Drag And Drop Functions?

[Dean]

Hello.. am brand new to this forum and relatively new to Macro Express.

So.. first off. 'Giday everyone!'

 

I am a little lost on how to do something... specifically 'drag and drop' function.

 

As an example.. Windows Media Player has 'drag and drop' support, where you can for instance drag a media clip onto the player, and it starts playing.

 

I tried making a macro to left click down on a file, and then a mouse move to the desired co-ordinates, and then release mouse button.

 

I have a file explorer window that I'm dragging from, and beside it a Media player... However, when I run the macro, it just drags the file to the co-ordinates specified, but onto the desktop 'behind' the open Media Player, and Windows strats copying the file onto the desktop. (instead of playing it)

 

How to I tell it to drop the file into the player application window, instead of copying it to the desktop?

 

Sorry for being so ignorant..

 

..Dean..

[Noggin the Nog]

Hi Dean,

 

I'm going to cheat and give a simpler solution rather than answering your question. If Windows Media Player is your default player for the audio file type, once you have selected the file (highlighted) in Explorer or whatever, do a Text Type "Enter" command. It will automatically start up WMP if not running and play the file. This is better than drag and drop because it is independent of window positions.

[Dean]

Thanks for the reply..... thats a good suggestion too.. but the Windows Media Player was just an example of a drag and drop supported app.

 

What I really want to use it for is for my PVR (Personal Video Recorder) software.

It doesn't support those type of association commands.

 

ie) You can associate a filetype with it, and make it play. I can indeed make the prgram launch using your suggestion, but it won't play the file.

 

Thats why I asked about the drag and drop macro, as I can manually drag any supported media type into the PVR's window, and it plays.

 

The reason I want to do this, is the the PVR software gives much better playback quality than say Windows Media Player, as it seems to have special custom filters etc for video, that 'only' the PVR software can use.

 

Sooo.. My idea was to have the PVR window set very small, and locked in a certain place hiding on a vacant bit of the screen.. and then use a macro to automate a drag and drop function from any type of file explorer.

 

 

(grin) Your idea is a good'un too, but the damn PVR software won't play ball.

 

..Dean..

[Dean]

opps.. 'typo' alert..

That line starting with 'ie.' should read

 

ie) You can't associate a filetype with it, and make it auto- play

 

..Dean..

[Noggin the Nog]

Drag and drop macros works fine with Windows Media Player, providing it is already set in the "Now Playing" tab. If WMP is set to another tab, it won't play the file, it will line it up for burning a cd or whatever.

 

I just did the drag with:

mouse right button down

mouse move

mouse right button up

I notice you used left button clicks. Did you try right button?

 

In my experience, keystrokes are the first choice for macros, mouse controls a poor second due to dependence on windows size, position, screen resolution, changes to control and menu bars, and the mouse being accidentally jogged at the wrong moment.

[Noggin the Nog]

Have you tried drag and drop with the pvr window a decent size? Is the size of the much reduced window a factor eg very small target area?

 

Are you sure you are dragging to the right place? Is the mouse in the correct position above the player after the drop?

 

Have you tried recording the macro (rather than writing code)? During macro recording does the file play but not when the recorded macro is played back?

 

I just tried my simple drag and drop with a video file and PowerDVD, no problem. I have yet to find a manual operation that ME cannot duplicate, even if awkward to write code.

[joe]

Welcome to the forum Dean!

 

I am not encountering the same problem as you. I set up a test to drag (from the Desktop) a wav file onto the Windows Media Player, which is set to the Now Playing tab. It played just fine.

Mouse Move Screen 127, 927
Mouse Left Button Down
 Mouse Move Screen 726, 490
Mouse Left Button Up

Is your macro much different from this one?