Did you add a MenuStrip to the form and then add pull down menus? Each pull down menu then has a click event which fires when you click on it. I am not sure about setting the hot keys, how that works with JAWS or even Windoweyes since I have not tried them yet. I use the Menu Strip often but it is much easier to just use a couple of buttons on a form instead if you don't have more than a half dozen or so features on the form. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald Marang To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:38 PM Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Thanks, Your tips so far has been a tremendous help. I think my biggest problem is that I keep thinking procedurely. I need to embrace OO programming. The menu shortcuts not being spoken in JAWS really confuddles me. They show up in the menu and JAWS speaks menu shortcuts in all of my other applications. Don Marang From: RicksPlace Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:02 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts If you ever have any questions just ask. I have experience in Vb.net, VWD and SQL Server and am currently slogging through creating a Local Database, a Sql Server Compact Edition DB. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald Marang To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 9:59 AM Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Thanks for the short primer on globals in object land. I understand most of the concepts, but my mind gets stuck in procedural thinking. I may not change QuickOCR, since I will probably be retireing that project and moving on. Don Marang From: RicksPlace Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 6:41 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Hi: Last thing here; I just read up on Modules in Vb.net. I never use them but they are suppose to compile down to what is basically a Static Class conceptually. So, your using Modules should be fine for any code or even variable definitions you want to share among your forms. If you like modules then just put the variables like the ones I used in my Globals.vb class, minus the Static keyword, in your modules and you won't have to worry about using a Globals Class or other Code Classes if I read the quick overview of VB.net modules correctly. The concept is the same except you do not have to use the Static keyword, I read no advantage to either method. So, use the one most comfortable to you. If I am wrong someone will let me know but you do not have to change all your code if you put Global Variables inside a module instead of a Class as I read it. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald Marang To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 10:07 PM Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts I am not sure about conventional naming standards for forms in object oriented land. This is a Windows Forms Application. I had named the main window, which is a class I believe. So my main window, named "dcQuickOCRForm" (the 'd' is for Dialog and the 'c' is for Control). the last part "Tecxt" is the property that contains the text of the TextBox Control, " tcFilename" ('t' is for Textbox and 'c' is again for Control), to type in and display the filename. My issue is that I now pulled code out of the main code file for the dcQuickOCRForm.vb file. I now have this code in different subroutines (Sub) in separate module files. I currently need to provide all three components. I think what I want to do is place a "Using dcQuickOCR" statement within the module file. Is this the correct way to do this in VB? Does it require an "End Using" statement? Is VB different than other languages in this respect? It just seems like it would be faster and less cumbersome as well as less confusing than identifying each level each time. Would this call go inside each Sub block in this file or once just after the Module declaration at the very top? This is a reference to an object property which contains the name of the image file on which to perform the OCR. If performing OCR on a screen image from the clipboard, the program first writes the image to a temp TIFF file because I think the MODI object calls only work on a file. For some reason, I did not provide a similar naming convention yet to menu components. Don Marang From: RicksPlace Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 8:22 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts Hi: I don't get this file path. When I do code blocks I create them inside classes which I usually add to a project folder. Is this a file path or the name of something? dcQuickOCRForm.tcFilename.Text. You mentioned you have to put the above in a control, what type of control and are you binding to that control or what property of the control is the above path located in? Just curious since I did not understand that part of the message. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald Marang To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:15 AM Subject: External References to Form Elements & Menu Shortcuts 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