Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again

  • From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 15:02:20 -0800

Richard,

thanks for the explicit instructions about how to find the launch item for 
each version on the Start menu, and how to open its properties, but I'm 
familiar with that sort of thing, so it wasn't a hassle at all. But I'll ask 
you what I just asked Chris Mullins in another reply a moment ago: I'm 
surprised, although not at all displeased,to see Rick confirming what I just 
suspected for the first time as I fixed up my hotkeys a few minutes ago. 
Which is that if you just set this stuff on the Start menu, that's all you 
need to do. I mean, you can still bring up the properties dialogue for the 
icon of the same application, and it will still provide that very tab with 
its edit fields, but 1. that field will be blank although you've entered 
something into it in the other properties tab on the Start menu, and 2. I'm 
starting to think it's a redundancy and in fact a needlessly confusing one. 
Leading you (or me, at least, until a few minutes ago) to infer that you had 
two properties tabs you had to deal with for each application represented by 
an icon, and that you had to input the same stuff in both locations. Well, I 
guess not.

Can you speak to this? I think I'm going to simply stop fooling around with 
icons altogether,I mean adjusting them in this way. When I install an 
application and am asked if I want it on the start menu and want an icon , 
too, I'll continue to say yes to both, but if I want to assign a hotkey, I 
won't even bother touching the icon's properties. Do you know if the start 
menu launch item's properties take precedence in case of a conflict with the 
properties details of the icon?

Wow. This is definitely not "intuitive" stuff. Not that it's rocket science 
or brain surgery, as they say, but that isn't what I mean. It's just 
confusing because of a system design that can be bewildering to an end user. 
Like me, is that I mean. :-)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Justice" <ricjustice@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again


Hi Rich,
That is the way I always assign my hotkeys for Jaws, and have never had a
problem.
I don't quite understand the difference, but I have never assigned a hotkey
from the desktop icon.
Richard Justice
www.blind-computing.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard sherman" <squirman@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 7:24 PM
Subject: Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again


Hi Yardbird,

I have two suggestions for you.

Option 1 is to manually find your problem:

1. go to start/programs/jaws x (where x represents every version of jaws
that is installed).

2. Press the right arrow key once. Arrow down or up until you find jaws.

3. Press the applications key.

4. Find properties with the arrow keys and press enter (or use the R key).
Alt  + enter does not work here.

5. Tab until you are focused on the shortcut key field and see if it matches
what you have for desktop icons.

Suggestion 2 is to download a program, called hotkey, to help you:

1. go to the jfw lite programs page found at

http://www.jfwlite.com/programs.html

2. Press jaws key + f7 to open the links list.

3. Press the H key a few times until you hear Hotkey.

4. Press alt + m to put focus on the 3 links there concerning the program
hotkey.

5. Download the program. It does not install but just uses a simple .exe
file.

6. read the hotkey helpful hint link to use the program.

7. Read the results and compare to see if your hotkeys are set properly.

HTH

rich
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Yardbird
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:37 PM


the topic of how to successfully set a hotkey for launching Jaws has come up
repeatedly over the past year, as Versions 8, and now 9, seem to be
troublesome for a lot of users in this respect. Well, I was doing okay with
version 8 for a while after finally getting a hotkey assignment to stick (I
forget how, exactly), but now I've installed Version 9 and it's even
stranger than before.

First of all, let me make it clear that I basically know how to do this. At
least I know how to do it for any other application that's represented by an
icon on my desktop. Select the icon, press the context menu key (right side
of spacebar, to left of Control key) and choose properties. Tab, and you're
in the edit field for establishing a hotkey. You don't even have to bother
pressing control and alt, because that's the standard combination and Jaws
will insert that for you. All you have to do is press the letter key you'd
like to use.

Then you hear Jaws read the edit box, and it'll say something like Control
Alt J. Which is what you wanted. You tab down to OK, press Enter, and there
you go.

Well, since Jaws 8, everyone's had to do all sorts of acrobatics to use this
feature. Advice floats around like urban myths. Use this letter but not that
letter. It's okay to tab away from the field, but don't tab back to it or
what you entered will disappear. Or don't tab at all, just press Enter. If
you tab further into the dialogue, it will delete your entry. And so forth.

Now, none of that ought to be necessary, of course, and it didn't used to
be. Until Jaws 8. But whatever.

Now it's really interesting. I actually managed to set Control Insert J for
my new Jaws 9, and changed my hotkey for Jaws 8 to Control Alt K, just in
case I need to use it.

And both settings stayed set, which I thought was a good sign. But now, if I
exit Jaws 9 to see if restarting it will stop a bad behavior (don't ask) and
then press Control Alt J, what comes up but, yep, Jaws 8. I went to the
Desktop and rechecked. yes, everything is still set just as I set it. But
it's working the wrong way.

Ah, here's a thought, just for the heck of it. Let me exit Jaws 9, then
hotkey Control Alt key and see if it actually *also* brings up Jaws 8 or,
maybe, launches Jaws 9, so that it's all backward. Hang on..
Nope. Control Alt K brings up Jaws 7, which is what it used to do before I
changed everything around. And if I go into the properties for the Jaws 7
icon, it says it has no hot key, just as I'd think it would. Nonetheless,
it's as if Jaws 7 is still K, Jaws 8 is still J, and Jaws 9 has no hotkey.
none of which is what properties say.

Has anyone been through this, or anything like it? I've tried this
repeatedly but can't get these hotkeys to behave correctly. Out of ideas.

thanks.

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