RE: Jaws and Microsoft Word

  • From: <Michael.Schulz@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 09:21:00 +0100

Thanks, Carmen!
I am also using office 2007 on a vista system and I recognize that the
windows help there is always opened in a external help window  (f1 > new
icon in the vista task bar and active virtual cursor like in internet
explorer).
Pressing f1 e.g. in office word 2003 opens here no external window (f1 >
no new icon in the xp task bar and no active virtual cursor but an
active pc cursor).
Please try the following
-       open office word 2003 > press f1 (jaws says word help and after
pressing jaws cursor + q jaws script is word for windows) > press arrow
down once or twice ... on the num pad > press + on the numpad (jaws says
pc) > press f6 to jump into the document window of word > press f6 again
to jump into the internal word help window back > select one of the
items in the word help and press enter (until jaws says microsoft office
word help) > now the external xp help system opens (a new icon in the xp
task bar is open and after pressing f6 in this help the virtual cursor
is now active instead of the pc cursor and pressing jaws cursor + q jaws
says windows 98 help settings) > close the external help by alt + f4
(the task bar icon is closed) > select the word icon in the task bar and
you think you are in the word document window but pressing f6 here you
switch to the open internal word help again which is not closed ... and
so on > at this point I do not know any key stroke which closes the
internal word help and so I close word and start word again and the help
window is now closed until I press f1.
- in vista and office 2007 there is no internal help window open.
By the way: Do not be "frustrated"! There are to much things we all have
to solve every day that sighted people do not have.
Regards, Michael
--- Begin Message ---
  • From: <bluedogs24@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 18:13:10 +0100
Hello Michael,
        Yeah I know where you're coming from.  I did try doing the insert
escape to refresh my screen as well as maximizing my screen and it didn't
seem to make any difference.  Using the up and down arrows didn't seem to do
anything either.  I found out in my experience that both the Outlook help
and Word 2003 help don't seem as easy as the Jaws help system.  Someone
suggested yesterday to press f6 to go between the panes.  Well I can tell
you that f6 didn't do anything.  In fact Jaws just said f6.  I switched
between Outlook and the Word help again to see what would happen.  Once I
was in the Word help I routed the Jaws cursor to the pc cursor and was able
to read the information but that didn't feel right to me.  I'm so used to
using the pc cursor for reading text that the Jaws cursor is a little
foreign to me.  I then switched back to the pc cursor and still couldn't
read my information about Outlook.  strange thing about the Word 2003 help
was that I was unable to close the window.  I closed all of the other
applications that were running at the time but the Word help system wouldn't
close.  Why would that be happening?  With no success of closing this window
I just restarted my computer and opened up a Word document where I pressed
f1 to open up help.  When I went into help this time I arrowed down to the
what's new link and pressed enter.  I didn't see the Microsoft Outlook,
Power Point etc links.  I don't like how the help systems work in other
applications.  It seems like it's more difficult to access the information
that you want, whereas with the Jaws help you can use the f6 key to go
between the two panes with no problem and pick whatever topic you want to
learn more about.

        I'm glad that I'm not the only one whose frustrated  about this sort
of thing.  I thought that I was the only one who was experiencing this.
Could you explain in detail what the difference is between the external help
and internal help?  Thank you.
Carmen


-----Original Message-----
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Michael.Schulz@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 3:21 AM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Jaws and Microsoft Word

Interesting thing on a similar environment here (xp pro & office 2003):
-       open outlook 2003
-       open word 2003
-       alt + tab and reverse is ok
-       open outlook 2003 help (f1) brings up a internal help system of
outlook 2003
-       tab brings me from item to item (pc cursor active) and after
some selections the external outlook 2003 help system is open (jaws
cursor is active and a new task bar icon next to the word and the
outlook icons can be recognized)
-       jaws key + f10 > word 2003 > open word 2003 help (f1) > opens a
internal help system (same as in outlook 2003) > tabbing around and
selecting items switches to the external word help system (the third
task bar icon for help is now the word help and no longer the outlook
help system)
-       jaws key + f10 > outlook 2003 opens the outlook window > insert
+ plus (jaws cursor) > I am able to read the internal outlook help
window which is not in focus of the pc cursor (it is the same if I am
switching to word 2003)
-       closing the external help system closes not the internal help
systems of outlook and word (the jaws cursor could be used to read the
internal help systems and I cann not close them because the pc cursor is
in focus in the word or outlook application)
-       the internal help systems could not be closed because jaws gets
no focus to the close icons and so I have to close the outlook and word
applications
=       this behaviour seems to be the result of the old help window
system of windows 98 because jaws uses the 98 help settings (press jaws
key + q in the open internal or external help system)
The problem in using the "insert + up arrow" once ore twice is
interesting but using the tab insted of insert + up arrow solves it
here. As someone other on this list wrote, it couldd sometimes be
helpful to use insert + escape or to switch from pc cursor to jaws
cursor et vice versa to see what is really on the screen.
I know several applications which uses these internal help systems and I
am always happy if I could be helped in closing by someone who is not
blind.
This behaviour exists not in office 2007 but there are some other
handicaps.
A solution to this is very much welcomed - so, if someone here could
help that would be great.
Regards, Michael


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