I know this may be a little confusing so I will try to explain myself as clearly as possible (sorry if this is long and detailed).
I work with severely disabled students, setting up assistive technology computer systems to encourage greater independence and to allow use of the computer using varied input devices. Most of the more disabled kids can only use 1 or 2 switches (big buttons) as computer input.
For the activity I’m working on at the moment, I’m setting up 2 switch input to play media (videos and music) on the computer. I’m using Winamp as the media player.
I can set up Macro Espress to see my switch input as a keypress (b = next video x = play). So, with one switch hit, Macro Express will send a b then an x to make the next song play.
In this activity:
Switch 1 – selects a preferred playlist from Winamp player 1
Switch 2 – selects a preferred playlist from Winamp player 2
Winamp is set to play each media clip manually so the student has to start up the media clip by clicking the switch.
However, this is where my question is:
I want my students to make selections with each switch. I want to have 2 instances of Win amp running – each one with a folder of media to play. 1 player will have a folder of preferred media (fun, interesting media clips). The second player will have non preferred or neutral media, things that the students won’t have much interest in.
So, with two instances of Winamp running, can I get Macro Express to select one instance? I know about Alt-tab keyboard shortcuts, but that won’t work because Winamp put the player, and the equalizer and the media screen into the tab list – so too much change for the alt-tab sequence to go wrong there. I ‘could’ do cntrl-alt-del and then up or down arrow, but that worries me because cntrl-alt-del opens up a dialog box with too many other tabs, and again the possibility that there could be some errors in the running of the macro. So – the bottom line question is:
Is there a way that I can get Macro express to select a specific Winamp program? I can’t say switch to program and give a window title because both windows have the same title.
Can anyone help with the details of getting this set up please?
Thanks,
Bridgette