brianhartgen's blog

I'm beginning to feel like the queen. Each year at Christmas, she delivers an annual message. But it is at this time of year where I have to give my very own annual message: my usual reminder about the upcoming version of JAWS and how our products fit into the upcoming public beta.

According to the FSCast podcast episode 219, the public beta of JAWS version 2023 will be available some time next week. So the question always arises: can our products be used with the public beta? I've had several enquiries about this already.

The short answer is no, you shouldn't use them. This is for two reasons.
First, we do not support a JAWS version until it is officially released, and that is usually at the end of October.
Second, you are not being fair to Vispero if you want to take part in the beta process.
For example, if you use our Zoom JAWS scripts, and you find a problem with compatibility with JAWS 2023, you may feel you ought to report that problem to Vispero. You are submitting a false report because our scripts will override the functionality offered as part of the JAWS 2023 product.

We're very gratified that people want to use our products, but please understand that if you do use them with JAWS 2023, we will not provide support under that condition. Moreover, we must absolutely insist please that you do not use Leasey or J-Say with JAWS 2023 public beta. In terms of Leasey, we do have a build which is working correctly with JAWS 2023, and that will be in testing as of next week. There will be updates to Leasey in September and October, but they will be for JAWS 2022.

The Zoom scripts have been updated to build 64 to take account of a compatibility issue with JAWS 2023, and the scripts for StationPlaylist and Microsoft Teams should be fine as well. But again, there are no guarantees.

To repeat, all our products will function with JAWS 2023 when it is released and we do not anticipate anyone having to wait to use them after that time.

Thank you.

Introduction.

Over the years at Hartgen Consultancy, we have produced training courses on a variety of different subjects. But we have never explored some of the useful tools within the operating system which drives your computer: Microsoft Windows.

Moreover, when our Jaw Muscles training course was delivered earlier in the year, what became clear was that some people were not aware of how to undertake some of the fundamentals of using Windows. This is not their fault at all. They simply have not received any formal training in the use of working with Windows in conjunction with access technology. It is as simple as that.

This training course, Opening Windows, hopes to assist in making life a little easier when undertaking some tasks within Windows. Even seasoned users may well pick up a tip or two. There is also a slight emphasis on the differences between Windows10 and Windows11 as people have requested that information.

It should be noted that our company is exclusively concerned with using Windows and applications with JAWS for Windows or Zoomtext Fusion products. It is recommended that JAWS version 2022 or 2023 are used if you wish to take advantage of what Windows11 has to offer.

Course Information.

The entire list of topics covered is as follows:

• Introduction.
• The Windows Taskbar.
• The Run Dialog.
• Feedback from the previous lesson.
• Mapping a drive letter to a folder.
• Windows Desktop shortcuts.
• An introduction to File Explorer in Windows11.
• The new menu bar in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Tabs in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Copying file and folder locations to the Clipboard in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Locating the Options Dialog in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Working with the Home area in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Tagging and searching for pictures in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• View items in File Explorer as part of Windows11.
• Setting up the Clipboard History in Windows10 and Windows11.
• Pasting text segments from the Clipboard History in Windows10 and Windows11.
• The Clipboard History in depth as part of Windows10 and Windows11.
• Emoji and signs in Windows10 and Windows11.
• Calculator basics.
• Convert currency.
• Convert temperature.
• Convert weight.
• Working with Windows Libraries Method 1.
• Working with Windows Libraries method 2.
• Customising the System Tray.
• The Windows System Configuration Utility.
• Windows updates.
• Visual effects.
• Uninstalling programs and apps.
• Freeing up storage space.
• Resetting a PC.
• General comments from Zoom participants.
• Customising alerts from applications.
• Customising Windows Notifications.

As will be seen below, the training course is provided in both audio and text formats.
Audio files and text transcripts are downloaded from a secure area of our website.

There are two versions of this training course.

1. The training will be delivered in exactly the way described above, including audio files and text transcripts.
The cost of this course option is £50 which is currently 60 US dollars.

2. However, we understand that some people need extra support when working through specific topics. We therefore present our second option. It gives you access to one hour of remote one on one training as well. This can be delivered in one session, or maybe in two thirty minute sessions. So if there is a specific area in which you are struggling, this gives you that extra flexibility of working it out on an individual basis with some additional tuition.

Alternatively, anyone can purchase either package by sending an Email to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon a fully accessible electronic invoice will be sent to you which can be paid through PayPal or any major credit or debit card.

Conclusion.

Many people purchase training courses from us each month to improve their computing skills. Get some top quality training this year in the use of the Windows operating system itself!

As a company we are now using a new method of providing Technical Support and training to customers.

We are now using the Remote Incident Manager application from Pneuma Solutions. This greatly assists us in providing excellent Technical Support together with making it far easier to diagnose and fix problems, particularly if JAWS is needing to be restarted multiple times which is often the case with complex installations and product activations.

What other advantages does the new solution have?

• we will not have to ask you to switch to the Eloquence speech synthesiser if you are using an alternative one. This is helpful so we can truly hear what you are experiencing with your preferred settings and speech rate.
• The sounds from Leasey, LeaseyGames, J-Say and other products will come across to our side. This includes Leasey Radio in stereo, sounds from Dragon NaturallySpeaking or anything similar.
• Activation issues can be more easily solved. If necessary for example, our product activation file can be copied straight across to your computer.
• A JAWS repair or new installation can be carried out remotely if necessary.
• JAWS can be restarted multiple times; ideal for testing products which have been newly installed. This saves an enormous amount of time.
• If JAWS is completely unusable for some reason, we can still rescue the situation. If necessary we will be able to remove any settings you may have and repair the screen-reader if that is appropriate. To repeat, this is despite JAWS not producing speech output.
• If we need to take a thorough detailed review of your JAWS settings files offline, so as to diagnose a specific problem you are having, we can with your permission and within a few seconds take a copy of them for examination.
• For people who are not especially proficient on the keyboard, there is no need to enter a complex meeting ID. A key word can be chosen which you can easily enter.
• A desktop shortcut is automatically created for the Remote Incident Manager application. This means that an easy to use Hot Key can be created to launch it, (again ideal for people who are less keyboard able), and it also means sighted assistants who are not proficient with using a computer can more readily assist as he or she can simply click it with the Mouse.
• If we are training you in the use of an application you do not have installed yet, we can allow you as a customer to see how it should function on one of our test machines. For example, if you were thinking about purchasing StationPlaylist Studio, we can give you a more realistic appreciation of what it would be like to use it.
• Usefully, Unattended Access gives us the ability to connect to your computer without you having to enter a key word. We have found this invaluable in situations where a person has no voice control of a computer and sighted assistance will not be available for several days. This happens more than you might think. We can connect to your computer and get you back up and running in a timely manner.

Notes about Unattended Access. First, you need to give permission for this to take place. Unattended Access can be set up during a remote session or we can provide you with a custom installer which will automatically configure it. This latter method is helpful since a sighted person for example can simply run the program if necessary which will quickly configure it. That person then does not need to be on hand when we need to get work done.

Second, and most important, your screen-reader will announce when we are connecting and disconnecting from the computer. You will be fully aware as and when a remote session is happening.

As you can see, there are many advantages to us and to you. We would like as many of our customers as possible to begin using Remote Incident Manager.

At the top of every page of our web site, you will now find a link to download Remote Incident Manager. Just activate the link and the software can be downloaded and installed. Alternatively if you are requesting support, we have a prepared Email containing instructions on how to download and install Remote Incident Manager.

Our Leasey and J-Say products now have Remote Incident Manager access built in. If RIM is not installed on the machine, when you execute the appropriate command it will be downloaded and installed automatically. If it is installed, the app is run, ready for you to enter a key word.

We look forward to working with you using the new technology.

Hi everyone

Many people will be aware that in the update to JAWS version 2022 just released, a feature is in place to support alerts and notifications sent by the focused application or Windows itself to the screen-reader. This was widely publicised in the Mosen at Large Podcast.

Of course, Jonathan Mosen, host of the podcast, provided an excellent demonstration of the capabilities of the Notification History feature, together with describing the kinds of alerts and notifications which are sent to JAWS and which potentially can be filtered out or viewed in a list.

In the interests of efficiency, some of our products have filtered out such alerts and notifications for some considerable time, so I want to tell you how our various products fit into the new tool Vispero are providing so you are not caught out.

To begin, my view is that this new tool is a very promising start to making it possible to extensively customise the speech and Braille output in such situations. However, what it does not do is:
A. Give you the ability to stop the announcement of Windows notifications. I work with many people in call centres, and they need a keystroke to disable them temporarily. This is also true in meetings. If you are presenting, you may not wish to hear them at all, which is why the Zoom scripts were initially developed. While I understand that it would be counterproductive to disable alerts which communicate essential aspects pertaining to what an application is telling you, Windows notifications and those from clients such as Teams are not essential, so there should be the ability to disable them.
B. It does not at this point give you the ability to abbreviate the output in so far as being able to give you only notification of a new Email which has arrived together with its author as Leasey and the scripts for Teams do. Hopefully however that will come in the next JAWS version.

Because of these points, the existing functions in the Leasey and Teams scripts especially will stay in place because people are relying on them.

What You Need to Know.

1. In both Teams and Leasey, if you want to create new rules in the new Notification History and have them acted upon rather than using our ability to abbreviate, you should press Insert+Space followed by Control+A until JAWS announces "You will be advised of new notifications in full". In fact this is the default setting, so if you've not changed an option in this regard there will be nothing to do.
2. If you use one of our tools to abbreviate notifications or to stop JAWS announcing them, these still work.
3. Zoom is a special case which is why I am sending this message to the Zoom Email list. Because the new Notification History list can only hold 500 entries, in consultation with me Vispero have made the decision to stop chat messages appearing there. Zoom alerts such as, "X has joined the call but cannot hear you yet", are displayed there unless you choose to filter them out. But any text chat messages will not get through. The Zoom scripts in any event do give you the ability to review them, and of course, to disable them from being spoken or sent to Braille.

I hope that clarifies where we are with the first run of this very welcome new JAWS feature.

This short blog post is being distributed with details of how some of our products will coexist with the upcoming July JAWS V2022 update.

There are some internal changes to JAWS coming which we have been aware of for some time. When such an update arrives, people naturally want to install it as quickly as possible to take advantage of what is new. We want to make sure that you are ready for the update which has required some careful management on our part.

If you are using our Leasey product, and in particular build 7060 which is the latest build at the time of writing, you do not need to do anything at all. You can safely install the new JAWS update when it arrives.
There will be a further Leasey update to come with new features, to be demonstrated in a webinar you can read about here.

If you have our Zoom scripts, you should check for updates now, which will update you to build 57.
If you have a combination of both Leasey and Zoom scripts, assuming you are on build 7060 of Leasey you do not need to do anything.

If you use our scripts for Microsoft Teams, or our J-Say product, updates for those will be available next week which will take account of these changes.
A feature update for J-Say will be released during the summer which version 20 users will get free access to.

Earlier this year, we introduced to you version 7 of our popular Leasey product. While Leasey is ideal for the complete computer beginner, by far the vast majority of people who work with Leasey would be intermediate to advanced JAWS users, since there are so many useful tools to enhance productivity and to make computing easier.

In version 7, we brought to you a small handful of new improvements. We did not think that was nearly enough. So our Summer Update includes many very significant new features we would like to celebrate, and we'd like to show them to you at a virtual event using the Zoom Conferencing platform. This event took place on Wednesday 29 June. We've never dedicated a virtual event to Leasey before, and this is exactly the right time to do so.

At the event, you will hear a demonstration of the new features and have the opportunity to ask any questions regarding them. There may well be questions you have as there is a lot to learn about!

We're very excited and proud of the new features we want to show to you, and we would like to thank our Beta Testing team who have put in a lot of hard work and suggestions to make these improvements happen.

Download the Leasey Event in Audio Format.

Download the Leasey Event in Text Format.

Hear the Mosen at Large Audio Podcast Including What's New in Leasey Version 7.

Read the Mosen at Large Text Presentation Including What's New in Leasey Version 7.

This blog post is being relayed to several of our Email lists.

We are shortly to begin moving premises which we have wanted to do for some considerable time. Because of the scale of what is involved, there will be a significant period in April of this year where usual service will be reduced.
We should like to thank you for your patience in advance, but the end result will ensure we can provide an even better service in the long-term.

Throughout each of the three weeks outlined below, we will do everything possible to ensure we meet all orders promptly and to fulfil urgent technical support queries.

The weeks affected are as follows:
Week beginning Monday 4 April. Reduced service. We will try to operate as close to our usual service as possible.
Week beginning Monday 11 April. Only very critical issues and satisfying orders will be attended to. There will be some days during this week when we are not operating at all.
Week beginning Monday 18 April. Reduced service. We will try to operate as close to our usual service as possible.
Week beginning Monday 25 April. Complete service will be resumed.

Again we thank you for your continued business and patience during this time.

These scripts are for the latest build of TeamViewer and were updated on 1 June 2022. No support is offered for the scripts and they are delivered at no cost.

When TeamViewer is focused, press F1 to obtain your user ID and password in the JAWS Virtual Viewer. Press Escape to close the Virtual Viewer and return to TeamViewer.

Download TeamViewer Scripts.

You may have come across a situation where you need to enter a character into your text edit area which is not present on your keyboard. As a basic example, what if you need to enter a pound sign and your keyboard layout does not accommodate it? This is where ALT codes come into play.

In some situations, there is a very nice and efficient way of entering such special characters by pressing and holding the ALT key, and simultaneously entering the character’s decimal value on the numeric keypad. This is where the term ALT codes comes from. For example, to enter the ellipsis, you could press and hold the ALT key, and enter 0133. This would give you the appropriate character. For the • character, you could enter the code 0149.
However, this requires you to turn NumLock on, (not intuitive for screen-reader users needing the NumPad), and this also presupposes that either there is a NumPad on your keyboard, or at least you can turn the central part of your keyboard into a numPad.

Unfortunately, on some modern notebooks, there are keyboards that do not have these possibilities. There is no NumLock key, and there is no mode to enter numbers, other than on the regular number row.

Sighted people experience this issue of being unable to enter ALT codes on modern notebook keyboards. There are two solutions to this one, and none of them works efficiently if you are blind. The solutions require you to use the Character Map application, or, alternatively, to use the On-Screen Keyboard to simulate NumLock.

For some time, JAWS has tried to replicate this functionality through its Insert Symbols dialog, JAWS Key+4. However, there are some problems with this.

• It is limited. It has only 49 symbols, and no way to add your own.
• It is not Unicode-aware.
• It does not expose ALT-values, nor does it allow you to enter ALT values. So, if your Style Manual tells you to type ALT+0171, this dialog is of no assistance.
• It has not been updated for many years.

What Can Leasey Do To Help?

Long-time JAWS user and beta tester Oleg Shevkun brought this problem to our attention. Oleg is from russia. He spends time preparing and hosting a daily program on Teos.Fm — a major Russian-language Christian Internet station. As part of this, he needs to write introductions to his programme segments, which must follow a certain style guide. Among other things, this includes the use of some characters that can be obtained with Alt-codes not ordinarily available to him on his keyboard.

Leasey version 7 now has a special tool for entering the ALT codes available. Pressing the key to start the process asks for the ALT code to be typed. For those who are very familiar with this practice, it is simply a matter of typing the code, pressing Enter and the relevant sign is inserted into the text area.
If the user presses the same keystroke again, the edit field contains the same code as previously entered in the event the sign needs to be repeated.

For those who are not familiar with the codes, if the edit field is vacant, pressing Enter will bring into view a list of all the ALT codes available. The description is given together with the code number. This serves two purposes. First, a code can be selected from the list and the Enter key pressed to insert the relevant sign. Second, giving the code values in this way helps anyone in learning them so that they can be entered manually at a later time, bypassing the list.

In the event a person prefers to use the list of codes constantly, focus never returns to the top of it each time it is entered. The option just used gains focus automatically in the event that the sign needs to be repeated.

Summary.

At Hartgen Consultancy, we think this is a useful tool which makes a Windows feature far easier to use than it otherwise would be and, as we've seen, in some situations it would be impossible to work with. It's the kind of feature which appeals to us and we hope Leasey users will benefit from it.

Leasey Version 7 Is Just a Few days Away!

Version 7 of our popular Leasey product is now available. Our beta testers have been hard at work testing the new improvements and features. We're extremely grateful for their dedication and support of this product.

We're now ready to let you know about the new improvements which are briefly outlined below. Our documentation describes the additions in full.
The documentation has been significantly revised to the extent that it is now close to 400 pages.
It is available as HTML, Microsoft Word format or DAISY text.
So that you do not need to struggle to read the entire document, we have placed the very significant changes on this page.

Leasey version 7 is a chargeable upgrade, so let's go through what you need to know about that.

If you have purchased Leasey from 1 December 2021 onwards, your upgrade is at no cost. With our products, we always have given a three month grace period to be as fair as possible to people who have only recently purchased it.

There is no pressure to upgrade Leasey. Your existing copy will not stop working, nor will it do so if you decide to uninstall it and reinstall at a later time. You'll know already that Leasey version 6 is working alongside JAWS version 2022 so you have excellent support there. However, if you would like any of the below changes or fixes moving forward, you will need to use Leasey version 7.

If you are using an older version of Leasey, for example version 5, the cost is the same as upgrading from version 6 to 7. We never charge for incremental upgrades.

Leasey Version 7 upgrade is priced £25 which is approximately $33.
You can pre-order and upgrade Leasey here.

New Features.

So let's dive in and see what's new.

Fixed or changed in the most recent build.

Atmosphere Radio has been added to the Dance radio category.

When viewing the list of ALT Codes, they are now displayed in alphabetical order.

The function to cause JAWS to announce the time using hours, minutes and
seconds is now restored to the Leasey Clock menu.

If you install Leasey 7 as a new user rather than upgrading, you cannot
install the LeaseyGames.

If you press Control+Shift+A in Microsoft Edge to disable the additional
verbosity, the setting is not retained if JAWS is restarted.

The keystroke to move to the next link of any type in a Chrome-based browser
and Edge is changed from Leasey Key space to full-stop or period by itself.

If you use the default JAWS command to append text to the Windows Clipboard,
Windows Insert C, it now works with the new Leasey
quick select facility.

If you try to select text within a "read only" Outlook message you no longer receive an unknown function call.

If you select a word in a document, and then use a LeaseySearch tool such as
Wikipedia, Google or Oxford Dictionary, the selected word is now in the edit
field.

The new keystrokes for VLC bookmarking are now listed correctly in Hotkey
Help.

Brilliance for BrailleSense.

In version 6 of Leasey, we introduced Elegance for ElBraille. Rather than remembering lots of often complex key sequences, it is possible to use the Braille input keyboard on the ElBraille or a Focus Braille display to very easily control your computer just by typing logical commands, such as, Windows Space D, to move to the Windows desktop.
Absolutely no thought or learning required. If you know the Windows or screen-reading keystrokes to use ordinarily, you can use your ElBraille in a matter of minutes.

We're very glad to be able to bring to you the same functionality using the BrailleSense in terminal screen-reading mode. Once the BrailleSense has communication with JAWS, you have exactly the same functionality to control your PC, carry out screen-reading commands, create abbreviations to common Windows functions and more.

Improved text Selection.

Since people began to meet Leasey, we have always had the ability to more easily select text in many applications. When text is selected, you can of course manipulate it in any way you choose.

You can still work in the same way as you always have by marking the start and end points of the potential selection. But now, you can save yourself some keystrokes. Mark the start point of the selection, but you do not need to mark the end point. Just place the cursor at the potential end point and use a command such as Control+C for copy or Control+B in Microsoft Word. You are also able to copy such text to a LeaseyClip.

Protecting LeaseyClips.

By customer request, we've added the ability to protect LeaseyClips from being overwritten. Once protected, and you try to copy new text to the same clip, Leasey will prevent you from overwriting it.

Removing Microsoft Edge Announcements.

Ordinarily, as you carry out actions in Microsoft Edge, such as when loading a new web page into the browser, you will hear messages such as "Loading Page". You can now stop these announcements from being spoken by JAWS.

Relocating Previous Web Page Position.

If you move to a new web page by pressing Enter on a link, and then go back to the previous page, there are often times where focus is lost from the position where you left off reading. You can now press a keystroke to relocate the previous position. Note that this also works within Microsoft Outlook. So, having activated a link from within an Email message, and you return to it, if the cursor position is lost the keystroke can be pressed to relocate it.

Scripts for APH Studio Recorder.

We've added a comprehensive set of JAWS scripts to support the APH Studio Recorder application. In addition to giving you convenient keystrokes for reading important information, they also include a facility to reverse the functionality of audio playback and pause with Space and Enter. For those people using applications such as Sound Forge, this makes the transition to Studio Recorder much easier.

Browsing 7 Digital.

Access to the 7 Digital music service has now been added to LeaseySearch. This gives access to high quality music files for purchase.

ALT Codes.

You may have come across a situation where you need to enter a character into your text edit area which is not present on your keyboard. As a basic example, what if you need to enter a pound sign and your keyboard layout does not accommodate it? This is where ALT codes come into play.

In some situations, there is a very nice and efficient way of entering such special characters by pressing and holding the ALT key, and simultaneously entering the character’s decimal value on the numeric keypad. This is where the term ALT codes comes from. For example, to enter the ellipsis, you could press and hold the ALT key, and enter 0133. This would give you the appropriate character. For the • character, you could enter the code 0149.
However, this requires you to turn NumLock on, (not intuitive for screen-reader users needing the NumPad), and this also presupposes that either there is a NumPad on your keyboard, or at least you can turn the central part of your keyboard into a numPad.

Leasey version 7 now has a special tool for entering the ALT codes available. Pressing the key to start the process asks for the ALT code to be typed. For those who are very familiar with this practice, it is simply a matter of typing the code, pressing Enter and the relevant sign is inserted into the text area.
If the user presses the same keystroke again, the edit field contains the same code as previously entered in the event the sign needs to be repeated.

For those who are not familiar with the codes, if the edit field is vacant, pressing Enter will bring into view a list of all the ALT codes available. The description is given together with the code number. This serves two purposes. First, a code can be selected from the list and the Enter key pressed to insert the relevant sign. Second, giving the code values in this way helps anyone in learning them so that they can be entered manually at a later time, bypassing the list.

In the event a person prefers to use the list of codes constantly, focus never returns to the top of it each time it is entered. The option just used gains focus automatically in the event that the sign needs to be repeated.

Improvements to Existing Features.

• Leasey Text Selection is working in the new version of Notepad for Windows11.
• When in the list of LeaseyCuts for web pages, pressing Control+C should now copy the URL for the focused cut.
• When pasting LeaseyClips, in most cases Leasey no longer removes trailling spaces.
• You can now press a keystroke so as to output the system clock to the Braille display which refreshes each second. All Braille displays supported.
• It is now possible to get a list of packages you have tracked via Track Package in LeaseySearch.
• You can press a keystroke to copy the elapsed time in the Stopwatch to the Windows clipboard.
• Microsoft Outlook Calendar functionality contains some improvements in line with recent application changes.
• The radio update facility is working again so we can make changes to streams more quickly.
• If using Leasey Advanced, the keys for use with Leasey Basic have been removed as they are unnecessary. These are for the Leasey main menu, context menu and help. The LeaseyManager keystroke is also removed as the functionality only applies to Leasey Basic. This means that more experienced JAWS users can once again use those keystrokes for the functionality for which they were intended.
• Functionality has been added to Winamp and VLC media players so you can easily relocate your last played position in an audio file.
• Within VLC Media player, you can now set, move to and delete bookmarks.
• From any application, pressing Insert+T twice quickly will virtualise the window title so you can read it more carefully. A link at the bottom of the window allows you to copy the text to the Windows clipboard.
• JAWS will now not double speak Windows notifications.
• LeaseyAlerts should now work on Facebook pages.
• OpenTween JAWS scripts are once again included.

Conclusion.

The next major update to Leasey is already being worked on containing some new features. You can hear about some of these in the upcoming version of the Mosen at Large podcast.

We hope you enjoy using the new release of Leasey!