Selecting, Copying and Pasting with VoiceOver - iOS

Selecting, Copying and Pasting Text with VoiceOver on iOS

A task that doesn't always feel particularly intuitive at first for newcomers to VoiceOver on iOS is how to work with and manipulate text. Even basic tasks such as copying and pasting can, at first, be a minefield. What can make this even more frustrating is that these "tricky" situations crop up when you least want them to - suddenly, you are faced with figuring out how to include a URL in an email or how to copy that bit of text in a website. And while general navigation with VoiceOver is relatively straightforward (after a bit of "play time" anyway) text manipulation with VoiceOver requires a bit more structure and insight.

In this post I'm going to go through some of the steps that you can take to achieve these tasks. My ultimate aim here is to get you confidently copying and pasting text so we're going to explore every bit of the overall process individually. Let's get started...

Text Fields and Insertion Points

Before you begin copying and pasting text, you need to understand exactly how to approach working in a standard text field and the general approach to selecting specific characters and/or words. First thing, we need to talk about insertion points:

1. Navigate to the standard Notes app on your iOS device. DOUBLE TAP to launch the app.
2. In the Notes app, DOUBLE TAP the Compose button and SWIPE RIGHT to the "Note text field, is editing" area.
3. Type or dictate some basic text into this area.
4. When you have some text in place, use a SINGLE FINGER DOUBLE TAP - notice that VoiceOver indicates "insertion point at start". Use the same gesture again, to move the insertion point to the end.

Being able to control the insertion point in this way allows you to start your text operations from a more convenient situation. Always bear this positioning ability in mind prior to any text manipulation you need to do. Okay, on to the next step...

Using the Rotor: Characters and Words

The key to having fine control at the text level is all via the rotor. You are going to be accessing it a lot for your text actions so, if you find the rotor gesture difficult or unwieldy to use, keep practicing until it becomes easier.

1. In your text edit area, move the insertion point to the start of your text, if you are not already there.
2. Use the rotor gesture to select the Characters option.
3. With the Characters rotor option set, use a ONE FINGER FLICK DOWN gesture. You should hear VoiceOver move the cursor and echo the next character that takes focus.
4. After you are comfortable with the ONE FINGER FLICK DOWN gesture, use a ONE FINGER FLICK UP to move backwards through the characters.
5. Now use the rotor control again and set the Words option.
6. With the Words rotor option set, use the ONE FINGER FLICK DOWN gesture as before and this time you should hear VoiceOver move the cursor and echo the next word.
7. When you are happy with moving through the words, use a ONE FINGER FLICK UP gesture to move backwards through the previous words.

Now practice each different mode, switching the rotor control between "Words" and "Characters" as required and using the SINGLE FINGER FLICK UP and DOWN gestures to move focus.

When you have played with these gestures for a while, ensure the rotor control is set to "Characters" in preparation for our next step.

Select Text in a Note

Now that you can move the insertion point to the beginning and end of the current text area and change the rotor between "words" and "characters", it is time to explore selecting:

1. With your "Characters" rotor option set, use a SINGLE FINGER FLICK DOWN gesture to move through the individual characters in your text. Move to a word that you want to copy and focus the cursor on the first letter.

NOTE: A little technique I use when I SINGLE FINGER FLICK DOWN is to overshoot the first letter of the word I want to copy and then SINGLE FINGER FLICK UP to go one character back. This extra FLICK DOWN and FLICK UP results in the cursor being positioned to the left hand side of the character, a starting point that makes selecting the text feel more intuitive to me. I do this extra flicking to give me the confidence that I definitely have focus on the right letter when I start to highlight.

2. Now use the REVERSE PINCH gesture to perform the highlighting move from the cursor position. (This REVERSE PINCH gesture can be tricky, imagine stretching an elastic band between two fingers on the screen.) As you drag across the screen, the text will be highlighted and the individual characters will be spoken. (Remember: you are in Characters mode.)
3. If you over-shoot with your highlighting selection, then use the PINCH gesture to reduce the highlighting from right to left. Again, VoiceOver will comment as you go about this.
4. Practice both of these PINCH gestures until they become second nature and you can confidently select text. Also, switch to the Words rotor option and test out the PINCH gestures with words.

Copy and Paste into a New Note

Now that you can move the insertion point around, switch between word and character movement and select text, it is time to venture into the Editing options available via the rotor:

1. With any relevant text highlighted, use the rotor to select the Edit option. Now SINGLE FINGER SWIPE UP or DOWN to confirm the Copy setting. DOUBLE TAP to activate and perform this copy operation, VoiceOver will indicate "(your words here) copied" if you are successful.
2. With the selection now copied to the clipboard, SWIPE LEFT to reach the Compose button and DOUBLE TAP to create a new note.
3. SWIPE RIGHT to the text edit area of the new note and access the rotor control area once again. Choose the Edit rotor option as before and this time around SWIPE UP or DOWN to select the Paste option. As before, DOUBLE TAP to confirm and paste the text in at the insertion point.
4. If necessary, switch the rotor mode back to "Word" or "Characters" and carry on working.

And that's it - copying and pasting VoiceOver and touchscreen style! A bit on the fiddly side I'm sure you will agree but once you get the hang of switching between all the relevant rotor options and the PINCH and REVERSE PINCH gestures, it will start to feel more fluid.

Now that you are getting to grips with this, it's time for a challenge - just how do you go about copying that URL and pasting it into a file or email?

Until next time, keep those rotors spinning...

Sending Tweets with VoiceOver - Twitter - iOS - iPad - iPhone

Tweeting on iOS with VoiceOver

Lately I've been getting more and more requests for coaching in Twitter using iOS and VoiceOver so I'm going to run with a bit of a Twitter theme over the next few posts. Today I'm going to concentrate on the core Twitter activity of sending messages or, to give it its formal name, tweeting!

Those of you who haven't experimented with the official Twitter app (or who haven't yet explored Twitter at all for that matter) might be surprised to know that it's not so bad with VoiceOver on iOS. Personally, I find moving around the app and generally using Twitter with speech to be a lot of fun - well, more fun than moving round the Facebook app anyway which I still find a bit more complex. In my opinion, the Twitter app feels fairly intuitive, consistent and swift.

I've recently started to put some notes together on a few Twitter topics and I have used these notes as the basis for my post here. I'm not worried about the scene-setting in this article I'm only interested here on the main steps to achieve certain Tweeting tasks, so I hope these notes provide some useful reference.

My usual disclaimers apply: you may need to adjust some of the steps for the kit and versions you are using and, while these are the approaches I take - they aren't necessarily the only options nor even the best options for you. Again, as with all guidance, add your own flavours. Finally, all the walkthroughs here assume that you are logged in to the Twitter app and that you have some basic familiarity with the layout and the overall service. Right, enough waffle, let's get on with it!

Create and send a basic tweet.

A message in Twitter is called a "tweet" and consists of no more than 140 characters each.

1. Navigate to the Compose tweet button in the Twitter app. On the iPad, this is located near the top right of the screen. DOUBLE TAP.
2. Focus will move to the text field of the new tweet. Input your text as necessary - remember to keep it short and sweet as you only have 140 characters! (You can SWIPE RIGHT a couple of times to the characters remaining information if you need to check.)
3. When you have finished typing, SWIPE LEFT and focus on the Tweet button. DOUBLE TAP to send the tweet.
4. Alternatively, if you wish to cancel the message, SWIPE LEFT a couple of times and DOUBLE TAP on the cancel option.

Create and send a tweet containing a mention.

A "mention" is when you quote another handle or Twitter user account in your tweet. Note that this "mention" must occur somewhere other than the very start of your tweet. If you type the username first in your tweet it is formally considered a "reply" and not a "mention".

1. Follow the steps for a basic tweet.
2. At the relevant point in your tweet, begin typing the user name (usernames always start with an @ symbol).
3. As you type, a drop down list will appear and attempt to match the results to the string of text you are typing in. SWIPE RIGHT or FINGER DRAG to move through these results. DOUBLE TAP to confirm your choice.
4. When you confirm your choice, focus will return to the text input area in your new tweet. Continue typing as necessary, then SWIPE LEFT to the Tweet button and DOUBLE TAP.

Reply to a tweet.

A formal reply is a normal tweet where the username of the account you are replying to is the first thing in the tweet. Twitter includes an option to make this process easy - you don't need to manually do this.

1. When you have read the tweet you want to reply to, continue to SWIPE RIGHT to focus on the associated Reply button. DOUBLE TAP.
2. Focus will move to a new tweet edit area, with the @username already supplied at the beginning of the reply.
3. Type (or dictate) your reply in the normal way then SWIPE LEFT to the tweet button and DOUBLE TAP to send.

Alternatively, you may also be able to reply to a specific tweet via the option in the "magic tap" menu, launched by a TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP gesture:

4. Focus on the tweet you want to reply to and use the TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP (the "magic tap" gesture).
5. In the magic tap menu that appears, SWIPE RIGHT to the Reply option and DOUBLE TAP to activate it.

Not sure what the "Magic Menu" setting is? Check out my earlier post on the Accessibility Settings in the Twitter App.

Re-tweet a message to my followers (RT).

A re-tweet is when you send a message, originated by another Twitter user, to your own followers. As with a reply, there is a re-tweet option that makes this process much easier to do now.

1. With focus on the tweet you want to re-tweet to your followers, SWIPE RIGHT until you have focus on the Re-tweet button. DOUBLE TAP.
2. Focus will move to a small menu containing several options such as: Re-tweet, Quote Tweet and Cancel.
3. SWIPE RIGHT to the re-tweet option and DOUBLE TAP to confirm.

Alternatively, you can also re-tweet via the "magic tap" menu, launched using the TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP gesture:

4. Focus on the tweet you want to re-tweet then use the TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP gesture to launch the "magic tap" menu.
5. SWIPE RIGHT to the re-tweet option, then DOUBLE TAP to confirm and "re-tweet" the message.

Create and send a tweet containing a hashtag.

A hashtag is a word or word string, indicated by the use of the "hash" (number) symbol. Using hashtags is a way of tracking and creating conversations across what might be thousands and thousands of individual tweets.

1. Navigate to the New Tweet button and DOUBLE TAP.
2. Focus will move to the text field of the new tweet. Type your message as normal.
3. At the point where you need to type the hashtag, simply start it with the hash (number) symbol, for example: #meandmyguidedog. (Note that hashtags do not contain spaces.)
4. Continue to type in your text, perhaps including other hashtags, then SWIPE LEFT to the Tweet button and DOUBLE TAP to send.

Mark a tweet as a favourite.

You can bookmark any tweet by marking it as a favourite. You can then open your Favourites page to access your list of favourite tweets.

1. When you have read the tweet you want to mark as a favourite, SWIPE RIGHT until you have focus on the Favourite button. DOUBLE TAP to confirm.

Alternatively, you can also mark a tweet as a favourite via the "magic tap" menu, launched with a TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP gesture:

2. Focus on the tweet you want to mark as a favourite and use the TWO FINGER DOUBLE TAP gesture.
3. SWIPE RIGHT through the menu options and focus on Favourite. DOUBLE TAP to confirm the action.

Create and send a tweet containing a picture.

1. Compose your tweet in the normal way.
2. When you have finished typing your text, SWIPE RIGHT to the photo button. DOUBLE TAP.
3. A list of thumbnail images will appear at this point from your camera roll, SWIPE RIGHT and/or LEFT through these and DOUBLE TAP the required image.
4. However, if the image you need is in a specific photo album (and I strongly advise you to take this more organised route) SWIPE LEFT to focus on the Albums button and DOUBLE TAP. SWIPE RIGHT to the specific album you need and DOUBLE TAP to move into it.
5. Inside the specific photo album, SWIPE RIGHT to move to the image you require. DOUBLE TAP to add the image.
6. Focus will return to your tweet, SWIPE LEFT or RIGHT to locate the Tweet button and send in the usual way.

Create and send a tweet containing a hyperlink.

While this is a pretty straightforward thing to do on the PC, in iOS it's a bit more of a trickier operation. If you are not yet confident with the VoiceOver rotor control you may want to concentrate on getting used to those gestures first before attempting the following.

1. First, you need to go and grab the required hyperlink. Open the Safari web browser and navigate to the URL of the page you need to copy. (On my iPad, the address bar area is in the middle, at the top of the screen.
2. DOUBLE TAP to go into the text edit mode for the address bar. (Importantly, the text will already be highlighted when you move into this text edit mode.)
3. Access the rotor control and set it to: Edit.
4. Use a SINGLE FINGER FLICK UP (or DOWN) to move through the edit options, choose "copy" and DOUBLE TAP.
5. With the URL of the page now copied to the clipboard, close Safari and open Twitter.
6. Locate and activate the new tweet button as usual.
7. In the tweet text input area, type your message as required.
8. At the point where you need to insert the URL from the clipboard, access your rotor again and set it to: Edit.
9. Use a SINGLE FINGER FLICK UP (or DOWN) to choose "paste" and DOUBLE TAP to confirm. The content of the clipboard will now be pasted into your tweet.
10. Continue typing as necessary and send the tweet in the usual manner via the Tweet button.

I hope these little walkthroughs help you get to grips with VoiceOver and Twitter? Have fun!

Sending Direct Messages - Twitter - VoiceOver - iPad

Sending a Direct Message in Twitter with VoiceOver

If there is one Twitter topic that splits opinion it must be the sending and receiving of direct messages. Some people just loathe them, considering direct messages pretty much out of sync with a social (and very public) technology such as Twitter. Other users, while they don't object to the Direct Message functionality as such, don't use it much if at all anyway.

The love it or hate it perception of the direct message might be a result of the spammers and more aggressive online marketers who have used and abused the function, turning it almost into a kind of Twitter "fishing" tool - especially among new connections. To be sure, the behaviour of continually sending direct messages is a bit of cultural no-no and runs considerable reputational risk.

My own personal feeling about the Direct Message is that it's good to have the option. However, I tend to the view that if, in a future update, this particular functionality is removed entirely it wouldn't really concern me in the slightest. That said, I'm quite sure a lot of non-personal account holders would be concerned and the cynic might say that, as a result of this, the Direct Message is likely to remain part of Twitter life.

What is a Direct Message in Twitter?

In Twitter a Direct Message is a personal private message sent between you and one of your followers. What makes it different from a standard tweet of course is that it is only visible to you and the recipient in private - it won't show up for any other followers. (Ironically, it is this very privacy that turns a lot of people off using the feature.) So, now that we know what it is, let's experiment!

Sending a Direct Message Using VoiceOver

Before the instructions, remember that if you are using a different device - or even different versions of iOS - then you may need to make some allowances as you go through the following steps:

1. Launch the main Twitter app.
2. Navigate (using "finger drag" or by swiping) to the Me taband DOUBLE TAP to launch. On my iPad Mini the Me tab is located on the left hand side of the app, about a third of the way down the screen.
3. Move to the Me heading located at the top, middle of the screen.
4. From the Me heading SWIPE RIGHT to pass various other options such as Search button, Compose Tweet button and profile photo.
5. After passing the Settings button and Switch Account button, focus will be on the Direct Messages button. Use the standard DOUBLE TAP gesture to activate this.
6. When the Direct Message screen launches, focus will be on a Close button, located in the top left of the screen on my iPad. From there, I SWIPE RIGHT and eventually have focus on the New Message button.
7. A DOUBLE TAP on the New Message button will open the Messages panel and force focus to a text edit field where you can enter the name of the recipient.
8. All Twitter user names start with an "@" symbol so use the onscreen keyboard to locate this character and start typing the user name. As you type, a drop down list of matches will pop up - giving you the option of finger dragging down to select the required follower name from the list. You will need to DOUBLE TAP to confirm your choice from the list.
9. After you have confirmed the recipient name, focus will move to the main text edit field, allowing you to input your 140 character long Direct Message. Once more, use the onscreen keyboard to input or use the dictation tool to complete this.
10. With the message completed, SWIPE RIGHT to the characters left figure and then SWIPE RIGHT again to focus on the Send button. DOUBLE TAP the Send button and your Direct Message will be on its way to the recipient.
11. When you are done, close the Direct Messages screen by locating the Close button in the top left and DOUBLE TAP. Focus will return to your Me tab.

And that's it for Direct Messages - just be careful on how you use them! Have fun!

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!