brianhartgen's blog

Hi to all

This is an announcement I post each year and is designed to hopefully avoid a question which often arises. The question is: Can I use one of your script-based products with the new JAWS public beta? I'm going to address that issue now.

In theory, technically, most third party scripts and our products should work with JAWS 2019. But just because something may work does not mean you should try to use it. I'm going to explain here a little about beta testing and how it is impacted by installing additional script files.

When a beta of this nature is distributed, VFO quite obviously are looking for bug reports from you as to any problems you might be having with JAWS in specific applications or environments. They will probably be expecting you to run it as they intended it to be when they posted it. So, when you report a problem, one of their Tech Support Specialists or those people working in development can try to duplicate the problem and, if they can, fix it. That is how beta testing works. You provide them with a step by step guide as to what the problem is, what your expectations are, and how someone else can reproduce it including the keystrokes used to do so.

Now, if you install a set of JAWS scripts which potentially overwrite those which VFO provide, they cannot possibly reproduce the problem as they may not have access to those scripts.

Let me give you a very basic example.

JAWS 2019 public beta will be shipped with scripts for Skype8. This is public knowledge and was reported in the latest FSCast from VFO.

In the middle of this public beta cycle, we will also be sending out with our Leasey product scripts for Skype8 with some excellent access to this application. If you were to install these into JAWS 2019 public beta, what you would be doing is overwriting the support VFO are providing as part of its public beta program. If a problem subsequently arises with Skype, that might not be as a result of the JAWS public beta. It may be completely unrelated to it. So you would be submitting a false bug report to VFO.

To extend this a little further, if in my example you opened up a Skype text chat message, you might press Control+1 to read the most recent one. Now as of this writing, VFO do not have in their scripts the ability to read text chat messages in the same way that we do. So if you reported a problem stating that the keystroke was not reading the most recent chat message, that would be a false report because it does not relate to the public beta.

I know people want to dive right in and use the latest and greatest technology which is out there and be part of the beta program. But they also want all the enhancements our products give at the same time. You cannot have your cake and eat it I'm afraid, and I can say now that if someone reports a problem with one of our products at this stage relating to use with JAWS 2019, we will ignore it.

At the moment for example, we are developing the next release of our Leasey product, and JAWS 2018 is used as the benchmark for testing. When the official date for the release of JAWS 2019 draws near, we will begin looking at that. If we did not adopt that approach, we would be dealing with a constantly moving target.

So, in general terms, which script files could you use with the new public beta?

If you launch an application with the upcoming public beta, and you press Insert+Q, it will tell you if specific script files are loaded for it. If it says that the default scripts are loaded, then it is safe to assume that there are no scripts designed by VFO for that application. So potentially then you could install scripts for it. A number of audio-related packages would be good examples where you could install third party scripts because VFO do not have anything there relating to them. I'm talking here about scripts such as those used for Sound Forge, Reaper, Lime, GoldWave, Samplitude, etc. I also do not see a difficulty in installing the StationPlaylist suite of scripts that we produce with JAWS 2019 public beta.

But my general advice would be that if you really want to assist VFO, and report problems relating to JAWS 2019 as a whole, you should check with the script developer that it is not going to impact upon JAWS functionality. In my view, the whole point of beta testing isn't so that you can get your hands on the product ahead of time to enjoy using it. Yes it's about using functionality day-to-day, but it's also about letting VFO know if there are problems. The more they know about, the more likely it is something is going to happen to put it right.

When I use a new private or public beta of JAWS, I do so with very few modifications, or only those which can be done through the official settings VFO provide. In that way, I know as a tester that I am gaining the same experience everybody else should be getting, so my bug reports are as accurate as I can make them without anything muddying the waters. But from our part, here are the script packages we provide which could be installed into JAWS 2019 without in any way compromising default functionality.
StationPlaylist scripts.
GoldWave scripts.
OpenTween scripts.
Zoom Conferencing scripts.
Reaper scripts for Osara.
J-Dictate for use with Dragon.

Under no circumstances should J-Say or Leasey be installed into the new public beta.

To conclude, my golden rules and advice would be:
1. Enjoy using the new JAWS 2019 public beta.
2. Report bugs which you find to VFO. Be as detailed as you can .
3. Do not use the JAWS migrate settings functionality which appears on startup. If you have some of our script packages installed into JAWS 2018, some or all of those settings will be brought across to JAWS 2019 and you are in danger of doing what I have just advised against.
4. Check with script developers first as to whether they think what they are providing would compromise default functionality.

Thank you for reading.

Introduction.

When you hear the word "Skype", you instantly think of keeping in touch with friends, family or colleagues. You might also think of making phone calls, chatting via text or group audio and video calls. However you want to communicate, Skype probably has a way to do it; not surprising as there are an estimated 300 billion users of Skype every month, and the total number of minutes people spend on Skype every day is 3 billion.

Users of screen-readers used to find Skype very easy to work with. It consisted of a list of contacts or events, and it was easy to manage those items quickly. It's ability to easily configure personal preferences was also accommodated in a familiar environment to that which people used within other programs. However recently, Microsoft completely refreshed Skype which provides a very different way of working for people using screen-reading technology and the keyboard. That is the subject of our new training course "Reach for the Skype"!

The course Tutor, Brian Hartgen, will show you how to install, set up and use Skype version 8 with JAWS for Windows. He will also fully demonstrate each of the topics outlined below, so you can hear for yourself how the screen-reader reports each component within Skype.

Who is the Course For?

This Training Course is suitable for someone who wishes to learn about Skype for the first time and all the advantages it brings. However mor particularly, it will be helpful for people who wish to transition from the more traditional Skype version 7 interface to the latest release. JAWS scripts will be provided offering some very useful functionality.
Through the power of the JAWS scripting language, we have been able to:

• Ensure Skype version 8 is much easier to use from a keyboarding standpoint, providing a more logical framework;
• Make the experience of using Skype text chat feel much like MSN and Windows Messenger which people have loved in the past;
• Correct some anomalies which exist within the program which make access via the keyboard troublesome.

What Will I Learn?

The training course is divided into three lessons, each of which lasts approximately 60 minutes, in which you will learn, broadly speaking:

• Launching, exiting and customising the Skype interface.
• The new Skype screen experience: a guide to the new Skype layout and good orientation points.
• Closing down Skype.
• JAWS Context Sensitive Help and how to use it.
• The JAWS Script Skype Menu and the screen-reader menu bar.
• Changing your Skype status.
• A quick keystroke to review your Skype status.
• Customising the Mood Message.
• Quickly reviewing the Mood Message with a keystroke.
• What are Contacts?
• Finding a Contact directly.
• Browsing all Contacts, Skype Only or Active Now.
• Reading the information in a Skype Profile.
• A definition of the term "Conversation".
• Moving to, and exploring, the Recent Conversations List.
• Deleting an entry from the Conversations List.
• Making audio and video calls.
• Accepting audio and video calls.
• Learning the name of the person calling.
• Accepting an audio call via a global keystroke from any application.
• Disconnecting from a call.
• Working with missed calls.
• Conversing with people using text chat Instant Messeging.
• Sending and Editing messages.
• Enabling and disabling the typing indicator sound.
• Learning if a person is typing without the use of the indicator sound.
• Reviewing the ten most recent messages with keystrokes or placing them into the JAWS Virtual Viewer.
• Enabling and disabling the speaking and Brailling of message timestamps.
• Moving directly to, and exploring, the History List.
• Inserting emoji and other signs with the Expression Picker.
• Moving focus away from a conversation.
• Creating a new conversation.
• Adding more than two people to a conversation for text chat, audio or video.
• Recording audio and video Skype conversations.
• Sending a file to a user.
• Receiving files and how to access them.
• The advantages and disadvantages of Skype Voice Messeging.
• Using Skype Credit and Subscriptions.
• Quickly learning your Skype Credit balance with a keystroke.
• What is a Skype telephone number?
• Making telephone calls with Skype including international dialling.
• Sending text messages to mobile or cell phones.
• The Dial Pad and how to enter telephone numbers into an automated system.
• Changing Skype Contact views.

Course Prerequisites.

It is important that you have:

• JAWS for Windows. We highly recommend the use of JAWS version 2018 as this will give the best performance using Skype version 8. However, version 18 can also be used with slightly less functionality. JAWS version 2019 will offer the same high level of functionality as version 2018, so if you have a JAWS Software Maintenance Agreement and will be entitled to version 2019, you can enjoy the same high quality functionality.

If I Purchase the Course, What Will I Receive?

The course will give to you:

• An audio recording of each lesson in MP3 format. This can be played as many times as necessary to reinforce topics which have been covered.
• Brief text documentation comprising a list of keystrokes to reinforce topics covered in the lesson.
• An Email list available during the training course itself and afterwards. This can be used to ask questions not only while training is progressing, but also at a later date as Microsoft implement changes to Skype.

Costing.

The cost of the course is £30 which is currently 42 US dollars.

Alternatively, anyone can purchase the course 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. Orders can also be placed by telephone:

If you would like to read the views from participants of our previous courses, please Visit our Training area.
You can also download an extract from one of our previous training courses, "Don't Be Twixt, Be Tween", right here.

Conclusion.

While plenty of help exists in text-based form or through podcasts, we've found very little formal training available from a blind person's perspective regarding Skype version 8. Take control of this application so you can talk to people day or night for free or at a low cost. Skype8 is accessible and usable. You just need to know how it works. Join us on our journey and we'll show you. The Skype is open, you just need to reach for it!

Hi everyone

Some of you may have heard our LeaseyBite 36 audio demonstration of support we will be including for Skype version 8 in our product Leasey. Things have moved on in terms of the functionality which has been created to support this application, and when we are ready to release it, we will be updating the LeaseyBite to reflect the new improvements. However, I thought it might be useful to provide a list of the features so far and invite you to suggest any improvements or modifications to them so we obtain the best possible user feedback.

Skype8 is obviously going to be very important moving forward and we would therefore like our Leasey product to contain the best support we can give to it. Moreover, we think that the text chat is particularly important for people who are both deaf and blind, so we're very keen to make provision in that regard too.

Features include:

When someone is typing a message, a sound plays to indicate that someone is doing so. This is easily enabled or disabled via a keystroke and the volume can be independently adjusted. The sound could be substituted for one of your own choosing.

Pressing a keystroke will announce if a person is typing or not.

Pressing Control+1 through to Control+0 will speak or output to braille the ten most recently received messages, with Control+1 giving the most recent. These are taken from the Skype history list, so even if you have opened up a conversation after a number of days, you ought to be able to remind yourself of past messages. If any of these keys are pressed twice quickly, the content of the message is sent to the JAWS virtual Viewer for closer inspection.

A keystroke exists to enable a feature which will filter out the timestamp of the message, so you only get to see the message text. This option can be enabled or disabled at any time.

Pressing Escape from a conversation moves back to the conversations list. Ordinarily, pressing Escape produces no focus movement, but the feedback we've received so far suggests that would make things more familiar to people.

A global keystroke is available to answer an incoming call, irrespective of the application in which you are working.

Keystrokes exist to report the current mood text, the Skype's status (such as Active or Do Not Disturb), and the Skype credit balance if available.

From the Find Contact dialog, pressing Enter sets focus to the first result and speaks it or sends it to Braille.

As with all Leasey support, there is an Application Menu and Hotkey Help, displaying all the actions you can perform together with keystrokes in the case of Hotkey Help. Pressing Enter on any item will carry it out so it is not necessary to remember the keystroke. This applies to special script functions together with native Skype hotkeys.

Context Sensitive Help is available in many areas, so as to provide control specific help information. This should hopefully aid the transition for users who wish to migrate to Skype8.

Finally, there will be a set of keystrokes specifically for the ElBraille and Focus displays. These should assist in terms of answering calls, moving between the text input field and History list, etc. This is a very important part of what we are offering. If you are reliant on Braille output only, it is essential to be able to move around the application with keystrokes which are easy to use and which do not require a multitude of key presses to get to where you need to be.

If you think we have misssed anything, please do let us know. What we're interested in doing here is to:
Give people Skype functionality they are used to;
Make it easy to learn, and
Ensure Braille users have a chance of using the program in an efficient way.

You can tweet @HartgenConsult or write to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com with any suggestions.

Happy Talking!

Hi to all

As many people know, Microsoft deferred its decision to retire Skype version 7 for a little while. But we must look forward, and so during September, we'll be releasing our support for Skype version 8. This will also be included within our J-Say product, naturally with voice commands added as you would expect.

Features include:
Pressing Control 1 through to Control 0 will read the last 10 messages sent or received in a chat window, with Control 1 giving you the most recent. Pressing any of the keystrokes twice quickly will place the message into the JAWS virtual viewer so you can read more slowly or check spelling.
Press Control+Shift+T to toggle on or off a sound which plays when someone is typing a message.
Irrespective of the above setting, F12 will report the name of the person typing if this is the case.
Control+F5 will toggle on or off the filtering of date and time stamps. If enabled, you will just hear the message which is incoming without its date and time.
Keystrokes exist to move to various elements within Skype, such as the chat text entry field.
Various other accessibility improvements.

In addition, one of the potential difficulties with Skype 8 is that people do not know how to use it. We have therefore introduced context sensitive help for many areas of Skype. For example, when focused in the conversations list, pressing Insert+F1 (which should be familiar to most people) will cause JAWS to output:
"This is the Skype conversations list. Press the Up or Down Arrow keys to move through the Buttons. Each Button represents a conversation in which you have taken part, and possibly the last activity such as a chat message. Press Enter or the Space Bar to open the conversation.
Press Escape to Close this Window."

We hope that the work done to support Skype 8 will not only provide a greater level of access to it, but will also give people an idea as to how to interact with specific controls with which they will be unfamiliar.

A comprehensive audio demonstration of this functionality will be available next week.

Have a great day!

We're very glad to be able to bring you the next update to our product Leasey, which is free to all version 4 users. If you haven't got your hands on version 4 yet, you can upgrade here to keep up with the latest updates.

Please read these notes carefully. It explains the changes in the new update, how to install it, and plans for improving access to applications for the rest of the year.

New Improvements.

In brief, these are the new changes to Leasey. More information concerning them can be found in our documentation.

ElBraille.

You can now more easily control your ElBraille (or a Focus display) if you do not know the Braille input commands as provided by the device. Press Shift+1 with letter B in order to bring into view the Edit Field whereupon you can enter a Windows or JAWS keystroke. Our documentation (Or Leasey's Help System) has an ElBraille category describing the other keystrokes, including the ability to find text more quickly, to delete text segments and to select text.

This is our first try at improving functionality for the ElBraille and we hope you enjoy using it.

Don't forget to check out our latest LeaseyBite audio tutorial to hear a demonstration of this functionality in action.

LeaseyConnect.

LeaseyConnect has been completely rewritten!

LeaseyConnect is our simple address book. It allows you to store and retrieve contact details for individuals and companies, read telephone numbers, send Email directly from it, and even reproduce frequently used Twitter usernames, either for sending a direct message or a mention. The next LeaseyBite audio tutorial to come will explain and demonstrate this in more detail.

While LeaseyConnect has been in place since version 1 of Leasey back in 2014, it needed significant revisions. This has now been done and is part of our project to rebuild some of Leasey's older functions to keep pace with modern Windows versions.

OpenTween.

Very good support for the OpenTween Twitter client has existed for some years and this has been improved. In particular, when the application is closed down by pressing ALT+F4, and then restarted, press F12 so as to resume your place where you stopped reading. You can also bookmark a tweet to get back to by pressing Control+Windows+K, and then F12 to return to your position.

You can find out more about our OpenTween training course here, and also refer to the section of this document relating to upcoming plans for Leasey.

Sounds Scheme.

Many people like to have audio cues play as a substitute for speech prompts. For example, when working with our LeaseyClips which enhance productivity considerably, it is more useful to have a sound play when text is copied to a LeaseyClip, or where its contents are pasted elsewhere.

We now have a Sounds Scheme which can be activated by pressing the Leasey Key followed by letter O. This rotates between three options: sounds on, sounds off and sounds with speech. This final item means that the sounds will play but the speech prompts are also spoken at the same time, meaning you can get used to what the sounds are like within the context of what is happening.

Do try the sounds, we think you will like them. We have sounds to represent LeaseyClips, selecting text, the reproduction of LeaseyTexts, and even for when a web page has completely loaded in your browser which our testers find very helpful.

Notepad and Wordpad.

You can now set LeaseyPoints in Notepad and Wordpad documents,. They also work in the Jarte word processor too! LeaseyPoints are like bookmarks, in that you can set up to 10 per document and go back to them at any time. We've had them in Microsoft Word and web pages for a long time. They have now been extended for documents in Notepad, Wordpad and Jarte.

An important change occurs in the Find dialog box. Ordinarily, if you wanted to find text, you would have typed it, pressed Enter, followed by Escape. You will now find that when you press Enter, Leasey will locate the text and read the current line. This was an essential requirement for the ElBraille functionality, but again, people have commented how helpful this is.

Updating Your Existing Version of Leasey.

Because of major internal changes to Leasey's folder structure, updating of Leasey this time involves downloading a full installer and running it. There is no need to uninstall your existing product.

Be sure to download the product you are authorised for, either Leasey Total Package or Leasey Advanced. If you are not sure which product you are authorised for, send an email containing your JAWS serial number to support@leaseycentral.com.

If you require assistance in installing the product, and you need a remote support call, again please send us an email so we can arrange an appointment to do this. Please be patient if this is the case as there is always a queue.

Leasey's Future.

We hope you enjoy this new release of Leasey, but we wanted to take this opportunity of outlining plans for the rest of the year which should hopefully reduce the number of questions along these lines we receive.

Development of Leasey will proceed in this order.

OpenTween Twitter Client. There are four areas of OpenTween we would like to provide greater access to. These are by no means essential, but we will have them in place and tested prior to 16 August which is when changes regarding Twitter will occur.

Skype Version 8. It is our intention to provide high quality support for Skype version 8 prior to September. To anticipate a question, Skype version 8 is very usable now. However access to it could be improved upon, and extensive tutorial information provided. Both of these issues will be addressed.

Spotify. Access to this application is not satisfactory at present. This will be rectified after September 2018. We are hopeful that we can return functionality to that which we previously enjoyed.

LeaseyBasic. This is our human speaking interface for complete computer beginners. This works well, however there are ways in which it could be improved. This is our project as we head towards the end of 2018.

Conclusion.

We hope you continue to enjoy Leasey. We're delighted with the number of people who see this product as not only a good vehicle for individuals to begin using a computer for the first time, but particularly those who wish to seriously improve efficiency and productivity when using their computers with JAWS. We look forward to completing the work outlined above and to introduce more features in 2019!

Introduction.

It's excellent when an application comes along which you might use every day on your computer, and which is extremely accessible requiring only minimal modification to improve things further. This is very much the case with OpenTween: a highly accessible, mainstream, open source, portable and efficient client for working with many aspects of the Twitter social network.

While many applications have been designed to serve Twitter with blind people in mind, often with keyboard-driven convenient functions, working with a mainstream client certainly has its advantages. OpenTween is one of the most popular Twitter clients in Japan and was initially developed under the banner of Tween in 2007. That means it has proved itself, users can provide feedback, and there is a strong likelihood it will keep pace with Twitter's changes and updates; and so it has proved.

Not only is OpenTween extremely responsive on many computers where resources are at a premium, but once customised, it can be moved from one machine to another with all configurations intact, meaning that you can precisely duplicate the experience from one computer to another. The difficulty is that the majority of the available documentation is in Japanese.

It is also worth noting that, in our experience, this is by far the best Twitter client to use if you work with Braille.

Our Training Course, "Don't Be Twixt, Be Tween", will show you how to install, setup and use OpenTween when using screen-reading technology. The Tutor, Brian Hartgen, will guide you step by step through how to work with OpenTween, and will also explain much of the terminology associated with this wonderful social networking platform.

Who Is The Course For?

This Training Course is suitable for someone who wishes to learn about OpenTween for the first time and all the advantages it brings. It would also benefit people who are using an existing Twitter client which, for whatever reason, may not be available in the future. Finally, anyone who has not taken the plunge and dived into the world of Twitter will certainly learn how good it can be, both for social and business purposes.

Users of both the JAWS for Windows and NVDA screen-readers will benefit from this course. JAWS users will have some advantages, particularly as scripts for the application will be provided, offering some useful functionality.

What Will I Learn?

The Training Course is in 2 two-hour lessons in which you will learn, broadly speaking:

• How to download, install, authenticate and customise OpenTween.
• The advantages of working with multiple copies of OpenTween.
• Backing up your existing settings.
• Sending your first tweet and verifying the number of composed characters.
• Tabs and Timelines: Home, Mentions/Replies, Direct Messages, Favourites.
• Hear messages automatically, have sounds play or receive no feedback.
• Locating your previous position when launching OpenTween.
• Sound Packs to Use.
• Replying to an individual or replying to all.
• Reversing the sort order of displayed tweets.
• The different ways to send a direct message to a user.
• Viewing both sides of a Direct Message conversation.
• The usefulness of the menu bar and the Context Menu.
• Mentioning multiple recipients and OpenTween's AutoComplete feature.
• Launching a web page from a tweet.
• Examining the content of a tweet in greater detail.
• Viewing a user's timeline and why you would want to do this.
• Working through a Twitter conversation.
• Exploring a timeline column by column.
• Retweets: what they are and viewing the number of retweets.
• Following, Unfollowing, finding friends and viewing relationships.
• Liking, unliking and deleting tweets.
• Finding a tweet by word or phrase in the current timeline.
• Copying a Twitter username to the clipboard.
• Saving a tweet to a text file.
• The purpose of hashtags and how to use them to best effect including working with the Hashtag Manager.
• Searching for content.
• The advantages of lists and how to work with them.
• Filtering out unwanted tweets by key words or source.
• Being prepared for upcoming Twitter changes in mid-August.
• Working with profiles.

Course Prerequisites.

It is important that you have:

• A computer with an internet connection;
• JAWS for Windows version 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 2018 or NVDA;

A link to the latest release of OpenTween, JAWS scripts, NVDA Addon and other resources will be provided.

If I Purchase the Course, What Will I Receive?

The course will give to you:

• An audio recording of the lessons in MP3 format. This can be played as many times as necessary to reinforce topics which have been covered.
• Brief text documentation comprising a list of keystrokes to reinforce topics covered in the lessons.

The audio recordings are accessed through a secure area of our website which is only available to course participants.

Costing.

The cost of the course is £30 which is currently 40 US dollars.
Purchase Don't Be Twixt, Be Tween Online.
Alternatively, anyone can purchase the course 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. Orders can also be placed by telephone:

• Call us (from within the UK): 02920-850298.
• Call us (from the United States): 415-871-0626.
• Call us (from any other country): (+44)2920-850298.

If you would like to read the views from participants of our previous courses, please Visit our Training area.
In addition, David Lepovsky, (who describes himself as "a huge fan of Hartgen Consultancy products" and who is a well-known advocate on Disability-related issues, says: "I cannot wait for this course! Another fantastic Hartgen Consultancy offering!"

Conclusion.

With major changes to Twitter on the horizon, we believe that working with a mainstream client which has a large user base is very much the way to go and is seriously worth considering. But for some screen-reader users, OpenTween has been ClosedTween, or should we say, a closed book. Let us open it to you in the latest in our series of training courses!

Hi to all

We are now busily developing and testing the next release of J-Say. This will be a free update to all J-Say version 16 users and will be released on 8 May 2018.

We can say at the moment that the changes in this upgrade will include:

Being more responsive. Due to recent internal changes to Dragon in the version 15.3 release, you will find an increased level of stability and responsiveness. You are welcome to download and install Dragon 15.3 now from this page:
http://nuance.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26894/~/information-o...

It can be installed over the top of your existing version of Dragon without compromising J-Say functionality. However you will find that the upcoming release of J-Say will improve matters even further as we can take advantage of the new functionality Nuance have provided.
You will particularly find this update helpful if you use Microsoft Outlook extensively.

Launching items directly with voice commands. This very welcome feature is back. You will be able to launch folders, files and web pages again directly with voice commands of your choosing.

Attachments in Outlook. The most frequent technical support query we receive at the moment relates to managing attachments, either opening them and especially saving them in the correct folder. So an interface has been designed to make this process far easier and works with all releases of Office from 2010 onwards.

Spell Mode. The commands, Spell Mode On and Spell Mode Off, now provide spoken feedback to indicate the status.

J-Say News. Our News app now contains many more news sources for you to browse the latest headlines.

Vocabulary Editor. If you select to see Custom Words only, these are now announced by JAWS as you move through the list.

PDF Files. Moving by units such as paragraphs in PDF documents is now more reliable.

Skype for Windows10. Voice commands will be included for use with Skype for Windows10.

There may well be other small changes made to the J-Say release before people start working with it, but those are the primary improvements. Naturally, details of all of the improvements will be included in our extensive J-Say documentation.

We look forward to posting more information when it is available!

Hi to all

We're in the final stages of working through the previously documented features of the upcoming Leasey version 4.01. We expect to release this on 22 March.
Our beta testers have been busy testing the product and all is going extremely well.
This blog post is to let you know about a significant change which is upcoming in respect of Leasey users gaining access to the new release.

We have made no charges for upgrades to Leasey since its launch in 2014. All of our other products without exception have an upgrade charge levied against them when new releases come along, but we wanted this product to become established in the marketplace and, as you will know, we have been able to reduce the price of a new purchase overall. We've achieved a tremendous amount since then and look forward to continuing to do so.

However, the reality is that the time is right now to make a charge for users to move to version 4, as it will be known. The cost for such an upgrade will be £20 which is currently $27.

We feel this is a fair price to charge for the upgrade, given that a high percentage of Leasey funds come back to the user. A good example would be the thousands of pounds spent since 2014 on development of games. But more recently, many people have been using LeaseyNews and Weather which we are absolutely delighted about. We can see from the statistics that these services are very popular. The services utilised to facilitate such access need to be paid for, and if we're going to continue moving forward and make use of similar facilities, those too will incur charges on our part. You will already see developments with LeaseyNews in this upcoming release of Leasey, which we've previously discussed.

One thing to make clear. If you do not wish to upgrade Leasey to benefit from new features moving forward, you will still be able to access your earlier licence in the future should you need to reinstall it. The activation will not disappear just because you have not upgraded. However, if you do want to benefit from the good things to come this year, you will need to pay the upgrade fee.

So to be absolutely clear. If you are content with the Leasey features as they are, do nothing at all.
If however you would like to benefit from features and fixes moving forward, you need to purchase an upgrade.

To ensure you can use the update on the day of release, feel free to purchase an upgrade licence here.

If you have any difficulty purchasing the upgrade, please feel free to get in touch with us.

In line with the policy applied to our other products, if Leasey has been purchased since the start of 2018, you will automatically be entitled to a free upgrade.

The list of changes include:

Added 30 more news sources to LeaseyNews.

Added the ability to LeaseyNews to search for headlines across 5000 news sources. So if you want the top headlines across all these sources, you can type in a key word and it will come back with a number of results.

When using LeaseyWeather, particularly the week's forecast, we now tell you the day as well as the date.

Included the ability to remove all items from any of the recent searches you have carried out using LeaseySearch, such as weather locations and Google searches. Just type the word, Clear, into the Edit Field for searching.

When viewing one of the default jaws research it tools in the results viewer, such as weather, sometimes the URL it was pointing to would convert to lower case and thus the web page could not be retrieved for sources such as weather underground. This should now be fixed.
Don't forget that Leasey includes functionality to view web pages emanating from the Research It tool in your default browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox.

The read audible book summary key, Leasey Key then alt control S, should now be working as expected following changes on the Audible website.

In OpenTween, pressing the Leasey Key then I will now tell you the number of characters remaining when composing a tweet.

As the 280 character limit is reached in OpenTween when composing a tweet, Leasey no longer says, limit reached. It just plays a tap sound. You can use text movement keys, such as Up and Down Arrow, to read the tweet and you will not hear the tap sound in those instances.

When composing a message in outlook, pressing the leasey key then control shift A will tell you which email account it is being sent from.

Added the Strawberry emoji and Pile of Poo emoji to the list of emoji.

Solved a problem where, if you set a LeaseyPoint in Word, then you try to move back to it, the contents of the clipboard were being erased.

Fixed a problem where, if you wanted to start a new HTML document in the HTML Editor, you received an unknown function call.

Pressing Control+Windows+Shift+Left and Right Arrow will change the system volume in very small increments.

Added News Talk 980 CKNW radio in Vancouver and DeLux Radio to LeaseyRadio.

Pressing the Leasey Key then Right Bracket will now speak the JAWS version number which is in use.

When you visit YouTube or Facebook sites, the access to the pages overall should be of a much higher quality than before. We particularly noticed this on YouTube where the access wasn’t quite as good as it could have been, for example the video comments were not always displayed until you undertook a screen refresh, and so on.

When downloading the games module, the download and running of the installer is much faster.

When creating a LeaseyCut pointing to a web page, in the list of cuts we now display the name of the browser which will launch it.
Note this only works for new cuts.

When using the Leasey countdown timer, you can now schedule a timer for more than 59 minutes. So if you want one hour 5 minutes, you type 65 into the edit field.

Added a keystroke to restart the JAWS program, ALT+Windows+F9.

Included support for the Skype Windows10 app.

We hope that you will consider upgrading to Leasey version 4 and that as a result we can build an even better product!

Hi to all

We're heading towards the end of February, so we thought it was a good idea to let you know what's been happening at Hartgen Consultancy since just before Christmas. An ever increasing amount of JAWS scripting work is taking place at different customer sites in the UK, but we've still found time to do some product development. So lets tell you about it.

StationPlaylist Studio Scripts.

A new release of the scripts for StationPlaylist Studio 5.3 will be available in very early March. The primary focus of this release is improving the Braille support, particularly in respect of displaying items in the Playlist Viewer and also support for timers. Many people for example use the Braille countdown timer to alert them as to when a music track is ending. This has been improved together with a number of other areas.

A useful tip. Having tested the countdown timer feature over many hours of broadcasting, there are times when you will want to deactivate it. For example, if you wish to use the system clock which counts seconds on the Braille display, we suggest you deactivate the end of track timer temporarily. You can do this even in the current version by pressing the SPL Key then A. Press it again to switch it back on.

In other areas, the keystroke ALT+Windows+Control+C to copy the playlist to the clipboard now works as we intended. So you can copy it to the clipboard in various permutations, or indeed to a text file in a shared location, such as a Dropbox folder, if you are collaborating with someone on a programme. There's also usefully a feature to easily create Windows shortcuts pointing to files for playback by Studio; useful for quickly categorising items for playout.

Leasey.

Plenty of work is happening in terms of Leasey. Version 4.1 will be released at some point in March and we're ready to tell you about some of the changes.

Added 30 more news sources to LeaseyNews.

Added the ability to LeaseyNews to search for headlines across 5000 news sources. So if you want the top headlines across all these sources, you can type in a key word and it will come back with a number of results.

When using LeaseyWeather, particularly the week's forecast, we now tell you the day as well as the date.

Included the ability to remove all items from any of the recent searches you have carried out using LeaseySearch, such as weather locations and Google searches.

When viewing one of the default jaws research it tools in the results viewer, such as weather, sometimes the URL it was pointing to would convert to lower case and thus the web page could not be retrieved for sources such as weather underground. This should now be fixed.
Don't forget that Leasey includes functionality to view web pages emanating from the Research It tool in your default browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox.

The read audible book summary key, Leasey Key then alt control S, should now be working as expected following changes on the Audible website.

In OpenTween, pressing the Leasey Key then I will now tell you the number of characters remaining when composing a tweet.

As the 280 character limit is reached in OpenTween when composing a tweet, Leasey no longer says, limit reached. It just plays a tap sound. You can use text movement keys, such as Up and Down Arrow, to read the tweet and you will not hear the tap sound in those instances.

When composing a message in outlook, pressing the leasey key then control shift A will tell you which email account it is being sent from.

Added the Strawberry emoji to the list of emoji.

Solved a problem where, if you set a LeaseyPoint in Word, then you try to move back to it, the contents of the clipboard were being erased.

Fixed a problem where, if you wanted to start a new HTML document in the HTML Editor, you received an unknown function call.

Pressing Control+Windows+Shift+Left and Right Arrow will change the system volume in very small increments.

Added News Talk 980 CKNW radio in Vancouver to LeaseyRadio.

When you visit YouTube or Facebook sites, the access to the pages overall should be of a much higher quality than before. We particularly noticed this on YouTube where the access wasn’t quite as good as it could have been, for example the video comments were not always displayed until you undertook a screen refresh, and so on.

When downloading the games module, the download and running of the installer is much faster.

When creating a LeaseyCut pointing to a web page, in the list of cuts we now display the name of the browser which will launch it.
Note this only works for new cuts.

When using the Leasey countdown timer, you can now schedule a timer for more than 59 minutes. So if you want one hour 5 minutes, you type 65 into the edit field.

Added a keystroke to restart the JAWS program.

Included support for the Skype Windows10 app.

J-Say.

J-Say 16.0 was released at the beginning of this year to provide support for JAWS 2018 and a number of new features. It was slightly modified after we delivered some training in J-Say to a number of users. There will be a very significant free update for J-Say 16 users later this year, particularly containing a feature we know people are going to find helpful.

Training Courses.

At the moment there are no new training courses scheduled. However a number of people have suggested we run a short training course on the OpenTween mainstream Twitter client. If this interests you, do let us know.

That's all the news for now and we will leave you to get on with your day. Have a wonderful week!

Hi to all

We're now very close to a new release of our J-Say software. Much more than a bridge between JAWS and Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the many users of J-Say around the world are using the features we've built over many years for blind people who need to control the computer by voice.

J-Say version 16 will be released during the first week in January of 2018. While we were hoping to release the software in December, with each new version not only do many questions arise but due to the nature of the software, a large number of people need considerable additional remote computer assistance to ensure they can use it. With closure of our company at Christmas, the provision of this is simply not realistic. We would far rather provide assistance to those people at the time of release. But certainly it will be available during the first week of January.

What can you look forward to?

Some of the new changes include the following:

J-Say 16 is compatible with JAWS 2018 and earlier, all versions going back to 14.0. With technology changing so rapidly, including Windows itself and Microsoft Office updates, we highly recommend the use of JAWS 2018 if at all possible. But if not, we're still supporting the older releases.

Enhanced Accessibility for Dragon Search Commands. Say, "Search Computer for Timesheets" for example, or, "Search Favourites for BBC Radio". In summary, you can search your Favourites, documents or computer files under key words, and a list of these will be brought back to you. Naturally, J-Say makes the interaction with this interface user friendly, supported by our documentation and the modifications made to JAWS to keep it simple.

J-Say Shortcuts on the Web. If you create a J-Say Shortcut to a website, the browser of choice is stored along with the location. There are times when people wish to use specific browsers for individual sites they visit, and this will help in that regard.

Support for Google Chrome. This web browser is now a good option to use with J-Say alongside Internet Explorer.

Improved Support for Moving by Heading and Tabbed Pages. The commands to move to the first, next, last and previous headings at specific levels have been enhanced so as to provide a greater level of verbal feedback, for example if a requested heading is unavailable, or the current line which has been reached. Commands also exist to move to individual Tabs which may be open.

Get the Weather and News. Specifically designed applications have been included to obtain local weather for anywhere in the world, together with local time zone information, and sunrise, sunset, moon rise and moon set. Simply ask your computer to bring back the weather for your town. Additionally, browse over 30 news sources for the latest headlines, including BBC and CNN.

Support for JAWS 2018 Features. Scan a document with a voice command directly from within JAWS without using an external scanning program. This can be done using a camera or flatbed scanner. You can also operate the new screen-shading feature in JAWS, allowing you to work without displaying your computer generated text to sighted people who may be with you.

Listen to the Radio. The radio directory has been increased to include thousands of online radio stations, thanks to support from the Shoutcast radio directory. Browse categories by voice or request a specific station.

Enhanced Support for Excel and Word tables. The commands for moving through cells in an Excel Workbook have been significantly improved upon. The behaviour in respect of some voice commands to move by rows in tables has also been made more consistent.

To say again, these features of course will be supported by our documentation, which will include new Chapters and additions to existing ones.

We will let people know how to obtain J-Say 16 in early January. Meanwhile, we would like to wish all J-Say users the very best for Christmas and the new year and we very much look forward to working with you all again in 2018!