A New Year is Coming and a New Release of J-Say!

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!