"I have been doing both conventional programming language computer programming and spreadsheet programming for years."

Apparently not very well, IMNSHO. Years of doing something does not always equate to becoming accomplished or an expert in that something. I would never claim to be an expert (or even accomplished) programmer myself, even though I've been doing it for - OMG!!! has it really been 29 years? yikes.... Boy have things changed since the days of sub megahertz 8 bit processors and 16k of RAM.

But I claim no expertise because for one, I'm 100% self taught; two, the stuff I've done is basic simple stuff; three, I know enough to know I don't know enough. Yet even with that I can see you're not doing it right.

If you want to manipulate a spreadsheet from another program, you don't feed "artificial keystroke data" to the spreadsheet program. That's doing it back asswards. Instead, you write the program to read and write the spreadsheet file directly. If need be, you use a readily available library to handle it for you.

For example, I've been trying on and off to learn how to use OpenGL to display 3d graphics. My programs do not talk directly to the video card nor manipulate the 3d matrix equations. Instead, I import a library (which isn't even in the language I use, no less) and send calls to it which handles the OpenGL implementation which talks to the video card for me. It eliminates me needing to know how the whole video card interface even works, or knowing all the math. All adding the library does is effectively give me a new set of commands to work with. That's what code libraries are for. I'm still 'trying' simply because I've not forced myself to sit down for a week or two and REALLY figure it out. I've only dabbled, and am likely missing a few key concepts for complete understanding.

Brian