External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts
- From: "Donald Marang" <donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:15:24 -0400
Thanks everybody for the many tips! My program has come a long way due to your
help.
For now I think I will just distribute the executable, a Desktop Shortcut Icon,
and some documentation files in a zip file. The user would need to place the
files at, "C:\QuickOCR" folder and copy the Desktop Shortcut Icon to the
Desktop. If they want to install elsewhere, they would need to change the path
in the Desktop Shortcut Icon.
I have two small areas where I still have some questions.
I split out most of the large chunks of code, like the OCR processing, into
subroutines in modules stored in separate files. This works well, makes it
easier to update, and would make it simple to add functionality in the future.
One such addition would be adding other OCR Engines. However, since it is not
within the main form object code, I have had to supply the entire object
heirachy in the references to controls, such as dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text.
I looked at the Imports, Namespace, and With Visual Basic commands. I started
playing around a little with these, but decided to first make the subroutines
work. Could someone enlighten me to which command would be appropriate, or
what modifier on the main form object should be changed in this situation?
The other thing that started confuddling me at 2 AM last night was that JAWS
refuses to announce the shortcuts in the menus. I added the code to the File
and Actions menus yesterday. That was another reason I wanted most of the
code, like "Perform OCR" as subroutines. There are visible shortcuts in the
menus and they work if you know the shortcut key combinations, like Control + O
for Open image. I have set the shortcut properties;
ShortcutDisplayText="Ctrl+O", ShortcutKeys="Ctrl+O", and ShowShortcutKeys=True,
of the menu items in the property tables for the menu items. I have tried both
"Ctrl+O" (contracted spelling) and "Control+O" (all characters) in the
ShortcutDisplayText property. Things are displayed on the screen as expected
and function properly, but JAWS refuses to announce the shortcuts. JAWS is
announceing menu shortcuts in all other applications, including Visual Studio
Express. What do I need to do to force JAWS to recognize and announce the
shortcuts?
Don Marang
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