it seems that dcocrform is a instance of a class the tcfilename is a property pointing to a textbox control, and text is the text of that textboxcontrol. ----- Original Message ----- From: RicksPlace To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:22 AM Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Hi: I don't get this file path. When I do code blocks I create them inside classes which I usually add to a project folder. Is this a file path or the name of something? dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text. You mentioned you have to put the above in a control, what type of control and are you binding to that control or what property of the control is the above path located in? Just curious since I did not understand that part of the message. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald Marang To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:15 AM Subject: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Thanks everybody for the many tips! My program has come a long way due to your help. For now I think I will just distribute the executable, a Desktop Shortcut Icon, and some documentation files in a zip file. The user would need to place the files at, "C:\QuickOCR" folder and copy the Desktop Shortcut Icon to the Desktop. If they want to install elsewhere, they would need to change the path in the Desktop Shortcut Icon. I have two small areas where I still have some questions. I split out most of the large chunks of code, like the OCR processing, into subroutines in modules stored in separate files. This works well, makes it easier to update, and would make it simple to add functionality in the future. One such addition would be adding other OCR Engines. However, since it is not within the main form object code, I have had to supply the entire object heirachy in the references to controls, such as dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text. I looked at the Imports, Namespace, and With Visual Basic commands. I started playing around a little with these, but decided to first make the subroutines work. Could someone enlighten me to which command would be appropriate, or what modifier on the main form object should be changed in this situation? The other thing that started confuddling me at 2 AM last night was that JAWS refuses to announce the shortcuts in the menus. I added the code to the File and Actions menus yesterday. That was another reason I wanted most of the code, like "Perform OCR" as subroutines. There are visible shortcuts in the menus and they work if you know the shortcut key combinations, like Control + O for Open image. I have set the shortcut properties; ShortcutDisplayText="Ctrl+O", ShortcutKeys="Ctrl+O", and ShowShortcutKeys=True, of the menu items in the property tables for the menu items. I have tried both "Ctrl+O" (contracted spelling) and "Control+O" (all characters) in the ShortcutDisplayText property. Things are displayed on the screen as expected and function properly, but JAWS refuses to announce the shortcuts. JAWS is announceing menu shortcuts in all other applications, including Visual Studio Express. What do I need to do to force JAWS to recognize and announce the shortcuts? Don Marang