Mouse and keyboard actions

Simulate keyboard activity with the Send Keys action. To insert special keys, such as the arrow keys and Caps Lock, and modifies, such as Shift and Control, select Insert special key.

The following examples add a signature to an email message, starting with two line breaks. Then, the action sends Ctrl + A and Ctrl + C to select and copy the text to the clipboard.

Note

To use a key as a modifier, use the curly brackets notation for both keys.

To simulate mouse movements, use the Move mouse action. The following example moves the mouse manually to specific coordinates at normal speed.

Move the mouse to a specific image on the screen with the Move mouse to image action. The following example moves the cursor to the first occurrence of the search icon and left-clicks it.

In the Advanced section of the action, you can see that the action waits 30 seconds for the image to appear in the foreground window, and the mouse will point to the center of the image.

Block Input

Blocks user mouse and keyboard input, so that the flow can perform mouse and keyboard actions without interference from the user.

Important

Because of its critical functionality, the Block input action requires elevated rights to run. Therefore, before using the action, ensure that Power Automate runs with administrator rights. To find more information regarding running Power Automate as an administrator, go to Run Power Automate with elevated rights.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Block it	N/A	Boolean value	True	Specify whether to block or unblock mouse and keyboard input

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't block/unblock user input in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem blocking/unblocking input in non-interactive mode
Failed to block/unblock input	Indicates a problem blocking/unblocking input

Get mouse position

Retrieves the current position of the mouse cursor on the screen in pixel coordinates.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Relative to	N/A	Screen, Foreground window	Screen	Specify whether to retrieve the mouse position in screen coordinates or relative to the top left corner of the active window

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
MousePosX	Numeric value	The horizontal (X) value of the mouse position
MousePosY	Numeric value	The vertical (Y) value of the mouse position

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't retrieve the mouse position in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem retrieving the mouse cursor position in non-interactive mode

Move mouse

Moves the mouse to a specific position.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Position X	No	Numeric value		The horizontal (X) value of the position to send the mouse to
Position Y	No	Numeric value		The vertical (Y) value of the position to send the mouse to
Relative to	N/A	Screen, Active window, Current mouse position	Screen	Specify whether the new mouse position will be relative to the top left corner of the screen, the foremost window, or the current mouse position
Move mouse from previous position	N/A	Instant, With animation (low speed), With animation (normal speed), With animation (high speed)	Instant	Specify how to move the mouse

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't move mouse in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem moving the mouse in non-interactive mode
Failed to move mouse	Indicates a problem moving the mouse

Move mouse to image

Moves the mouse over an image found on screen or on the foreground window.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Image to move mouse to	No	List of Images		The list of Images to move the mouse to
Mouse movement style	N/A	Instant, With animation (low speed), With animation (normal speed), With animation (high speed)	Instant	Specify the style of movement in which the mouse will move from its previous position to the beginning of the recorded route (or to its final position)
Occurrence	Yes	Numeric value	1	The occurrence of the image found to move the mouse to
Send a click after moving mouse	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether to send a click after the mouse is positioned over the image
Click type	N/A	Left click, Right click, Double click, Middle click, Left button down, Left button up, Right button down, Right button up	Left click	The mouse click to send to the image
Wait for image to appear	N/A	Boolean value	True	Choose whether you want the action to wait if the image isn't found on the screen or foreground window
Fail timeout	Yes	Numeric value	0	The fail timeout in seconds
Seconds before click	Yes	Numeric value	0	The number of seconds to wait before sending the click
Image matching algorithm	N/A	Basic, Advanced	Basic	Which image algorithm to use when searching for image
Mouse position relative to image	N/A	top left corner, top center, top right corner, middle left part, center, middle right part, bottom left corner, bottom center, bottom right corner	center	The section of the image the mouse will be moved to
Offset X	No	Text value	0	The pixels to offset the mouse from the position to the right
Offset Y	No	Text value	0	The pixels to offset the mouse from the position down
Tolerance	Yes	Numeric value	10	Specify how much the specified image can differ from the originally chosen image
Search for image on	N/A	Entire screen, Foreground window only	Entire screen	Specify whether to search for the specified Image in the foremost window only, or the entire visible screen. Neither choice will find the image if it isn't clearly visible on the screen
Search mode	N/A	Search whole screen or foreground window, Search on specified subregion of screen or foreground window	Search whole screen or foreground window	Specify whether to scan the entire screen (or window) to find the supplied image or only a subregion of it
X1	Yes	Numeric value		The starting X of the subregion to search in
Y1	Yes	Numeric value		The starting Y of the subregion to search in
X2	Yes	Numeric value		The ending X of the subregion to search in
Y2	Yes	Numeric value		The ending Y of the subregion to search in

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
X	Numeric value	The X coordinate of the point where the image is found on the screen. If the image is being searched for on the foreground window, the coordinate returned is relative to the top left corner of the window
Y	Numeric value	The Y coordinate of the point where the image is found on the screen. If the image is being searched for on the foreground window, the coordinate returned is relative to the top left corner of the window

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Image not found on screen	Indicates that the specified image wasn't found on the screen
Can't move mouse in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem moving the mouse in non-interactive mode
Failed to move mouse	Indicates a problem moving the mouse
Invalid subregion coordinates	Indicates that the coordinates of the given subregion were invalid
Not enough Image occurrences found on screen	Indicates that not enough occurrences of the specified Image were found on the screen

Move mouse to text on screen (OCR)

Moves the mouse over a text found on the screen or on the foreground window using OCR.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
OCR engine type	No	OCR engine variable, Tesseract engine	OCR engine variable	The OCR engine type to use. Select a peconfigured OCR engine or set up a new one.
OCR engine variable	No	OCREngineObject		The OCR engine to search for the text with
Text to find	No	Text value		The text to move the mouse over
Is regular expression	N/A	Boolean value	False	Whether to use a regular expression to look for the text on screen
Occurrence	Yes	Numeric value	1	A positive number that will be used as the occurrence of the input text on screen
Search for text on	N/A	Entire screen, Foreground window only	Entire screen	Whether to look for the specified text in the foremost window only or the entire visible screen. Neither choice will find the text if it isn't clearly visible on the screen
Search mode	N/A	Whole of specified source, Specific subregion only, Subregion relative to image	Whole of specified source	Whether to scan the entire screen (or window) to find the supplied text or only a narrows down subregion of it
Image(s)	No	List of Images		The image(s) specifying the subregion (relative to the top left corner of the image) to scan for the supplied text
X1	Yes	Numeric value		The start X coordinate of the subregion to scan for the supplied text
Tolerance	Yes	Numeric value	10	Specify how much the image(s) searched for can differ from the originally chosen image
Y1	Yes	Numeric value		The start Y coordinate of the subregion to scan for the supplied text
X1	Yes	Numeric value		The start X coordinate of the subregion relative to the specified image to scan for the supplied text
X2	Yes	Numeric value		The end X coordinate of the subregion to scan for the supplied text
Y1	Yes	Numeric value		The start Y coordinate of the subregion relative to the specified image to scan for the supplied text
Y2	Yes	Numeric value		The end Y coordinate of the subregion to scan for the supplied text
X2	Yes	Numeric value		The end X coordinate of the subregion relative to the specified image to scan for the supplied text
Y2	Yes	Numeric value		The end Y coordinate of the subregion relative to the specified image to scan for the supplied text
Move mouse from previous position	N/A	Instant, With animation (low speed), With animation (normal speed), With animation (high speed)	Instant	The style of movement in which the mouse will move from its previous position to its final position
Windows OCR language	N/A	Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish	English	The language of the text that the Windows OCR engine detects
Use other language	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specifies whether to use a language not given in the 'Tesseract language' field
Tesseract language	N/A	English, German, Spanish, French, Italian	English	The language of the text that the Tesseract engine detects
Language abbreviation	No	Text value		The Tesseract abbreviation of the language to use. For example, if the data is 'eng.traineddata', set this parameter to 'eng'
Language data path	No	Text value		The path of the folder that holds the specified language's Tesseract data
Image width multiplier	No	Numeric value	1	The width multiplier of the image
Image height multiplier	No	Numeric value	1	The height multiplier of the image
Wait for text to appear	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether to wait if the text isn't found on the screen or foreground window
Fail if text doesn't appear within	Yes	Numeric value	10	The number of seconds to wait for the supplied text to appear
Send a click after moving mouse	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether to send a click after the mouse is positioned over the text
Click type	N/A	Left click, Right click, Double click, Middle click, Left button down, Left button up, Right button down, Right button up	Left click	The mouse click type to send to the text
Wait before clicking for	Yes	Numeric value	1	The number of seconds to wait before clicking
Mouse position relative to text	N/A	Top left, Top center, Top right, Middle left, Middle center, Middle right, Bottom left, Bottom center, Bottom right	Middle center	Specify which section of the text the mouse will be moved to
Offset X	No	Text value	0	Offset the mouse from the position by this many pixels to the right
Offset Y	No	Text value	0	Offset the mouse from the position by this many pixels down
Image matching algorithm	N/A	Basic, Advanced	Basic	Which image algorithm to use when searching for image

Note

Power Automate's regular expression engine is .NET. To find more information about regular expressions, go to Regular Expression Language - Quick Reference.

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
LocationOfTextFoundX	Numeric value	The X coordinate of the point where the text is found on the screen. If the text is searched for in the foreground window, this coordinate is relative to the top left corner of the window
LocationOfTextFoundY	Numeric value	The Y coordinate of the point where the text is found on the screen. If the text is searched for in the foreground window, this coordinate is relative to the top left corner of the window
WidthOfTextFound	Numeric value	The width of the area the text was found on
HeightOfTextFound	Numeric value	The width of the area the text was found on

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Text not found on screen	Indicates that the specified text couldn't be found on the screen
Can't move mouse in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem moving the mouse in non-interactive mode
Failed to move mouse	Indicates a problem moving the mouse
Invalid subregion coordinates	Indicates that the coordinates of the given subregion were invalid
Failed to create the OCR engine	Indicates an error occurred while trying to create the OCR engine
Data path folder doesn't exist	Indicates that the folder specified for the language data doesn't exist
The selected Windows language pack isn't installed on the machine	Indicates that the selected Windows language pack hasn't been installed on the machine
OCR engine isn't alive	Indicates that the OCR engine isn't alive

Send mouse click

Sends a mouse click event.

Important

To prevent unauthorized access, Power Automate needs to run with the same or higher privileges as the applications it automates. To use the Send mouse click action to interact with applications that run with elevated privileges, run Power Automate as administrator. You can find more information regarding running Power Automate as an administrator in Run Power Automate with elevated rights.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Mouse event to send	N/A	Left click, Right click, Double click, Middle click, Left button down, Left button up, Right button down, Right button up	Left click	Specify what form of mouse event to send
Wait	Yes	Numeric value	0	The time to delay before sending the mouse event in 1/1000 of a second
Move mouse	N/A	Boolean value	False	Move mouse
X	No	Numeric value		The horizontal (X) position of the mouse in pixel coordinates
Y	No	Numeric value		The vertical (Y) position of the mouse in pixel coordinates
Relative to	N/A	Screen, Active window, Current mouse position	Screen	Specify whether the new mouse position will be relative to the top left corner of the screen, the foremost window, or the current mouse position
Mouse movement style	N/A	Instant, With animation (low speed), With animation (normal speed), With animation (high speed)	Instant	The style of movement in which the mouse will move from its previous position to the beginning of the recorded route (or to its final position)

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't send mouse click in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem sending a mouse click in non-interactive mode
Mouse click out of screen bounds	Indicates that the mouse click was out of the screen bounds
Failed to send mouse click	Indicates a problem sending a mouse click

Send keys

Sends keys to the application that is currently active.

Important

To prevent unauthorized access, Power Automate needs to run with the same or higher privileges as the applications it automates. To use the Send keys action to interact with applications that run with elevated privileges, run Power Automate as administrator. To find more information regarding running Power Automate as an administrator, go to Run Power Automate with elevated rights.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Send keys to	N/A	Foreground window, By UI element, By window instance/handle, By title and/or class	Foreground window	Specify whether to send the keys to the foreground window or to a UI element or to a window instance or a combination of window title/class
Text to send	No	Direct encrypted input or Text value		The text to send to the application
Delay between keystrokes	Yes	Numeric value	10	Specify the delay in milliseconds between sending keystrokes to avoid input errors
Send Text as hardware keys	N/A	Boolean value	False	Emulate the actual keystrokes on keyboard when sending whole Text

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't send keystrokes in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem sending keystrokes in non-interactive mode
Text to send doesn't represent valid keystrokes	Indicates that the text given doesn't represent valid keystrokes
There isn't an active application to send keystrokes to	Indicates that there isn't an active application to send keystrokes to
Failed to send keystrokes	Indicates a problem sending keystrokes

Note

To simulate a physical key being pressed inside a Send keys action, use the curly brackets {} notation. To use a key as a modifier, use the curly brackets {} notation for both keys. The Send keys action accepts the Virtual-Key Codes.

Valid keys

Category	Keys
Buttons	LButton, RButton, Cancel, MButton, XButton1, XButton2
Keyboard Control	Back, Tab, LineFeed, Clear, Enter, Return, ShiftKey, ControlKey,Menu, Pause, CapsLock, Capital, Escape, Space, Prior, PageUp, PageDown, Next, End, Home, Left, Up, Right, Down, Select, Print, Execute, Snapshot, PrintScreen, Insert, Delete, Help
Buttons	HangulMode, HanguelMode, KanaMode, JunjaMode, FinalMode, KanjiMode, HanjaMode
IME keys	IMEConvert, IMENonconvert, IMEAccept, IMEAceept, IMEModeChange
Browser keys	BrowserSearch, BrowserFavorites, BrowserHome
Volume keys	VolumeMute, VolumeDown, VolumeUp
Media keys	MediaNextTrack, MediaPreviousTrack, MediaStop, MediaPlayPause
Buttons	LaunchMail, SelectMedia, LaunchApplication1, LaunchApplication2
OEM keys	OemSemicolon, Oem1, Oemplus, Oemcomma, OemMinus, OemPeriod, Oem2, OemQuestion, Oem3, Oemtilde, Oem4, OemOpenBrackets, OemPipe, Oem5, OemCloseBrackets, Oem6, OemQuotes, Oem7, Oem8, Oem102, OemBackslash, OemClear
Buttons	ProcessKey, Packet, Attn, Crsel, Exsel, EraseEof, Play, Zoom, NoName, Pa1
Buttons	KeyCodem, Shift, Control, Alt, Modifiers
D keys	D0, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9
Letters	A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
Windows keys	LWin, RWin, Apps, Sleep
NumPad keys	NumPad0, NumPad1, NumPad2, NumPad3, NumPad4, NumPad5, NumPad6, NumPad7, NumPad8, NumPad9
Calculation keys	Multiply, Add, Separator, Subtract, Decimal, Divide
Function keys	F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19, F20, F21, F22, F23, F24
Buttons	NumLock, Scroll, LShiftKey, RShiftKey, LControlKey, RControlKey, LMenu, RMenu, BrowserBack, BrowserForward, BrowserRefresh, BrowserStop

Press/release key

Presses (and holds) or releases one or more modifier keys (Alt, Control, or Shift).

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Action to perform	N/A	Press, Release	Press	Specify whether to press or release keys with this action
Control	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether the Ctrl key will be pressed/released or not
Alt	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether the Alt key will be pressed/released or not
Shift	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether the Shift key will be pressed/released or not
Win	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether the Windows key will be pressed/released or not

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't press or release key in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem pressing or releasing the key in non-interactive mode

Set key state

Sets the state (on or off) for the keys Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Key	N/A	Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock	Caps Lock	Specify the key to set
State	N/A	Off, On	On	Whether to set the key state to on or off

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Can't set key state in non interactive mode	Indicates a problem setting the key state in non interactive mode

Wait for mouse

Suspends the execution of the flow until the mouse pointer changes, usually to or from the 'wait cursor' or hourglass.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Wait for mouse pointer to	N/A	Become, Become not	Become	Choose what action of the mouse cursor to wait for.
Mouse pointer	N/A	Arrow, App starting, Cross, Hand, Help, IBeam, Wait cursor	Arrow	Specify the mouse pointer state.

Variables produced

This action doesn't produce any variables.

Exceptions

This action doesn't include any exceptions.

Get keyboard identifier

Retrieves the active keyboard identifier from the machine's registry.

Input parameters

This action doesn't require any input.

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
KeyboardLayoutId	Numeric value	The registry key of the active keyboard identifier

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Keyboard identifier wasn’t found	Indicates an error while retrieving the keyboard identifier

Wait for shortcut key

Pause the flow run until a specific shortcut key is pressed. Shortcut keys must contain at least one key or a key and one of (ctrl, alt, shift). Multiple shortcut keys can be defined.

Input parameters

Argument	Optional	Accepts	Default Value	Description
Shortcut keys	N/A	Keys combination	Ctrl + A	Specify the shortcut keys to wait for. Shortcut keys must contain exactly one key or a key and a combination of (ctrl, alt, shift). To add more than one shortcut key, select 'New shortcut key'
Continue flow run on timeout	N/A	Boolean value	False	Specify whether the flow run will continue anyway when the set period of time waiting for the shortcut key expires
Continue after	Yes	Numeric value	10	The time in seconds before continuing the flow run

Variables produced

Argument	Type	Description
IndexOfShortcutKeyPressed	Numeric value	The index of the shortcut key if the shortcut keys are in a list format.

Exceptions

Exception	Description
Shortcut key failed to register	Indicates that a shortcut key failed to register.