Chapter 1 STARTING TO USE JAWS WITH WINDOWS (Also contained in the disk file "J1START.TXT".) CONTENTS OF CHAPTER 1 1. WHERE TO START 1 2. JAWS INNOVATIONS 2 The Speech Pad The Insert Key 3. ADJUSTING SPEECH VOLUME AND SPEECH RATE 3 4. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CURSORS 5 5. STOPPING AND LIMITING SPEECH 7 6. LEARNING BY DOING 7 6.1 Switching Between Applications 8 6.2 Starting Applications with Program Manager 9 6.3 Using a Windows Application 11 6.4 Using the Application Menu Bar to Improve Desktop Readability 12 6.5 Using the Mouse Pointer to Quit an Application 14 6.6 Using Help 15 6.7 Quitting JAWS and Windows 17 7. LOCATION OF ADDITIONAL REFERENCE INFORMATION 18 1. WHERE TO START We have given considerable attention to the preparation of our training tapes and manuals, and believe they can meet your needs regardless of your computer background. You can learn to use JAWS in a variety of ways -- where you begin is up to you. This manual is called JAWS Basics, because it provides the information that most JAWS users want to know. Our training tapes also provide a solid base of information about JAWS, in addition to providing an orientation to Windows. The first chapter in our Windows Reference is an introduction to the Windows environment. It was written from the perspective of a blind PC user, and can be an excellent reference for those who are teaching others about basic Windows concepts. Additionally, those who desire in depth knowledge about JAWS, and who wish to unlock its full potential, will get the supplemental information they need from our Technical Reference. Our easy to use training tapes can provide blind PC users with a thorough introduction to both JAWS and Windows. These tapes are an invaluable tool for blind PC users who want to learn-by-doing. The tapes cover JAWS set up and use, and allow people to learn at their own pace. In addition to providing ink print manuals, an on-line help system, and training tapes, we have provided you with a set of Electronic Text Files, that contain all of our printed documentation. These files are installed automatically during JAWS setup, and they can be read with a text editor or word processor. The text files are located in the \JFW\MANUALS\ENU subdirectory. If you have not installed JAWS, then you should do so before going on to read the rest of this chapter. For help with JAWS setup, please read the Installation Guide which accompanies this manual or listen to the installation tape. 2. JAWS INNOVATIONS It is very easy to use JAWS because JAWS uses standard Windows keyboard commands. If you already understand the fundamentals of using Windows, then you can begin using JAWS immediately after it has been installed. If you are a new Windows user, then you can begin to learn about Windows as you learn about adjusting the volume and speech rate of your speech synthesizer, which is discussed in section 3 of this chapter. The Speech Pad We use the term Speech Pad to refer to the set of keys that are located on the right end of your keyboard. This keypad can be used to type numbers or move the cursor. It consists of approximately 17 keys, and it is commonly called the Numeric Keypad. However, we call this keypad the speech pad because it is literally used to make Windows speak. You should plan to keep the Numlock Status of your numeric keypad turned off, so that it can be used for reading the Windows desktop. The Numlock key is usually located at the upper left corner of the speech pad. The Insert Key The speech pad has been enhanced in several important ways to help with reading the Windows desktop. The most important innovation involves the Insert Key. It has a new function. It is used as a type of shift key. When the Insert key is held down, and another key is pressed, then it makes the key perform a different screen reading function. For example, if you press the Down Arrow, the cursor moves in a downward direction. However, if you hold down the Insert key and press the Down Arrow, then JAWS reads everything in the active window. You will learn much more about the speech pad and Insert key as you go further in this manual. When you are asked to press a key on the keyboard in order to make something happen, then you are using a Keyboard Command. We use a very specific way to write down keyboard commands in our manuals to avoid confusion. When you read the expression, "INSERT+UP ARROW", this means that you are to hold down the Insert key on the speech pad, and then press the Up Arrow key that is located on the speech pad. The PLUS sign that separates the name of the Insert key and the Up Arrow key means that you are to hold down the first key and then press the second key. TIP! Use the thumb of your right hand to hold down the Insert key when doing commands such as INSERT+UP ARROW. 3. ADJUSTING SPEECH VOLUME AND SPEECH RATE If you have been experimenting with using the arrow keys on the speech pad, then you have heard JAWS read information from your desktop. You probably want to adjust the speed of your speech synthesizer to match your personal preferences, and to perhaps make a few other adjustments in the way your synthesizer speaks. To adjust speech synthesizer settings, you need to use the Voices menu of the JAWS application window. To change the speech rate and volume of your synthesizer, use the steps which follow. New Windows users will find that the keyboard commands you learn to use here are also used throughout Windows. a. Begin by switching to the JAWS application window. Press and hold down ALT and tap the TAB one or more times until the name "JAWS" is spoken. The JAWS application window is active as soon as you hear the name "JAWS" and you release ALT. If Program Manager and JAWS are your only two active applications, then JAWS will be the first name spoken. If you have additional applications running, then you will need to cycle through the list of application names to find JAWS. b. To activate the JAWS menu bar, press ALT. c. To find the name of the Voices menu on the menu bar, press your RIGHT ARROW. Press ENTER after JAWS says "voices". (The LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW are always used to move the selection cursor along the menu bar.) d. Press ENTER to choose the Global dialog. This dialog name is the top item in the Voices menu. Options for speech rate, speech volume, and other voice characteristics can be set in the Global dialog. (The UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW are used in a dropdown menu.) e. If you choose the wrong menu or the wrong dialog, just press ESCAPE to cancel your choice. If you press ESCAPE a second time, this deactivates the menu bar, however, the JAWS application window remains active. f. Press TAB to move forward to the next dialog option. JAWS tells you that you are on the rate scroll bar. Press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the volume scroll bar, which is where you began when the dialog box was first opened. If you want to move through the entire set of dialog options, you can press TAB until you return to the volume scroll bar. The SHIFT+TAB always moves you backward and the TAB always moves you forward through the set of options. g. To adjust speech rate, press TAB until JAWS identifies the rate scroll bar. Use your arrow keys to increase or decrease the speech rate. When you find the rate you like, press TAB to move on to another dialog option. Tip! To move more rapidly through the settings on the scroll bar, use your PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN. h. To adjust the volume of your synthesizer, press the TAB or SHIFT+TAB until JAWS identifies the volume scroll bar. Use your arrow keys to adjust the volume level, and press TAB to move on to another dialog option. TIP! If you use the highest number for volume, and your synthesizer still does not speak loud enough, then you may need to use a volume knob on the synthesizer to boost the volume. i. You also can use the preceding steps to adjust the other options in the Global dialog, or to adjust the options in the other dialogs of the Voices menu. If you are unsure of which keys to press when setting a dialog option, then press INSERT+F1 to obtain screen sensitive help. If you want to re- read the text for the option you are currently on, then press CONTROL+DOWN ARROW. If you want a description of your location in the Windows environment, then press INSERT+T. If you want information about the purpose of the dialog option itself, then press F1 for context help. Press ALT+F4 to exit context help when you are done reading. j. When you are satisfied with the changes you made, and you are ready to leave the dialog, then press ENTER. This automatically selects the OK button. Your new settings stay in effect until you change them. Voice settings are automatically saved when you exit Windows. If you want to cancel the changes you made in the dialog, then press ESCAPE, or press TAB until you find the cancel button, and then press ENTER. Any of the preceding actions ends your use of the dialog and returns you to the JAWS application window. At this point, you can press ALT+TAB to switch back to Program Manager. 4. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CURSORS When you use JAWS with Windows, you have two cursors: the PC cursor and the JAWS cursor. Generally, the PC cursor is directly linked to the operation of Windows applications. It is connected with the use of standard Windows keyboard commands. For example, when you use Windows Program Manager, you may feel as if the speech pad keys are moving a cursor as you make selections even though a cursor is not visible. The term Selection Cursor is used in this situation to indicate that a highlight bar or dotted box is being moved to select an icon or a menu item. When you are asked to "use your selection cursor", this means that you are to use your PC cursor to highlight an icon or menu item. The JAWS Cursor can be freely moved around within the active window to read information that often cannot be read with the PC cursor. The JAWS cursor can read information at any time without disrupting the status or operation of Windows. It actually moves the mouse pointer, which means it can be used with the JAWS mouse buttons to select, drag, and choose. Use of the mouse pointer and mouse buttons are discussed later in this chapter. To activate the PC cursor, press PLUS on the speech pad. The PC cursor is active when JAWS is first loaded. To activate the JAWS cursor, press MINUS on the speech pad. The two cursors perform different tasks, and speech pad keys may work differently depending on which cursor is being used. When you press a keyboard command, JAWS checks to see which cursor is active, and determines whether the key stroke should be passed on to Windows or used to initiate a JAWS screen reading function. JAWS screen reading functions do not interfere with Windows and can be used at any time. When you press the MINUS on the speech pad, JAWS indicates that you are using the JAWS cursor, and the speech pad keys move the JAWS cursor. The PC cursor remains at its current location until it is moved by a Windows command. Even though the JAWS cursor is active, you can still type text with the alphabet keys and use other Windows keyboard commands. When you press the PLUS, on the speech pad, JAWS speaks the name of the cursor, and speech pad commands are again directly linked to Windows. The JAWS Cursor stays stationary when the PC cursor is being used, and it remains in a fixed location until it is activated again, or until it is used by JAWS to carry out a special screen reading function. 5. STOPPING AND LIMITING SPEECH You can Stop the Speaking of Information at any time by pressing either the CONTROL key or the SHIFT key. The pressing of these keys does not affect the current activity being performed by Windows. You can control the amount of descriptive information that JAWS speaks by choosing different Verbosity settings. Use INSERT+V to rotate through the three verbosity levels. The "beginner" verbosity level provides the maximum information about the Windows environment. If you are a new Windows user, then you should keep the verbosity level set to the maximum level to obtain comprehensive descriptions. The other two verbosity levels provide less information, and are used by more experienced Windows users. When the beginner level is used, for example, JAWS says the word "dialog" after the title of a dialog box is spoken. It also describes dialog options according to their function, i.e., button, check box, etc. 6. LEARNING BY DOING In order to correctly understand the use of keyboard commands, it is important for you to understand two words that are used throughout Windows. Select To Select an Item, you must point to the item with the selection cursor. The selection cursor can be thought of as a pointer which identifies the item you wish to use. Windows uses highlighting and/or a dotted rectangle to indicate the "selected" item. JAWS speaks the selected item to confirm the fact that it has been selected. Mouse users use a single click of the left mouse button when they select an item. Choose When you Choose an Item, you are implementing or starting an activity. Normally, you first select an item, and then you choose it. This two step process is a standard Windows convention. In most cases, selecting an item will not initiate an activity; you must also choose it. For example, you use your arrow keys to select the name of an application in Program Manager, and then you press ENTER to start the application. Mouse users choose items when they double click the left mouse button. 6.1 Switching Between Applications The easiest way for us to explain how to work with Windows and JAWS is to have you try the commands we describe. If possible, try out each keyboard command as we introduce it. If you only have installed Windows and JAWS on your PC, then Windows will have two "running" applications when it starts -- JAWS and Program Manager. A Running Application is a software program that has been started and is ready for use. If you have set up Windows to load additional applications, then you could have a number of other applications that also are ready for immediate use. The ALT+TAB is used to switch between running applications. It can be used in two different ways. It can be used to toggle back and forth between two applications, or it can be used to switch to any of the applications that are currently running in Windows. a. Press INSERT+T to have JAWS speak the title of the current window. A title bar is located at the top of each window. Next, press ALT+TAB to toggle back to the previously opened Window. Press ALT+TAB again, to return to the first application Window. Whenever you press and release ALT+TAB you toggle back and forth between the two most recently used applications. b. The ALT+TAB also can be used to rotate through the entire list of applications running in Windows. To do this, hold down ALT and tap the TAB one or more times. It is important to not release the ALT key until you hear the name of the application you wish to use. Each time you press TAB, while ALT is held down, you "select" a different application name from the set of running applications. When you release the ALT, after hearing an application name, then you "choose" that application, and it becomes the active application. The Active Application is simply the program that you are currently using. A running application is simply a program that has been started, but is not the active application. You can use INSERT+T to read the name of the active application. 6.2 Starting Applications with Program Manager Since we are about to discuss commands that involve the use of icons, we need to discuss these graphic symbols. In the simplest terms, an Icon is a small symbol or picture that represents something. An icon can represent an application, a group window, or a document window. Most icons also include a text description, and the icon and its description appear together on the desktop. Icons can represent running applications such as Program Manager and JAWS. Icons also can represent group windows in Program Manager, and applications that can be started from within a Program Manager group window. This may sound complicated, but it really isn't when you use JAWS to read your desktop. Windows Program Manager is primarily used to start applications, and to manage the way applications work together. To use Program Manager, you must make it the active application. To find out which application is currently active, press INSERT+T, and JAWS will tell you which application you are using. If JAWS tells you that you are using Program Manager, then you are ready for the next step. If JAWS identifies some other application, then use your ALT+TAB to activate Program Manager. Hold down ALT and press TAB until JAWS says "program manager", then release ALT. a. After activating Program Manager, press CONTROL+TAB to move between its group windows. JAWS speaks the name of the newly selected group each time you press CONTROL+TAB. Each Program Manager Group contains application icons that can be used to start applications. Program Manager can have many groups, and you can cycle through the entire set of groups by pressing CONTROL+TAB. If you keep pressing this combination of keys, you eventually return to the first group. You can move in a backward direction through the groups by using CONTROL+SHIFT+TAB. This last command means that you are to hold down both the CONTROL and SHIFT at the same time, and then press TAB. b. Use your CONTROL+TAB to find the Accessories group. c. If the group window is open and application icons are displayed, then JAWS speaks the name of the group and speaks the name of the selected application icon. If the group is closed, JAWS only speaks the name of the group. You can press INSERT+5 on the speech pad to have JAWS identify the icon that is currently selected. If JAWS says something such as "accessories icon" when you press INSERT+SPEECH PAD 5, then this means the group window is closed and appears on the desktop as an icon. If JAWS reads the name of a group followed by the name of an application such as "write", then this means the group is open, and the selection cursor is pointing to an application icon. d. If the Accessories group is closed, then press ENTER to open it. e. Next you need to look for an application icon for the Windows Notepad program. Use your arrow keys to move around within the group window to read the names of the icons. The icons may be displayed in more than one row, so you can use all four of your arrow keys to move between the program icons in a group box. When JAWS says "notepad", this means that the selection cursor is pointing to the application icon for the Notepad program. You also can press a letter key on your keyboard to jump to a specific program icon. If you press "N", then the selection cursor jumps to Notepad. Before we start the Notepad program, you might want to use screen sensitive help to obtain instructions for starting applications. Press INSERT+F1 for screen sensitive help. 6.3 Using a Windows Application Since our goal is to use the Notepad program, use your arrow keys to find the program icon in the Accessories group, and press ENTER to start the program. JAWS speaks the name of the program as soon as it is loaded, and reminds you that you are using an untitled document. At this point you can type text in the empty document window. Please go ahead and type a couple sentences. Please note! Notepad is a text editor and your typing will extend beyond the margins of the window. Thus you should use your ENTER key to return the cursor to the left margin after filling up a line. It also is possible to activate "word wrap" in Notepad's Edit menu to force Notepad to wrap text from line to line as you type. Now that you have some text on the screen, you can practice reading it. Use UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW to move up and down in the document. Use LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW to move left and right by individual letters. Use INSERT+LEFT ARROW and INSERT+RIGHT ARROW to move to the prior and next words. Use INSERT+UP ARROW to read the current line, INSERT+SPEECH PAD 5 to read the current word, and SPEECH PAD 5 to read the current character. Use INSERT+DOWN ARROW to read the entire application window, and CONTROL+DOWN ARROW to read the document window. 6.4 Using the Application Menu Bar to Improve Desktop Readability The size of the active window determines the amount of information that is displayed in the window, and may affect the readability of the window. With some applications, you will need to maximize the size of the active window to enable JAWS to properly read information on the desktop. JAWS cannot perform properly when parts of words and pieces of graphics are cut off from the screen display. Use the suggestions in this section when you believe information is missing or when JAWS does not seem to be reading properly. We will use Notepad to describe the use of the menu bar, so if Notepad is not your active application, then please choose its icon from the Accessories group of Program Manager. Activate the menu bar by pressing ALT. The ALT activates the menu bar in any Windows application. Now you can use your LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW to read the menu names on the bar. Windows menu bars are usually very similar to one another and commonly have menu names such as: files, edit, search, options, and help. If you want to maximize the size of the active application window, then follow these steps. a. Use the arrow keys to find the application control menu on the menu bar. JAWS says "application control menu" when the selection cursor encounters the icon that identifies the menu. Press ENTER to display the menu. If you make a mistake and choose the wrong menu name, press ESCAPE to close the menu. b. Most applications have an Application Control Menu which is used to manage the application itself. Use your UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW to read through the list of menu items. c. Among the menu items on the list are "restore", "minimize" and "maximize". Press ENTER when JAWS says "maximize". When you Maximize an Application Window in this way, you expand the size of the window to the largest size possible. If you had chosen to Minimize an Application Window, then the application would have been reduced to an icon. When you choose to Restore an Application Window, the window is returned to its standard size. After you choose any of these commands, the menu bar closes. Some applications have two control menus. In addition to the application control menu, they also have a Child Window Control Menu to manage documents or group boxes. A Child Window is a window that exists totally within an application window, and might contain the text of a document, a spreadsheet, or Program Manager icons. For example, some word processors allow you to open several documents and to place each of them in a separate document window. These programs use a document control menu to manage the documents that are displayed in the various child windows. You can minimize, maximize, restore, and switch between child windows by using the child window control menu. TIP! If you find that information in a child window is difficult to read, use its control menu to maximize the child window. If it does not have a control menu, then maximize the application window. The standard Windows shortcut key for activating the control menu for a child window is ALT+HYPHEN, and the shortcut key for the application control menu is ALT+SPACEBAR. A more complete description of child windows, parent windows, and DOS windows is presented in Chapter 1 of our Windows Reference. 6.5 Using the Mouse Pointer to Quit an Application Even though your document may be a creative masterpiece, we are not going to save it. We are instead going to quit the Notepad program. There are several ways to do this. The ALT+F4 is the universal command for quitting any application, however, we are going to use the JAWS cursor and the mouse pointer to exit Notepad. We are only using this approach to demonstrate the use of the mouse keys, and recommend the standard use of ALT+F4 to exit applications. a. Press MINUS on the speech pad to activate the JAWS cursor. If you wish, you can take some time to read around the active window. Use your arrow keys to do this. b. Next press PAGE UP to take the JAWS cursor to the top of the Notepad application window. Read the information on this line by pressing your INSERT+UP ARROW. c. Now press DOWN ARROW. The JAWS cursor should read the names on the menu bar. Press HOME to move the JAWS cursor to the beginning of text on the line. Press INSERT+SPEECH PAD 5 to read the current word. JAWS should say "files". If it doesn't, then use your arrow keys to move the JAWS cursor to "files". d. With your JAWS cursor pointing to "Files", click the left JAWS mouse button. This is the Slash key "/" on the speech pad. When you click on a menu name, you display its menu. e. The files menu is now displayed and you could use your arrow keys and ENTER to choose the exit command. However, we will instead continue to use our JAWS cursor and mouse keys. Press INSERT+MINUS to activate your JAWS cursor and to route it to the position of the selection cursor. Now move the JAWS cursor down the list of menu items with the DOWN ARROW. When the JAWS mouse pointer is on "exit", then click the left mouse button, i.e. SLASH. This chooses the Exit dialog. f. The Exit dialog asks you whether you want to save your document. At this point the PC cursor has been turned on and you can press DOWN ARROW to select the No button, and press ENTER to choose it. You then will return to the Accessories group window of Program Manager. g. You can close the Accessories group window by pressing CONTROL+F4. This command can be used in many applications to close a child window. In Program Manager, it closes a group window, and in a word processing program, it closes a document window. Regardless of what the child window is called, the shortcut key for closing the active child window is CONTROL+F4. 6.6 Using Help In Windows, there are generally two resources that can be used to get help as you use an application. Context Help provides information about the use of a program option or setting, and is most often used with dialog boxes. On-Line Documentation can be thought of as an application program's instruction manual that is used to learn about how to use the application. JAWS has context help, on-line documentation, and an additional type of help call screen sensitive help. Screen Sensitive Help is used when you want JAWS to describe the function of the current window or dialog option. For example, if you were using the Open File dialog box and were trying to choose a file from the file list, then you could use screen sensitive help to learn about keyboard commands that can be used in this specific situation. To use context help for JAWS or any other application, press F1. If context help is available for the current situation, then one or more windows of information will be presented. To quit context help and return to the application, press ALT+F4. Some application programs do not provide context sensitive help and they will not respond when you press F1. Context help is always available when you are using the JAWS menu bar and its dialogs. Simply press F1 to activate help for the menu item or dialog option which is currently highlighted by the selection cursor. If you want general help regarding the dialog box itself, then choose the help button in the dialog box. Once you open a help screen by pressing F1 or the help button, you have immediate access to all on-line documentation for JAWS, and you can jump to any of the JAWS manuals. When you are done using help, press ALT+F4 to exit help and return to the JAWS menu or dialog you had been using. To use on-line documentation for JAWS, you follow the same process that you would use for any other application that has on-line help. First activate the application window for the program by using ALT+TAB. You also can jump to the JAWS application Window by using the INSERT+J hot key. Next, press ALT+H to activate the Help menu, and then choose "Contents". This takes you to the opening menu of the JAWS help system. When you are done using on-line help, press ALT+F4. Some applications also may have an on-line documentation icon in their Program Manager group box which can be used to activate on-line help. Additionally, some programs such as JAWS, have a Quick Reference item in the Help menu. This is a list of JAWS commands and Windows keyboard commands that can be activated at any time from within the JAWS application window. The quick reference can also be activated from within the on-line help system for JAWS. When you have finished using the quick reference or any application program's on-line help, press ALT+F4 to exit the help program. Screen sensitive help can be used with any windows application. Simply press INSERT+F1 to obtain a description of the type of window or dialog option you are currently using. When this type of help is used, you do not need to press ALT+F4 to exit help, because the help message is spoken without activating the JAWS help system. 6.7 Quitting JAWS and Windows If you wish to Quit JAWS, and to continue to use Windows without a screen reader, then press INSERT+F4. You can also quit JAWS by activating the JAWS application window and pressing ALT+F4. When you have completed your work in the Windows environment, it is best to Quit Windows before turning off your computer. It is not necessary to quit JAWS before you quit Windows. However, you should quit all other applications with open data files before quitting Windows so that your data can be safely saved. Use these steps to exit Windows. a. Use ALT+TAB to activate the Program Manager. b. Press ALT+F4 to quit Windows. You will be asked to confirm your decision to exit by pressing the OK button. Press ENTER to choose the button. If you start to quit Windows and you have an open application window with data that has not been saved, then Windows prevents you from exiting. In some cases, JAWS may already have become silent and it does not speak the dialog message which warns you of this situation. If this happens and Windows appears to be waiting for a response, then press ESCAPE. JAWS will speak the warning message, and you can then close any open applications. 7. LOCATION OF ADDITIONAL REFERENCE INFORMATION This chapter was designed to provide a foundation for working with JAWS in the Windows environment. Remaining chapters in this manual provide additional details on topics that were discussed here, and introduce additional JAWS screen reading tools. Chapter 2 describes keyboard commands that are used when the PC cursor is active. Chapter 3 describes keyboard commands that are used when the JAWS cursor is active. Chapter 4 describes the use and functions of the JAWS menu bar. If you found, after reading this chapter, that you want to learn more about Windows, then please listen to our training tapes and read the first chapter in our Windows Reference. Additionally, you can obtain numerous books and reference manuals on the topic of Windows from Recordings for the Blind, Inc. Contact one of their reference librarians for a list of Windows Related Publications. Some publications are available on cassette tape and others are offered in electronic text format.