To enter text with Selenium, locate the editable element first, then call its element-level typing method: Java uses sendKeys("text"), while Python uses send_keys("text"). The target must be keyboard-interactable.
Enter text in a form field
Use a locator that identifies the field, then send the string to the resulting WebElement. These Java and Python examples follow Selenium’s official first-script form-entry flow; change the locator and text to match your page. See Selenium’s element interaction guidance and first-script examples.
Java
WebElement textBox = driver.findElement(By.name("my-text"));
textBox.sendKeys("Selenium");Python
text_box = driver.find_element(by=By.NAME, value="my-text")
text_box.send_keys("Selenium")After entering the text, a typical form workflow clicks the submit button and checks the page for a result. Locating the field and typing are separate actions: sendKeys is called on the element, not on the page or locator.
What sendKeys does—and what it needs
Selenium’s element method sends a sequence of keys to a keyboard-interactable element. Text inputs are common targets; an element with a contenteditable attribute may also accept keyboard input. A non-editable or otherwise non-interactable target can produce an invalid element state error.
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Element interactions are designed to emulate user interaction. Selenium’s interaction guidance says it scrolls an off-screen target into view and checks that it is interactable before acting.
When to use the Actions API instead
For ordinary text entry into a known field, the element-level method is the direct choice. Use the Actions API keyboard actions when keyboard input must be sequenced with pointer or other keyboard actions. Its sendKeys convenience action combines key-down and key-up behavior and differs slightly from calling the method on a WebElement.
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Special cases: modifiers and file inputs
The JavaScript WebElement API reference documents sending a sequence of key arguments, including modifier keys such as Control, Shift, Alt, and Meta. A modifier can remain active until toggled, released with Key.NULL, or until the sequence ends.
The same API documents sending a path to a file input to select a file. With a remote Selenium server, the path must refer to a file on the browser machine; a file detector can transfer a local file. This file-input use is distinct from typing ordinary text into a form field.
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