Sending keyboard strokes to another app without controlling the ap

[jonefer]

This is a good one - and it doesn't necessarilly have to be done with Access,
but Access is my favorite VBA vehicle for quick and dirty solutions.

I have a program manager that simply will not give up the idea of sending
keyboard strokes to a GUI - the argument is that just 3 fields need to be
populated for numerous records and it would be 'simple' to read the data from
an XLS or MDB into the fields.

If someone has ever tried this and succeeded would you share it with me?

Believe me, every feasable alternative has been addressed - a backend
import, import specs through the application's own tool - I guess none of
those are options at this point.

My reservations about this solution are - how would you set the cursor
focused in the app then click the start button? - I guess a timer would be
appropriate?

Also, because there would be no way to read any errors from the GUI, you
would have to prompt the user - "Did the row populate OK? - YES/NO" before
each row continues -

I am reaching for an 'outside-the-box' solution - and any ideas would help
tremendously.