Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again

From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 16:32:15 -0800
Jerry,

That is truly weird stuff. By the way, one of my new Jaws 9 program's many 
flukes is that it often gets out of whack in Outlook express and starts 
reading things that aren't any longer on the screen, which I'm sure of 
because I have the new message I'm trying to write maximized, but instead of 
saying just "Edit" for the To line, it's saying something it remembers from 
a recent web page, or when I get down into the message area, it tells me my 
own address, or mentions the person I've named in the to line finally, and 
all kinds of silly stuff. I thought I could stop this by exiting and 
relaunching, but then it turned out that what I'd launched with the hotkey 
was Jaws 8, so even though it wasn't doing this stuff, it wasn't relevant to 
the issue. This is really some silly and obnoxious stuff this version is 
doing on my system. Far weirder than Jaws 8 started out, and that was a 
little strange, too.

As for that voice, it's probably Eloquence Glenn with his pitch raised a few 
notches, if you look under Individual Voices. You can't get rid of these new 
extra announcements (like the beginning and end of an embedded link or email 
address) but you can at least modify the default voice and its 
characteristics.

Are we having fun yet?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G.W. Cox" <gwcox2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again


Yesterday I reached a stalemate with Freedom Scientific's tech support on 
this one and your previous problem with Jaws 9 producing an odd voice. Now 
that I have version 9, my tutor and message voice goes into exorcist mode 
when it comes on a link in a reply to a message.

I just tried changing the hot keys to versions 8 and 9 with no joy. Then I 
tried to launch System Access To Go, and it said I had another screen reader 
running. This makes me wonder if Jaws is starting with the hot key, but just 
not talking. That may be a great money-making scheme, like selling air. Care 
for an SMA?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Yardbird
To: JFW List
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:37 PM
Subject: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again


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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References:
- The old Jaws hotkey issue, again
  - From: Yardbird
- Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again
  - From: G.W. Cox
Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again

Other related posts:
