[accesscomp] Fw: Revised Windows 7 tutorial
- From: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "tektalk discussion" <tektalkdiscussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:26:46 -0700
Bob
I made some minor changes to the tutorial but, though they are minor, they
improve it. . Here is the revised version. This is the one you should
distribute.
Gene
Just What You Need to Know
A very basic short tutorial for XP users who are moving to Windows 7
by
Gene Asner
Introduction
this informal short tutorial is based on messages I wrote to e-mail lists.
You will see
repetition in the discussion of ribbons which occurs in two separate
messages but I've left the
repetition in the material because it may help you understand points to
see both discussions.
The goal of this informal tutorial is to present what a new Windows 7
user, who is familiar with
Windows Xp needs to know to work with Windows 7. Where possible and where
I deemed it desirable,
I've presented techniques that are most similar to those used in XP. Where
not possible or where
I deemed it not desirable, I presented or concentrated on other methods.
but I gave no
unnecessary information and the other methods are easy to use and learn.
You will likely learn a
lot more about Windows 7 over time but this guide will probably allow you
to use Windows 7 with
reasonable ease and convenience within a much shorter time than you may
have thought possible.
I hope those who read this material will distribute it widely. I would
like it to become well
known and available for download in many places such as from web sites
that present such material
for blind computer users.
The tutorial is based on the text of three messages, which I have modified
as desirable for this
tutorial. To move from one message to the next, use the search command
and search for the word
message, followed by a space then a number. For example, if you want to
move to the third
message, search for message 3
Message 1
Regarding working with My Computer and Windows Explorer, You will find
lots of items that you can
ignore and still work with the list of files and folders as you are used
to doing. . As a new
user, you don't have to worry about any of them. If you are in a list of
files and folders, you
will see that tabbing moves you through all sorts of items. but the
actual list itself, which
you work with in My Computer or Windows Live Mail works the same as in the
past. You may want to
learn about certain items you can tab to, such as the search feature but
for now, in the early
use and learning stage, you can keep things simple and just stay in the
list. Also, when you
work with an open or save as dialog, in XP, you just shift tabbed once to
get to the files and
folders list. In Windows 7, you must shift tab twice. Once on the list,
it works as always.
Windows 7 allows you to open programs and other items using similar
methods as in XP but a
valuable search field is added to the start menu as another means of
finding and opening items.
If you want to use the all programs menu, open the start menu. You are in
a search field. Up
arrow once to all programs.
right arrow once to open the all programs submenu.
down arrow twice. You are now in the main part of the all programs menu
and can move through it
using first letter navigation or the up and down arrow keys.
You can still create short cuts, send short cuts to the desktop and assign
shortcut keys as you
can in earlier versions of windows.
But before deciding to what extent you want to do those things, you should
understand and try
working with the search field in the start menu.
Once you press the Windows key, you are placed in the search field. type
something you are
looking for. You can often type just one word of something or perhaps
even just three or four
letters. You will have to experiment. If you want to find Internet
Explorer, just typing inter
may well be sufficient. You will be placed on the first result. You
don't have to down arrow to
it. Your screen-reader should automatically read the first result. If it
doesn't, use read
current line to have it read. You can press enter to open whatever result
you are on. If you
hear Internet Explorer announced after typing inter just press enter and
the program will open.
If you down arrow through the results and find one you want to open, press
enter. If you want to
close the search field and list and start over, press escape twice. You
will be placed on the
start button. Then open the start menu again.
when using the search field, experiment to see what gives you the best
results. Don't assume
typing the first word is the best method to move to something quickly. If
the computer has
Windows Live Mail for example, you can probably cause Windows Live Mail to
appear as the first
result by just typing the word mail. If you think about it, using the word
Windows in the search
field is far too broad a term and the word live may also apply to many
programs that may be on
your computer in the Windows Live category of programs. Mail makes the
most sense to use in this
context and you will find that out if you experiment with different words
in the search field
even if you haven't gone through the thought process I just outlined.
You don't have to worry about the run dialog being any more difficult to
use. To open it, you
hold the Windows key and type r, then release both keys. If you just
press the Windows key
and release it, you are in the search field I described earlier and typing
r will do nothing except, perhaps show items that begin with the letter r.
Once you open and try
using it, you will find that the run dialog works just as it works in
earlier versions of
windows.
If you are a new Windows 7 user, you may find the easiest way to open the
shut down dialog is to
press the Windows key, then press escape. You will land on the start
button and you can then use
alt f4 to bring up the shut
down dialog.
Or, if you use Windows key m to move to the desktop, alt f4 will also
bring up the shut down dialog. On my computer, Windows key m doesn't
always take you to the desktop. Rather often, it places you on the start
button. Issuing the same command again places you on the desktop.
There are other ways to shut down, restart, and do the other things you do
in the shut down
dialog but this is most similar to the Windows XP dialog and, as a new
Windows 7 user, you may
find this the most convenient method to use for now. You may or may not
want to switch later as
you learn different ways of doing things in Windows 7. the other main way
isn't any more
difficult, just a little different.
When you bring up the shut down dialog, you are placed on shutdown. If
that is what you want to
occur, press enter. If you want some other acction to occur, move to the
item and press enter.
One thing you will see as you look around are split buttons. A split
button often allows you to
see more options than just the default action. Let's take an example.
Let's say you come across a split button that says shut down Windows. You
won't find it in the
shut down dialog I showed you how to open but you will find it if you
learn the other main way to
shut down windows in Windows 7. If you press the space bar on that
button, Windows will shut
down. That is the default action. Enter often works with split buttons
as well but as with
buttons in general, if you want to be sure the button you are on is
activated, you should press
the space bar.
Split buttons often show more options if you either right arrow while on
the button or down
arrow. As an example, if you are on the shut down split button, you can
right arrow and a list
of options will open. the items in the list include sleep, hibernate,
restart, and others. You
up or down arrow through the list or use the short cut commands you hear
announced as you move
through the list. the letter shortcuts often take actions without
pressing enter so be careful
when using them, just as you are in menus.
So, let's review. You find a split button that says shut down. If you
press the space bar, the
computer will shut down. If you right arrow, other options may be
displayed. Or if you down
arrow, other options may be displayed. A split button won't work with
both methods. One method,
either right arrowing or down arrowing will do so if it can be done with
the button. Try both
methods if you don't know which one might work. If you are on a tool bar
which extends across
the screen from left to right, down arrowing will open additional options.
If you think about
this, it makes sense. If you are in a menu, down arrowing will move you
to the next item in the
menu. So you right arrow on the split button to cause it to display more
options. In a tool bar
that extends across the screen from left to right, right arrowing will
move you to the next item
in the tool bar. So you down arrow when on the split button to cause it
to display more options.
But some tool bars run up and down the screen, as menus do. And at
times, you may not be sure
which way a structure extends on screen. So, as I said, if you are not
sure or don't know, try
both methods of causing the split button to display more options. Often,
one of them will work.
If you open the options a split button offers and don't want to work with
them, arrow in the
opposite direction to move out of them. For example, if you right arrowed
to open more options,
left arrow. Later in this tutorial, you will be able to work with split
buttons in Wordpad.
Regarding ribbons, much of the complaining about them is not warranted if
you understand how they
work and how to use short cut commands effectively and efficiently. and I
would strongly
recommend against using the JAWS virtual menus, no matter what the JAWS
training material says
about ribbons being difficult to use. the training material is just plain
wrong and if you use
the virtual menus offered as an option in JAWS, you will also not hear any
short cut commands
announced.
Try looking at ribbons and doing what is described below in wordpad.
Everyone with Windows 7 has
Wordpad on their machine. Wordpad provides a good environment to look at
and practice working
with ribbons.
The essence of working with ribbons is this:
Press alt to move to the upper ribbon.
You will probably be on an item that says home tab. Items on the upper
ribbon are announced as
tabs such as home tab, view tab, etc.
To see what choices are available in the ribbon,
right or left arrow repeatedly to move through the items. Move in one
direction to move through all of them, just as you would to move through
all the items in a menu.
I believe that at times, there may be items related to a ribbon item above
that item and below
the item. Most of the time, there are only items below the item. To be
sure, as an example, if
you are right arrowing and get to view, down arrow to see if there is
something below view.
Then, up arrow to get back to view. Try up arrowing. If you can move up
to something, you know
there are items related to view above the ribbon. If you can't, you know
that there are only
items related to view below the ribbon. You have checked and now know
that there are only items
below the ribbon for view. Down arrow from the ribbon to land on an item.
Now move using either
the left or right arrow through the items. You are now working in what is
called the lower
ribbon. You will see different items related to view. Many items in the
lower ribbon are
buttons. Use either the space bar or enter to activate the button. You
may find a button that
opens a menu and if you press enter or the space bar, you will then be in
a menu.
In other words, you move through items in the same ways when in either the
upper ribbon or the
lower ribbon or if you are above the upper ribbon. As I said, most of the
time, there will not
be items above the ribbon. In our example, we moved to the upper ribbon
with alt. We wanted to
see all the categories in the upper ribbon so we moved one way, using just
the right arrow, to
move through all the items. We decided we wanted to see what we can do
when we get to view.
When we up arrowed, we found nothing. When we down arrowed, we found
items. We moved using the
right arrow, through all the items in the lower ribbon.
Each time you move to an item, you will hear all the short cut keys
announced to open that item.
For example, in wordpad, press alt.
Start right arrowing until you get to the application menu.
You will hear application menu and then something like button drop down
grid. Never mind drop
down grid. It's a description you don't have to worry about. The
important things are that you
are on a button and at the application menu. Press enter or the space bar
to activate the
button. Activating the button opens the menu. Start down arrowing. you
will hear all the short
cut commands necessary to open an item or take an action. When you got to
the menu item, you
heard alt f. When you open the menu and move through it, you will hear
all the letters
announced. for example, if you down arrow to save as, you will hear alt f
a. that means that,
when you are in the main program window, you press and hold alt, type f
while holding alt, then
release both letters. You have now opened the menu. You then type a to
open save as. It's like
the childrens song I know an old lady who swallowed a fly or the
childrens' game, my father owns
a grocery story or any other such memory game. Everything is announced so
the deeper you are in
the structure, the more letters you hear. Experiment with some of the
split buttons you will find
in the menu we are working with to get a feel for how they work and what
they do. You are in a
menu so right arrowing shows the additional options. Left arrow moves you
out of the additional
options.
Here are two more things you should know about ribbons. If you move to an
upper ribbon such as
view, the next time you open the ribbons, you will be on the view tab.
Whether you move to the
lower ribbon or not after moving to the view tab, even if all you do is
move to the view tab and
then press escape to close the ribbons, , you will still be on the view
tab when you open the
ribbon again. But if you close the program and open it again, you will be
back on the home tab.
The program remembers what ribbon you worked with last until you close the
program.
Here is the second point and it's an important one.
in some cases, moving with the right arrow through the items in a lower
ribbon will cause
something to open. You can see this if you do the following:
Open Wordpad and then open the ribbons. Make sure you are on the home tab.
Then down arrow once.
If you right arrow through the items, you will get to an item that opens
a combo box where you
can choose a font. the easy way to get out of this combo box and return
to the ribbons is to
press escape repeatedly until you are back in the main program window.
Now, open the ribbons
again with alt. Again, make sure you are on the home tab and down arrow
once. Start left
arrowing. You will see that you can left arrow through everything in
this lower ribbon and
nothing will open. So, we see that if you are working with a lower ribbon
and this problem
occurs, you can prevent it by left arrowing through the items instead of
right arrowing through
them.
Commands such as control o, control n, control s, control r, etc. are
mostly retained in programs
that use ribbons, though you won't hear them announced. If you don't
already know them, you'll
have to find them in ways such as by looking at a list of keyboard
commands for the program.
Such lists are often available in the help for the program. If you already
know the commands from
having used an older version of the program, most or perhaps even all of
the commands you know
will work.
I'll add, in closing this discussion of ribbons that I haven't been using
Windows 7 for long and
I don't claim to know all possibly useful information about ribbons. I
have also left out
certain information to allow the tutorial to be as I described, a means of
teaching what you need
to know at the outset. As time goes on, you may learn more about ribbons.
But I have presented
the information you need to find and work with almost all items available
in ribbons.
Gene
Message 2.
You should change the setting for file extensions so that they are
displayed. You can do this in the same way as in XP. One way to
do this is to open the c drive. You can do so in the following manner:
Open the run dialog. In windows 7, you have to hold down the windows key
when you type r. If you do this, the run dialog will open and it works in
the same way as in Windows xp. In other words, hold the windows key and,
while doing so, type r. Then release both keys. Once the run dialog
opens, type c: and press enter. Note the colon after the c.
Open the menus with alt. Then type t.
You are in the tools menu.
Type o.
You have opened folder options.
shift tab once.
right arrow until you hear view.
Tab until you get to the advanced settings tree.
Down arrow to show extensions for known file types. Uncheck it with the
space bar.
Tab to enter and press the space bar. Close the c drive with alt f4.
You will now see extensions when you look at file types.
You can change what appears on the desktop in the following manner:
Go to the desktop.
Down arrow once to make sure only one item is selected.
Issue the command control space bar.
that unselects the item that was selected and now nothing is selected.
For those who are wondering, pressing f5 as an alternative method for
unselecting everything doesn't work, at least not on my machine when on
the desktop.
Open the context menu.
Up arrow, it's much closer that way, to personalize. Press enter.
Tab many times until you get to change desktop icons and press enter.
You are in a list. Up and down arrow to see the items. If you want an
item to be displayed, check it with the space bar. If you don't want it
displayed, uncheck it if it is already checked. Computer, one of the
items in the list, is the same as My Computer used to be. the name has
been changed by Microsoft to just computer instead of what I considered
the childish name, My Computer, it's like a child saying, My candy. I
have computer set to be showed on the desktop and I also have Control
Panel show on the desktop. You may not want these items displayed but I
find it very convenient. Another easy way to open Control Panel is to use
the start menu search
field. Open the start menu, and, probably just typing contr will cause
Control panel to be shown
as the first result. Press enter when you are on the correct result to
open Control Panel. Of
course, if you don't get good results, you can type more of the phrase
control panel.
You may get messages or see some blind people advocate changing the view
in Control Panel to small icons so that you can move by first letter
navigation. I'm not telling you not to do so but I am saying that often,
far too often, blind people reject change in computer-related interfaces
without understanding the benefits that may be offered in the new
interface and without giving the new interface a proper try to see if they
like it before rejecting it out of hand. If you leave Control Panel
display set to the default setting, you will find that when you open
Control panel, you are in a search field. Do you want to find device
manager? Just type device in the field and down arrow. You will get to
device manager very quickly. Press enter to open it.
Do you want to get to system? Type system in the search field, down arrow
until you get to it and press enter. Again, you will find system very
quickly in this way. Do you want to change sounds? Type sounds in the
search field and down arrow until you get to change system sounds and
press enter. You are now in the sounds part of the volume dialog and are
in the correct place to work with sound schemes.
If you are looking for something in control panel and aren't sure what it
is called and want to look for it without using the search field, once you
open control panel, start tabbing. You will move from link to link, as
though you were tabbing through a web page. there may be times when using
first letter navigation would be faster. For example, if you know
something you are looking for begins with the letter s but you don't
remember the name well enough to use the search field to find it. but I
would much rather have access to the search field than to first letter
navigation when working with Control panel. You may disagree but don't
just change this setting because blind people say you should do it. I far
too often see blind people recommend the small icons setting so you can
use first letternavigation and I don't ever recall one of them explaining
that you will loose access to the search field if you make this change.
What I'm discussing in this message does not actually fall under the
category of accessibility. Windows is accessible whether you make the
changes and work in the ways I describe or not. but these are changes or
ways of working that may make using Windows more convenient or faster or
both.
Gene
Message 3.
First, is Windows Live Mail on your computer? If so, you need to learn
how to work with ribbons.
What I will describe will allow you to work with ribbons in any program
that contains them. I will describe how to work with ribbons and, as part
of the discussion, tell you how to open the accounts dialog in Windows
Live Mail.
I would strongly urge you not to use the JAWS virtual menus if you are
using JAWS 12.x. Virtual menus are off in JAWS by default so if you
haven't turned on the virtual menus, you will be seeing the actual
ribbons. The JAWS training material claims that ribbons are difficult to
use. FS is doing a real disservice to the JAWS using community by
encouraging people not to use ribbons and making claims FS may believe are
true, but are not, about the difficulty in using ribbons.
Here is how to open the accounts dialog to create an e-mail account in
Windows Live Mail. Seeing
how this is done may help you understand how to work with ribbons in
general.
open Windows Live Mail.
Open the ribbons with alt.
You are in the upper ribbon on the home tab.
Start right arrowing.
You will get to accounts after two or three right arrows.
Down arrow to see what is available for working with accounts.
You are on a button that says e-mail.
You can use either enter or the space bar on this button.
If you wish, before you open this item, you can left or right arrow
through all
the items in this lower ribbon. You will see a news groups button and, I
believe one or two other items. the news groups button is for creating a
news groups account.
Once you return to the e-mail button, use
either enter or the space bar. then set up an account as usual.
You will find an application menu available in at least one of the lower
ribbons. It is a
menu from which you work with many aspects of the program you used to use
the file menu fore. and indeed, you can open it from the main program
window by holding down the alt key and typing f. One important thing you
will see in this menu is the options dialog that used to be in the tools
menu. Now, in the new version of Windows Live Mail, it's in the
application submenu because this submenu is not a file menu, it's for
working with certain application items and features, ranging from save as
to the options menu.
Accellerator commands often work in programs with ribbons. Commands such
as control o, control s, and, since we are discussing an e-mail program,
control r for reply, in
short, many or most or perhaps all of the
accellerator commands you used to use in previous versions of the program
usually work.
My recommendation is that, when using ribbons, if you know you are going
to use a command regularly, that you make a point of remembering the short
cut commands announced for getting to that item, that is, if an
accellerator command such as control o, control s, or control r is not
available. You won't hear
commands such as control o, control s, or control r announced when working
with ribbons. You
have to know them or find them in other ways such as looking them up in a
list of program
commands, often available in the help material for the program.
Gene
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- » [accesscomp] Fw: Revised Windows 7 tutorial - Bob Acosta
