Re: The old Jaws hotkey issue, again

  • From: "Salvas,Michel [NCR]" <Michel.Salvas@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 10:50:56 -0500

Hi, there,

Why not use WinKey? It's a small and friendly program that has always
been working with any JAWS version. The advantage is that you create hot
keys using the Windows key. This gives you more flexibility and the risk
of conflicts with other keys is decreased drastically. WinKey is easy to
install and doesn't much space on your hard drive. You can download
WinKey at www.jfwlite.com 

 

I can assure you will not have trouble anymore with JAWS. Hope this
helps.

 

Michel Salvas

michel.salvas@xxxxxxxx

 

  -----Original Message-----

From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Subject: Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 22:37:17 -0800

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.

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. jfw
  3. Archive
  4. 12-2007