How to use Asoftech Automation?

1) How to open Asoftech Automation?
2) How do I bring up Asoftech Automation after it is minimized to tray icon?
3) How do I use Asoftech Automation to automate my computer?
4) How to manually create a Robot?
5) How to run a Robot?
6) How to use record and replay feature?
7) How to use advanced robot input?
8) How to edit the existing robot?
9) How to delete a robot?
10) How to share a robot?
11) How to schedule a robot?
12) How to export/import a robot?
13) How to check updates?
14) How do I shutdown Asoftech Automation?
15) How to add a key press?
16) How to add a mouse click?
17) I wish my mouse to move to a specified position on screen, how do I do that?
18) I wish my mouse to move up 200 pixel, how do I do that?
19) How to add a wait event so that other program can finish tasks before robot continue the task?
20) How to input some text?
21) How to loop some actions for a few times inside a robot?
22) How to check color at some point on screen, and then run some actions like mouse click when color matches reference color?
23) How to make robot run in a faster speed?
24) What key can be set as start or end hotkey?
25) What is "Record all detail mouse moves" in record dialog for?
26) Can I start and stop recording robot using hotkey, that way I don't have to open recorder dialog which always shows up during recording?
27) Does it matter if the window size and locations of my applications change between recording and replaying?

1. How to open Asoftech Automation?

To open Asoftech Automation, double click on Asoftech Automation icon on the desktop.

Asoftech Automation icon on desktop

2. How do I bring up Asoftech Automation after it is minimized to tray icon?

To bring up Asoftech Automation, move your mouse over Asoftech Automation tray icon and click on it .

Alternatively, you can right click on the icon to bring up the menu and click on "Show Automation".

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3. How do I use Asoftech Automation to automate my computer?

When you have a work which needs a lot of repetitive tasks, you can create a robot which represents one task, and then let robot run this task repetitively, until you get the work done.

If your work contains some part which need to be done repetitively, you can also create a robot to help you do that part. You can then run robot by pressing a key when you reach that part of work, after robot complete that part of work, you can then continue.

Using Asoftech Automation is quite simple, only 2 steps:
1. Create a Robot
2. Run the Robot.

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4 How to manually create a Robot?

We highly recommend Record Robot for normal users.

(4.1) In Asoftech Automation main dialog (as shown below), click on button "Options".

In Options dialog, click "Start" button.

(4.2) Add Robot dialog will be shown up, as shown below.

You can use record and replay feature to create Robot. Record and replay feature allows you record your mouse and keyboard actions, from where you can create a Robot easily. Click here to know how to use record and replay feature.

Alternatively, you can create Robot manually using advanced input. For more details about advanced input, click here.

After robot is created, "Action List" will be filled with steps of actions for this Robot. Robot will be executing the actions from 1st step to last step.

(4.3) You can then modify the created Robot.

You can move selected action down by clicking "Move Down" button, or move selected action to execute earlier by clicking "Move Up" button.

You may also delete the selected action if you do not wish to run this action. To do so, select the action you wish to remove, and click "Delete" button.

You can also insert new actions. Use left panel to specify what kind of action you wish to insert. You can specify mouse input, keyboard input, or other input. Click mouse input bar to expand or close mouse input panel (Same for Keyboard Input and Other Input).

After you specify the input (for example, Click Option: Left Click, Click: 1 times), you can select from action list before which step you wish to insert this action (if no step is selected to be inserted before, the new action will be append to last step of action), then click "Insert Action" button.

(4.4) Robot creation is almost complete! Now you can specify Robot information so that you can have a better control of the Robot.

Robot Name: This name is for you to easily identify the robot. Robot name will be shown in main dialog, under "name" column.

Start Hot Key: After you specify start hot key (for example: F2), a press of this key will run the robot. This way you can execute all actions in the robot by just one key press.

End Hot Key: Press of end hot key (for example: F11) will cause running robot to stop. Default end hot key is F11. If a robot is running and you wish to stop it, just press this key.

What key can be set as start or end hotkey?
Following keys can be set as start or end hotkey:
(1) Function keys on top part of your keyboard: 'F1' to 'F11'
(2) Key 'A' to 'Z', key '1' to '0', other keys like '`', '-', '+', '[', ']', '\' etc on your main keyboard can also be set as start or end hotkey
(3) Arrow keys on middle lower part of your keyboard: left, Up, Right, Down
(4) "Ctrl + (keys mentioned above)". For example, Ctrl + M
(5) "Shift + (keys mentioned above)". For example, Shift + F2
(6) "Alt + (keys mentioned above)". For example, Alt + ArrowLeft
(7) "Ctrl + Shift + (keys mentioned above)"
(8) "Shift + Alt + (keys mentioned above)"
(9) "Ctrl + Alt + (keys mentioned above)"
(10) "Ctrl + Shift + Alt + (keys mentioned above)"

Speed option: Two speed options are available, "Run with a faster speed" and "Run with original speed".
"Run with a faster speed": Robot will run with a much faster speed by skipping most of the mouse moves. Robot will move straight to the position where inputs like mouse click occurs, then execute the inputs like mouse click. If your robot does not need to have exact same mouse moves as recording, and robot speed is more important, you can choose this option to make robot run faster.
"Run with original speed": In cases like you mouse over start menu, instead of click on the main menu, you mouse over the main menu, and then wait for the submenu to popup; sometimes you may need have mouse over on a button, and then wait for some window to shows up and clicks on that, in such cases, you can  choose this option.

Robot Description: Here you can add description or notes for this robot. Robot description will be shown in main dialog, under description column.

Repeat options: This option allows you specify times you wish robot to run, or run until you press the specified End Hot Key.

(4.5) Robot has been created successfully! Now press "Save" button to save this Robot. Robot will be listed in main dialog.

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5. How to run a Robot?

There are two ways to run a Robot: press specified Start Hot Key, or click "Run Robot" button.

Run robot by pressing specified Start Hot Key:
Firstly, You need to enable a robot. To enable a robot, check the check box under "Enable" column. Only enabled robot will be started by press specified Start Hot Key. For example, in figure below, robot "[Demo] copy paste" is enabled, while Robot "[Demo] email login" is not enabled. So pressing F5 will cause Robot "[Demo] copy paste" to run, while pressing F3 will not cause any Robot to run.

Once robot is enabled, you can press specify Start Hot Key to run robot even Asoftech Automation is minimized to system tray. You can do your work as per normal; when robot need to be executed, just press the hotkey to start to run robot, which should execute actions automatically, accurately and fast. After that you can continue other part of work.

Note: Try not to enable several robots with same Start Hot Key. Because this will confuse Asoftech Automation, it will not know which robot to start when you press Start Hotkey.

Run robot by clicking "Run Robot" button:
Firstly, you need to select a robot. To select a robot, just click on the robot. Only selected robot will be started when user clicks "Run Robot" button. For example, in figure below, robot "[Demo] email login" is selected, so when user clicks "Run Robot" button, this robot will be started.

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6. How to use record and replay feature?

Record and replay feature helps you record your mouse and keyboard actions, and then you can replay or modify recorded actions, and save it as a robot. This make it very easy to create the robot you need.

(6.1) In Asoftech Automation main dialog (as shown below), click on button "Record Robot".

(6.2) Dialog "Record keyboard and mouse actions" as shown below will show up.

What is "Record all detail mouse moves" for?
In cases like you are drawing an image which includes curves, robot needs very accurate mouse moves. By checking "Record all detail mouse moves", robot will be recorded with all detail mouse moves. The drawback for this is that robot may run slightly slow, as lots of mouse moves stored in robot. Without check this option, Asoftech Automation will record adquate mouse moves for nomal cases. This will fast the robot speed, at the same time, enough for normal usage.

(6.3) Click "start" button to start recording your mouse and keyboard movement.
All inputs from your mouse and keyboard will be recorded (only mouse input will be recorded if you ticked the check box). (6.4) Click "stop" button when you have done with what you want to record. "Add Robot" dialog will show up and all recorded actions are show in action list.

You can then proceed to modify the robot and then save the robot.

Can I start and stop recording robot using hotkey, that way I don't have to open recorder dialog which always shows up during recording?

Yes. You can open Asoftech Automation, and then minimize it, or even hide it to system tray. Then
- To start recording, press Ctrl + Alt + R from any application
- To stop recording, press Ctrl + Alt + S from any application
This way you don?t have to leave your application to record a robot.

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7. How to use advanced robot input?

Advanced robot input includes keyboard input, mouse input, and other input.

Keyboard Input
Click keyboard input bar to expand or close keyboard input panel.

To add or insert a key input
(a) Specify the key in "Key To Press".
(b) Specify the times you wish to press the key.
(c) Select Press Option:
"Key Press" - Press the specified key.
"Key Down" - Press and hold down the specified key.
"Key UP" - Release key from down status.
(d) Click "Insert Action" button to insert the action to action list.

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Mouse Input
Click mouse input bar to expand or close mouse input panel.

Mouse input allows you to input mouse related actions, include mouse click, mouse movement, and mouse relative movement.

To add or insert a mouse click input
(a) select click options:
"Left Click" - Mouse left click
"Right Click" - Mouse right click
"Double Click" - Mouse double click
"Left Down" - Press down left mouse and hold it
"Left UP" - Release left mouse
"Right Down"- Press down left mouse and hold it
"Right UP" - Release left mouse
(b) Specify the amount of time you wish to click.
(c) Click "Insert Action" button to insert the action to action list.

To add or insert a mouse movement input
(a) Fill in the position where you wish your mouse move to.
Current mouse's horizontal position are indicated by value of "X" in "Current Mouse Point". Current mouse's vertical position are indicated by value of "Y" in "Current Mouse Point".
Tips: You can point mouse to position where you wish mouse move to, and then press Ctrl + Alt + P to auto fill in current mouse position.
(b) Click "Insert Action" button to insert the action to action list.

To add or insert a mouse relative movement input
Mouse relative movement allows you to specify how much mouse need to move horizontally and vertically. Unlike normal mouse movement, where you need to specify the target position. Here you only need to specify how much in x-axis and y-axis mouse need to move. So mouse move will be based on current position, and it will move the specified amounts in x-axis and specified amount in y-axis. To add a mouse relative movement:
(a) Specify the distance you wish mouse to move in x-axis. Positive value means move right, negative value means move left.
(b) Specify the distance you wish mouse to move in y-axis. Positive value means move down, negative value means move up.
(c) If you are not sure about distance mouse need to move, you can click "Measure relative distance" link. "Measure Path" dialog will pop up.

You can follow instructions on the dialog to specify the first point and second point. Amount mouse need to move in x-axis and y-axis will be automatically shown up in "Relative move". Click OK will fill the value into "CX" and "CY" box.
(d) Click "Insert Action" button to insert the action to action list.

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Other Input
Click other input bar to expand or close other input panel.

Other input includes wait, text, Tag/Flags, and loop.

Wait
Wait allows actions execution to pause for some time. It can be used in cases like an action needs to wait for other program to complete a task. To add wait event
(a) Specify how long you wish robot to wait.
(b) Click "Insert Action" button to insert the action to action list.

Text Input
When you need to enter text to programs like Microsoft Office, use Text Input. To use Text Input is simple, fill the text you wish to enter in "Input Text", and then press "Insert" button.

Tag/Flags
Tag/Flags allows robot jump from one action to another action where tag/flag is indicated. For example, you add a tag/flag "BACK-TAG" at step 9. You can ask robot to jump back to TAG1 by adding "switch to TAG BACK-TAG" at any step. To use tag/flag
(a) Fill tag name in "Insert Tag/Flag", and then select the action where you wish to insert the tag, and click "Insert Tag".

(b) Select the tag you wish to switch to.

(c) Select the action before which you wish to switch tag back.

The new robot now will switch back to step 9 once it reaches step 16.

Loop
Loop allows you loop some actions as many times as you wish. To use loop feature
(a) Select how many times you wish to loop.

(b) Select the action before which you wish to start loop, and then click "Insert Start Loop Tag" button.
(c) Select the action after which you wish to end loop, and then click "Insert End Loop Tag" button.

As shown in figure above, after run action step 12, robot will run step 14 to step 17 actions 5 times, then continue to action step 19.

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Advanced Input
Click advanced input bar to expand or close advanced input panel.

Advanced input allows you check color of pixel at mouse position (or any position), if it matches to some predefined color, you can choose run some actions, if not, you can run some other actions. If you wish to identify the color on screen, this feature will be very helpful to you. To use this feature:
(a) Specify whether you wish to check color under mouse, or at a predefined position.
(b) Choose how you check the color, whether you are looking for same color ("Equal"), or different color ("Not Equal"), or look for similar color ("Approx equal").
"Equal": Condition matches only if color at position and reference color are exactly same. Asoftech Automation will check Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B) value of both color. Condition will match only if all three values are exactly same. If one value is not same, then it will consider as mismatch.
"Not equal": Condition matches if color at position and reference color are not same. I.e. Among R, G, B values, at least one value if not same. As long as there is one value difference, it will consider as color not same, i.e. condition match.
"Approx match": Condition matches if color at postion and reference color are similar. I.e. If R value difference is less than 20, and G value difference is also less than 20, and B value is less than 20, it will then consider condition as match.
(c) Choose the reference color.
You can use predefined colors: White (RGB value: FFFFFF), Black (RGB value: 000000), Red (RGB value: FF0000), Blue (RGB value: 0000FF), Green (RGB value: 00FF00). Or else you click on "Click to get color" link, a color picker color will pop up, which allows you to pick up a color from screen, or use standard color picker dialog to pick any customized color.

(c-1) If you wish to select color from color picker dialog, you can click on "Get Color" button. Stardard color picker dilaog will show up.

Here you can seek color from basic colors from left side, or custom color from right side, or even you can specify R, G, B value of color, and then click on "Add to Cusom Color", and click on OK.
(c-2) Instead of select from color picker dialog, if you wish to pick color from screen, any program UI or desktop. You can "Pick" button. To use "Pick" button, move mouse over the button, and hold down left mouse, and then move cursor to the color you wish to select, and release mouse.
(c-3) The color you selected is shown in "Selected color". Selected color's RGB value, and RGB hex value are also shown.
(c-4) If you picked color from screen, the pix position where you picked the color is shown in "Curren mouse position". If you wish to fill this mouse position to (a), predefined position. Check "Check to add position for picked color".
Now you have successfully selected color, you will see that the new selected color is automatically selected in reference color drop down. (d) Click "Insert" button to insert your color match event to robot's action list.

You would see that 3 lines are added:
If color at (1107, 240) Equals to #00FF00, Then
Else
EndIf
Line "If color at (1107, 240) Equals to #00FF00, Then" means that if color at point (1107, 240) is #00FF00 (green), then execution actions below this and above "Else" (or "EndIf" if there is no "Else").
Line "Else" allows user to insert actions which run when condition did not match. Actions inserted below "Else" and above "EndIf" will run when above condition did not match.
(e) If you wish "mouse click" if color matches, and do nothing if color is not match. You can do following.
- Delete "Else" in action list. To do so, select "Else" you wish to delete, and click "Delete" button to delete it from action list.
- Select "EndIf" in action list, and then go to "Mouse Input", and select mouse left click, and click on "Insert Action" button to insert mouse left click action.
Now you will see mouse click action are inserted between color match action and "EndIf".

If you save robot now, and run it. Robot will check for color at point (1107, 240), if it is #00FF00, then mouse left click will be executed, otherwise it will not do anything.

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8. How to modify existing robot?

Modifying existing robot allows you to prefect the robot. To modify existing robot,
(1) Select the robot you wish to modify

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9. How to delete a robot?

To delete existing robot,
(1) Select the robot you wish to delete

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10. How to share a robot?

We encourage you to share your robot so that your robot can be reused by other users. We will reward the users who uploaded valuable robots. To share a robot,
(1) Select the robot you wish to share

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11. How to schedule a robot?

scheduling allows you to run your robot at a particular time or event. To schedule a robot, follow the instructions below:
(1) Select the robot you wish to schedule

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12. How to export/import a robot?

Export a robot allows you back up a robot or save it to a removable disk, so that you can import it on other computer and use it there. To export/import a robot, follow the instructions below:
(1) Click "Options" button. (2) "Options" dialog will be shown up.

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13. How to check updates?

You may wish to get latest version of Asoftech Automation. Use check updates to check whether Asoftech Automation is update to date, and update to latest version of Asoftech Automation. To check update, follow the instructions below:
(1) Click "Options" button. (2) "Options" dialog will be shown up.

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14. How do I shutdown Asoftech Automation?

To shutdown Asoftech Automation, you can right click the tray icon on the taskbar and select "Exit Automation".

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15. Does it matter if the window size and locations of my applications change between recording and replaying?

No. Asoftech Automation's RecWin technology automatically adjust to changes of window size and location.

Asoftech Automation uses unique RecWin Technology that senses changes between robot record and play conditions. It then automatically adjusts to replay the robots accurately providing you with trouble-free robots. For example, it senses windows size or position change.

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