How do I take keyboard input in AutoIt?

Question

I want to write a script in AutoIt, which can take automatic input from the keyboard, let's say A-Z, without user intervention.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

It is unlikely that your program needs to capture all input from all keys. If you do in fact need that kind of user input AutoIt might not be for you - see the post from the author of AutoIt about keyloggers. If you need to take keyboard input of the hotkey type: doing that in AutoIt is super easy.

HotKeySet("^+{q}", "reactionFunction")

While 1
    ; A loop
WEnd

Func reactionFunction()
    MsgBox(0, "You pressed CTRL+Shift+q", "You pressed CTRL+Shift+q")
    Exit
EndFunc

If you want to take user input from an input box that is really easy also.

$data = InputBox("Enter Something", "Enter some data in the field below.")
MsgBox(0, "The String You Entered...", "The string you entered is... " & $data)

More information about HotKeySet and InputBox can be found in the AutoIt.chm help file (it's actually a great reference).

Answer 2

Not sure I understand your question - you want to simulate keypresses without someone actually using the keyboard? If so, that's the send command in AutoIt.

You want to let a real user submit input to the script? That's what the GUI in AutoIt is for.