Background Reader - Zoomtext V10 - Keyboard

Using the Background Reader in Zoomtext V10

During a recent coaching session one of the subject areas I covered was the Background Reader in Zoomtext. This feature is a fairly new addition in Zoomtext and it is one that I've been guilty of overlooking - probably because I'm not great at trying to do two individual things at once! But if you can get over that particular hurdle you might find that this feature is actually pretty useful at certain times.

You can find the icon for the Background Reader (the headphones icon button) in the Tools page in the main user interface (CONTROL SHIFT U) or, alternatively, via the main Tools menu (ALT T). What does this feature actually do? Well, it allows you to read text while you are working on something else at the same time - hence the name "background" reader. So, if you are often faced with the scenario of having a lot of information to read, at the same time as you need to complete other work, this could be the feature of your dreams!

Launching the Background Reader

The Background Reader feature is used in one of two ways:

• To read text copied to the Windows clipboard, use CAPSLOCK C.
• To read any currently selected text, use CAPSLOCK S.

Personally, I rarely use the clipboard reading option. In fact, I only use that approach if I want to remind myself or double-check the information I have stored in the clipboard to begin with. Of much more interest to me is reading the text I have selected so, to give you an idea of how I work with this feature, let's run through an example.

Reading Selected Text in the BG Reader

Here's the scenario, one of my colleagues has just emailed me a Word document and needs a response as soon as possible but I also have some routine spreadsheet administration that also needs to be done straight away. My solution is to read the document using the Background Reader which allows me to carry on working in my spreadsheet. Let me run through the steps here:

1. I open the document to be read in MS Word and press CONTROL A to select all the text in it.
2. I use the keystroke of CAPSLOCK S to launch the background reader and the reading starts. The Background reader toolbar will also appear.

3. Now I ALT TAB back to Excel and carry on with my spreadsheet work as before. Meanwhile, the text in Word continues to be spoken back to me in the background.
4. When necessary, I pause the reading at any time using the Pause/Play command of CAPSLOCK ENTER.
5. When the text is finished, I press CAPSLOCK ESCAPE to close the background reader.

Keystrokes to Control the Background Reader

I hope the above example has put you in the mood to experiment a bit with this feature! As you might expect, there are a few more hotkeys you can use to achieve specific actions and I have included a full list of relevant keys at the foot of this paragraph. My own personal view is that you'll only need a few keystrokes because, if you are having to concentrate that much on the reading itself, it makes more sense to stop whatever you are doing and concentrate solely on reading your text. That said, explore the options and come up with your own approaches. Have fun!

List of Keystrokes and their Function in the Background Reader

Hotkey	Action
Capslock C	Reads text copied into the Windows Clipboard
Capslock S	Reads text selected in the current document
Capslock Enter	A toggle keystroke that pauses and plays the text reading.
Capslock Backspace	Restarts the text reading from the beginning.
Capslock Escape	Quits the Background reader mode.
Capslock T	Puts focus on the Background reader toolbar. Useful if you are more of a mouse user.
Capslock Spacebar	Reads the current sentence.
Capslock Right Arrow	Reads the next sentence.
Capslock Left Arrow	Reads the previous sentence.
Control Capslock Spacebar	Reads the current word.
Control Capslock Right Arrow	Reads the next word.
Control Capslock Left Arrow	Reads the previous word.

Outlook 2007 - Go to a Date - Keyboard

Navigating Dates in the Outlook 2007 Diary

BANG...! That's it, I'm back in the blog zone after a bit of time off to recharge the batteries. And what better way to kick things off than with some little titbits in how to make working with the Go to a Date dialog box in Outlook 2007 a bit funkier. Let's go through it.

Move to the Outlook 2007 Calendar

First, let's move to the Calendar in Outlook 2007, you can do this in any of the following ways from your Inbox:

• Press CONTROL 2 to move there directly.
• Press CONTROL Y then DOWN ARROW to Calendar and press the ENTER key.
• Press ALT G to open the Go menu. DOWN ARROW to Calendar and press ENTER.

Switch between Calendar Views

Now that you have focus in your Calendar, you need to check what view you are in. In Outlook 2007, this is how:

1. Press ALT V to open the View menu.
2. DOWN ARROW to the Current View menu item and access the submenu by pressing RIGHT ARROW or the ENTER key.
3. In the Current View submenu, highlight the DAY/WEEK/MONTH option and press ENTER to confirm this choice.
4. Now return to the Current View menu and DOWN ARROW to the Day View option. Press the ENTER key to activate this. Alternatively, you can use several standard keystrokes to switch immediately between Day, Week, Working Week and Month View. The keys are:
• ALT CONTROL 1: Day view
• ALT CONTROL 2: Work Week view
• ALT CONTROL 3: Week view
• ALT CONTROL 4: Month view

General Navigation in the Day View Calendar

Before I concentrate on the Go to a Date dialog box specifically, let's run through a few of the general keys to get you moving around the Day View screen:

• DOWN ARROW: Moves to the next time slot for the current day. By default, this will be a 30 minute segment, but is customisable.
• UP ARROW: Moves to the previous time slot for the current day. As previous, this is a 30 minute segment by default.
• RIGHT ARROW: Moves to the next day.
• LEFT ARROW: Moves to the previous day.
• CONTROL HOME: Focuses the highlight on the first 30 minute time segment for the current day.
• CONTROL END: Focuses the highlight on the last 30 minute time segment for the current day.
• TAB: Moves the PC cursor around all the focusable objects - such as your appointments - for the current day.

Launch and Apply the Go to a Date Feature

The great beauty of the Day View interface is that, via the Go to a Date function, you can go to any day, month, year and so on directly. You can also work with it in some funky ways - very helpful when you are using a screenreader for example. Let's go through some of the possibilities:

1. In your Calendar press CONTROL G to launch the Go to a Date dialog box.

2. Now you have the option of typing in a specific date, this can be in a shortened form or something more formal, followed by a press of the ENTER key to confirm the action and move to the date specified. Here are some basic examples of this standard approach...
• 25 April 2015: Outlook goes to the specific date.
• 25: Outlook assumes you want to go to the 25th of the current month in the current year.
• 25/7: Outlook assumes you want to go to the 25th of July in the current year.
3. What is not commonly known is that this feature will also accept some text instructions, let's run through some of these now:
• Today: Logically, enough this points the calendar at today!
• Tomorrow: No prizes for guessing what happens here.
• Yesterday: No prizes for getting this one right either!
• Next Week: Moves the calendar to a week today.
• Last Week: Moves the calendar to a week before today.
• Next Month: Moves the calendar a month ahead.
• Last month: Moves the calendar a month back.
• Next Year: Moves the calendar a year ahead.
• Last Year: Moves the calendar a year back.
• Next : Moves the calendar to the next specific day.
• Last : Moves the calendar to the last specific day.
4. Alongside the text instruction you can also go for a more number driven approach, try inputting the following:
• 22 days: Move 22 days ahead.
• 22 days ago: Move back 22 days.
• 3 weeks: Move forward 3 weeks.
• 3 weeks ago: Move back 3 weeks.
5. You can even mix the two up, try these examples out:
• today + 36 days: Go to 36 days from today.
• tomorrow + 2 days: Go to 2 days from tomorrow.
• next month + 2 weeks: Go to next month and two weeks time.
• Christmas + 3 weeks + 3 days: Ah, now you're just showing off - pretty good though!

So there you go - I hope these little tips will make moving around in the Outlook 2007 Day View diary feel like a lot less of a hassle. Have fun!

Custom Summary - Excel 2007 - JAWS V15

Creating and Using a JAWS Custom Summary in Excel 2007

As promised, I am still in my Excel and JAWS zone and today I'd like to talk a little bit about creating a JAWS custom summary for a particular worksheet. What is a custom summary? Well, it's a way of creating a short list of particular pieces of relevant information you need to access and read. For example, imagine a massive spreadsheet full of data where you only need to check a handful of the cells. The manual approach here will have you going to each cell to check out the values, but if you create a custom summary containing those specific cells then you can read that in one go instead. With the right material this can save you a significant amount of time.

To begin with though I need some data to work with so I have created the following table in Excel, although you can open up an existing worksheet and use that if you wish.

Example Data for the Custom Summary Exercise

Items	January	February	March
Pens	185	175	180
Crayons	155	135	185
Erasers	85	90	65
Pencils	205	195	210
Pencils	205	195	210
Rulers	45	50	30
Sharpeners	35	40	25
Cases	20	25	15

Now that we have some data, let's get to grips with creating a custom summary.

Creating a JAWS Custom Summary in Excel 2007

The JAWS Custom Summary consists of a bunch of custom labelled items read out in order. In this example, I am going to create a custom summary containing the grand totals for each of the three months in my table of data. After all, I'm interested only in the totals most of the time, not so much interested in each value that makes the total figures.

1. To begin with, locate the first cell to be marked. Remember that, by default, the order in which you label the cells is the order they are spoken.
2. In my case the first total is in cell B9 so, when I have focus on the relevant cell, I use the keystroke of INSERT CONTROL TAB to launch the Custom Label dialog box for the current worksheet.

3. With the Custom Label dialog box, press the TAB key to move to the Add button and press SPACEBAR to activate.
4. A small Add dialog box will launch, so type in an appropriate name as your custom label. In my own example, I have typed January Total as that seems the shortest and most descriptive name that will make sense when JAWS reads the summary back. After confirming this with the OK button, focus moves back to the Custom Label dialog box.
5. Now that you have at least one custom label set up, many of the button options that may have been previously unavailable should now be available. So, explore this dialog box again by pressing the TAB key to move through the options. When you have done this, TAB to the OK button and press SPACEBAR to confirm.
6. Now you need to repeat the whole process for the next cell you require in your summary. In my own example, I refocus on cell C9 in my spreadsheet - the total cell for February - and once more press INSERT CONTROL TAB to relaunch my Custom Summary for Sheet 1 dialog box. As before, I activate the Add dialog box via the Add button and this time type in the name February Total. After this, I continue to repeat the process until all of the cells are part of the Custom Label list.
7. When you have added all of the required cells, check your list of custom labels. Remember the order of the items in the list is the order in which JAWS reads them in the custom summary. If you feel that you need to reorder some of the labels, then select the particular item in the list and use the Move Up (ALT U) and the Move Down (ALT D) buttons and/or hotkeys. Keep pressing these options as necessary until the selected custom label is in the correct position in the overall list.
8. When you have checked and reordered your list (if necessary) you are pretty much done. TAB to the OK button for the final time and press the SPACEBAR to confirm.
9. A quick check to make sure your custom list is ready to rock can be done using the JAWS context help system, press INSERT F1 for a context help summary when you are back in your worksheet - you should hear a mention near the top confirming that the current worksheet has a custom summary. If you hear this, you're done!

Reading a JAWS Custom Summary in Excel 2007

When you have created your summary it is now available at any time for you to read. There are two main methods for reading the summary and I'll cover both now:

Using the Manager List

1. Press INSERT F2 to launch the list of JAWS Managers.
2. ARROW DOWN or press letter V to focus on the View Custom Summary option and press ENTER.
3. The custom summary will now open in the virtual viewer and JAWS will begin to read automatically - use the ARROW KEYS as normal to control the speech. Notice how links are included in the summary, these allow you to move directly to that specific cell in the spreadsheet if necessary.
4. When you have finished reading the summary, press the ESCAPE key to close the virtual viewer.

Using a Direct Keystroke

1. An alternative to the above route is to use the direct keystroke - and what a keystroke it is! You can launch the custom summary window directly using INSERT CONTROL SHIFT and TAB.

And there we go! Creating a custom summary is a useful thing to do if you often have to make sense of the same big worksheets over and over again. If you create a summary once then it will always point to those specific cell locations, so instead of going to each of those cells in the sheet - with all the key presses to accompany that going back and forth - you can just create a summary and read that in one go. Even if the values change that's no problem because the summary works dynamically, it's based on the cell references not the cell values at the time you create the label.

To wrap up this particular post, I have created a small table containing the hotkeys for each of the functions in the main Custom Label dialog box. All that is left for you is to carry on having fun experimenting with custom summaries in Excel!

Hotkeys for Functions in the Custom Label Dialog Box

Button Label	Keystroke	Function
Add	ALT A	Launches the Name dialog box to create a new custom label.
Change Name	ALT C	Also launches the Name dialog box, enabling you to change the label for the currently selected label in your list.
Move Up	ALT U	Moves the currently selected label in the list up one space.
Move Down	ALT D	Moves the currently selected label in the list down one space.
Remove	ALT R	Removes the currently selected custom label in the list.
Remove All	ALT L	Removes all of the custom labels in the list.

Inserting Columns and Rows - Excel 2007 - JAWS V15

Launching the Insert Dialog Box in Excel 2007 Directly

Danger! Danger! I feel a bit of an Excel flavour for my next couple of posts! So, to kick us off, here is a nifty little keystroke for what is a common task: inserting new rows and columns.

Let's set the scene, you're navigating through a bunch of data in Excel and to be able to squeeze some new data in, you're going to have to insert either a new blank column or row, or just shift the existing data into an adjacent column column or row. But.. where was that ribbon option again? Or was it somewhere in the applications or context menu...?

If you want to be really slick, you don't head to the ribbon. You use the hotkey of CONTROL NUMBERPAD PLUS or, alternatively, CONTROL SHIFT EQUALS.

When you use this keystroke, focus will move to the newly launched Insert dialog box. From there, you have the following four options arranged vertically in a series of radio buttons.

Insert Dialog Box Options

Option	Keystroke	Explanation
Shift Cells Right	ALT I	Moves the current cell (or a selected range of cells) right, leaving the current cell(s) empty.
Shift Cells Down	ALT D	Moves the current cell (or a selected range of cells) down, leaving the current cell(s) empty.
Entire Row	ALT R	Inserts a whole new row at the current cursor position.
Entire Column	ALT C	Inserts a whole new column at the current cursor position.

There you go, now you can insert columns and rows or shift data around at a snap - all thanks to the crafty hotkey of CONTROL PLUS.

Google Search - Searching Techniques

Handy Techniques with Google Search

One of the most common online tasks people undertake every day, that can also be one of the most frustrating, is using a search engine such as Google Search to locate particular data; be that a specific website, details on a particular company, the bio of your favourite musician or actor, reviews of a film or book and so on. Point is, if you have an information need, that information probably sits out there in E memory somewhere, just waiting for you to pull it into focus for a short while if you key in the right search words.

The problem rests in getting at least fairly close to the data you are looking for. I think we have all had that sinking feeling of running a search and reading the fateful words where your search has returned hundreds of thousands of hits. So, in this post, I'm going to visit and refresh on some of the basic approaches to running successful searches in Google Search specifically (although these techniques are pretty universal so worth trying across different search engines). Of course, I realise that other engine flavours are out there - Bing I'm looking at you here - but, for the time being at least, I'm going to stick with Google Search.

Common Techniques in Google Search

Let's get started with the important job of making our searches more leaner and efficient:

1. To search for an exact match to a string of text, enclose your words within double quotations. Doing this forces Google Search to return matches on the entire string of text not just words that appear within the string.

   Example: I want to search for information on the film The Empire Strikes Back. Typing this in to Google Search without the double quotes nets me around 22,500,000 results. But, when I type in "the empire strikes back" the results are reduced considerably to approximately 727,000. This is because the search engine is forced to match the whole string, whereas without the quotes it will return results for combinations of the same words - though not necessarily the whole string.

2. To include and exclude certain words in your search, use the plus and minus symbols. Adding a plus symbol directly before a word informs the search engine to include results with that specific word. Adding a minus informs the search engine to ignore those results that contain that specific word.

   Example: As before, I can write "The Empire Strikes Back" into Google Search but this time around I can add +Boba - because I'm interested only in information specific to that character. When I run this I have a results list that is less than a hundred and from there I can narrow it further by adding -youtube, to exclude the information relating to You Tube. When I complete the latter, the search results narrow down to less than ten. From around 727,000 to under 10, that's not bad going...

3. If you don't know certain words you can include an asterisk to act as a wildcard.

   Example: While I recall that there was a film called the empire strikes ... something... I don't remember the full title. So, in Google Search input field I type in: "the empire strikes *" and run the search. Predictably, "Empire Strikes Back" results are well to the fore - though if you are interested in some of the alternatives, run the search including -back (minus back) and check the results. Fascinating - well, kind of!

4. If you have several words connected with your search and want to list the pages that mention any of them (as opposed to pages that only contain them all) you can use the capitalised word OR. This is useful when you want your results to list out web resources that contain at least one of the words perhaps from a list of several.

   Example: Yes, you guessed it - The Empire Strikes Back again, my search now though is "The Empire Strikes Back" R2D2 OR R2-D2. Running this search forces the return of results for The Empire Strikes Back with mentions specifically of R2, covering both spellings with, and without, the hyphen.

And there we are - a few extra methods to bear in mind when you are next visiting Google Search. Remember also to keep your search words concise and descriptive and don't be too worried about starting vague and then continuing to narrow down your results. Bear in mind that while some of the targeting techniques we have covered here are great for drilling down to more specifics, there are times when drilling down too far means you miss the information you are really looking for. As ever, the more you use these techniques the more you will get an instinctive feel for how best to approach your search engine work.

Have fun!

Placemarkers - Jaws V15 - Word 2007

Using a JAWS Placemarker in MS Word 2007

Most JAWS users are aware of placemarkers, the ability to bookmark elements in a web page where you can easily create your own page mapping strategies to deal with websites old and new.

However, what is less well known is that this placemarker functionality also extends into common Office programs such as Word and Excel. In this post I want to focus in on using a placemarker in MS Word specifically and walk through how neat this feature can be, not only to relocate to a known area in the document, but to assist in making selecting text a lot less hassle.

Before I do that, first a few words in general about JAWS placemarkers. There are two types, temporary and permanent, with placemarkers of the permanent type being stored across JAWS personal settings files so they can be accessed time and time again. A temporary placemarker on the other hand is just that, suitable to be used for the current session, but one that isn't going to survive a reboot. (Note that the placemarker you are about to create here in MS Word is of the permanent variety.)

If you haven't played with placemarkers much you can think of them as a kind of JAWS highlighting pen - a quick way of noting areas of interest in certain types of file and giving you an easy route back to those marked areas. Placemarkers are effectively bookmarks although don't get them mixed up with the formal bookmarks you can create in programs such as MS Word and Internet Explorer.

What might you use a placemarker for? In MS Word, you can pop a placemarker in some text that you simply want to return to and read later. In Excel, you can stick a placemarker on a cell that you similarly need to return to, perhaps after working elsewhere on some formulae that may have some effect on the value in that specific cell. In a web page, which is the more commonly known area, you can stick some placemarkers on a page to help you create your own "mapping" system, pointing to the elements in the page you want to use or access quickly.

Right, that's enough of an introduction, let's focus in on MS Word and see what the wonderful world of placemarkers offers us there.

Setting and Moving to JAWS Placemarkers in MS Word 2007

In MS Word you can assign a placemarker to anything in the document providing that JAWS understands it in the first place. Bear in mind that while this is a permanent placemarker you are only able to assign one per document - a situation unlike using placemarkers online, where you can have several placemarkers for the same page. But this isn't as much of a drawback as you might think because, if you need to relocate the placemarker position in MS Word, you simply move it to where it needs to be. Okay, let's try it out:

1. Open an existing document in MS Word. (Note that if you are creating a new test document you will need to save it before the placemarker feature can be used and stored.)
2. Navigate to a line of text or some other object in the document such as a list or a table.
3. Press CONTROL, WINDOWS KEY and letter K. If you have pressed the keys correctly, JAWS will announce "marking place."
4. Now, to move to the placemarker, press CONTROL HOME or CONTROL END to move focus to the very beginning or very end of the current document. Alternatively, move the cursor away from the placemarker using the ARROW keys.
5. Press ALT, WINDOWS KEY and letter K to now move the cursor to the placemarker you have just set.
6. To move or recycle the placemarker itself, refocus on the new area or item in the document you need to focus on and press CONTROL, WINDOWS KEY and letter K again.

Note: If you mark a place that has already been marked, JAWS will indicate this by saying "place already marked."

Now here is another nifty little trick you can try out. Did you know that you can set a placemarker in the Word document and then use that as a kind of anchor to select text to or from that mark? Let's try it out:

Using a Word Placemarker as a Copy and Paste Mark

1. Make sure your placemarker is focused somewhere appropriate, perhaps next to a word in a paragraph for example.
2. Now move elsewhere in the document as you did in the previous steps. If you move to a location before the placemarker then be aware that you will be copying to your placemarker. If you move to a location after the placemarker then you will be copying from the bookmarked location.
3. Press INSERT SPACEBAR (you will hear a clicking sound) then press letter M. Note that this is a JAWS layered keystroke so you press INSERT SPACEBAR first then let go of these keys before tapping letter M.
4. If you have used the layered keystroke correctly, JAWS will echo that it has "selected between marked place and current position."
5. Now you can choose to copy and/or cut the highlighted text. Alternatively, you can repeat the selection using INSERT SHIFT DOWN ARROW and, if you use this keystroke twice quickly, JAWS will spell the selection.

Practice this operation a few times until it becomes more instinctive. It might save you the hassle of using the dreaded SHIFT key in all your future edit operations!

Placemarkers are really handy and I'll be revisiting some of their other uses in a future post. Have fun!

Notepad - Keyboard - Text Editor

Creating a Log File in Notepad

Here's a nifty little trick that you can perform in Notepad, the ultra basic text editor that ships with the Windows operating system:

1. Tap the WINDOWS key to open the Windows Start Menu. Alternatively, you can use the keystroke of WINDOWS key R to launch the Run dialog box.
2. Type Notepad into the live search field, ensure that it is selected and press the ENTER key to launch the program. If you are using the Run dialog box method, type in Notepad and press ENTER.
3. With focus in the main Notepad text editor window, type .LOG on the first line. (Must be typed in exactly: dot, capital L, capital O, capital G)
4. Press ALT to move to the Menu Bar - ah, remember those? - and open the File menu.
5. ARROW DOWN to the Save As... option and activate this with the ENTER key.
6. Give your LOG file a name and save it to an appropriate location.
7. Close Notepad and navigate to the text file you have just created.
8. Open the text file and you should notice that a date and time stamp has been automatically inserted for you. It will be in the following format: HH:MM DD/MM/YYYY (for example: 09:46 16/03/2015)
9. Every time you open the file, another time and date stamp is automatically added. So, if you need keep an accurate, simple time log for any reason this is one way to do it!