Hi everyone, Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve submitted a new app which enhances the accessibility and functionality of Itunes. I have included the documentation for the app below for your convenience. The app, called Itunes Enhance, is found in the Program Enhancements category, next to the Itunes app, created by AI Squared. The App Central URL is:
https://www.gwmicro.com/App_Central/Apps/App_Details/?scriptid=1432 In summary, the app defines three program-specific hotkeys for toggling playback, as well as rewind and fast ford. I hope you enjoy the added functionality provided by this app, and, for the perennially curious, please read on for the details. <grin> All the best, Rod Hutton Welcom to Itunes Enhance! This app enhances the accessibility and functionality of Itunes, Apple’s popular media player. Features of the initial release of Itunes Enhance This app was initially created to correct two problems for screen-reader users of Itunes: First, you will notice that the first option in the Controls menu is Play, and the hotkey assigned to it is Space. However, you may have noticed that pressing the spacebar does not, in fact, always toggle playback, and this depends on the control which has focus in Itunes. It certainly works when focus is on a tree view or list view, but not when on the many static boxes, and certainly not when focus is on buttons which serve other purposes, such as the sorting of content. Clearly, there is need for a hotkey which the user can count on to toggle the playback of the current item. Second, you will also notice that the Controls menu contains no option for rewinding and fast forwarding the currently playing track; indeed, a search for Itunes hotkeys on the web will lead to many independent web pages which include hotkeys for these two functions in their lists, and, typically, Control-Alt-Left arrow and Control-Alt-Right arrow, for rewind and fast forward, respectively. Further evidence that these hotkeys once worked in Itunes is that the set file supplied by AI Squared have these hotkeys configured as program-specific and left undefined; normally, they are configured as global, and are two of the four used to adjust speech parameters. Certainly there is evidence that rewind and fast forward once were part of the functionality of Itunes, and clearly there is a need for access to these functions,if Itunes supports them, and, if so, for easily-accessible hotkeys for them. Controlling Itunes behind the scenes The result of my search of the web has revealed that there is a way to control Itunes other than through the normal user interface, namely, through its programmable COM object. In the same way that app developers can create apps to control Window-Eyes for specific purposes, and this is because it also has a programmable COM object, the functions of Itunes can be controlled in the same way. My examination of the Itunes COM object has revealed that, among many functions, the playback of the current track can be started, paused, rewound and fast forwarded. It was a simple matter for me, then, to create an app which assigns these functions to Window-Eyes hotkeys. The app menu In the initial release of the app, the Itunes Enhance option on the Window-Eyes Apps menu has a single option, namely, Help, which opens the typical Help dialog for the app. This contains the read-only edit box containing the present documentation, as well as a button which opens the Hotkey Manager dialog where you can review and reassign the app hotkeys. The hotkeys and their functions In the initial release of Itunes Enhance, three program-specific hotkeys are assigned: PlayPause. This hotkey (F12, by default) will start and pause playback of the current track; it will also resume normal playback if the track is in rewind or fast forward mode. If you wish to completely stop rather than pause the current track, press the dedicated Itunes hotkey, which, as of this writing, is Control-.. Rewind. When a track is playing, this hotkey (F10, by default) will start rewind mode, where you can hear fragments of the track audio as it skips backward; normal playback can be resumed by pressing the PlayPause hotkey; also, normal playback will resume automatically when the beginning of the track is reached. FastForward. When a track is playing, this hotkey (F11, by default) will start fast forward mode, where you can hear fragments of the track audio as it skips forward; normal playback can be resumed by pressing the PlayPause hotkey; if the end of the track is reached, normal playback will resume with the next track in the currrent list of tracks, or, if no tracks remain, playback will stop. The Future It is possible to add features to Itunes Enhance in the future. Feel free to write to me about your experiences with Itunes and this app. I hope you enjoy using Itunes Enhance! Rod Hutton January 2016 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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