Handy Tip For JAWS 7.0 and 8.0

Today on the Blind Tech Mailing List someone posted a tip which I think will be quite handy for a lot of people who are using JAWS 7.0 or 8.0. The tip does not work if you have a version of JAWS that is under 7.0.

If you press the insert key plus the windows key plus the F4 key combination, JAWS will shut down and close other processes that are asociated with it. This keystroke would be handy because as most of you may have experienced before, JAWS sometimes will not respond. For people who are just starting to use their computers, they will think of shutting down the computer and for those of us who are more experienced with the computer, we just go in to the task manager and shut down the process. There is a problem to that though. What if there is a process that also starts with the letter J besides the JAWS process? Well in either case, those two ways would take pretty long.

Now you are probably wondering how on earth you are going to access the keystroke. Well, there are several different ways to do it. The way I would do it is by using your left hand and hold the insert key and put your thumb on the windows key, and finally hit the F4 key with your index finger. The other way is by holding the insert key with your left hand, pressing the windows key with your thumb and use your middle finger to hit the F4 key.

Just as a reminder to all, this keystroke only works with JAWS 7.0 and 8.0. I hope you find this tip handy.

Skype Scripts for JAWS Updated

Doug Lee has posted Revision 455 of his JAWS scripts for Skype. You can retrieve it at
http://dlee.org/skype.

Updated JAWS Scripts Available for Skype 3.2

The Skype scripts for JAWS have been updated to 416. You can get it by
clicking here.

HomerKit 2.1 Released

Executable installer
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.exe

Zip archive
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.zip

HomerKit 2.1
Released May 23, 2007

Fixed The Select Chunk command, Control+Space, not extending the selection
with subsequent key presses. Fixed the Jump command, Control+J, going to
the line before the one specified.

Fixed common dialogs, such as Open File, Save File, or Browse for Folder,
sometimes not becoming the active window when used for the first time.
Restored the native functionality of Alt+RightArrow, Alt+LeftArrow, and
Control+Q in Internet Explorer (IE), as well as F4 in Microsoft
Outlook/Outlook Express (OL). Worked around a couple of key conflicts
between Homer bookmark commands and JAWS/IE placemarker commands: now use
Alt+Shift+K to set a temporary placemarker, and JAWSKey+Control+K to
select a placemarker. In JAWS Script Manager, assigned Alt+D to delete
the current script or function definition, and made it read the current
line afterward.

Fixed the message list window not being recognized in Outlook Express. In
OL, improved reliability of the Save or Append commands, Control+S or
Control+Shift+S. Like in IE, Control+S proposes a unique file name, using
a numeric suffix if needed. Control+Shift+S lets you append text on the
same topic.

Made the executable installer initialize the Perl component, thus avoiding
an initial delay during subsequent user tasks. More precisely, this
component is initialized the first time in a JAWS session that a
Homer-supported application window is activated, including a page in
Internet Explorer.

Homer scripts may be deleted in order to restore the functionality of
scripts by Freedom Scientific in the All Users script folder. a new batch
file, called DelAppScripts.bat, may assist with this procedure. It does
not remove the core Homer script library files (those matching Homer* and
Editor*), but effectively uninstalls the application script sets by
deleting their files. It may be run from the Homer subfolder of the user
script folder, either in Windows Explorer or at a command prompt.

Corrected hot key summaries for IE and OL -- presented with JAWSKey+H in
the virtual viewer or Alt+Shift+H in a text editor. Added a description
of JAWS Script Exchange (JSX) to the Miscellaneous Tools section of the
documentation for the Homer script library (HomerLib.htm).

Jamal

New Windows Media Player 11 Guide Using JAWS and Magnification Software From David Bailes

David Bailes from the UK, has put up a new software guide entitled,
Windows Media Player 11.
He has also made other guides free of charge so if you are interested, you can
click this link
to go to his software guides.

TextPal 3.6 with more JAWS scripting & other support

TextPal is an excellent text editor. You can get TextPal which is developed by Jamal Mazrui, at the following link:

http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/palsetup.exe

Here are the details of the enhancements and fixes found in this version.

Version 3.6
Released May 1, 2007

Fixed TextPal treating a document as having been modified after a search
and replace with no matches. Replaced the Word Wrap Toggle command with
Control+W to turn this setting on and Control+Shift+W to turn it off.
Control+Shift+J is the new key for joining (wrapping) lines with hard line
breaks.

Modified the Yield command, Alt+Y, to operate on selected text rather than
all text when a selection is in effect. Made TextPal say "characters"
instead of "bytes" when reporting the size of a file or selection.
Adjusted the optional JAWS scripts so that PageUp and PageDown read the
current line after navigating by screen.

These scripts now require at least JAWS 6.2. They use the latest Homer
script library, available with other components of HomerKit at
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.exe
or
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/kitsetup.zip
The files Homer6.jsh, Homer6.jss, and Homer6.jsd, previously used by
TextPal, are now obsolete and may be manually removed from the user script
folder. They may also be left there without a resulting problem.

Changed enhanced navigation commands to be consistent with JAWS
conventions. Reassigned keys are as follows. Press Control+DownArrow or
Control+UpArrow to go to the next or previous paragraph, and then read it.
Press Alt+DownArrow or Alt+UpArrow to navigate by sentence.

Alt+RightArrow and Alt+LeftArrow are new commands to navigate by chunk. A
chunk is defined as a sequence of nonblank characters. It is usually, but
not always, the same as what Control+RightArrow or Control+LeftArrow
consider to be a word, since these keys stop at some punctuation marks.

In programming source code, press Alt+PageDown or Alt+PageUp to go to the
next or previous cdefinition of a class or function -- including a sub or
method. Press Control+I or Control+Shift+I to go to the next or previous
change in indentation (developed for Python). Press Tab or Shift+Tab to
indent or outdent the current or selected lines by one level.

As before, Control+Shift+R replaces with a regular expression, and
Control+Shift+E extracts. Now Control+Shift+C counts matches of a regular
expression without changing text.

The Export Script Dictionary command has been replaced by the more
powerful, Refresh JAWS Text command, JAWSKey+F5, for updating a .jss
(script source), .jsd (script dictionary), or .jkm (key map) file. If the
current editing window contains a .jss file, its routines are sorted
alphabetically, with functions placed before scripts. If a .jsd file, the
dictionary entries are syncronized with the corresponding .jss file. If a
.jkm file, the key assignments are sorted by script name.

PHP has been added to the list of languages with preconfigured support. If
you have an existing TextPal version installed, it is necessary to delete
the TextPal.ini configuration file before installing this in order for the
PHP settings to become available. The default file location is C:\Program
Files\TextPal\TextPal.ini

More precisely, at least the [Compilers] section of this file should be
deleted. Within TextPal, you can do this by pressing Alt+Shift+M for
Manual Options, and then either deleting that section or the whole file
with Alt+Shift+D.

After launching the new TextPal, use the Pick Compiler command,
Control+Shift+F5, to choose PHP settings. TextPal assumes that php.exe is
on the Windows search path, so if that is not the case, you may wish to
add it by going to the System applet of Control Panel, and then inserting
(assuming the default directory target of the latest PHP for Windows
installer)
C:\Program Files\PHP;
at the beginning of the Path environment variable on the Advanced tab
page.

The Compile command, Control+F5, would then perform a syntax check of the
PHP file in the current editing window. If an error is found, the cursor
moves to the start of that line. The error message spoken is abbreviated
to eliminate irrelevant output. If no syntax error is found, TextPal
simply says "Done!" To execute the file with the program associated with
its extension (usually .php), use the Run command, F5.

Jamal