This page is part of the ORA Technical Notes series. it is not necessary for most users to read, understand, or retain the information on this help page. It is provided for power users and other people who are interested in (mostly technical) details.
ORA's implementation is constantly changing and the details in this Technical Note may not be up-to-date.
You can use ORA's Auto Type Templates to send text to another browser window. This note explains some technical details that may not be obvious.
There is also a video demonstration.
Details
- You cannot target any tab in the current browser window. That rules out all tabs in the browser window where you click the Auto Type button in an OraPanel.
The easiest way around this limitation is to target browser-type-2 from browser-type-1, i.e., target Firefox from Chrome, Edge, or Opera, target Edge from Firefox, Chrome, or Opera, etc. If you do that, and if you have only one window open in the target browser, you can use a relatively simple target.
{target=chrome}...{target=firefox}...{target=msedge}...{target=opera}...
- You can target a different window in the same browser type if you have two or more windows of that type open. You must include the name of the window in the target and you must get the window name exactly as expected by the Windows system that finds the target window.
The best way to determine the window name you need is to use the [Show Current Targets] button on OraSettings when you have the target page open in another browser window. Copy the text shown under the "Window" column in the "Current Targets" panel.
Current Targets Panel Showing Four Browser Windows When targeting a specific Firefox or Chrome window, you need something like this:
{target=chrome:tab title - Google Chrome} ... template ...{target=firefox:tab title — Mozilla Firefox} ... template ...{target=opera:tab title - Opera} ... template ...
Replace "tab title" with the actual title from the tab. You cannot induce the browser to switch tabs. The given tab must be the current tab in the window.
Pay special attention to the spaces and the dashes—which vary by browser type—lest ORA tell you there is no such window. Firefox uses an EM Dash whereas the other browsers use a regular dash.
I did not include MS Edge because MS Edge includes extra text in the window name that is hard to predict and makes MS Edge a poor choice unless there is only one MS Edge window open and you can omit the window name from the target.
- As with any target application, the target window has to be ready for what you send it. For example, you may have to click on a textbox in the target browser window so that any text you send to it will go into that textbox.
Examples
I used ORA's "Template Demonstration" page to test. I used the "include window title" version of the target, i.e., I was testing the method used to target a specific browser window as explained in #2 above. I used these two templates:
{target=chrome:Template Demonstration - Google Chrome}Some Text{target=firefox:Template Demonstration — Mozilla Firefox}Some Text{target=opera:Template Demonstration - Opera}Some Text
Before clicking the Auto Type button in the OraPanel, I made sure the text cursor was in a text field and the text "Some Text" was typed into it when I tested. Of course, that's just an example template and you can put whatever you need there to assemble the text you want.
Limitation
Scripts on the target page may interfere with Auto Type. For example, some pages change the focus when you switch away from the page. They shouldn't do that, but developers/designers can't leave well enough alone, it seems! You'll have to test the target page to see if it lets you click in a text field and leave the focus set when you switch to another window to trigger the Auto Type Template.