[slikom] NVDA User Guide
- From: "DAVID PODREKA" <david_podreka@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <info-blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 20:59:24 +0200
Pozdrav svima!
Poceo sam koristit ovaj screen reader i mogu reci da sam odusevljen nekim
stvarima u njemu. Pa ukratko to bi bilo ovo:
1. Pod SAPI 5 protokolom sa njim mogu radit gotovo beskonacno, computer se
uopce ne zaglavljuje makar radio i neke zahtjevnije stvari.
2. Namjestanje brzine Wintalkera puno je suptilnije nego u Jaws-u ili pod
Windowsima.
3. U Firefox-u cita mnoge stvari koje Jaws ni u ludilu ne cita cak niti u
Internet Explorer-u.
4. Ovaj program mozemo smjestit na USB key ili na bilo koji CD i pokrenuti ga s
njega na bilo kom drugom racunalu, s tim da ukoliko se isti pokrece sa CD-a ne
mozemo radit bilo kakve promjene vezano uz njegovu konfiguraciju. No misljenja
sam da to nije neka velika frka, jer sve mozemo prethodno napravit na vlastitom
compu, te tako podesen program snimit na neki CD i dalje radit bilo gdje na
onaj nacin kako smo to i do sad navikli.
S obzirom da je ovo Open Source project koji traje tek nepunih 5 mjeseci, ovo
je i vise nego zadovoljavajuce, pa slobodno mogu reci "SVAKA CAST"!!!
Stoga proslijedjujem na liste kompletan
"NVDA User Guide" iz kog se detaljno moze saznat na koji nacin se koristi ovaj
program. Iako nije na ovim nasim jezicima, nadam se da ce ipak ovo mnogima
korisno posluzit.
Copyright:
NVDA User Guide
Last updated March 5, 2007.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. System Requirements
3. Getting NVDA
4. Starting NVDA
5. The User Interface
5.1. Showing and Hiding the interface
5.2. Saving and reloading the configuration
5.3. User interface settings
5.4. Synthesizers
5.5. Voice settings
5.6. Keyboard echo
5.7. Mouse settings
5.8. Object presentation
6. Navigating with NVDA
6.1. Navigating by focus
6.2. Object navigation
6.3. Reviewing text in the current object
6.4. Navigating with the system caret
6.5. Navigating with the Mouse
7. Virtual Buffers
8. Progress bar beeps
9. The beep speech mode
1. Introduction
NVDA is a screen reader for the Windows Operating System which allows the user
to access the computer with out needing any vision. By querying the Operating
System for information about where the user is, what windows and controls are
on the screen, and by watching the Operating System closely for changes, NVDA
can process and output this information via synthetic speech, so that the user
understands exactly what is happening on screen.
NVDA currently support Sapi5 speech synthesizers, and uses a modular structure
which allows support for other speech synthesizers to be written. Sapi4 is not
supported. However, work is currently underway to support them in the near
future.
NVDA uses a mixture of Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA), low-level Windows
API calls, and specific application object models. NVDA does not use video
intercept drivers or display hooks. The advantage of all this is that NVDA can
work on many different system configurations, and does not depend on particular
colour settings or video display modes. Also NVDA does not have to install any
special drivers or files which would require the computer to be restarted
before running NVDA for the first time.
NVDA does not yet support Braille displays, though work is currently being done
on this.
There are currently a few translations for NVDA's user interface and messages
in different languages, but more are certainly bound to appear in future.
NVDA should be able to read text in any language, as long as you have a sapi5
synthesizer that can speak that language.
NVDA is experimental software, and is under development. It is also
open-source, which means that anyone is able to read the source code, or even
change it to suit their needs. However, because of this, there may be bugs, and
things may not work as expected on everyone's systems.
But as more and more people test out NVDA, and provide user feedback, NVDA
should be able to grow even better, acting as a completely cost-free access
solution for blind or vision impaired users of Windows.
NVDA works with many programs, and it really just depends on how accessible
they are, as to how good they will work with NVDA.
Apart from all the general Windows functionality, NVDA works with WordPad,
Notepad, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. It also has basic support for
Microsoft Word 2000/xp/2003, and Microsoft Excel 2000/xp/2003. NVDA has not
been tested with Microsoft Office 2007.
NVDA also has extensive support for Mozilla Firefox (version 2 and up). Firefox
is the recommended web browser for maximum accessibility with NVDA.
This User guide is not meant to be a complete guide to using NVDA and Windows,
but just enough information to get you started with NVDA, so that you can
navigate around, and self-learn how to do many more things.
2. System requirements
NVDA runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. NVDA may work on Windows 2000, but
not enough people have tested this yet.
NVDA will not work on Windows 95/98/ME, and will not yet work on 64 bit
versions of Windows.
You should have at least 256MB of ram, and it is probably best to run NVDA on a
computer with a speed of 1.0 GHZ or faster. NVDA will run on slower computers,
but its start-up time may be quite slow, plus intensive tasks such as loading
web pages may be also very slow.
3. Getting NVDA
If you haven't yet got a copy of NVDA, you can download it from the NVDA
website at:
http://www.nvaccess.org/nvda/
Go to the download heading and you will find a link to download the latest
revision of NVDA.
NVDA releases are currently numbered by revision. This revision number is
exactly how many times the source code has been changed. However, just because
a release is put on the website, does not mean it is completely bug-free. It
just means that the developers feel that the current features in NVDA seem to
be working quite well on their own systems, and that it's probably time to have
NVDA tested by the rest of the world.
The zip file you download will need to be unzipped to any directory on your
system. NVDA will usually be run from somewhere on your hard drive, but NVDA
can be also run off a USB key, or even off a CD.
4. Starting NVDA
To start NVDA, you need to press enter (or double click) on nvda.exe in the
NVDA directory.
As NVDA starts, you will first hear an ascending set of tones (telling you that
NVDA is loading). You should then hear it say "NVDA Started". Depending on how
fast your computer is, or if you are running NVDA off a USB key or other slower
medium, it may take a little while to start. If it is taking an extra long
time, NVDA should say "Loading subsystems. Please wait..."
If you don't hear any of this, or you hear the Windows error sound, or a
descending set of tones, then this means that NVDA has an error, and you will
need to possibly report a bug to the developers. Please check out the NVDA
website for how to do this.
Once NVDA starts successfully, it should bring up the NVDA interface window,
which allows you to control NVDA's settings, and to exit NVDA all together.
5. The User Interface
The NVDA Interface Window contains a menu bar with menus that allow you to
change settings and exit NVDA. The Window also contains a quick-start document
which lists most of the keyboard commands you might want to use while running
NVDA.
The NVDA Interface window is a good place to get used to navigating around with
NVDA, since it has a document in which you can arrow around, plus lots of menus
and dialog boxes.
5.1. Although the NVDA interface window appears when you start NVDA, it doesn't
have to be around for the whole time of using the program. There is nothing
worse than having too many open applications to alt-tab through when trying to
find a particular one.
To hide the NVDA interface window, you can simply press alt+f4 when inside it.
This will not exit NVDA altogether, but only hide the interface.
To show the interface again at any time, you can either press insert+n, or you
can press enter or double click on NVDA in the Windows System Tray.
5.2. Saving and Reloading the configuration
NVDA stores its settings in a file called nvda.ini in its directory. You will
probably never have to touch this file, but for advanced users, this file does
allow you to change some extra settings which don't yet have dialog boxes to do
so.
NVDA does not automatically save your settings, so if you exit NVDA, and then
restart it, the settings will go back to the original values. To save the
settings, you can either choose the save item in the NVDA menu, or press
control+s when in the NVDA interface window.
If NVDA is on a read-only file system, such as a CD, it will not be able to
save your settings, and it will tell you so.
If you ever make a mistake with your settings and need to revert back to the
saved settings, you can either choose the "revert to saved" configuration item
in the NVDA menu, or you can press control+r in the NVDA Interface Window.
5.3. User Interface settings
The User Interface settings dialog box is found in the Preferences menu. This
allows you to configure options about whether the NVDA Interface window will be
shown on NVDA start-up, whether you want NVDA to automatically save your
settings on exit, and also allows you to change the language of NVDA's
interface and messages.
5.4. Synthesizers
The Synthesizers item in the Preferences menu allows you to select what
Synthesizer to use. Currently NVDA only supports the Sapi5 synthesizer, so you
will not have any need to use this, but in future this is where you will be
able to select between various synthesizers.
5.5. Voice settings
Voice settings, in the preferences menu, brings up a dialog box which allows
you to change what voice NVDA uses, plus to change the rate, pitch and volume
of the voice.
The rate can also be changed from anywhere on the system by using insert + the
page up or page down keys. Page up for faster by 5%, and page down for slower
by 5%.
There are also another two options: Speak punctuation, and Say cap before
capitals.
Speak punctuation allows you to set whether NVDA will actually say the
punctuation symbols, or only use them to control the pattern of speech.
Say cap before capitals is an option that tells NVDA to say the word "cap"
before speaking any single capitalized character. Usually NVDA will raise the
pitch of the voice for capital letters, but some voices may not support this,
so then it might be useful to turn on this option.
5.6. Keyboard echo
NVDA can say the characters you type, say the words you type, and also say the
key combinations you type. All three are configurable from the Keyboard echo
settings item in the Preferences Menu.
To change these settings from anywhere on your system, insert+2 toggles speak
typed characters, insert+3 toggles speak typed words, and insert+4 toggles
speak command keys (key combinations).
5.7. Mouse settings
You can configure NVDA to report when the shape of the mouse cursor changes
(such as when a program is loading, or when you move the mouse in to an
editable field). You can also configure whether you want NVDA to automatically
speak what is currently under the mouse as it moves. These options can be found
in the Mouse settings dialog, in the Preferences menu.
5.8. Object Presentation
The Object Presentation item in the Preferences menu brings up a dialog which
allows you to configure how NVDA deals with certain controls (or objects) in
Windows.
You can tell NVDA whether you wish for tooltips to be read when they appear,
whether you want help balloons to be read as they appear, whether you want the
state of a control (such as checked, selected, pressed etc) to be reported
before its name and type, and whether you want NVDA to beep when a progress bar
is moving.
6. Navigating with NVDA
6.1. Navigating with the focus
The Most common way of navigating around Windows with NVDA, is to just move
around with normal keyboard commands, such as tab and shift tab too move
forward and back between controls, pressing alt to get to the menu bar and then
using the arrows to navigate menus, using alt-tab to move between running
applications. As you do this, NVDA will announce what has focus.
When NVDA announces an object (e.g. when it receives focus), it will usually
say the object's name, type, value, description, keyboard shortcut, and
positional information. This is quite similar to other screen readers; however
the types of objects may be a little different.
6.2. Object navigation
If you wish to look around the Operating System a bit, but with out moving the
focus, you can use NVDA's object navigation. This allows you to move from
object to object in a tree like structure.
The tree structure of objects starts at the desktop window, the root of the
tree. The first branches of the tree are the currently running applications,
and of course these applications have their own branches (objects),
representing various parts of the application.
The tree structure can get quite large, but it does allow you to navigate in a
logical order, so that you can quickly find the information you need.
This structure has nothing to do with how the objects are laid out on the
screen, but how they are related logically. This may take a little bit of time
to get used to, but once you grasp this, you should be able to move around
quite easily.
NVDA currently can not navigate the objects in a screen layout due to not
having a video intercept driver or display hooks. NVDA chooses not to interact
with the screen, more so because over all it should allow a much clearer, and
more logical perception of an application and the operating system, rather than
trying to picture a flat screen layout.
Not all applications have a perfect tree structure, but this is up to the
developer of that particular application. Most seem to be ok; certainly most
Dialog boxes and highly structured applications seem to have gotten it right.
To navigate by object, use the following keys:
Speak current object: insert+numpad5
Move to parent object (moving towards the root of the tree): insert+numpad8
Move to previous object (the object directly before this one on the same
level): insert+numpad4
Move to Next object (the object directly after this one on the same level):
insert+numpad6
Move to first child object (The first branch coming out of this one):
insert+numpad2
Move to focus: insert+numpadMinus
Activate current object (e.g. press enter / click / double click):
insert+numpadEnter
Move the mouse to the current object: insert+numpadDivide
Move to the mouse: insert+numpadMultiply
6.3. Reviewing the text in the current object
Sometimes you might want to know how something is spelt, or perhaps you need to
read something by words. You can review the text inside the current object with
the numpad keys:
Top line: shift+numpad7
Previous line: numpad7
Current line: numpad8
Next line: numpad9
Bottom line: shift+numpad9
Previous word: numpad4
Current word: numpad5
Next word: numpad6
Start of line: shift+numpad1
Previous character: numpad1
Current character: numpad2
Next character: numpad3
End of line: shift+numpad3
Say all text: numpadPlus
For most objects, the text inside is made up of name, value and description.
However for objects that actually have real text, or editable content, then the
text is the actual text in the object.
For example: a list item in a list will have text which contains its name,
value and description. But an edit field, or a dos console window, will have
the actual text that is in the field or window.
6.4. Navigating with the system caret
When the focus is on an object that has an edit cursor (system caret), you can
arrow around and edit like you normally would. NVDA will announce as you move
by character, word, line, and will also announce selecting and unselecting text.
When you move with the system caret, the position of the review cursor will
also be updated to match the system caret.
You can also read the entire text (say all) with insert+downArrow. Note though
that this is different to numpadPlus which only moves the review cursor, this
moves the system caret as it goes.
6.5. Navigating with the Mouse
When you move the Mouse, NVDA can be configured to report the object that is
directly under the mouse pointer, as it moves over it.
By using the mouse, even blind users may be able to gain an idea of how the
screen is laid out. NVDA can only read the object that is under the mouse, it
can not yet read particular textual content or other smaller features.
7. Virtual Buffers
Complex documents, such as web pages, are represented in NVDA with in a Virtual
Buffer.
A Virtual Buffer is a flat textual representation of the document, which allows
the user to arrow around, to read the text and fields that are in the document.
Apart from arrowing around, you can also press enter or space on links and
buttons to activate them, press enter or space on edit fields to then edit
their content, press enter or space on check boxes or radio buttons to select
them, and press enter or space on combo boxes to then be able to change their
selection.
As you arrow in to a field, the field type (such as link, heading, list etc) is
spoken, however this information is not physically in the buffer, which means
you can arrow through the text as normal.
Currently NVDA uses Virtual Buffers for both Internet Explorer and Mozilla
Firefox.
Virtual Buffers have the ability to be updated dynamically, however only
Mozilla Firefox currently makes use of this feature. Although Internet Explorer
will probably display most pages correctly, Firefox is much better with content
that changes due to JavaScript etc.
Because of the complexity of Virtual Buffers, NVDA may take a bit of time to
load some pages. Most pages will load quite quickly, but some very large page
may take over 5 seconds or more.
For quicker navigation, NVDA also provides single character keys to jump to
certain fields in a virtual buffer.
By themselves they jump to the next field, with the shift key they jump to the
previous field.
Keys:
heading: h
list: l
list item: i
table: t
link: k
paragraph: p
form field: f
Sometimes you may wish to interact with form fields with out the virtual buffer
keys getting in the way. Virtual Buffer Pass-Through mode is exactly for this
problem, and can be toggled on and off with insert+space.
Generally though, when pressing on a form field it will automatically be turned
on, and when loading a new page it will be turned off.
8. Progress bar beeps
Progress bars are used in Windows to denote how complete a task is. Actions
such as copying files in Windows Explorer, loading a web page in Internet
Explorer, checking your email in Outlook Express all have progress bars. NVDA
can beep at a certain pitch to tell you where a progress bar is up to. As the
pitch gets higher, the closer the progress bar is to 100%. You will soon learn
exactly what 0 and 100 sound like, and therefore you will be able to tell
exactly how far along a progress bar is.
9. Beep speech mode
The beep speech mode in NVDA is a mode where instead of NVDA speaking
everything, it simply makes a very quick high-pitched beep. This is useful when
you know you are doing a task where there are a lot of screen updates, like
using a dos program to burn a CD, or copy lots of files. Rather than hear every
file or percentage, or rather than constantly pressing the control key to shut
up speech, you can press insert+s twice to change to beep speech mode, and all
you will hear is little beeps, until the screen stops updating (i.e. the task
is finished).
To set the speech back to normal, press insert+s again.
Copiright and.
Srdacno,
David
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