Constraining the Mouse Pointer - Zoomtext V10 - Keyboard

Constraining Mouse Movement in Zoomtext V10

Something I have always found irritating when working with text in a magnified environment is the free movement of the mouse. Often I want to move with the mouse along a straight X or Y axis but, instead of a straight line path, the free roam of the mouse tends to lead me all over the place. Nowhere is this more apparent than when I open a drop down menu, that meandering effect can be really frustrating!

Thankfully, Zoomtext has a checkbox setting that allows me to avoid this and force the mouse pointer into a straight line. This is how it works:

1. Switch focus to the Zoomtext window. You can use the keystroke of CONTROL SHIFT U to move directly to the Zoomtext user interface.
2. Tap the ALT key to move to the main Menu Bar and navigate to the Settings menu.
3. Open the Settings menu with the DOWN ARROW or ENTER key.
4. With the Settings menu open, press the DOWN ARROW to move to the Mouse... item.
5. Focus will now be on the Mouse page of the Navigation Settings dialog box. Press the TAB key to move to the checkbox labelled "Hold the SHIFT key to move only horizontally or vertically". Press the SPACEBAR to check this checkbox.
6. Press the TAB key to move to the OK button and press the SPACEBAR to confirm.

Now that the setting is active it is time to test it out! Open a menu for example then hold the SHIFT key down before you start to navigate. Notice how the mouse pointer moves in a rigid vertical line for as long as you hold the SHIFT key - instead of it meandering around unrestricted when you try to navigate. Pretty neat!

Excel 2007 - Keystrokes - Applying a Basic Filter

Applying a One Column Single Match Filter in Excel Using Keystrokes

We normally associate Excel spreadsheets with columns and rows of numerical data but for a lot of people Excel is used to capture other text-based stuff, such as the output from surveys or even contact information. Now, I don't want to open the can of worms argument about whether a single Excel spreadsheet is the right or wrong place to store data like that but, the fact is, it happens a lot. And when you collate data like this in Excel, you're really going to want to know at least a little bit about filtering.

What is a Filter?

You'll probably hear about sorting and filtering at some point if you go anywhere near Excel. The basic difference between the two is that while sorting will reorder your data, filtering can actually hide data that doesn't meet the conditions you've specified. So, filtering is much more useful when you need to narrow down your data and work on a smaller set of information.

Let's run through an example but first we need to have some data to work with. I am going to use the following details in Excel and I have popped a few of the cell references in the heading cells so you can understand where the data sits in the spreadsheet. However, there really isn't much choice here because, when you are working with data lists, your heading row should always be in row 1, with your data starting immediately in row 2.

Have a bash at recreating my example data below in Excel. Alternatively, choose one of your own files or create your own set of data to use:

Surname (A1)	City (B1)	Type (C1)	Books (D1)	Reference (E1)
Wilson (A2)	Birmingham (B2)	Mail (C2)	2 (D2)	A1 (E2)
Smith (A3)	Glasgow (B3)	Email (C3)	5 (D3)	A3 (E3)
Jordan	London	Mail	1	A1
Franks	Glasgow	Email	4	A2
Dalton	London	Mail	2	A3
James	Birmingham	Email	5	A2
Barton	London	Mail	4	A3
Fulton	Glasgow	Email	3	A2
Harris	Birmingham	Mail	4	A1
Simons	Newcastle	Mail	3	A1
Ferris	Birmingham	Email	5	A2
Taylor	Newcastle	Email	4	A3
Francis	Glasgow	Mail	2	A2

Now that we have our data let's play with some filters in Excel.

Applying a One Column Single Match Filter in Excel

As I mentioned earlier, the whole point behind filtering is to hide the data that doesn't match the specific criteria you have set. In our example data table, I might want to filter out all of the data that doesn't match a specific city, or match a specific mail type or even filter out the Book column where the values are less than a specific amount. Let's go through applying a filter using the City column:

1. Tap the ALT key to move the focus to the upper ribbon in Excel.
2. ARROW RIGHT to the Data tab then DOWN ARROW to the lower ribbon.
3. Press the TAB key to move focus eventually into the Sort and Filter Toolbar. Keep pressing TAB until you have focus on the Filter button, which will currently be inactive.
4. With focus on the Filter button, press the SPACEBAR to activate it.

NOTE: When you activate the Filter button it places a small clickable arrow graphic in the bottom right corner of each cell in the title row. This is a small visual indication that the filter feature is currently active and these drop down menus can be accessed for each cell using ALT DOWN ARROW.

5. When you apply the Filter feature, the keyboard focus will return to the worksheet area. Use the ARROW KEYS as necessary to move to cell B1 and open the drop down menu for the title cell using ALT DOWN ARROW.
6. DOWN ARROW through the drop down menu and you will eventually arrive at a tree view object labelled Select All, which will be checked. Use your SPACEBAR to uncheck this item and, when you do this, all the other checkboxes in the tree view are automatically unchecked too.
7. Now DOWN ARROW again and move through the other options - notice how all of the individual Cities are available for you to choose from.
8. Pick a city by tapping your SPACEBAR to check the relevant box.
9. After you have checked one of the options then press the TAB key to move to the OK button and press the SPACEBAR to confirm.
10. Focus returns to the worksheet but this time you should notice some differences. If you are using a screenreader for example you will notice that the cell references suddenly make no sense and that is because a portion of the data is now hidden from view. Similarly, on visual read through of the data, a potentially huge chunk will now be missing. In my case, filtering on the one city, I only have two rows remaining in the Worksheet that match "Newcastle".

Well done! Your filter is set and active.

Turning the Filter Feature On and Off

Generally you have two options here, these are:

Turn the Filter Feature Off Completely

1. Tap the ALT key to move the focus to the upper ribbon in Excel.
2. ARROW RIGHT to the Data tab then DOWN ARROW to the lower ribbon.
3. Press the TAB key to move focus to the Filter button - which will be enabled - and press the SPACEBAR to deactivate it. The Filter feature is now completely disabled and your data is back to normal.

Leave the Filter Feature Active But Display All Data

1. Move to the cell column title that you are currently filtering by and access the drop down with ALT DOWN ARROW.
2. Keep pressing the DOWN ARROW until you have focus on the tree view section as before, specifically the Select All option. Use the SPACEBAR to check this.
3. With focus on the Select All checkbox, press the SPACEBAR to check it.
4. Press the TAB key to move focus to the OK button and press SPACEBAR again to confirm.
5. Focus will now return to your worksheet with all the data revealed again although the filter feature itself is still active.

So there you go, a one column, single match filter. In a future post we will take the filtering on a bit further and look at multiple columns, working with the filtered data in the worksheet and applying some custom text filters. Have fun!

Accessing Further Actions for Messages Posted in Facebook - VoiceOver

Facebook App: Opening the Actions Menu for a Message Post

A topic that crops up for many new users of the Facebook app on iOS is how to interact with a message post - such as how to edit or even delete a post you've just made.

Now, there are actually some different approaches you can take but the easiest and most common route to achieve these kinds of tasks is to use the Actions Menu. This is how it works:

1. Locate a message post that you have created in Facebook or, alternatively, post something to your timeline that you can use to play with.
2. Focus on this post using the ONE FINGER SCANNING technique or by SWIPING LEFT or RIGHT as necessary.
3. With the post in focus, use the TWO FINGER TAP gesture and you should hear VoiceOver say "alert, choose an action." This indicates that the main Action Menu is open.
4. SWIPE RIGHT and move through the options in the menu. Although the options will vary depending on context, you should find items such as: Like, Comment and More.
5. Focus on the More menu option and DOUBLE TAP to activate.
6. Focus will now move to the additional options allowing you to choose from further actions, such as Edit and Delete. Choose as necessary and you're done!

Remember that you can also use the main links for liking and commenting on a post if you find the Actions Menu tricky to use.

Have fun!

Abbreviations - JAWS V15 - Dictionary Manager

Expanding Abbreviations Using the JAWS Dictionary Manager

The language of the Web can often be a bewildering place, where sometimes obscure abbreviations litter the most seemingly normal of conversations. TBH and AFAIK PPL have their favourite slang terms and, FWIW, there is an expectation that others understand what is being said. For sure, these are the days of knowing your HTH from your IDK and your TYVM from your YOLO. LOL. (Okay, I'm sure you've got the message...)

The reality for many of us is very different! When it comes to reading text with JAWS, these kinds of abbreviations can often be a real PITA. And not just slang, the whole tech world vocabulary hangs on abbreviations. Thankfully though, we can use the Dictionary Manager to make things more palatable by expanding these often obscure abbreviations. Doing this means that when JAWS encounters an abbreviation - LOL for instance - the screenreader actually reads out "laugh out loud".

Before we can achieve this though, you need to supply the new phonetics for the Dictionary Manager. Let's run through how this is done now:

1. Open the Dictionary Manager using the keystroke of INSERT D. Alternatively, access the Dictionary Manager via the Run JAWS Manager listbox which you can launch via the keystroke of INSERT F2.
2. With the Dictionary Manager open, press CONTROL SHIFT D to open the main default JDF settings. While you can create individual dictionary files per application, it makes more sense to have the pronunciations all stored as defaults so they are used across all applications.
3. Use the TAB key to move around the main options in the dialog box, notice the Add button, Delete button and the main treeview.
4. When you have finished exploring, activate the Add button by either focusing on it and using SPACEBAR or using the hotkey of ALT A.
5. Focus now moves to the Actual Word edit field in the Add Dictionary Definition dialog box. This is where you type in the word that requires a different pronunciation. In my case, I want to change how JAWS reads the Web slang AFAIK, so I type afaik into the edit field and press TAB to move on.
6. Focus now moves to the Replacement Word edit field and in here I type in the full phonetic text for AFAIK which is As Far As I Know. Remember that this field is concerned with appropriate phonetics - not to be confused with correct spelling - so, use capital letters and additional letters to create a correct pronunciation. For example, with AFAIK I could also type the replacement words as follows: As Far As I No.
7. From the Replacement Word edit field press the TAB key to move all the way to the Applies To Language combo box - ignore the different Play Sound options for now, we will revisit and play with those in a future post. In the Applies To language combo box make sure it is set to the default of "All Languages."
8. Press TAB once more to move focus to the Speak Replacement Word Using Language combo box and check that this is set to Default.
9. Press TAB again and move past the Case Sensitive checkbox - leave this unchecked - to focus on the OK button. Press the SPACEBAR to confirm your entry and close the dialog box.
10. Focus will now return to the main Dictionary Manager dialog box so tap the ALT key and open the File menu. Press the DOWN ARROW until you hear Save and use ENTER to activate this. When you have saved the file, press ALT F4 to close the Dictionary Manager dialog box completely.

Now give it a bash! Open a new document in MS Word and type some text in that contains AFAIK. On read through, JAWS will now repeat your new text and not simply read a string of letters!

This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the Dictionary Manager is capable of but I hope it is enough to get you experimenting!

Have fun!

For more information on JAWS visit: www.freedomscientific.com

Autotext - Building Blocks - NVDA - Keyboard - Office 2007

Creating a Simple Text Building Block in MS Word 2007

One of my favourite all-time features in MS Word is autotext and I use it extensively to store chunks of text I need to repeat in my documents. Using autotext means that I can avoid having to either manually type in all the text again from scratch (and redo any necessary formatting) or avoid the other manual option of locating the text in another document and then copying pasting into the new one. In short, autotext saves me a fair bit of time and lets me avoid a few hassles - which is always good.

In Word 2007 and above the older standalone autotext feature now finds residence in the general Quick Parts functionality available via the Insert tab. Let's run through a basic example here such as a standard sign-off with a few contact details so that you can get a feel for how this feature works. I've got NVDA running as I do this but any reasonably competent modern screenreader should be fine with this:

Save Text as an Autotext Building Block

First thing we need to do is get some content in the document so launch MS Word 2007 then do the following:

1. Press ENTER a couple of times to introduce two blank paragraphs into the document.
2. Now imagine that you are creating a standard signing-off section that contains a few pieces of contact information - though whether you make this real or fictitious is entirely up to you. Type in details such as: your name, job title, telephone number and an example web address. I have typed in the following example text:
Mr P. K. Small
Senior Gobstopper Chef
Telephone: 566 878787
URL: http://www.funnysmilesweets.com

3. Format the text as necessary: change the fonts, change the size of some of the text, change the style of the text, change the alignments and so on. In my example I have kept everything left-aligned and the same size but I have applied some "bold" styling to my name text.
4. Carefully select all of the text in the page using the SHIFT and ARROW KEY method. Remember that you can also include the two blank paragraphs if you wish.
5. Check your selection if necessary. Within NVDA use INSERT SHIFT UP ARROW to check a selection, with JAWS use INSERT SHIFT DOWN ARROW).
6. When you have confirmed the selection, press ALT F3. Focus will move to the Name: edit field in the Create New Building Block dialog box.

7. The Name edit field is important. Whatever you input here is the name you will type into your document when you need to recall the autotext. So, make the name something concise and meaningful - not a cryptic name (you may forget it) or a long, long string of text either (the whole point of autotext is to save time...) In my example, I have changed the default text supplied in favour of a more appropriate name: "signoff".
8. Pressing TAB from the Name edit field moves the focus to the Gallery combo box. A gallery is a particular storage category for the building block you are creating - in this case here we are creating autotext so it makes the most sense to save the text in that specific gallery.
9. The next field is labelled Category and you have the option here of using the supplied category of General or creating your own category. In this example, the General category is fine so ensure this is selected and TAB on to the next field.
10. The Description multi line edit field is next. Although this is optional it is useful to have some level of description in here for the text you are storing, especially if you plan on creating a lot of these building blocks.
11. Pressing TAB once more moves the focus to the Save In: combo box. Here you have two main options for where you want your new autotext to be physically stored. In most cases, the default setting of Building Blocks.dotx should be fine although you may want to store everything in your Normal.dotm template. Generally though I advise against this as it creates a single point of failure - your Normal template tends to be where you have all your Style and macro information embedded as well.
12. Pressing TAB moves the focus to the final field in the dialog box labelled Options. This combo box contains a choice of three items that determine how your autotext is pasted back into the document. The available options are:
    • Insert Content Only
    • Insert Content in its Own Paragraph
    • Insert Content in its Own Page
    Choose as necessary then TAB to the OK button and press SPACEBAR. Your autotext is ready to roll!

Accessing and Pasting Your Autotext

Now that you have some custom autotext stored and ready to use, let's give it a test run in a new document:

1. Create a new document in MS Word.
2. Type in a few sentences and move to a blank line.
3. Type in the first few letters of the name of the autotext you have just created. (In my example the name I supplied was "signoff" - so I type signoff into the page.)
4. Immediately after you have typed your chosen autotext name - or the first few letters of it - press the F3 key.
5. When you tap F3, providing the name of your autotext is correctly recognised, you should find that the full stored autotext is automatically inserted at the cursor.
6. Check your autotext and correct any line spacing if necessary. Notice that the autotext is inserted based on the settings you supplied in the Options combo box - so if you chose to insert the text in a new page you should now have a two page document.
7. That's all there is to it! How cool is that? Now you might want to explore whether putting your galleries in the quick access toolbar is a good idea...

That's it for now - have fun!

For more information on NVDA please visit: www.nvaccess.org