Some Tips on Preparing Your Computer to run with JAWS
A. Microsoft Windows With JAWS.
B. Customizing Windows 98 in Control Panel for optimal use with JFW.
C. Optional Configuration for Speech Access with Word 2000.
D. Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys.
E. Customizing JFW for individual tastes.
A. Microsoft Windows With JAWS.
It is always suggested, that when using a Windows application with JFW, press the following key combinations to learn about the screen and your options.
1. Visit the JAWS Keyboard Manager and highlight the program file being used.
2. Insert+F1 to hear the type of control you are currently in.
3. Insert+h to get a listing of the hot keys that is known to the speech software.
4. Insert+w to hear a list of known Windows hot keys.
5. Insert+t to hear the title of the active child or application window
6. Insert+q to hear the macro set and the executable program being used
7. Insert+b will read the dialogue box in tab order
8. Insert+v will toggle through the three verbosity levels
9. Insert+f will tell the user the current font style being used
10. Insert+shift+down arrow reads the selected text
B. Customizing Windows 98 in Control Panel for optimal use with JFW.
Go to Control Panel by opening the Start Menu, then Settings, and then Control Panel.
1. Go to "Display" in the list view and press ENTER. Occasionally you may need to check how the computerís video display is currently set. This is a multi-level tab dialog box with 6 major pages, or tabs.
a. Background Tab ñ select wallpaper, bitmaps, etc.
b. Screen Saver Tab ñ I usually set to "none".
c. Appearance Tab ñ allows you to choose different color schemes.
d. Effects Tab ñ turn off, uncheck, "Animate Windows, menus, and lists."
e. Settings Tab ñ check resolution and colors.
2. "Sounds" in the list view. This allows you to set up sounds for various Windows events. [Frames Example later.]
3. Go to the menu item "View" with ALT+V.
a. Turn off "View as Web Page" if it is checked by pressing ENTER on it.
b. Turn off "Address Bar", if it is checked, by
pressing ENTER on it. Under the View menu, go to the Toolbars submenu and arrow down to find it.
c. Under the View menu, change from Icon view to
"Details view".
d. Under the View menu, go to Folder Options on the General Tab page.
1) Check the "custom, based on the settings you choose" radio button.
2) Go to "Settings" button with an ALT+S and make changes as follows:
- Use Windows classic desktop.
- Open each folder in the same window.
e. Go to the View Tab by pressing CTRL+TAB and press the TAB key until you land in the Tree View list called the "Advanced Settings" section.
1) I prefer to set "display the full path in the title bar" to OFF.
2) In the "hidden files" section, I prefer to set
"Show all files" to ON.
3) I prefer to have "hide file extensions for known file types" set to OFF.
4) Press TAB to the Folder Views section "like current folder" button and activate it by pressing the spacebar.
5) Press ALT+A to apply the changes.
6) Press TAB to go to the OK button and press enter to close this dialog box and save the changes.
C. Optional Configuration for Speech Access with Word 2000.
1. Remove Office Assistant.
2. Turn Off Personalized Menus.
3. Turn Off Capitalize First Letter of Sentences and Replace Text as You Type.
4. Turn Off Automatic Bulleted Lists and Automatic Numbered Lists.
1. Remove Office Assistant (paperclip graphic) (suggested)
Note: If JFW 3.5 is installed after Word, the paper clip will be removed.
Activate Menu Bar by pressing Alt
Press Ctrl Tab to move to Formatting Toolbar
Press Right Arrow until Microsoft Help Button is highlighted
Press Enter to Activate
Press Alt O for Options
Press Alt U to uncheck Use the Office Assistant
Press Enter for OK
2. Turn Off Personalized Menus (suggested)
Select Tools (Alt T)
Select Customize (C)
Confirm you are at the Options Tab
Uncheck Menus show recently used commands first (Alt N)
Press Enter for OK
3. Turn Off Capitalize First Letter of Sentences and Replace Text as You Type.
Select Tools (Alt T)
Select AutoCorrect (A)
Select AutoCorrect Tab (Default)
Select Capitalize First Letter of Sentences (8 tabs)
Press Spacebar to uncheck Capitalize First Letter of Sentences
Select Replace Text as you Type (3 tabs)
Press Spacebar to uncheck Replace Text as you Type
Press Enter for OK
4. Turn Off Automatic Bulleted Lists and Automatic Numbered Lists.
Select Tools (Alt T)
Select AutoCorrect (A)
Select AutoFormat As You Type (Ctrl Tab)
Select Automatic bulleted lists (3 tabs)
Press Spacebar to uncheck Automatic bulleted lists
Select Automatic numbered lists (1 tab)
Press Spacebar to uncheck Automatic numbered lists
Press Enter for OK
D. Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys.
Below is a list of shortcut keys that are valid for Microsoft Word. Some of these keys may be useful in other applications.
Control A: Select All
Control Shift A: Create All Capital Letters
Control B: Bold
Control C: Copy to Clipboard
Control D: Font (size) Dialogue Box
Control E: Center Line (return to left margin Control L)
Control F: Find
Control G: Go to (page) Dialogue Box
Control H: Replace Dialogue Box
Control I: Italics
Control J: Justify (full)
Control K: Start AutoFormat
Control Shift K: Create smaller capital letters
Control L: Left Justify
Control M: Temporary Left Margin (return to default left margin Shift Control M)
Control N: New Document
Control O: Open a Document
Control P: Print
Control Q: Remove Paragraph Formatting Created by Shortcut Keys
Control R: Right Justify
Control S: Save Document
Control T: Hanging Indent (return to default margins Shift Control T)
Control U: Underline
Control V: Paste
Control W: close current document
Control X: Cut
Control Y: Retypes text after Control T was initiated
Control Z: Undo Last Action
Control Shift Z: Undo formatting commands
Control Enter: Page Break
Delete Key: Deletes character to the right of the cursor
Backspace: Deletes character to the left of the cursor
Control Delete: deletes word at cursor
Control Backspace: deletes word to the left of the cursor
E. Customizing JFW for individual tastes.
1. Changes made by going into the JFW menus.
a. Set "Run JAWS First" in the JFW FILE menu by pressing enter on this item.
b. Set "Run JAWS from System Tray" in the JFW FILE menu by pressing enter on this item. This takes the JFW program out of the "ALT+TAB" loop.
c. Set punctuation to "most or some" by going to the JFW
VOICES menu, press enter on Global, and then press TAB to go to the "Punctuation" combo box. Up or down arrow to the choice desired and press Enter. Note, for proof reading or writing technical documents, you would want punctuation set to "all".
d. Set the voice rate and pitch to the individual userís preferences. NOTE: In versions of JAWS from 3.5 backwards, if you change the person here, under "Global" then you will change all of your voices to the same voice. It would be better to only change the rate, pitch, and the punctuation under the "Global" settings. Make changes to the different voices by going down further in the Voices menu, where you will find choices for JAWS cursor voice, Keyboard voice, PC cursor voice, and Message voice.
2. Changes made by going into the JFW Configuration Manager. NOTE: Most people should make these changes to the DEFAULT.JCF file. When you first go into Configuration Manager, it will think you are trying to make changes only to the specific application that is running at the time you press INSERT+F2. To make changes to the Default files, press CONTROL+SHIFT+D. If you prefer to make changes to only one program, go to that program and then press INSERT+F2 and pay attention to the title bar of configuration manager, which should say the executable name of the program you will be making changes for.
a. Set "graphic verbosity" in configuration manager to
"Labeled graphics". This will make for cleaner reading, as JFW will not announce graphic numbers for unlabeled graphics. If you are trying to label graphics that have not yet been labeled, however, you should set this setting to "all graphics". INS+F2 brings up the list of managers. Choose Configuration Manager/Set Items/Graphics and Symbols/Graphic Verbosity to change.
b. Read by "sentence" instead of "line". Makes for more natural reading by JFW. Press INS+F2 for the list of managers. Choose Configuration Manager/Set Options/Text Processing/Say All section. Change radio button to "sentence" instead of "line".
c. Numeric Date Processing. Choose Configuration Manager/Set Options/Text Processing and press TAB until you land in the "Numeric Date Processing" area. Use your arrow keys to change the radio button to "some translation". This will make dates such as 02/17/00 speak as "February seventeenth, 2000".
d. Speak Dollars. In the same section as above, press TAB until you land on the check box for "Speak Dollars". Press the spacebar to check this item. This will result in numbers with a dollar sign such as $1.25 being spoken as "one dollar and 25 cents".
e. Grade 2 Braille. If you have a refreshable Braille display attached to your computer, you may want it to show Grade 2 Braille. Go into the Configuration Manager/Set Options/Braille Options dialog box and press TAB until you land on the checkbox called "Grade Two Enable Translator", which by default is NOT checked. Press the spacebar to check this and enable Grade 2 translation.
f. Save the file for the configuration manager and close it with ALT+F4.
3. Learn how to reset JFW to the factory defaults in case someone gets things totally out of whack. Open the DEFAULT Configuration Manager, and "Reset to factory defaults" is just to the right of "Set Options" in the menu bar.