I don't know about tablets later than the sixth generation models but my
sixth-gen Fire HD 8 provides absolutely horrible keyboard support with
VoiceView. The keyboard does actually work but speech output is
inconsistent.
David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
JAWS Certified, 2019
WWW.DavidGoldfield.org
On 8/29/2020 8:27 PM, Scott Davert wrote:
Does the fire not work well with Bluetooth keyboards? I only have one USB keyboard that is on my Windows PC.
Thanks for any feedback,
Scott
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 29, 2020, at 7:09 PM, David Griffith <daj.griffith@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:daj.griffith@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I tried experimenting tonight with my ancient Fire Tablet. I was using Email by utilising an external USB wired keyboard plugged in with an OTG connector. As others have commented This is by far the easiest way to attach a keyboard on the Fire.
I am not sure I have seen anybody post these findings so I thought I would post them here in case they are useful to anybody else. Apologies if Advanced Fire users already know this and they can delete now.
First of all some keyboard shortcuts at least work.
Control N will create a new mail ready for composing.
The tab and the shift tab key appears to be able to navigate you through the relative header fields of the Email – that is who you are sending the email to, CC and Subject fields and of course the message body.
I did not find it entirely consistent – for example I seemed to hear 2 fields for the email contact that I was trying to send to but I still was able to muddle through effectively and I think this will become OK with practice.
Once you have completed your email then just like in Outlook pressing control and enter will send your email automatically. I imagine that control R will reply and control F will forward but I have still to try these out.
So potentially even an old Fire tablet like mine is quite an effective and easy Email app to some extent mimicking a basic PC Outlook functionality.
Unfortunately the functionality gets spoilt by the inability of a typist to review and edit the text using an external keyboard. You will get excellent character and word echo whilst you are typing but if you want to hear and review what you have typed you will have to abandon the keyboard and resort to swiping around the screen with Voice View gestures.
This makes fine editing far more problematic though somebody else has reported that normal control C, X, A, V shortcuts for copy cut and paste also work.
If Amazon could only add the ability of Voice view to support a keyboard to review by line, word and character this cheap and budget Fire could start to become a serious if basic notetaker option as well as communicator. The email app could easily double as a notepad with mails sent to yourself.
As it stands it is certainly feasible to use the Fire in this way to send informal emails or send rough notes to yourself for polishing up on another device like a PC.
David G.
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