SECTION TEN THE VE CURSOR 10.1: INTRODUCTION You have already learned the power of Vocal-Eyes' review mode. Once you enter review mode, your underlying applications program is suspended while you review the screen or make certain settings. Once you exit review mode, your applications program is resumed exactly where you left it. You have no fear of disturbing your applications program while in review mode. We have added an additional means of reviewing your screen. This method is known as the VE cursor. 10.2: VE CURSOR VERSUS REVIEW MODE The VE cursor allows you to review the screen without suspending your underlying applications program. Also, if you press a keystroke which is not a VE cursor command, it will be passed directly to your applications program. This means you do not have to exit review mode once you find what you are looking for. Which approach is better? Since Vocal-Eyes contains both approaches, we obviously believe both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. In other words, Vocal-Eyes once again, gives you the best of both worlds. This manual will not go into a comparison of both types. However, the remainder of this section is dedicated to the VE cursor. 10.3: THE VE CURSOR As we said before, review mode itself will shut down the underlying applications program while you review the screen or setup windows, etc. While in review mode, you have no fear of affecting the underlying applications program. Once you exit review, the applications program will be exactly were it was when you left it. The VE cursor, on the other hand, is an interactive review. This means you can review the screen like review mode but the underlying application is still running. If you type a keystroke which is not a VE command, Vocal-Eyes will allow the keystroke to pass to the applications program. You can control the VE cursor through the numeric keypad. All with one hand. If the VE cursor is enabled, the numeric keypad is dedicated to VE cursor commands. If you disable the VE cursor, the underlying applications program can use the numeric keypad. You may have noticed option 53: VE cursor in the hot keys menu. This is the keystroke to toggle the numeric keypad from the VE cursor to the applications program. The default for this hot key is the gray dash on the numeric keypad. Feel free to change this to whatever keystroke you wish. If you press the VE Cursor hot key (gray dash by default) Vocal- Eyes will toggle between the VE cursor and the applications cursor. Once the VE cursor is enabled, the numeric keypad can be used to review the screen as long as the numlock is disabled. If the numlock is on, the application program will receive the keystrokes. Only if the VE cursor is active and the numlock is off will the VE cursor keys respond. If you have a 101-key keyboard, the dedicated cursor pad (inverted T) and "six- pack" (INSERT, HOME, PgUp, PgDn, DELETE, and END) will never be affected by the VE cursor. Your applications program will always have control of these keys regardless of the VE cursor state. When you enter the standard review mode, the review cursor is located at the same point as the applications cursor. When you first activate the VE cursor, the VE cursor position will be at the top left of the screen. From that point on, the VE cursor will be at the point it was last. This position is even saved with the .SET file. If you find a location you always want the VE cursor to start at, simply move the VE cursor to that position and save the .SET file to disk. Now when you load the .SET file back from disk, the VE cursor will default to your new location. Unlike the review cursor, the VE cursor is not visible on the screen. Since the VE cursor is interactive, a large cursor cannot be displayed on the screen as this might interfere with the underlying application. The VE cursor can be used anytime during your session with Vocal-Eyes. You can use it while in review mode, in the voice control panel, or in the help screens. The VE cursor may be especially helpful if you wish to review the help screens a line, word or even character at a time instead of the standard screenful. Using the VE cursor while in review mode means you actually are tracking three different areas on the screen. You have the applications cursor position, the standard review cursor position, and the VE cursor position. Although this would rarely happen, Vocal-Eyes gives you the opportunity for those occasions. 10.4: VE CURSOR COMMANDS As we said, in order to use the VE cursor, you must first enable it by pressing the VE cursor hot key. By default this is the gray dash located on the numeric keypad. This key will toggle between the applications cursor and the VE cursor. Press this hot key to activate the VE cursor. Now, make sure the numlock key is off. If numlock is on, the numeric keypad can be used as normal with the applications program even with the VE cursor active. Assuming you have the VE cursor active and the numlock off, press the down arrow key, which is also labeled the number two. Keep pressing this key. Notice Vocal-Eyes is reading the screen from the top down. Remember, the first time you enable the VE cursor it will start at the top left of the screen. If you press any of the standard hot keys such as read current word or line, Vocal-Eyes will read relative to the applications cursor. Keeping this distinction allows for less confusion. With the VE cursor active, you effectively have two points on the screen you can read very quickly. For example, the standard hot keys are relative to the applications cursor and the numeric keypad is relative to the VE cursor position. Before we continue further, lets discuss the first set of VE cursor commands. Remember, these are only active if the VE cursor is active and the numlock is off. Also, remember the VE cursor commands are relative to the full screen regardless of the currently selected window coordinates. - 7 or HOME will move the VE cursor to column 1 of the current line. - 1 or END will move the VE cursor to the first space after the last printable character on the current line, i.e. the end of the line. - 8 or UP arrow will move the VE cursor to the previous line and read it. If you prefer to speak the new character or word instead, you can use the "V" command in review mode to setup your choice. The VE cursor also follows this setting. - 2 or DOWN arrow will move the VE cursor to the next line and read it. As for the up arrow, you can use the "V" command in review mode to change this to read the new character or word instead. - 9 or PgUp will move the cursor to the top left of the screen. - 3 or PgDn will move the cursor to the first column of the last line. - 4 or LEFT arrow will move the cursor left and read the character. - 6 or RIGHT arrow will move the cursor right and read the character. - 5 or CENTER key will read the character currently under the VE cursor. If pressed a second time, the character will be pronounced phonetically. - Period or DELETE will speak the current VE cursor position. - Gray plus key will route the application cursor position to the VE cursor position. The routing technique used here is just like the technique used in review mode. If the application program supports the four arrow keys and will allow you to move the application cursor to the position of the VE cursor, Vocal-Eyes should have no problem routing the cursor. Just like routing the review cursor, you may have to adjust the route delay value using option 17 in the general menu. Notice how these keys are laid out on the keypad. This should help you remember what each key does. All of these commands are nice, but there are even more. We have setup the 0 or insert key as a sort of shift key. If you hold this key down and press any of the keys just described, you will get new results. The following list describes each of the keys again assuming you are holding down the 0 or insert key. This is a very handy key to press and hold using your right thumb while pressing the desired key with your right fingers. - 7 or HOME will read the text from the beginning of the line up to the VE cursor. - 9 or PgUp will read the text from the VE cursor to the end of the line. - 8 or UP arrow will read the current line. - 4 or LEFT arrow will move the VE cursor left by word and read the word. - 6 or RIGHT arrow will move the VE cursor right by word and read the word. - 5 or CENTER key will speak the word currently under the VE cursor. Pressing it twice will spell it and three times will spell it phonetically. As always, while it is spelling, the speech rate will be lowered by a value of two. - 1 or END will read the first line of the screen - 3 or PgDn will read the last line of the screen - 2 or DOWN arrow will read everything from the VE cursor to the end of the screen. - period or DELETE will read the applications cursor position. - Gray plus will route the VE cursor to the application cursor position. While in VE cursor mode, you have access to the full screen. You are not limited by the current window coordinates. 10.5: EXAMPLES OF THE VE CURSOR With a few examples, the usefulness of the VE cursor may become clear. Example 1: Suppose you are downloading information via a modem and your communications software. What if you wanted to review the screen during the downloading? If you enter review mode, your download would probably be aborted because the communications software would be suspended. But, if you activate the VE cursor, you can cursor around the screen during the download without fear of interfering with the download. However, if you have the visual tracking enabled, even the VE cursor can tie up the machine long enough to abort a download. Because Vocal-Eyes needs the total attention of the machine while highlighting each word, the application program may be suspended for a short time. Therefore, if you want to use the VE cursor with programs that should not be suspended, you may want to make sure the visual tracking is disabled which is the default. Example 2: What if you have to locate something on the screen often but you don't want to enter and exit review mode each time? Once you find what you are looking for, you want to continue on with your applications program. This would be a good case for using the VE cursor. Simply move the VE cursor to the point of interest. With the VE cursor still active, you can type to the applications program and use the standard hot keys to give you information relative to the applications cursor. You can also use the numeric keypad to give you information relative to your VE cursor position. This means you can be looking at two totally different areas of the screen at the same time as well as being able to directly communicate with the applications program.