A Form Filler Help v2.5.3
Release your inner geek! A Form Filler takes a few minutes to learn, but that won't be much compared to the hours and hours of time you'll save in the years to come no longer needing to deal with annoying windows.
1. An Overview of how A Form Filler works
2. Main Window
3. Add/Change Window
4. Options Window
5. About Window
6. A Form Filler Worker
7. Real Life Examples
7.1 How to: Respond to annoying prompts and pop-ups
7.2 How to: Fill in a password window
7.3 How to: Deal with more complex forms
An Overview of how A Form Filler works
A Form Filler is actually made up of two programs, one you see and one you don't. The one you see allows you to setup and control windows being monitored and actioned, and the one you don't see works in the background to do the monitoring and actioning.
Double clicking the A Form Filler icon on your desktop, or in your Windows - Start - Programs - A Form Filler folder, causes the A Form Filler main window to appear (this is the program you see). Here is what the main window looks like:
The program your don't see (the A Form Filler - worker) is started automatically when you log onto Windows.
The worker does not appear as a window on your screen, rather when it is running it appears as an icon in your systray (usually found at the bottom right hand side of your screen, near your system clock).
The main window allows you to add, change and removed windows to be monitored.
It also allows you to arrange/organize the order of windows to be monitored, as well as the information displayed about them on the main window.
From the main window you can toggle on and off the monitoring windows all at once or individually.
A Master Control Switch allows you to toggle on and off all monitoring, simply clicking the on/off switch to make this happen. When you toggle the Master Control Switch 'off' all monitoring is paused. When you toggle the Master Switch 'on' the worker is started all individual windows which were being individual monitored the last time the switch was turned on will be turned on once again.
Monitoring of individual windows can be turned on and off by clicking their associated switches.
From the Main Window you can also open up: an options window, help, the A Form Filler web site, and an About window.
The menu bar on the main window lets you select commands under the headings Action, View, and Help. These are as follows:
Action - Add, Action - Change, and Action - Remove : To add, change or remove a window to be monitored.
Action - Move up, Action - Move down, Action - Insert a blank line : To move rows on the Main Window up, down and to insert a blank line between them.
Action - Switch on/off : to change the switch of the currently selected row
Action - Undo : to undo your last command
Action - Options : to bring up the options window
Action - Exit : To exit the Main Window. Please note, the Main Window does not need to be open for A Form Filler to monitor and react to windows. If the worker was running when you exit the Main Window, the worker will continue to monitor and react to windows.
View - Description, View - Watching for, View - Keys to send : click these options to view their corresponding columns in the main window.
Help - Help : to view this page
Help - Webpage : to view the A Form Filler main internet web page.
Help - Donate : Brings up the A Form Filler donation internet web page.
Help - About : To view the About window, which tells you the version of A Form Filler you are running, as well as information about shareware, the A Form Filler Licensing Agreement.
Please note, options that don't make sense in context, for example moving a row down when it is already the last row on the screen, will be disabled.
Of note, the Remove command doesn't have a confirmation prompt. Rather, if you remove something by mistake just click Action - Undo to restore it.
Allows you to Add / Change a window to be monitored and the keystrokes to be sent to in. Here is what the Add/Change window looks like:
The following information is captured and displayed on the Add/Change window:
1. A 'Description', which is a way for you to describe the window to be monitored and acted upon,
2. The 'Watch for' field (which you can either select via a drop down box or type in) which tells A Form Filler the window to watch for,
If the window you want to watch for is currently on the screen, click the drop down box arrow to bring up a list of all windows on the screen. The list will contain the title of each window, or when no title exists the text from within the window.
Simply click on the window you want to watch for from the drop down list. When you do this a green line will appear under the 'Watch for' field. This green line signifies that A Form Filler has assigned a signature to the window which helps it distinguish this window from others with the same title.
If the window you want to watch for is currently is not on the screen but you know its window title, just type the window title that will appear when the window does show up. A Form Filler will then watch for this window by title. Note: the window title is found in the top boarder of the window, to the right of the application icon. For example, the A Form Filler - Add/Change window show above has a window title of "A Form Filler - Add/Change" (without the quotes).
If you type the title of the window, instead of picking it from the drop down box, A Form Filler will action any window with that window title. When you type the name of the window the green line does not appear under the 'Watch for' drop down box and A From Filler will not distinguish different windows with that same title, rather it will action them all in the same way.
If you want to a single processing rule for all windows having a similar starting to their title but different ending to their title then you can end the 'watch for' title name with a wildcard indicator. The wildcard indicator is "[*]" (without the quotes). For example: "My App - Warning[*]" (without the quotes) can be used to define a common rule (such as simply sending the {ENTER} key) for all Window titles starting with "My App - Warning".
3. the 'Keys to send' field which contains the keys you want to sent to the window once it appears.
You can either type into the 'Keys to send' field the keys you would like sent to the window once it appears, or you can simply press the 'Record' button to have A Form Filler automatically fill in this information for you as you type it in yourself to the actual window (more information below).
Here is a list of the keys codes you can use:
| Key | Code | Key | Code |
 |
| A to Z | A to Z | Backspace | {BACKSPACE}, {BS}, or {BKSP} | |
| a to Z | a to z | Break | {BREAK} | |
| 0 to 9 | 0 to 9 | Caps Lock | {CAPSLOCK} | |
| !@#$*_ |:"<>?`- =[]\;',./ |
!@#$*_ |:"<>?`- =[]\;',./ |
Del | {DEL} | |
| Delete | {DELETE} | |||
| Down Arrow | {DOWN} | |||
| + | {+} | End | {END} | |
| ^ | {^} | Enter | {ENTER} | |
| % | {%} | Esc or Escape | {ESC} | |
| ~ | {~} | F1 to F12 | {F1} to {F12} | |
| { | {{} | Help | {HELP} | |
| } | {}} | Home | {HOME} | |
| Numpad + | {ADD} | INS | {INS} | |
| Numpad - | {SUBTRACT} | INSERT | {INSERT} | |
| Numpad * | {MULTIPLY} | Left Arrow | {LEFT} | |
| Numpad / | {DIVIDE} | Num Lock | {NUMLOCK} | |
| Spacebar | a space, i.e. " " (without the quotes) or {SPACE} |
Page Down | {PGDN} | |
| Page Up | {PGUP} | |||
| Print Screen | {PRTSC} | |||
| Right Arrow | {RIGHT} | |||
| Scroll Lock | {SCROLLLOCK} | |||
| Tab | {TAB} | |||
| Up Arrow | {UP} | |||
| 1/4 second pause | {!} | |||
| To specify keys combined with any combination of the SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT keys, precede the key code with one or more of the following codes: | ||||
| SHIFT | + | |||
| CTRL | ^ | |||
| ALT | % | |||
| For example ^C represents pressing the CTRL and 'C' keys together at the same time. | ||||
| You can also have A Form Filler automatically fill
in the current date and time, using the following command: {DATETIME format codes } for more information please click here |
||||
| TIP for check boxes and radio
buttons: If you have a check box or radio button on your form which you want to toggle, it may be possible to {TAB} over to that control, and then send a space to it in order to toggle it. |
||||
A Form Filler can also review a form for matching text in order to determine if the form will be processed or not.
| To do this, one of the two following commands may be placed at
the very beginning of the 'Keys to send' instruction line: {Must Contain "xxxx"} or {Must Not Contain "xxxx"} For example if you put the following in the 'Key to send' field: {Must Contain "grover@sesamestreet.com"}{TAB}password{ENTER} then the form will only be processed if it contains a simple text box or a drop down box having a default value of grover@seasamestreet.com The text to be matched ( grover@sesamestreet.com in the example above) is case sensitive. |
| TIP for coding {Must Contain "xxx"} and {Must Not
Contain "xxx"} : In order to better support accessibility some programs allow you to press the ALT key and then select an unique underlined letter on the active form in order to more easily select a radio box, check box, or menu item. For example, there may be a check box on your form that reads: [] save file on exit but when you press the ALT key this changes to: [] save file on exit (with an underline under the 'f'). If this is the case on your form and you only what A Form Filler to react to it if it contains the words "save file on exit", then rather than coding: {Must Contain "save file on exit"} you may need to code either: {Must Contain "save &file on exit"} or {Must Contain "save _file on exit"} This will depend on the programming language the program you are running was built with. Accordingly you may have to experiment with this a bit if the Must Contain or Must Not Contain feature doesn't seem to be working as you might have otherwise expected. |
A Form Filler allows you to record your keystrokes in another application and have them automatically entered into the 'Keys to send' field. To do this simply click the record button. When you click it the button name will change from 'Record' to 'Recording' and any keystrokes you enter into any other application will be recorded in the 'Keys to send' field. When you are done recording just click the 'Recording' button to stop all recording.
Options are set by first clicking Action - Options. Options you can set are:
Always on top : keeps A Form Filler as your top most window
Check for update : to have A Form Filler automatically check for program updates (you can set the frequency), you can also check for an update immediately by clicking on the button 'Check for Update Now'
Password : require a password to bring up the A Form Filler main window. Here you can add, change and remove a password. You may chose to do this if you want to keep the 'keys to send' protected from prying eyes; for example if you use A Form Filler to automatically fill in the password windows of other applications.
Settings and Database locations : Behind the scenes A Form Filler keeps two files. The first is a settings file; which contains all your options. The second is a database file; which contains all the information about the windows A Form Filler will watch for and how to handle them. The location of these two files can be viewed by clicking on 'Settings and database locations'. These locations are not changeable. They are however shown on this window to allow you to know where they are should you wish to back them up.
Startup : to automatically start the boss (off by default) and worker (on by default) when you log on to Windows.
Windows to ignore : by default A Form Filler will display all windows on your screen in the Add/Change windows 'Watch for' drop down box. To have specific windows ignored, for example the 'Clock' window, just but a check beside it (as illustrated in the screen shot below).
Here is what the options window looks like:
Clicking on 'Help - About' from the Main Window opens the A Form Filler - About window, here is what it looks like for a registered user:
While A Form Filler is being trialed, the About Window says how many days are remaining in the trial.
When the Master Switch is set to 'on' the A Form Filler worker runs quietly in the background (even if the main window is not running).
When the worker is running an A Form Filler icon can be found in your systray, when the Master Switch on the Main Window is 'off' the worker will not be running and the icon will not be present.
When the worker is running it will monitor and action all the windows for which you have monitoring turned ON in the Main window.
Right clicking on the worker's systray icon provides the following three options:
Show A Form Filler - which will show the main window
Pause - which will pause worker processing until you click 'Pause' again or click on the master control switch on the main window to turn monitoring back on. When paused the master control switch on the main window will show as being 'Off', the systray icon will be red and you will see a checkmark beside the word 'Pause' when you right click on the systray icon
Exit - which will exit the worker (and thereby stop future worker processing)
Double clicking on the worker's systray icon will also show the main window.
How to: Respond to annoying prompts and pop-ups
How to: Fill in a password window
How to: Deal with more complex forms