You can set a macro program to control the mouse/keyboard for you in a preset way. This can either be a simple macro (click here, here, and here, then type 1234 <enter>) or something incredibly complex (count the number of file names, then repeat this sequence of mouse/keyboard strokes 15 times - y, or until you read X text).

I had one macro program to build a massive database of what modules we had installed in different stores at one point. It took about 30 minutes to connect and figure out everything we had in an entire store, going through 3 different peices of software (was about 2 hours manually). This came in handy, since part of my job entailed doing this for about 200 stores. Of course, since it was so complicated, it took me about 2 weeks to write...

Basically, anything tedious you do yourself, you can automate with a macro. For Windows, I'd recommend Macro Express. I don't know what is good for other operating systems.

-Biscuits