How do I send keystrokes from MATLAB to another application that was invoked using the bang(!) operator?

I have invoked an application using the bang(!) operator in MATLAB on Windows, and would like to send keystrokes to this application from MATLAB. As a proof of concept, I would like to see this example implemented for a text editor.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If you are running MATLAB on a Windows machine, you can use the WScript.Shell COM interface to send keystrokes to your application. For example, for Notepad, you would use the following code:

h = actxserver('WScript.Shell');
h.Run('notepad'); %Invokes notepad.exe
pause(3); %Waits for the application to load.
h.AppActivate('Notepad'); %Brings notepad to focus
h.SendKeys('hello world~'); %Sends keystrokes
h.SendKeys('^s'); % save file
pause(3);
h.SendKeys('test.txt~'); % save as 'test.txt' and return
h.SendKeys('%{F4}'); % close Notepad Alt+F4

For more information on symbol mapping to keystrokes, refer to the following URL:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.sendkeys?view=netcore-3.1