[access-uk] Outlook scripts.
- From: "Peter Logue" <peterlogue@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 01:58:49 -0500
Hi all,
Here are a set of scripts that I received from Brian Hartgen.
They are originally for Outlook 2000 and Jaws 5x, but I find they work
very well with Outlook 2002 XP with Jaws version 6. Actually, Brian did
write them for Outlook 2000 and higher. The big plus with these scripts
installed is that you needn't hit the say all key combo when you open
emails. In fact, Outlook performs much like Outlook Express in that each
email is read automatically.
You could, of course, back up your enu folder if you aren't
sure. Here's what Brian says about the scripts, then below that there
is a link to download them.
Enhanced Scripts for Microsoft Outlook
Enhanced Scripts for Outlook 2000 and Higher
Produced by Brian Hartgen of T&T Consultancy Ltd
August 2004
Introduction
JAWS version 5.10 already provides excellent functionality to Microsoft
Outlook. However, the purpose of the scripts is to improve the overall
usability
and accessibility of the application. The work undertaken falls into
two specific areas: the Outlook calendar and E-Mail functionality.
Any comments
and suggestions to improve future editions of the scripts are very
welcome.
Installation
To install the scripts, simply launch the self-extracting file. The
files will be copied to your computer's hard disk into the JAWS 5.10
settings folder.
Note: for users of Jaws 6, move to the browse button and locate
C:\documents and settings. User/Name. Application Data. Freedom
Scientific. Jaws. 6.0. Settings. Enu.
WARNING: In order for the Reminder window to be located from within any
application, (see later section of this file), the default scripts must
be overwritten.
However, only one script is added to the default set.
Testing Conditions
The scripts have been tested using Office 2000 and Office 2003. I hope
I have implemented the necessary code to ensure they work successfully
within Office
XP.
Launching Outlook
After installing the scripts, and when you launch Outlook for the first
time thereafter, you will be asked to select a date format for the
Outlook calendar.
The options are European and American format. This is because the
location of information relating to days is placed differently on the
screen using
either American or UK regional settings.
Use the up and down arrow keys to focus upon the desired regional
setting and press enter.
The Outlook Calendar
Navigation in the Day View
In most circumstances, when using the left and right arrow keys within
the Day View of the Calendar, by default JAWS will read out the focused
day, such
as "02 august". If an appointment is an "all day" event, JAWS will read
the title of the appointment when the day gains focus.
Within the scripts, the reading of the dates has been corrected
slightly to avoid unnecessary chatter within Office 2000.
Appointments in the Day view
With the default scripts, when using the arrow keys to move through the
dates, there is no method of being able to tell whether appointments
exist for
a given date. The only way to verify this is to press the TAB key on
each day, whereupon JAWS will sometimes read the appointment, or else it
will say
"no appointments".
To this end, the scripts will always advise you of the current status of
a day.
List of 3 items
? If an "all day" event occurs, JAWS will announce the title of the
appointment. If necessary, the TAB key can be pressed and JAWS will
announce the appointment
title, followed by the words "all day".
? If appointments exist at specific times of the focused date, JAWS will
use the term "timed appointments". This indicates that the TAB key can
be pressed
multiple times to listen to the appointments. Once done, JAWS will now
accurately read the time at which the appointment exists, together with
the subject
of the appointment. Keep pressing the TAB key until JAWS says "day
view", whereupon you have reached the list of days again which can be
browsed through
using the left and right arrow keys.
? If no appointments exist on the focused day, JAWS will say "no
appointments".
list end
This procedure will considerably improve the user's ability to navigate
through the days much more efficiently.
If by pressing the TAB key an appointment has focus, the left and right
arrow keys, or control+left and right arrow keys can be used to move
through the
appointment details a word or character at a time.
Days of the Week in the Day View
Many people conceptually find it easier to know the day of the week on
which a particular date falls. Within the scripts, a keystroke can be
pressed, ALT+SHIFT+D,
which toggles whether or not days of the week are spoken. When JAWS is
set to announce days, using the left and right arrow keys will cause
JAWS to announce
the day first, then the date. For example, "Monday 2 August".
Activating this feature is also useful as and when you want to ascertain
on which day a specific date falls. The procedure would be:
List of 4 items
? Press Control+G to activate the "go to" dialogue;
? type in the date required, such as "4 January 2005".
? Press ENTER.
? JAWS will announce the day of the week and the focused date.
list end
The announcing of days preference setting is remembered across Windows
sessions.
Navigation in the Week View
It is possible to navigate through the Week View using the arrow keys.
The screen is divided into two halves, with each half devoted to at
least three
days of the week. It is possible to use the up and down arrow keys to
move through all of the days in the week. However, the left and right
arrow keys
can be used to "focus in" on a part of the week more quickly. For
example, when focused upon 2 August, pressing the right arrow would take
you to 5 August.
The easiest way to browse through appointments for the week from a given
location is to use the arrow keys to focus upon the required starting
point for
browsing. Then, use the TAB key. When the TAB key has been pressed
once, you are taken into what I call the "appointment level".
Effectively, this is
a series of edit boxes where you can use the control left and right
arrow keys and control+left and right arrow keys to browse the
appointment details
a word or character at a time. Each time the TAB key is struck, JAWS
will announce the appointment subject.
To return to the "week level", press the ESCAPE key.
As an alternative to pressing the Escape key, if you press Tab multiple
times, JAWS will eventually say "Week View", whereupon the arrow keys
can be used
to browse through the days in the usual manner.
Navigating in the Month View
This procedure is very similar to navigating in the Week View, in so far
as the TAB key can be used to move through appointments. When the TAB
key is struck,
JAWS enters "appointment level" and the date and subject of the
appointment will be heard. Press ESCAPE to return to the "Month Level".
As an alternative to pressing the Escape key, if you press Tab multiple
times, JAWS will eventually say "Month View", whereupon the arrow keys
can be used
to browse through the days in the usual manner.
In terms of navigation in this view, the left and right arrow keys will
move through days of the week, while the up and down arrow keys move
through weeks.
Reminder Window
From any application, press alt+shift+R to place focus on the reminder
window if it is visible. If you are located within Microsoft Outlook
when this
keystroke is pressed, the default JAWS functionality is used to place
focus upon the reminder window. However, if an alternative application
is in focus,
the scripts will locate the reminder window. Useful feedback will be
given while this is in progress.
Notes Area
When the TAB key has been pressed to focus upon a specific appointment,
the ENTER key can now be pressed which will then cause focus to be
placed within
the notes area. This is whether further explanatory notes are given
about the appointment. The arrow keys can then be used to read the
notes.
New Appointment Dialogue
When tabbing through the New Appointment dialogue, JAWS will now
accurately report the various prompts.
Troubleshooting
The most common problem when using any scripts produced for the Outlook
calendar is the announcing of time slots within the Day View. This is
because the
time slots are in the form of a colour band which moves up and down the
screen, and there are many situations where JAWS fails to detect this
correctly.
The following suggestions may help in correcting this problem.
List of 4 items
? Ensure that, particularly if you are using Windows XP, all display
settings on the computer conform to the recommendations set out below.
1. From the Windows Control Panel, move to "Display" and press Enter.
2. From the themes combo box, select Windows XP.
3. In the List of backgrounds on the Desktop page, choose Bliss.
4. Set Position to "Stretch."
5. In the Screen Saver combo box on the Screen Saver page, press HOME to
select none.
6. On the Appearance page, set Windows and Buttons to Windows classic
style.
7. Set Color Scheme to Windows Standard.
8. Set Font to normal.
9. Tab to OK and press enter.
? Re-train the highlight colour for the calendar by pressing
control+shift+alt+Z. This is not a documented keystroke but a very
useful one.
? If necessary, rather than re-training the colour, remove the file from
your JAWS settings folder entitled "outllib.jsi". This contains your
preference
settings including the RGB string representing the colour. Then
re-start JAWS and re-enter the calendar. The file will be re-created
automatically and
the colour re-trained.
? Maximise the calendar window by pressing alt+space, then X.
list end
E-Mail
The Address Book
One way of being able to select recipients of messages is to use the
quick access to the Address Book. After typing the first name of a
contact in the
"to", "CC" or "BCC" fields, press control+K. JAWS will now read the
message which is displayed, then allow you to use the arrow keys to
focus on a name
in the address book. JAWS will now accurately read the name of the
contact while moving through the list. The ENTER key is pressed to
accept the name
into the relevant field in the message.
As an alternative, when the message has been composed, press
control+enter. Again, if there is more than one occurrence of the name
in your address book,
you will be advised of this. Using the arrow keys will accurately
report the available entries.
Automatic Reading of Messages
It is now possible to have JAWS read messages to you automatically when
the Enter key is pressed. Use the alt+shift+M keystroke to instruct
JAWS as to
whether messages will be read automatically or not.
If messages are set to read automatically, when the Enter key is
pressed, JAWS will begin reading the message. If set to not read
automatically, the usual
from and subject lines are read.
Your preference is remembered across Windows sessions.
Moving Through Messages Internally
Some people like to open a message to read its contents, then press the
Next or Previous Message keystrokes, control+full-stop or control+comma,
to move
through the messages without going back to the index.
If messages are set to read automatically, these keystrokes will now
cause the next or prior message to be read immediately.
A mode has been included, entitled "Name and Subject", toggled with
alt+shift+N. If activated, and when the control+full-stop and
control+comma keystrokes
are used, you will hear who the message is from, then the subject
header, then the message.
Your preference is remembered across Windows sessions.
Deleting Messages Internally
Assuming that the appropriate option is set within Microsoft Outlook to
display the next message when an item has been deleted, JAWS will now
read the next
message automatically if the appropriate option has been set.
List of 3 items
? From within Outlook, choose Tools, Options, E-Mail Options.
? Rather than allowing Outlook to return to the In Box when a message is
deleted, use the Down Arrow key to highlight the option "Open the next
item".
? Close the successive dialogue boxes by tabbing to each OK button and
pressing Enter.
list end
Now within an open message, you can press control+D. If messages are
set to read automatically, the next item will be read. If the option in
the scripts
is set to read from and subject headers, these too will be read.
Additional Announcements
When you are using the arrow keys to move through the list of messages,
and you reach either the top or bottom of the list, JAWS will advise you
of this.
Similarly, when the delete key is pressed within the index of messages,
and there are no further items in the list, JAWS will advise you that
the mailbox
is empty.
Move Past Headers
Within Outlook, when messages have been forwarded or replied to, it is
often useful to skip past the header information to read the previous
correspondence
in the thread of messages. Pressing shift+enter will cause JAWS to find
the beginning of the next part of the thread.
For example:
List of 3 items
? Press enter on a message and read it with the arrow keys.
? When you wish to move to the next part of the thread, such as the
original message, press shift+enter. JAWS will attempt to locate the
next part of the
message, moving past all the header information.
? If messages are set to read automatically, JAWS will begin reading
from the newly located point. If messages are set not to read
automatically, the newly
located line will be read.
list end
If JAWS was unable to move past the header information, for example if
the keystroke had been pressed within a new message, you will be advised
that the
header information cannot be moved through.
Reading Number of Messages with INSERT+TAB
When in a mailbox, press INSERT+TAB to gain useful information such as
the number of messages in the box.
Help Information
The Hotkey Help, activated with insert+H, has been enhanced. In
particular, much of the Hotkey Help for the Calendar has been
re-written.
Tutor messages for the Calendar have been included for all views, and
Screen Sensitive Help has been modified.
Finally, this help file can be read at any time by pressing
control+shift+F1.
Other Additions to the Microsoft Outlook Scripts
The following is a list of other changes made to the scripts for
Microsoft Outlook which ship with JAWS by default.
List of 5 items
? Fixed a problem where, if you tab into the details of an appointment
and use the left and right arrow keys, JAWS reports the appointment
details rather
than the character on which the cursor is placed.
? Fixed a problem where pressing the TAB key within the laptop layout to
take you to an appointment does not read the appointment automatically.
? Fixed a problem where pressing the tab key to take you back to the Day
View causes JAWS not to use the words "Day View".
? Fixed the correct keystrokes not being reflected within the Hotkey
Help for the calendar when using the laptop layout.
? Ensured that all messages which do not appear on screen, such as "no
appointments" or "determining calendar highlight colour" etc., are all
delivered
using the JAWS message voice.
list end
Other changes are of course listed within the relevant sections of this
document.
Download the scripts from:
http://www.sightconnections.com/programs/OutlookScriptsRenewed.exe
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