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Is it possible via Automator, an app, applescript, etc. to automatically press a key (i.e. "g") every 60 seconds?

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2 Answers 2

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5

You can do this in AppleScript, iff you've enabled access for assistive devices:

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "," using command down

This will (obviously) invoke cmd-,.

If, for some reason, you can't enable access for assistive devices, then it's pretty easy to do this in code (by creating a CGEventRef and then posting it to the system, essentially). If you'd like help with that, then head over to stackoverflow.com, where that question has been asked a few times.

As for getting this to happen every 60 seconds, you could turn it into a launch agent and let launchd do it for you:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.stackexchange.apple.12692</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>tell application "System Events" to keystroke "," using command down</string>
    </array>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Auto Keypress</string>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Second</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Toss that in ~/Library/LaunchAgents and you should be good to go (once you load the plist and/or log out and log back in).

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7
  • @Dave thanks for your reply, unfortunately I can't seem to get this working. I've enabled access for AD and saved your XML as a .plist file in my USER/Library/LaunchAgents folder. Logged out back in, opened TextEdit and let it run for a couple minutes. No comma "," key was pressed. What am I doing wrong?
    – Ryan
    Apr 25, 2011 at 1:16
  • @Ryan it's possible I might have messed up the plist slightly, but it seems to work for me on my system. You can also try doing launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/filename.plist in Terminal to explicitly load it.
    – Dave DeLong
    Apr 25, 2011 at 1:38
  • @Dave - that did the trick. Thank you! One last question: how can I change it from "Command"+"," to simply "g"? I tried editing the .plist file but nothing seems to change the behavior.
    – Ryan
    Apr 25, 2011 at 6:29
  • @Ryan when you change the plist, you'll have to "unload" it and "load" it again.
    – Dave DeLong
    Apr 25, 2011 at 13:53
  • @Dave How exactly do I do that? Just change your Terminal command (above) from "load" to "unload"?
    – Ryan
    Apr 25, 2011 at 17:16
1

Use the "Watch Me Do" to enter "G," then use the pause action to pause for 60 sec, then the loop action and select "Loop Automatically."

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