Newbie ? - Starting Windows program/Sending text to window

[Mark Clark]

    I have *just* started trying out Python.  I would like to start a
Windows program (any program - not necessarily one that can accept DDE) and
then just send some text to the window (like SendKeys does).   I am also
using the Win32 extensions from Mark Hammond.
    To test, I have gotten notepad to start with ShellExecute (great!).  Now
I cannot figure out how to send text to the notepad window.  I thought some
sort of "print" or "write" would work, but it doesn't seem to.   Can you
help me?  Thank you!