What's Coming in Leasey Version 6 and Other News!

Hi to all

At a time when companies are making announcements about upcoming product releases, it is the right opportunity to tell you about the upcoming release of Leasey, together with news of some of our other products too.

Leasey Version 6.

Leasey version 6 is just a few weeks away as we are in the final stages of testing. Here are some of the highlights.

Elegance for ElBraille.

One of the difficulties with using a Braille input keyboard to drive the Windows operating system and associated applications is the keystrokes which need to be remembered to perform such tasks, many of which some people find bewildering. Elegance for ElBraille takes the learning of these keystrokes away allowing you to key into the device exactly what you would like to happen. The feedback from our beta testers so far is overwhelmingly positive, and they wish it could be available for other Braille displays!

The concept is as follows. You press a key on the Focus display.
From this point you are in a "special mode", allowing you to type what you would like to happen. So if you would like to move to the desktop, you type:
Windows Space D
or, for purposes of speed,
W Space D,
with the letter "W" representing the Windows key.
Then you press Enter.

To type Control+O to open a file you would enter
Control Space O
or
C Space O.

There are also other commands for ALT, Shift, the Insert Key and the JAWS Key. This makes it particularly powerful, since you can quickly use JAWS utilities such as the list of Links, Say All, or anything else which comes to mind. Provided you know the keystroke for it, you ought to be able to use it. In summary, if you have a device such as the ElBraille, you really should be able to use it within a few minutes without giving the matter too much thought!

Given it is the Enter key on the Focus display which initiates the required keyboard action which takes an extra key press, we have a system of shorthand which eliminates the need to use it. This means that you can create abbreviations for keys which you would like to execute, whereupon the pressing of the Enter key is not required.
These abbreviations are completely customisable. For example, you might have the abbreviation Desk, which moves to the desktop, or Close, which is the equivalent to ALT+F4.
Elegance for ElBraille also allows you to create abbreviations to launch programs or to run a JAWS script file.

As of april 2021, Elegance for ElBraille will be sold separately for those people who will not have Leasey version 6 installed.

Track Packages.

Leasey gives you the ability to track packages from hundreds of couriers worldwide. Orders from Amazon and eBay are also supported. All you need is the tracking number, (or in the case of amazon the order number), and you should receive accurate results of the status of your parcel.

Disney+.

As with our support for Netflix, YouTube etc, it is possible to move through movies with our standard Leasey keystrokes, such as ALT+Windows+Control+Right or Left arrow to skip through the movie. Controls are also available to adjust the volume and to play/pause. In our User Guide, we will provide details of how to activate the Audio Description function.

Facebook Messenger.

Functionality is available for the Facebook Messenger application. Functions include:

The ability to read the last ten incoming messages, or to place them in the JAWS virtual viewer for closer inspection.
Reduction of unnecessary speech output.
A keystroke to initiate a new chat.
A keystroke to move directly to the message composition field.

Other Changes.

We already have keystrokes in Microsoft Word and Outlook so as to move to the next or previous spelling error; very useful if you are not a fan of the more modern spell checking options in those applications. By customer request, we also now have keystrokes to move to the next and previous page in a Microsoft Word document.

We already have a feature to find a specific word or phrase in a document, which is easier to manage than the conventional Find Text dialog box. You can also find the next instance of the search. We now have keystrokes to find the chosen word or phrase in the reverse direction.

We already have keystrokes to read the last ten Windows notifications. We now have a keystroke to virtualise all notifications captured.

When in the standard list of Windows notifications, you can now place the currently selected notification into the JAWS Virtual Viewer in the event you wish to examine it.

When in the list of LeaseyCuts, pressing Control+C will copy either the web page URL or full folder or file path to the Windows clipboard, whichever is appropriate.

When defining a LeaseyCut to a web page, you can now specify the browser you would like to run the page in the future.

There are various improvements to Spotify including re-worked options for the Leasey Application menu.

Summary and Next Steps.

To repeat, this version of Leasey will be released very soon. However, there is one further feature to discuss.

One of the features which has often been requested is a macro creator. This allows you to record a series of steps, such as keyboard actions, which you would like to carry out specific computing routines. While this can be accomplished using JAWS scripting, the vast majority of people are not comfortable working with scripts, hence the need for such a tool. In addition to recording various keyboard actions, you will be able to execute JAWS scripts, such as to speak the current line, or anything else which comes to mind.
Naturally, this will tie in nicely to Elegance for ElBraille as well, since you can define an abbreviation to run your chosen macro.

We very much hope this will be available as part of Leasey as we head towards the summer and of course will be available to you if you have Leasey version 6.

When available, an upgrade to Leasey Version 6 from any previous release will be the usual cost of £20 which is currently 28 American Dollars.

Other News.

We're about to start training people in the use of Microsoft Teams with our JAWS scripts which enhance the functionality of the application. There's still just time to register for that one.

The scripts for StationPlaylist Studio have had a great deal of attention given to them this year so far and there are still one or two new features to produce with those.
Our product, The Muze for researching music-based information, is also due to get some new features soon. So there is an enormous amount going on at the moment.

In summary, we very much hope you will enjoy our product updates in the coming months!