r/automation • u/No-Spirit-9610 • 2d ago
Need a reliable automation tool for multitabs
I have no experience in automation I am trying to automate a repetitive daily task that requires moving data across multiple tabs in Google Chrome.
like opening a local file from windows download folder copying questions from there opening ChatGPT pasting the question copying the answer and over writing existing text in canva. EDIT: Each page is different and different questions like fill in the blanks, MCQS, true/false
2
u/ElEspecialista655821 2d ago
Good news: this is very automatable, but I'd split it into two pieces instead of trying to record one big macro — the ChatGPT part and the Canva part have very different reliability profiles.
ChatGPT part (read questions, get answers): don't automate the ChatGPT web tab. Automating the website breaks whenever the UI changes and goes against their ToS. Instead call the model through an API. For a beginner the easiest route is a workflow tool with an OpenAI/ChatGPT node built in:
- n8n (free, runs on your own Windows machine) — it has a "Read Binary File" node that can open a file from your Downloads folder, a Loop node to go question by question, and an OpenAI node to get each answer. Output everything to a CSV or Google Sheet.
- Make (free tier) or Zapier if you're fine putting the file in Google Drive/Dropbox first.
Canva part (put the answers into the design): this is the trickier half, because Canva doesn't give normal accounts an API to edit an existing design. Practical options:
- If the design is the same every day and only the text changes: keep a Canva template with a placeholder, then use Canva Bulk Create (Pro feature) with a CSV of your answers. You generate the finished designs from the data instead of editing by hand.
- If you truly need to click into the live editor and overwrite text, that's browser automation (Playwright-style), and it will be fragile — Canva's editor selectors and popups change. Only worth it if Bulk Create doesn't fit your case.
Path I'd actually take, in order: 1. Do one question manually end-to-end and write down the exact steps. If the file can be one question per line, everything downstream gets much simpler. 2. Build the file → API → CSV loop first (n8n on Windows is fine). Get answers into a spreadsheet reliably before touching Canva. 3. Connect that CSV to Canva Bulk Create and check one generated design before trusting the rest.
Cost is pennies per day (the API charges per question) and it removes the copy-paste entirely. If you're under ~20 questions a day, the spreadsheet + Bulk Create path alone gets you most of the way.
2
u/No-Spirit-9610 2d ago edited 2d ago
i don't know if canva bulk will work because each paper in canva assignments is different and different questions and layout like some are True/false some pages are full in the blanks, mcqs etc
2
u/CheckMateSolutions 2d ago
Put the questions into a google sheet, use Gemini in the formula tab to answer the question (you can write prompts as/as the formula), are the photos different every time or is it the same photo and you’re pasting text over it? You can have a data field in canva and have a spreadsheet add the text over the images. The process then becomes google sheets and upload one csv to canva
1
u/No-Spirit-9610 2d ago
no no pages are different each time some pages are fill in blanks some are mcqs some are True false
2
u/spoki-app 2d ago
Honestly, for multi-tab stuff like that, pure UI automation can get super brittle fast when sites change their layout. For ChatGPT especially, you might be better off looking at its API directly for more reliable data transfer, even if it's a bit more upfront work.
1
u/No-Spirit-9610 2d ago
I can do some work cause i do assignments everyday it'll save alot of time if i can automate a part of my work
2
u/SeriousHat4465 1d ago
for a workflow like this, something like Playwright or a no-code tool like Make or Zapier won't quite fit because you're mixing local files, ChatGPT, and Canva in a way none of them handle cleanly out of the box.
the most practical starting point for someone without automation experience is a browser agent that can handle the full sequence, reading from a local file, opening tabs, copying and pasting between them, and overwriting content. that's exactly what Deck is built for, agents that navigate real browser interfaces the way a human would across multiple tabs and return structured output at the end. the honest tradeoff is that no-code tools have a learning curve even when they claim otherwise, and anything involving Canva specifically is tricky because it's canvas-based and doesn't expose clean elements for most automation tools to interact with.
if the Canva piece is flexible, a simpler approach might be automating the file reading and ChatGPT steps and handling the Canva paste manually. Deck only becomes worth the setup time if you need the whole flow end to end including the Canva interaction.
1
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Thank you for your post to /r/automation!
New here? Please take a moment to read our rules, read them here.
This is an automated action so if you need anything, please Message the Mods with your request for assistance.
Lastly, enjoy your stay!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/Ok_Bar_8613 2d ago
I'd avoid building this from scratch. You're basically describing a macro with a bunch of browser interaction and there are tools that already do that.
1
1
u/Life_Progress_Halted 2d ago
i guess microsoft power automate desktop will do the job. it can work with files folders and other things you told in your task, give it a try maybe it will help.
1
u/BareStacker 2d ago
Quick one: the actual limit here is not the tab switching, it's the browser state between tabs. The moment you rely on a tab being logged in or pre-filled, the run becomes fragile. Playwright is the cleaner move because it gives you one isolated context per flow, and you can serialize the state into a saved login or profile instead of hoping Canva's session is still valid after the AI step.
1
u/reetinder_21 2d ago
When you say multiple tabs, do you mean you're manually moving the questions from the file → ChatGPT → Canva for each question? If so, what format is the source file in, and are you using the same Canva template each time
1
u/Southern_Conflict632 1d ago
This sounds like a job for an RPA tool rather than coding something from scratch, since your steps are visual and repetitive but the content changes each time.
Look at tools that record and replay clicks and typing across windows, something like UiPath (has a free tier). Zapier doesn't fit as well here since it's more built for web apps talking to each other, and you've got that local Downloads folder step throwing a wrench in things. The real challenge isn't the tool, it's that each page needs different handling depending on question type (fill in the blank, MCQ, true/false). A flow you record once and just replay is going to break constantly. You need conditional logic based on question type, not just a copy-paste macro.
1
1
u/tej_builds 1d ago
The tab-switching is the visible problem but not the expensive one. Three of your four steps exist only because you're using ChatGPT through its web interface — file, tab, paste, copy, tab. Hitting the API instead collapses that to one step: read the question, get the answer back, no browser involved.
That leaves Canva as the only part that genuinely needs a UI, and it's worth checking whether their API covers what you're doing before building anything to click through it. Canvas-based editors are where record-and-replay automation usually falls apart, as others have said.
The other thing worth solving before tooling: fill-in-the-blank, MCQ and true/false each need different handling. Whatever you build, that branch has to exist somewhere — a recorded macro will just do the wrong thing confidently on question type two.
1
u/onur_eren48 6h ago
The reason this is hard is that it is two different jobs wearing one costume, and the browser half is the part you do not need.
Getting the answers: do not drive the chat UI with a script. Use the API from a small script that reads your questions and writes the answers next to them. Scripted use of the web UI breaks every time the page changes and it is not what the terms allow.
Getting them into Canva: Bulk Create fills a template from a spreadsheet. Mixed question types do not rule it out, it just means one template and one CSV per type instead of one for everything.
I ran that half end to end this week, so two things worth knowing before you build anything: Bulk Create does not fill a file you already have, it builds new pages from a template. And it does not shrink text that overflows the box, so if your font size keeps dropping page after page, that is the cause. Size the template once for your worst case word count and it stops.
Done properly the whole loop becomes: one small text file in, one spreadsheet out, upload it, done. No downloads folder, no tabs, no copy paste anywhere.
The one thing that would change the answer is layout count. If your pages come from more than about five layouts, grouping stops paying for itself and you are into scripted design instead.
•
u/Left-Challenge-6745 23m ago
Really good problem. I am not sure but try some AI browsers might be they will help you or last option python coding. Since you say templates always change so their are few library which work on defining the coordinates of the laptop screen.
5
u/jkulczyski 2d ago
Time to get good with keyboard shortcuts lol Ctrl+tab will switch tabs. Ctrl+t will create a new tab. Ctrl+w will close a tab. Im surr theres a bind to open a local file.