Drag and Drop - Dragon Naturally Speaking V12 - Speech Input

Drag and Drop Using Dragon Naturally Speaking

As this is blog post number 50, I want to write about something that is fittingly simple and funky. So, today I'm going to depart from the usual magnification and speech output fun and pass the baton over instead to the increasingly fashionable speech input zone, specifically the mighty Dragon Naturally Speaking. In this post I'm going to cover how you move objects around your Desktop using Dragon's mouse commands - while it sounds a bit arcane, it's not as tricky as you might imagine.

Understanding the Mousegrid

Dragon has a whole bunch of different voice commands that allow you to control the mouse and I will be visiting those in a future post. However, the drag and drop approach I want to discuss here, relies on the Dragon "mousegrid" feature.

What is the mousegrid? Well, while you can move the mouse pointer around by itself in Dragon, this does get pretty tedious as you wait on the pointer travelling to the right location. Sure, you can make it travel a bit faster and so on but, for any mouse user of old, this process will feel excruciatingly restrictive. If you don't believe me, try using these manual mouse move commands to do everything. Take it from me, it won't take long before that frustration starts to kick in...

The solution to this frustration is to use the mousegrid option, this is where Dragon splits the screen into a numbered 3 x 3 grid. The idea is that you specify a number, with Dragon then applying a further smaller 3 x 3 grids, which you then use to specify another number and so on. Eventually, the mousegrid is so small the mouse pointer is pointing at one tiny area of the screen - which is, hopefully, over the object you need to "click" on!

The mousegrid voice command comes in two flavours, these are:

• Say "MOUSEGRID" - this command applies a mouse grid to the whole screen.
• Say "MOUSEGRID WINDOW" - this command applies a mousegrid but only to the currently active window.

Each of these mousegrid options can also be turned on and off using the following voice commands:

• To scrub the last mousegrid command use "UNDO THAT"
• To close the mousegrid mode completely, use "CANCEL"

Let's run through a typical mousegrid example, this is me using this approach to activate the Bold command in MS Word 2007:

1. Say "MOUSEGRID WINDOW"
2. Say "1"
3. Say "2"
4. Say "7"
5. Say "LEFT CLICK"

Pretty neat isn't it? You can even roll the number references together more, saying "MOUSEGRID WINDOW 1 2 7 LEFT CLICK". Try it out!

Mousegrid Drag and Drop

Okay, now that we've played with the mousegrid option a little bit, let's cut to the chase and walk through moving an icon from one position on the Desktop to another. The icon I am moving is in the middle left of the screen and I am moving it to the bottom right of the screen. Here goes:

1. Say "MINIMISE ALL WINDOWS"
2. With focus on the Desktop now, say "MOUSEGRID".
3. Say "4 1 6 1"
4. Say "MARK"
5. Say "MOUSEGRID"
6. Say "9 6"
7. Say "DRAG"
8. Say "STOP LISTENING"

So the JPG image icon that I had placed on the left hand side of my Desktop has now been dragged over to the bottom right of the Desktop.

If at any point you lose your way with the voice commands remember to use either "UNDO THAT" to go back a step or "CANCEL" to switch the mode off completely.

Drag and Drop with Dragon: Moving an Email to a Folder in Outlook

Let's go through another example to really reinforce the voice command steps. This time I am in Outlook 2007 and I am going to use the MOUSEGRID command to move an email from my Inbox list view to a folder in the Navigation Pane on the left-hand side of the program interface. With focus in my Inbox, I approach this scenario as follows:

1. Say "MOUSEGRID WINDOW".
2. Say "2"
3. Say "4"
4. Say "5"
5. Say "2"
6. Say "MARK"
7. Say "MOUSEGRID WINDOW".
8. Say "4"
9. Say "7"
10. Say "8"
11. Say "3"
12. Say "DRAG"
13. Say "GO TO SLEEP"

And that's it! Of course there are shortcuts you can take here - you might want to skip the mousegrid completely for certain Dragon mouse control options. But, while using the mousegrid is not always the fastest option, it does make for a safe and secure to move things around.

Have fun and here's to the next 50 posts!!!

Using the Virtual Ribbon in MS Word 2007 - JAWS

Applying and Understanding the JAWS Virtual Ribbon

The ribbon-style interface is kind of old hat now but I'm pretty sure that there are more than a few of you out there who are still grappling with it. In addition, I'm sure there will be a few of you who may have heard of the JAWS virtual ribbon a while back but have never given it a go, opting instead to soldier on stoically with the default ribbon interface. Well, in this post I'm going to refresh on some of this discussion, walk through the virtual ribbon and then probably tell you why you may not want to use it any more...

Introduced in JAWS 12, the virtual ribbon was designed to make navigation of the new so-called "ribbon" interface that we all know and love a more familiar experience. I'm sure we can all think of at least one horror show moment where more time than necessary was wasted trying to locate a specific option in MS Word. But this wasn't the only problem we faced, what was really frustrating for a lot of speech users was that the ribbon didn't appear to make any navigational sense at all. The whole relationship between tabs, groups and commands just seemed hopelessly arbitrary with speech and keyboard.

A lot of the problem was due to the lack of what I call "meaningful restriction" - in that there really wasn't much of it in the ribbon and, to be fair, there still isn't. Put simply, having the reassurance of boundaries while you navigate allows you to build meaning from your route. This tends to be a series of escalating steps with appropriate choices, progressively fewer, at each point. The ribbon though just felt like a jumble of commands and control types lashed together. If you were lucky, you could get to the command you needed eventually, but the necessary steps were somewhere between "hit TAB 20 times" or "hit TAB 35 times."

The virtual ribbon came along to provide a bit more meaning for PC using speech users who were flummoxed by this new interface. It aimed to do this mainly by introducing a restriction at the group level, no longer could you just step off the upper ribbon tabs and be focused straight on a specific command in the lower ribbon. No, the virtual ribbon forced a focus on to the group level first and then, after the correct group was in focus, you could choose to move through the commands in that group only. The latter was an important point; it stopped you overshooting a command which would often result in you then navigating halfway across the entire program.

To really understand the differences here, let's compare and contrast the steps you take in the vanilla and virtual ribbon approaches. The scenario here is a common one, moving to the Insert tab and navigating to the Insert Page Number command. For the time being, just read through each example and pay attention to the differences.

Example 1: Navigating to Insert Page Number without the Virtual Ribbon

1. Tap the ALT key to the move to the upper ribbon in MS Word.
2. ARROW RIGHT or LEFT and focus on the Insert tab.
3. Use the DOWN ARROW to move to the lower ribbon, then use the TAB key to move through the commands.
4. Keep using the TAB key to move all the way along the lower ribbon. Eventually, you will have focus on the Page Number command, in the Header and Footer Group box.
5. With focus on the correct command, use the SPACEBAR to open the drop down menu.

Example 2: Navigating to Insert Page Number using the Virtual Ribbon

1. Use ALT to move to the upper ribbon, JAWS will indicate that "virtual ribbons" are on.
2. ARROW RIGHT or LEFT and focus on the Insert tab.
3. Use the DOWN ARROW to move to the lower ribbon, focus will be in the Pages group. JAWS will indicate that you have focus on the "Pages submenu".
4. Press the TAB key to move through the other formal groups of commands, which JAWS announces as "Submenus".
5. With focus on the "Header and Footer submenu", use the RIGHT ARROW to open the submenu and then DOWN ARROW to move through all the commands. Notice that you loop back to the first command in the submenu as you might expect - you are restricted to navigating through the commands in tha specific group.
6. Use the ESCAPE key three times to leave the ribbon area and return to your document.

Notice the major differences between the two routes, with the virtual ribbon on, JAWS interprets the group structure as submenu's and, just as in a submenu, your focus is restricted to the menu choices. By contrast, with the virtual ribbon off, it's more a case of getting to the right tab in the upper ribbon and then moving through the lower ribbon however many times it takes to find the right command.

Okay, so that's all the theory! But, the best way to establish whether something is going to work for you or not, is to try it out. Before you do that however, you need to switch the JAWS virtual ribbon mode on if it isn't already.

Toggling the Virtual Cursor On and Off

The virtual ribbon is a setting you can check or uncheck in the default JAWS settings file. If you try and activate this feature in the Word or Excel specific settings file you'll hear a message reminding you that the virtual ribbon option is a default file only choice. So, if you were thinking that you could have the virtual ribbon on in MS Word but not in MS Excel think again! Anyway, let's go through the process:

1. Use INSERT F2 to open the Run JAWS Manager list box.
2. Tap the letter S key until you have focus on the Settings Centre option and press ENTER.
3. The JAWS Settings Centre dialogue box opens with focus in a search edit field. The first thing to do here is use CONTROL SHIFT D, this will load in the Default JAWS settings file. (If you don't do this, JAWS will remind you to make the change as you will be unable to activate the virtual ribbon option otherwise.)
4. With the default settings file loaded in, move to the search field. (Note that if you ever need to move to this search box directly you can use the keystroke of CONTROL E.) With focus in the search field, type: virtual ribbon.
5. Use the DOWN ARROW to move to the single result. Listen to whether JAWS indicates that the "Use Virtual Ribbon Menu" option is checked or not. Use the SPACEBAR at this point to check or uncheck the option as necessary and INSERT UP ARROW to confirm the setting.
6. Press the TAB key to move to the OK button and use SPACEBAR to activate it.

An easy way to check if you have the virtual ribbon running or not is to simply move to the upper ribbon and listen to the feedback. Without the virtual cursor running, JAWS will indicate "upper ribbon" when you use the ALT key. But, with the virtual ribbon setting active, JAWS will instead indicate "virtual ribbons".

Another Virtual Ribbon Example: Page Orientation

To wrap up the work here I want to run through another example with the virtual ribbon running so that you really get a feel for how it is meant to work. This time around we are going to the Orientation command in the Page Layout tab:

1. Press the ALT key to move to the upper ribbon, JAWS indicates "virtual ribbons".
2. Use LEFT and RIGHT ARROW as necessary to focus on the Page Layout ribbon tab.
3. Use the DOWN ARROW to move to the lower ribbon. JAWS will indicate that you have focus in the "Themes submenu".
4. Use the TAB key to move focus to the next group/submenu, JAWS will indicate "Page Setup submenu".
5. Use the RIGHT ARROW to open this submenu and press DOWN ARROW to navigate to the Orientation drop down button.
6. Activate the button with SPACEBAR and DOWN ARROW through the two listbox choices, these are: Portrait, Landscape. Activate either with the ENTER key, focus will return to the document. Alternatively, press the ESCAPE key several times to exit without doing anything.

I hope that in this post I have managed to communicate the fundamental differences between the two approaches. The virtual ribbon is the more guided approach and you may find that it suits the way you work. The virtual ribbon certainly makes more sense if you are a relatively new recruit to the ribbon interface. However, my own opinion is that the virtual ribbon is not necessarily the best way to go for everyone.

Why do I say this? Well, in Office 2007 where you had much more restriction on how you could customise the ribbon, the virtual ribbon made a lot of sense - especially as people were getting over the shock of the new interface. But by the time of Office 2010, with its ability to hide the default ribbon and create your own tabs, the purpose of the virtual ribbon seemed already under siege. The point is this: if you are creating your own ribbon tabs and groups, then having the virtual ribbon active might actually slow things down for you.

That said, for all the customisation power in Office 2010 and above, I know very few people who are making use of it. So, in that sense, the virtual ribbon is still an option. The best thing is to try it out for a while and see how you get on. (But I'll bet you'll soon return to spamming the TAB key fifty times to get to your ribbon commands...)

Have fun!

Pass Through Keys - Zoomtext - JAWS -

Using the Pass Through Keys in Zoomtext and JAWS

If you are using a magnifier or a screenreader regularly, sooner or later, you are going to discover a keystroke conflict. This is when the access tech layer intercepts the keys that you are really trying to send through to the underlying application you are working in.

Now while it is possible to remap hotkeys this can be a tricky operation because, in correcting one keystroke, you may unwittingly create another conflict. Or, you may end up having to create a keystroke combination that requires such deft finger acrobatics that it becomes a real pain to use. But, instead of remapping keystrokes, a simpler option is to use the built-in pass through keys.

Using a pass through feature does mean you create a bit of extra work for yourself, in that you have another keystroke to use first, but it might save you any potential remapping hassles. To find out about whether the AT you are running actually has a pass through key feature, check the built-in Help system and try it out if it does.

For all you Zoomtext and JAWS users out there, let's go through the keystrokes you need here:

• JAWS: INSERT 3
• Zoomtext: ALT PAUSE

So, if you are using Zoomtext and trying to use a keystroke in another application, you use the pass through key first (ALT PAUSE) then use the keystroke that is conflicting. That second keystroke, because you used the pass through key, will now be "passed through" to the underlying application - your AT will be strictly hands-off.

Note that the pass through keystroke will only work for the keystroke you use immediately - if you happen to mess it up you'll have to use the pass through key again.

Until next time... now, where exactly is the Pause key again...

Linking Worksheets - Excel 2007 - Keyboard

Creating a Summary Sheet in MS Excel 2007

A fairly common task in Excel is to create a worksheet that pulls in data from other worksheets in the same workbook. For example, your workbook may have one sheet for each month with a final worksheet used to summarise values across the whole twelve months.

If you are one of those brave souls that enjoys building your formulae manually, how you deal with this kind of task generally depends on how well organised your data is - especially whether the values you require occupy the same cell across each worksheet. To understand how to tackle some of this, let's run through some examples. First though,we need some data...

Creating the Example Data in Excel

I'm using MS Excel 2007 here so, if you are using something different, you may need to adjust some of the steps:

1. Open MS Excel 2007, by default you will be focused in a new workbook with the standard three worksheets already open. You can move between each worksheet using the keystrokes of CONTROL PAGE DOWN and CONTROL PAGE UP.
2. Focus on sheet one and move the cursor to cell A1. (In any worksheet remember that the cursor is moved using the ARROW KEYS while you move to a specific cell with CONTROL G.)
3. In cell A1, type January then press ENTER to automatically move to cell A2. Type in a number here and press ENTER again to move to cell A3. Repeat the process a few times, so that you have a bunch of figures in a few of the cells in column A. I have chosen to populate cells A2 on to cell A6.
4. Use ALT to move to the upper ribbon. Put focus on the Home tab if it isn't already then DOWN ARROW to the lower ribbon. Press TAB to move all the way along to the Format option in the Cells Group Box.
5. With focus on the Format option use the SPACEBAR to open the menu. ARROW DOWN to the Rename Sheet option and press SPACEBAR to confirm.
6. Type in the new name - I chose January for mine - and press ENTER to finish.
7. Now use CONTROL PAGE DOWN to move to the second worksheet and repeat the process, but this time around replace January with February.
8. With the worksheet for February complete, move to the final sheet - this will be the summary sheet. With that in mind, label the worksheet "Summary".
9. When you have finished you should have a three sheet workbook. Sheet 1 is titled January, with a heading in cell A1 and, directly underneath that, a few cells with some numbers. Sheet 2 is similar, except it is titled and headed up for February. Sheet 3 is titled Summary and should be blank.
10. With all that in place make sure the workbook is saved. Then focus back into cell A1 in the third worksheet.

Referencing a Single Cell Value in a Different Worksheet

Sometimes you only need to pull a value into the spreadsheet from a specific cell in a different worksheet. In this case you would use the following:

=Sheet_Name!Cell_Reference (equals sign, sheet name, exclamation mark, cell reference)

Okay, try inputting the following examples to get some confidence building the formula manually:

=January!A2
=February!A3

In the first example, what you should find is that the value in cell A2 on the January worksheet is pulled through to the cell in worksheet three. The second example will return the value in cell A3 in the February worksheet. Use the data you have created to experiment with another few examples of your own - remember that you can easily delete any cell content using the DELETE key.

Creating a Same Cell Summary Total

Expanding on the above you can easily create summary totals across your group of worksheets by calling on the SUM function. If you have anything in cell A2 on the Summary sheet delete it first then input the following to test it out - the formula should add up the values that exist in cell A2 across the two worksheets:

=SUM(January:February!A2)

Notice with this formula you define the range across the worksheets first and then, after the exclamation mark separator, define the specific cell on each worksheet you require the sum of.

This technique is commonly used in workbooks that have one sheet for each month. For example, this formula =SUM(January:December!A2) will add all of the values in each A2 cell across the January to December worksheets. So, mental note to self, make sure you design your worksheets consistently because using a range with the SUM function makes things a lot easier!

Creating a Different Cell Summary Total

But what if you need to total values that aren't located in the same cell across your worksheets? In this case, things do become a little bit more inelegant and the best way to demonstrate this is with a fitting example using our data. Try this for size:

=SUM(January!A2,January!A4,January!A5,February!A2,February!A3)

Nothing special going on there, it is essentially just one long list of the different cells across the different worksheets. Now, while it is valid and certainly does the job, the more you have to type in the more potential there is for typo's. However, if you have no other option...

It's a Wrap

Let's finish up here by going over the three approaches I've covered in this post one more time:

1. =January!A2 - Returns the specific value of cell A2 on the worksheet titled January.
2. =SUM(January:February!A2) - Gives the sum of the values in cell A2, across the range of worksheets titled January to February.
3. =SUM(January!A2,January!A4,January!A5,February!A2,February!A3) - Returns the sum of the specific cells listed, across the different worksheets indicated.

Now it is over to you, happy experimenting with those summary worksheets!

Reading a PDF in Adobe Reader - JAWS - PDF

Reading a PDF with JAWS

There's a bunch of subjects that always seem to crop up regularly in this field and chief among these has to be reading a PDF file using a screenreader. So, in this post, I'm going to walk through reading an accessible PDF using JAWS and explain a couple of the approaches I find useful. I'll be using Adobe Reader XI and JAWS V15 for this and I need to point out here that if you have different versions of the software your results may well be different to mine.

Now You Read It, Now You Don't

Before we begin though, you'll notice that I indicated the PDF file I am going to use is a generally accessible file. This is important to note because the bottom line - and a huge part of why the PDF is a perennial "hot potato" - is you can never be entirely sure what reading experience lies just ahead. There is an irony in this, because the whole aim of the format is to ensure a broadly similar experience across different endpoints. However, the continuing actual reality of the format, is a junkyard of historical workarounds, a raft of configuration and security implications and the downright too simple and too speedy ability for any user to create a PDF file that is, ultimately, pretty rank when it comes to accessibility. And that is a major grass roots PR issue that Adobe still struggles with although to be fair, Adobe have always provided the tools and information for making something that does generally work.

Anyway, I think I've said enough as I really don't want to bog this post down with this debate right now, I'm more than happy to leave it to everyone else to carry it on - and carry on it will! Suffice it to say, if you need a bit more background on these and related issues, you won't have to search hard on the Web. Also, if you want some formal guidance on best practice techniques when creating a PDF file then please have a read through of the information here: www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140408/pdf.html

If you want to follow my actions exactly here, the PDF file I used in writing this post is called Keyboard Shortcuts, downloaded from this page on the Ability Net website: www.abilitynet.org.uk/factsheet/keyboard-shortcuts

I saved my Keyboard Shortcuts PDF file down to my Desktop, this is how I go about opening it:

1. WINDOWS KEY D routes my focus to the Desktop area.
2. I tap letter K to move focus - eventually - to the Keyboard Shortcuts PDF file.
3. I press the application context menu key (SHIFT F10 does the same thing).
4. In the context menu, I navigate to the option called "Open with Adobe Reader XI" and press ENTER.
5. The Keyboard Shortcuts PDF now opens in the Adobe Reader program. I check this with the JAWS keystroke to read the title bar of the active window, INSERT T. When I do this, JAWS indicates: "Keyboard Shortcuts dot PDF dash Adobe Reader."
6. Okay, let's get started!

Getting More Information

Before you jump in and try to read any text in a PDF file, it's a good idea to always get a bit more information on the document content. At the very least it gives you a bit of a heads-up on the number of basic elements present and also reminds you about some of the keystrokes you can use. We can get at this information via the JAWS context help system:

1. With focus in the PDF file in Adobe Reader, use the keystroke of INSERT F1.
2. The virtual viewer opens and shows some element information for the currently loaded file. Navigate through the information in the virtual viewer using the ARROW KEYS as required.
3. When you have finished reading, use the ESCAPE key to close the virtual viewer and return focus to the file.

Note that the Keyboard Shortcuts PDF file I downloaded from the Ability Net website contains two level one headings and five level two headings. This is good information and I'll be making use of those headings shortly!

Reading a PDF

General rule of thumb with JAWS and a PDF file is this: treat the document like a web page. So, let's start with some basics before moving into a few other tips and tricks to speed things up:

1. When your PDF file opens in Adobe Reader, silence speech straight away using the CONTROL key.
2. I recommend grounding the cursor at the very beginning of the file by using the CONTROL HOME keystroke. (Note that you can also use CONTROL END to route the cursor to the end of the document if this is closer to the info you need to read.)
3. With the cursor routed at the top of the file, press the DOWN ARROW to move to the next line of text or other focusable element in the page.
4. If you want to have JAWS reading everything from the cursor on, use INSERT DOWN ARROW to run a JAWS say all. To stop this read through at any time, use the CONTROL key to silence speech.
5. You may also wish to manually move and read a paragraph at a time, in this case use the standard CONTROL DOWN ARROW and CONTROL UP ARROW keystrokes.
6. To read a word at a time, use the keystrokes of CONTROL RIGHT ARROW and CONTROL LEFT ARROW.
7. Finally, to move and read a character at a time, use the RIGHT and LEFT ARROW.

Moving Through The File

Treat the PDF file as you would any other HTML or Word file, many keystrokes you are already familiar with can be used here, such as:

• As mentioned previously, use CONTROL HOME and CONTROL END to move to the first and last pages respectively.
• Manually move between the pages in the file using CONTROL PAGE DOWN ARROW and CONTROL PAGE UP ARROW.

Moving to a Specific Page

If you need to go straight to a specific page in the file then test out the following:

1. Call up the Go To Page dialog box with CONTROL SHIFT N.
2. Type in the page number you need to move to and use ENTER to confirm.

Moving Between Headings

Earlier on I used the context help feature to inform me of the number of headings present in the active file, now I am going to use that information to move around the PDF file:

1. To move between all of the headings, regardless of level - use the quick keys of H, to go to the next heading, and SHIFT H to go back to the previous heading.

Additionally, as context help informed me that there are two level one headings and five level two headings, I can opt to move between the headings at those specific levels:

• Use the quick key of 1 and SHIFT 1 to move to the next and previous level 1 heading.
• Use the quick key of 2 and SHIFT 2 to move to the next and previous level 2 heading.

Copying and Pasting from the PDF into a Word 2007 Document

Copying text from a PDF is achieved in exactly the same way as copying text with the virtual cursor from a webpage. However, you need to be aware that in a standard copy and paste operation, the paste bit will copy the formatting of the selected text and not just the content. To avoid this situation, the best option is to use the Paste Special feature in MS Word. This is how you approach the task in Word 2007:

1. Move the cursor to the start of the text in the PDF file you want to copy. Remember to check your exact focus, so that you can be absolutely certain you have the right start point.
2. What you do next really depends on the text you are selecting. Remember those keystrokes from earlier on about how to move and read the text? Well, all you have to do now is add the SHIFT key to any of them. So, to select a paragraph, use CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW, to select a word use CONTROL SHIFT RIGHT ARROW and to select the next character SHIFT RIGHT ARROW.
3. Check the text you have selected using the JAWS keystroke of INSERT SHIFT DOWN ARROW. If you need to be character perfect with your highlighting, use INSERT SHIFT DOWN ARROW twice so that JAWS spells out your selection.
4. With the selection right, press CONTROL C.
5. If you are still not 100% sure of what you have in the windows clipboard, then use the JAWS home row technique to check it. With the text in the clipboard use INSERT SPACEBAR (you will hear a sharp tapping sound) then press letter C. The virtual viewer will open and you can move the cursor around to read the text in the clipboard. When you have checked everything, press ESCAPE to close the virtual viewer and return focus to your file.
6. Now open or switch to a document in MS Word (in my case it is Word 2007) and press the ALT key to move to the upper ribbon.
7. Ensure you have focus on the HOME tab in the upper ribbon and use the DOWN ARROW to switch to the lower ribbon. Focus will immediately be on the specific command you need there, the Paste split button.
8. Tap the SPACEBAR to launch the menu associated with the Paste split button and use the DOWN ARROW to locate the Paste Special... option in the drop-down menu. Press the ENTER key to launch the Paste Special dialog box.
9. Focus will be in a list of formatting choices, so now either use first letter navigation to move to the "unformatted text" option or use the UP and/or DOWN ARROW KEYS to highlight that item in the list.
10. When you have the "unformatted text" option in focus, press the ENTER key to perform the paste operation.
11. Focus will return to your Word document with the selection now pasted in. Importantly, the original formatting of the pasted content will no longer be present, instead the pasted text will be in the default normal style for the current document.
12. Remember that you can check the formatting of any current text in JAWS by using the keystroke of INSERT F.

Setting and Using Placemarkers

You can also set placemarkers in a PDF file. If you are familiar with using them in Internet Explorer then you can use the same approach here. Being able to set placemarkers can make longer PDF files considerably easier to navigate. Let's try it out:

1. In the PDF file, move to the location that you want to bookmark with a placeholder.
2. Use the keystroke of CONTROL SHIFT K to open the JAWS Placemarker dialog box.
3. Press the TAB key to move to the Add button and press the SPACEBAR. Alternatively, press ALT A to open the Add dialog box.
4. Input a distinct label for the placemarker and TAB to the Define for all pages on the current domain checkbox. If this is checked, tap the SPACEBAR to uncheck it and press TAB to move on again.
5. Focus will now be on the Anchor to text checkbox and, as before, ensure that the checkbox is clear. Press TAB to move on to the OK button and tap the SPACEBAR to confirm the operation - your placemarker is now created!
6. Focus will return to the PDF file enabling you to test it out straight away. Use CONTROL HOME to move focus to the beginning of the file and use the quick key of K to move to the next placemarker location. (To move to a previous placemarker use SHIFT K.)

Okay, I hope that there's a few new tips in there to get you working more efficiently with those sometimes troublesome PDF files. Remember though that not all PDF files are created equally, so if you are struggling to be able to read any of the file using JAWS, chances are it isn't that accessible.

At some point in the future I'll get a blog post together on creating accessible PDFs and also some of the configuration options in Adobe Reader to look out for. Until that time - have fun!

Twitter Accessibility Settings - iOS - VoiceOver

Configuring Accessibility Settings in the Twitter App with VoiceOver

The official Twitter app for iOS works pretty well when using the built-in screenreader VoiceOver. Partly, this is down to the lack of complexity around this particular flavour of social media itself, but it is also a result of the designers and developers at Twitter being a bit more switched on when it comes to making their app as inclusive as possible.

In this post I am going to walk through the specific options that you can find in the Accessibility area. While the app itself is generally okay by default, understanding some of the specific accessibility settings can further enhance the overall Twitter and VoiceOver experience. Let's get started!

Navigating to the Accessibility Settings

1. Launch the Twitter app from your home screen with a DOUBLE TAP.
2. Assuming the app is open and you are logged in correctly, locate the ME tab. On your iPhone, use the FINGER DRAG technique to explore the bottom, right hand part of the screen where the ME tab is located. If you are using an iPad then use the FINGER DRAG technique to locate the Me Tab along the left edge of the screen.
3. With focus on the Me tab use a DOUBLE TAP gesture to confirm and move focus there.
4. Ground your focus on the page by using a FINGER DRAG to locate the Me heading at the top middle of the screen.
5. Now SWIPE RIGHT to begin moving through the focusable objects in the Me tab page. You will pass the Search button, New Tweet button and so on, keep swiping until you have focus on the Settings button.
6. DOUBLE TAP the Settings button and focus will move to a list - the first item of which is the Edit Profile button. SWIPE RIGHT to focus on the Settings button then DOUBLE TAP.
7. Focus will now be on the heading in the Settings area, SWIPE RIGHT to move through all the other options until you have focus on Accessibility. DOUBLE TAP this option. You will now have focus on the Back button in the list of specific accessibility configuration options.

Toggling the Twitter Accessibility Options On and Off

Now that you have focus in the accessibility options, let's go through each one in the order they appear:

Pronounce # as "Hashtag"

If you are a Twitter convert already then you will know all about hashtags. However, for anyone else, a word or two of explanation might be in order.

What is a hashtag? A hashtag is a user-defined "keyword" of sorts that can be searched for by Twitter users (commonly known as "Twitterers" by the way) so they can show all of the tweets containing a particular keyword. Essentially, hashtags act as a kind of thematic glue across related tweets posted by different users. For example, the recent UK general election resulted in many hashtags. One of these was "#GE2015" and Twitter users could follow the chain of the tweet conversation by searching on that hashtag. As you can imagine, during the election, that was a lot of tweets and it meant that for quite a while the hashtag #GE2015 was "trending" - another term you may have heard being used!

The pronounce option determines whether VoiceOver reads each # symbol as "number" or "hashtag". So, using the earlier example of #GE2015, if you set the pronounce option to Off, VoiceOver will read Twitter hashtags like this: "number G E 2015." If you set the option to On, then VoiceOver states: "hashtag G E 2015." As the hashtag is such an important part of the Twitter culture, my advice to you is to activate this setting if it is currently off. You want VoiceOver reading the symbol as "hashtag" and not "number".

Toggle the option on and off using the standard DOUBLE TAP gesture.

Include Usernames in Timelines

This toggle on and off option determines whether VoiceOver reads the given name and the specific account or username when reading through tweets.

Okay, "what's the difference?" you might be thinking. Well, when you create your Twitter account you need to come up with a unique name for it. This unique name is your actual account name - what other users can refer to when they mention you in a tweet. Some example user names might be @RNIB or @actionforblind - notice the use of the @ symbol.

Alongside the user name, you also have a profile name that you can edit via your profile information. This name is a display name which is associated with, but not necessarily the same as, your user name.

The toggle option here then determines whether VoiceOver reads both the display name and the user account name every time in a tweet. Or, whether the display name is spoken and not the user name. As previous, use a DOUBLE TAP gesture to toggle the control on and off depending on what you prefer.

Read Shortened URLs

This toggle option determines how much of a short or long-form link is spoken on focus. When set to Off, all of the link is spoken and when set to On only the first part of the link is spoken. Clearly, activating this option will make the screen echo a bit less verbose as only the domain or first bit of any links is spoken on read through.

Again, you might want to switch this on to keep the screen echo lean, some of the short form links in particular are pretty cryptic anyway - they tend to just be a bunch of letters and numbers - so you're not necessarily missing a lot of quality info by choosing not to read them.

Magic Tap Action

The magic tap gesture (a DOUBLE FINGER DOUBLE TAP in case you were wondering!) is sometimes used in particular apps to give the user access to some wider functionality. This final setting in the menu determines the specific Twitter action that happens when you use the magic tap gesture and there are three actions you can choose from:

• None: This is the default action. So, when you DOUBLE FINGER DOUBLE TAP - nothing happens!
• Compose Tweet: Here the magic tap gesture launches the main "Compose a New Tweet" screen.
• Tweet Actions: With this set, the magic tap gesture will launch a "tweet actions" context menu. Depending on the tweet you have focused on, such a menu will consist of options such as: Reply, Favourite, Retweet and so on.

To change the options do the following:

1. DOUBLE TAP the "Magic Tap Action" option.
2. SWIPE RIGHT through the three items outlined above.
3. DOUBLE TAP the option you want to select.
4. SWIPE LEFT to the Back button and DOUBLE TAP.
5. In the Accessibility section, locate the Back button and DOUBLE TAP.
6. In the Settings section, locate the Done option after the Settings heading and DOUBLE TAP to confirm the changes.

My advice is to set your magic tap gesture to the tweet actions menu, this gives you fairly swift access to some important functions in Twitter.

And there we are - the main Accessibility settings options in the Twitter app! Through time I'm sure they may add a few more settings but, having said that, I don't think Twitter needs a huge of options here as it is relatively swift and simple in use.

Have fun exploring the options in the Twitter app and by the way, if you want to get in touch, find me here: @BarryACoates

Google Timer - JAWS

Using the Google Timer with JAWS V15

Something a little bit different today, how about setting and running a timer via Google search? Yes, you can actually do this and it saves you having to take a chance on some dodgy piece of egg-timer shareware. Let's walk through how you run a timer in Google Search using JAWS:

1. Visit the main search page in Google www.google.co.uk
2. Focus will be forced to the main search edit field. Type in: timer for 30 seconds then confirm with the ENTER key.
3. Your chosen time limit will now be visually indicated by a value in an edit field near the top of the newly loaded results page. The countdown begins immediately and you can keep tapping the JAWS quick key of E (for edit fields) to move between your search and time edit fields.
4. If for any reason the timer has not started, use the DOWN ARROW to move to the "start" option and use SPACEBAR to activate it.
5. As the timer is ticking down (note that as the timer ticks down there is no audio feedback) you may want to check your focus with INSERT UP ARROW. If you have moved on to the next related option labelled "Reset" then use the UP ARROW to refocus back on the option labelled "Stop". Use this option if you need to pause the timer - also, when the alarm is sounding the "Stop" option becomes instead an "OK" option.
6. When the time limit is reached you will hear a beeping sound, tap the SPACEBAR while focused on the "OK" option to silence the alarm.

Let me reinforce the above by going through another example here. This time I am running a 45 second timer where I need to stop it about halfway through:

1. I type "timer for 45 seconds" in the main Google Search field and use ENTER to run the search. Focus moves to the results page and the timer starts immediately.
2. I tap the E quick key to keep moving between the two available edit fields, focusing back on the time field is the only way I can get a general idea of how much time is left.
3. With focus on the time edit field, I use the DOWN ARROW to focus on the "Stop" option when I am around 22 seconds.
4. I restart the timer by pressing the SPACEBAR on the "Start" option.
5. The timer counts down to zero and sounds the alarm.
6. I focus on the "OK" option and tap the SPACEBAR to silence the alarm.
7. I ALT F4 to close down Firefox. I'm done!

And there you go - a timer via Google Search. Have fun playing around with this one!

Keyboard Lock - JAWS

Locking Your Keyboard Using JAWS

Something I have always found irritating, when using a screenreader in tandem with my crowded desk, is how easy it is to accidentally knock my keyboard and change my focus on screen. This commonly occurs when I am reading something and, more often than not, the material I am reading touches the keyboard. Voila! My on-screen focus is transported somewhere else...

Now in this kind of scenario I can always use the Windows Lock keystroke. A quick tap of WINDOWS KEY L will lock the screen, thus requiring me to use ALT CONTROL DELETE before I can type my password in and get back to business. However, since JAWS V12, I can also opt to use a JAWS specific keyboard lock feature. This latter option locks the keyboard but doesn't require you to log back in - unlike the Windows Lock. Okay, it isn't as secure as the Windows route (if your screen is on then your data is still visually displayed locked or not) but it is slightly less hassle and does avoid the odd keyboard knock throwing out your focus.

The JAWS Keyboard Lock keystroke is: INSERT SPACEBAR then press letter L. When you use INSERT SPACEBAR you will hear a clicking or tapping sound, at that point press L to lock the keyboard. To unlock, repeat the keystroke and JAWS will indicate "unlocked".

Give it a try and see if it works for you. Have fun!