What's New at Hartgen Consultancy

Hi to all

It has been a while since we provided you with details of what's new here at Hartgen Consultancy and this short blog post will bring you up-to-date. It's a busy time because quite a number of products need updating which is always the case on the run-up to Christmas.

Let's start with StationPlaylist products. A new release of the software, version 6, is in beta testing. While overall the products in the StationPlaylist suite work well, there are many changes which are required for JAWS to perform optimally. These changes are for the JAWS scripts for StationPlaylist Studio, Creator and the VT Server. A set of scripts will be available at the same time as the official release of these products when they come along.

J-Say version 20 will be available to support JAWS 2022 in mid-November. This includes ensuring there are voice commands for the new JAWS features in version 2022, better ways to move through lists of files and documents, and other improvements. Anyone who has a J-Say Software Maintenance Agreement will receive this update.

Now we come to Leasey. A new update to Leasey will be provided at the same time as JAWS version 2022 is officially released. The changes are below.

Leasey now supports the use of JAWS 2022. This has required the implementation of many small adjustments to ensure everything coexists with it, far too many to mention.

In LeaseySearch, added two new search engines: Bing and DuckDuckGo.

More modifications have been made to the Leasey Updater. While during testing the old system has been perfect, downloading all the required files every time, apparently on some machines it does not do so. As of this new version, Leasey will download an installer which will install only the required files for the update. No core files such as those containing user preferences should be overwritten.

If JAWS 2022 is used, when navigating lists of messages in Microsoft Outlook, such as the Email Inbox, a sound will play when the top and bottom of the list is reached. There are two different sounds to distinguish your position in the list.

In Outlook, pressing Enter to activate a folder in the Navigation Pane does activate it every time.

Support is available for all manner of Leasey-related tasks when Explorer++ is used as a replacement for File Explorer. Particularly with Windows11, Explorer++ provides faster rendering and navigation of files. Indeed some of our testers are using it as a preference with Windows10 as well.
Explorer++ is available here.
https://explorerplusplus.com/

Whenever the LeaseyCuts and LeaseyText feature is used, a backup of the ini file is automatically made. In the event it becomes corrupted, Leasey understands this and replaces it with the backup version and uses that instead.

If a Pearl camera is connected to the computer, pressing the Leasey key then ALT+P will automatically scan the document under the camera.

Added the following keystrokes in YouTube in addition to those which Leasey already has:
ALT+Shift+T, speaks elapsed time of the playing video, such as 4 minutes and 51 seconds.

Control+Shift+T: Speaks the total length of the video, such as 1 hour 5 minutes and 12 seconds.

ALT+Control+Windows+F places the YouTube video in full screen mode.

The keystroke to bring into view the list of LeaseyNote categories has been changed from Leasey key ALT+Windows+L to Leasey key then Shift+L.

There have been subtle changes to LeaseyNotes so as to stop speech when moving from one area to another.

In JAWS 2022, pressing the Leasey Key then:
ALT+Left arrow. Routes jaws to the left and other audio to the right.
ALT Right Arrow: routes jaws to the right and other audio to the left.
ALT Up Arrow: Restores sound balance.