Record Mouse And Keyboard Actions

[Cecila Dammrich]

PyAutoGUI is excellent for click and type automation tasks, but one of the weaknesses I found with it, is that it's difficult to 'record' a task and get the xy coordinates for the mouse clicks. There is an option to take screenshots and locate images within the screen but I could never get this to work accurately - mouse xy coordinates are much more reliable.

The first step is to record the mouse and keyboard input. To do this, we are using pynput to listen for on press and on click, then storing those events as a dictionary in the recording list. Once both listeners are terminated, we store this in a file recording.json

Now we have the recording.json file, we can use that to convert it into a Python script. We are excluding mouse release and scroll events as these don't really help for the purposes of conversion.

As some of the keys from pynput don't correspond directly to PyAutoGUI, the key_mappings dictionary helps out with this. If you come across any more, you can add to this dictionary taking the pynput key and mapping it to the relevant PyAutoGUI keyboard keys.

Here is a quick end-to-end video demo recording, converting then playing back an automation process - an example of opening Firefox, navigating to W3Schools, searching for Python, copying some code, then pasting it into Visual Studio Code. This uses left click, right click and keyboard input so applicable to a real-world scenario.

Okay this was another fun Python automation article, now you know how to create a mouse and keyboard recorder with Python, and have a solid start to building more advanced robotic process automation (RPA) solutions with PyAutoGUI. You can refer to the documentation for more guidance on using PyAutoGUI and think about what else you might like to build ?

This program can be modified and adapted further to your needs. You could read in some data with pandas and then introduce a for loop to repeat an automation process for multiple inputs during playback.

I looked at Autohotkey but then I need to write a script and I have no coding experience. I want to automate in a Windows software to open a file, go to file save as. Overwrite the file and click on yes. Close the file. Go to open the next file in the directory. I need to do this manually hundreds of time and I want to automate that. I use iPhone and iPad all the time. But this software only works on Windows and so I need a Windows solution.

Great. What do you need to know? It is Windows 7 32BIT if that is important. The steps are: File open. The select the the first document in the directory. Then click on the buton OPEN. Then File / Save As / Then select the button SAVE / Do you want to replace it and select the button YES. File Close. And then the next document in the directory.

Have you looked at Phrase Express yet? I used it a while ago for text expansion on my Windows computer at work, but I know it has a macro recorder that might allow you to do what you described above too.

AutoHotkey is the best free and open-source custom prearranging language for Microsoft Windows, at first pointed toward giving simple console easy routes or hotkeys, quick full scale creation and programming mechanization that permits clients of most degrees of PC ability to computerize monotonous errands in any Windows application. But there are some alternatives jotted down below are actually automation software that let you create shortcuts for a keyboard, a mouse or a joystick.

Download Mini Mouse Macro for free. Light weight mouse and keyboard macro recording machine. Mini Mouse Macro is a great free mouse and keyboard recording macro. Mini Mouse Macro if different to other mouse macro's out there because it can actively...

Normally time between actions is ignored, but you can add short pauses between actions by clicking on the Clock icon in the recording window, or you can record in "real time mode" by option clicking the clock.

Note that recorded macros like this are extremely fragile. At the least you will likely have to edit the macro to clean it up a little, and almost always using higher level actions will result in a more robust macro.

On Windows, I used TinyTask multiple times a week for years (amazing program, recommended for every Windows user). Now I want to switch to Linux, but I can't find a program that does the same: Start recording mouse+keyboard, stop recording, start replay (multiple times replay, faster replay optional).

What I want is something that saves me effort when I e.g. have to do a 1-minute action combination 10 times or so, so manually writing a script is not an option. Xdotool is a nice program to do that, but for everyday use I need something that can record input as well.

A free option is of course preferred, a paid one is acceptable if I can test it beforehand and it's really good and not stupidly expensive (I donated 50$ to TinyTask and that one was absolutely amazing, so it shouldn't be much more than that).

So, to summarize: How can I start the mouse and keyboard recording at the same moment, stop them both at the same time and run both simultaneously? Are the mouse and keyboard modules the best option to achieve this?

Have you ever tried to copy and paste hundreds of paragraphs over and over again? Or asking your character in games to attack the same target or go to the same place by pressing mouse buttons endlessly? These repetitive tasks seem like easy but turns out they are required to be done by ourselves repetitively. So this is where macros and macro recorder come in: they make scripts that tell your mouse or keyboard to do the repetitive works for you automatically.There are third-party software that can create macros for them. Today we have gathered a list of macro recorder software that can record macros for non-programmable keyboard and mouse.

Auto Mouse Clicker is macro recorder software that records the movement and clicking of your mouse and playback the operations when you press the shortcut keys. You can configure the click types, pointer coordinates, delays, and repeat times in the software. The press of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift along with the mouse clicks can also be recorded.

EasyClicks is a macro recorder category which is considered to be very dynamic in its operations. It is among the simplest to use as it gives you a user-friendly platform to make your macros faster. EasyClick can allow you to make and customize your own keyboard shortcuts where the need arises. You only need to specify the operation key and choose your favorite shortcut. EasyClicks are versatile, the give you all macro at your disposal by use of a simple scripting code.

These are among the small macro recorder software available, with a capacity about 33KB. Majorly it is known for playback and recording functionalities. TinyTasks have only six buttons for all its purposes hence simple to use.

This macro software is free although many people think anything premium is paid for. The Mouse Recorder Premium enables you to make all your activities which seem to be frequent automatic. The automation is done by recording the executed mouse clicks and keystrokes sequentially with a macro editor. The Mouse Recorder Premium will enable you to have all your mouse movements, your previous windows position of any program if there is any change, and enhance easy analysis of your macros.

Macro Toolworks provides free, standard and professional version, but even free version can satisfy the needs of daily operations. The free version is among the simple macro recorder software to use, it allows you to record and save keyboard inputs and mouse commands. Macro can be recorded with a macro recorder, or with command lines. The free version of Macro Toolworks is available for Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.

Mini Mouse Macro is automation PC software that enables you to efficiently record and playback your mouse key INS and keyboard touches. The excitable commands can be stored and executed from any storage device, so there is no need of installing the software on your PC. Therefore, this macro recording software is considered as the most portable in the in the existing macro recorders.

Ghost Mouse macro recorder software has only two buttons, this makes it among the most user-friendly and simple to use. The software can help you record any mouse movement on your PC and Keyboard inputs. The two buttons, the record button, and the play button are the ones used to do the automation. To record press the red button and to play the recorded content press the play button.

AutoHotkey is open source macro recorder software for windows. Unlike other software we covered above, AutoHotkey rely on scripting language to automate your operations, therefore users are expected to have coding knowledge. When using AutoHotkey, first you will need to create a script file and add some hotkeys, otherwise a help document will pop up to tell you to do so. Though being hard for beginner, AutoHotkey provides many possibilities for those who can get hold of it, including recording mouse or keyboard macros, remap buttons on keyboard, mouse and joystick, expand abbreviations, even DLL calls and Windows Messages.

While it is possible to use software to make macro, not all keyboard and mouse are compatible with these software, and since these software are not developed by the hardware companies themselves, they will not be covered by hardware companies' support team, this is where programmable keyboard and mouse come in. With built-in programmablility, the software of these keyboard and mouse will be supported by the manufacturers, and some of these keyboard and mouse even come with added features in hardware levels (for example, macro keys).

Nowadays there are many programmable keyboard and mouse in the market. Computer accessories manufacturer Havit provides a series of programmable keyboard and mouse , and one of the most popular models would be HAVIT MS963WB programmable mouse, providing macro programming ability, as well as 3 connection modes, removable honeycomb shell design, and 6 RGB light modes.

c80f0f1006