Actions: Windows Control > Send

The Send actions allow the user to simulate the keys on the keyboard in order to control Windows programs (other than Mind Express). You can even enable the user to control a different Windows device.

Action Description Settings
Send on The user activates the option to send keys to the active Windows program. If the user now chooses the Start program action, the program that has been set to start up will be activated. see Actions: Windows Control > Start program. To activate a different program, you can create cells for the user with the Make window active action, see Actions: Windows Control > Customize active window.
Send off The user deactivates the Send on action.
Send: on/off The user switches between the Send on and Send off actions. In Change the color of the cell when sending is activated., choose Yes so user can see if sending is activated or not.
Send key

The user sends the specified key or key combination to the active Windows program.

This will enable you to allow the user close most Windows programs using the key combination Alt + F4, for example.

  1. Choose one of the following options:
    • Choose Send letter and enter the character (letter, number, ...) to be sent. You can even enter multiple characters.
    • Choose Send specific key and from the drop-down list, select a key to perform a function, such as, Esc, Home, Page Up, End, Tab, Enter, F2, Alt, ...
  2. In Perform action, choose one of the following options from the drop-down list:
    • press + release to create a cell Enter key depresses and subsequently releases after 2s
    • press to create a cell that, for example, depresses the Enter key (but does not yet release it)
    • release to create a cell that, for example, releases the Enter key after you had depressed the key (see just above)
    • Ctrl/Alt/... + and choose Yes for one or more of the following keys
      • Shift
      • Ctrl
      • Alt
      • Windows key
      for example, to create a cell with the Ctrl + Shift + Enter key

See also Sticky key in this table if you want the user to combine the keys.

Send message box content The user sends the message from Mind Express to the active Windows program, for example a word processor.
Pause This action adds a pause time in between two actions. This can be useful in between the Start program (see Actions: Windows Control > Start program) and Send key actions (see above in this table), as starting up a Windows program may take some time. In Time, enter the pause time in milliseconds (1,000 ms = 1 s).
Sticky key This action allows the user to use the Shift-,Ctrl-,Alt- and Windows keys. If the user selects a cell once with this action, then the button is activated once. If the user selects this cell twice, the button remains active. If a selection is made a third time, the key is deactivated.
  1. In Key Change the color of the cell when sticky key is activated., choose Yes so the user can see whether sticky key is active or not.
Send to other computer This action allows the user to control another Windows device (device 2) with specified IP address, using actions from the Windows Control category on the Mind Express device (device 1).
  1. Install the Macro Server application on device 2, see Installing Macro Server.
  2. If Macro Server does not start up automatically, then open the application manually on device 2.
  3. In the Windows task bar, right-click the Macro Server icon > Info (if the Macro Server icon is not visible in the task bar, then first click ). The Macro Server info panel opens.
  4. Write down the IP address given (this changes when you change networks).
  5. On device 1, in the settings of the Send to other computer action in the Address field, enter the IP address you have written down.
  6. Choose OK.