What's New in J-Say 17.0!

Introduction

We are very proud to bring you the anticipated release of J-Say version 17.0.

During 2018, we brought to the J-Say community three major releases of the product: One in January, another in May and a third in June. We brought to you at least 15 new features this year, including the commands in Sleep Mode, access to news and weather, and a new way of accessing attachments in Microsoft Outlook.

This year, we are adopting a similar approach. We are already ahead on our release schedule because we are not at the end of 2018 yet.
Principally due to the release of JAWS 2019, and Vispero’s annual licencing model for Home Users, we are bringing to you the initial release of J-Say now to ensure it is compatible with JAWS 2019. This was not quite as straightforward as it would appear. Due to a faster startup time within JAWS, (and what Vispero call a “grace period of authorisation being adopted at startup”, work needed to be done in that area. In JAWS 2019, the mechanism by which JAWS deals with different Office applications has significantly changed. The end result to you is that the response time when using Office is faster, but that created more work for us. Finally, the Skype support needed a complete rewrite to coexist withSkype version 8. It wasn’t just a case of adapting what we had available.

All this work has now been done and is available in this version. We’ve also ensured that this release coexists much more favourably with Zoomtext Fusion as there were problems with earlier versions.

Our next major release will be with you before Christmas. The priorities are to improve the range of voice commands for Skype 8 users, provide some support for Skype for Business, and to deliver a range of commands for use with the OpenTween Twitter client.

Important Notes.

J-Say 17 is compatible with JAWS and Fusion 2019 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 or Fusion 2019 if at all possible. But if not, we're still supporting the older releases.

If you are using Office 365 and/or Windows10, we highly recommend the use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional Individual version 15.3.
Please note at this time, J-Say 17 is only compatible with Dragon Professional Individual 15.3. Should there be a need to support an earlier release of Dragon, this can be easily accommodated. Please let us know.

Compatibility Considerations

J-Say 17.0 coexists with:
Microsoft Office 2010 through to 365(Microsoft Office 365 is highly recommended);
JAWS for Windows versions 14 through to 2019,
Zoomtext Fusion with JAWS for Windows 2018 or 2019,
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional version 15.3.

Instructions for Upgrading

When you purchased J-Say 17.0, you will have received an Email containing details of how to download and install the product.

If you think you may be entitled to a free upgrade, (either because you purchased the product after August 2018 or because you hold a current Software Maintenance Agreement), you will need to send your JAWS serial number to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon we will get you up and running.

The documentation is available to you when you install the product by saying
“Get Help”
Or by locating it from the J-Say Configuration Wizard.

You do not need to uninstall the previous version of J-Say, 16.0, before installing the new version. Please just follow these instructions.

1. Be sure that the computer to host J-Say technology has an active connection to the internet.
2. Log onto the Windows account of the person to be using J-Say. Be sure that the user’s account contains “Administrator Privileges”. Please note that logging onto the Windows account of the person using the technology is a critical step. Many people are not doing this.
3. Download the J-Say 17.0 program, a link for which will have been provided within an Email message following the purchase of a licence. If you have not received such an Email, please send your JAWS serial number to jaws@hartgen.org.
4. Run the J-Say 17.0 installer program, restarting the computer when prompted.
5. Wait for approximately two minutes after Microsoft Windows has fully loaded. If an activation file is found, it will be downloaded to the computer and you will be prompted to restart JAWS. Please select the “Yes” Button to comply with this request.

Any Contacts, Shortcuts or Text Notes should be automatically available to you and will have been brought across from your older JAWS version to the new one.