear in the same "index" order (meaning, the first item and first option appear at the top of the list, second item and second option appear after, thid item and third option...etc)

The placement of all of these fields can be fixed, so if I have to manually specify where on the screen I should be clicking, that is also a possibility.

Any idea where I should look?

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If you're using Windows, AutoIt is a really nice tool.

• It records actions (like a word/excel macro)
• It offers a BASIC like language + API which is really easy to program (if you need to)
• The API is pretty powerful
  • Check for Windows with a certain title
  • Automate klicks
  • ...
• You can "compile" your scripts into exe files so you can share your tools
• It comes bundled with Scite (a nice text editor) + AutoIt syntax higlighting
  • But you can use any editor you want
• It's well documented
• It's Freeware

http://www.autoitscript.com/site/

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On the Mac, there is Automator. Java has the Robot class in the basic library, to help with such automation. No doubt there are other similar tools.