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THE NEW FEATURES OF JAWS FOR WINDOWS

Dan Clark
Freedom Scientific Blind/Low Vision Group
11800 31st Court North
St. Petersburg, FL 33716-1805
800-444-4443 extension 1016
E-mail: danC@hj.com 

Summary

1. Repeat Current or Advance To Next Unit During Say All.
2. Voice Settings Changes.
3. A. Change Voice Rate on the Fly.
   B. Application and Context Specific Voice Settings.
   C. Restore to Default.
   D. Person and Pitch Removed from Global Dialog.
   
4. Combined Character and Word Typing Echo.
5. JAWS Installer.
6. Online Registration.
7. User Definable Verbosity Levels.You can also define whether you want JAWS messages to be long or short.An exciting new feature in this area allows you to set JAWS to automatically speak ToolTip text as it appears on the screen.
8. Windows Millennium.JAWS supports the new operating system from Microsoft called Windows Millennium.
9. Support for Internet Explorer 5.5.JAWS for Windows now supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5. All of the keystrokes you have become accustomed to in Internet Explorer 5.0 remain unchanged, and now you can take advantage of the following additional keystrokes for navigating form fields:
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    Move To Next Form Field, CTRL+INSERT+TAB.
    Move To Prior Form Field, CTRL+INSERT+SHIFT+TAB.
    Move To Last Form Field, CTRL+INSERT+END.
    
11. Graphics List.
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    You can now bring up a list of labeled toolbar graphics using CTRL+INSERT+SHIFT+G. Use the arrow keys to select the graphic you wish to click and press ENTER.
    
13. Braille Key Interrupt Setting. You can now navigate freely with the Braille Display without interrupting the speech in progress. For instance, you can use Say All with Speech, and read the status bar with your Braille Display.
14. Support for New Popular Applications.
    JAWS now supports even more new popular applications, including the following:
    Anytime Deluxe 7.0/6.0
    Quicken 2000
    Family Tree Maker 7.0
    Internet Explorer 5.5
    Visual Basic 6.0
    SoundForge 4.5
    CakeWalk Pro Audio 9.0
    Microsoft Project 2000
    MicroPlanet Gravity 2.20
    WinZip 8.0
    Omni Page Pro 10
15. Enhancements to Support Popular Applications. Other new features added to popular applications already previously supported by JAWS include the following:
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    A. Excel 2000/97.
    
    1. Format Cells Dialog Enhancements.
    2. Reading Formats with INSERT+F Enhancements.
    3. New Verbosity Items.

    Region Specific Title/Total/Monitor Cell Settings. Title and total reading can be set on a region-by-region basis, and JAWS will automatically use the settings as you move into the relevant region. JAWS will also tell you when you move into a new region. Now you can have adjacent tables on the same worksheet.

    The advantage to naming your own region is to include blank rows and columns. JAWS stores the region names in a *.jsi file. JAWS will look only in the current region to calculate row or column totals. If you request a row or column total and there is an adjacent table, JAWS will find the accurate total.

    Specify Up to Ten Monitor Cells per Worksheet. Ten monitor cells can be set per worksheet. These monitor cells will be remembered as you move in and out of the worksheet. You can actually monitor a range of cells as well. Select the range of cells before assigning the monitor keystroke, and then when the monitor keystroke for that cell is pressed, JAWS will read the range of cells.

    Setting monitored cells, ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+1 THROUGH 0. You can also use the Adjust JAWS Verbosity item to set the next available monitor cell to the current cell.

    Reading monitored cells, ALT+SHIFT+1 THROUGH 0. When reading monitor cells, JAWS reads the cell's coordinates.

    Listing monitored cells, CTRL+SHIFT+M. The coordinates and contents of each defined monitor cell are listed in the dialog. If the monitor cell is a range, then the coordinates of the range are displayed. You can choose to move to the monitor cell from this dialog.

    Deleting all monitor cells for the current worksheet can be done through the Verbosity List. The monitor cells are stored in a section called SheetNameMonitorCells, where SheetName is the name of the current worksheet in the workbook's *.jsi file. Save and Restore Application and Document Settings.

    JAWS gets smarter and smarter all the time. Now JAWS will remember your Verbosity settings for all Microsoft Excel specific Verbosity settings across sessions. Excel specific verbosity settings include, cell reading, selection reading, detect cell number format change, and detect cell border change.

    Announce the name of the current region, INSERT+F1. This will announce the name of the current region, if it is defined, and the range spanned by the region.

    Announce the current cell's horizontal and vertical alignment, as well as its width and height, INSERT+F.
    
    B. Word 2000/97.
    
    Changes to Verbosity Items.
    Commented Text Enhancement.
    Table Reading Enhancements.
    Save and Restore Application and Document Verbosity Settings. These application settings will be saved in the word.jsi (JAWS Script Initialization) file, and stored in the script directory. The filename for document specific settings is called word_documentname.jsi, where documentname is the name of the document to which the settings apply. Each table's definitions will be stored in a section derived from the table number. Global table definitions will be stored in a section called [Table 0] in the .jsi file.
    Resolved Keystroke Conflicts.
    Select a Hyperlink Dialog.
    
    C. WordPerfect 9.0/8.0.
    
    JAWS will now remember your WordPerfect 8 and 9 specific verbosity settings across sessions. So if you spend an enormous amount of time setting these options, it's okay to exit WordPerfect and reopen it, your settings will stay intact!
    
    D. PowerPoint 2000/97.
    
    
    1. JAWS will now remember your Verbosity settings for all PowerPoint specific Verbosity settings across sessions.
    2. The Pack and Go Wizard reads with JAWS now.
    3. To read the mistake and suggestion in the spell check dialog, you can use the original keystroke of INSERT+F9 or INSERT+F7, like other Microsoft Office Applications.
    4. JAWS will now tell you if you have too much text in a placeholder, and if your Objects overlap.
    
    
    E. AOL Instant Messenger 4.0.
    
    JAWS now supports AOL Instant Messenger 4.0 and all previous versions.
    
    F. Eudora 4.3/4.2.
    
    The Microsoft Viewer is now supported by JAWS. JAWS uses the virtual cursor to read e-mail messages when the Microsoft Viewer is activated, much like it does when reading web pages in Internet Explorer 5.0. The virtual cursor will also skip past the header information, causing JAWS to begin reading on the first line of the message body. If the message has extraneous header information, this may not be possible, causing you to hear some header information.
    
    G. Theophilos Bible Software 3.0.
    
    H. Netscape Navigator 4.x.
    
    You can now bring up a dialog that will list the available hyperlinks on a page while navigating in Netscape. Press INSERT+F7 to bring up the List Links dialog.
    
    
17. Dr. JAWS has Retired.
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19. True 6-Dot Grade Two Braille.
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21. JAWS now displays Grade 2 Braille as 6-Dot Braille instead of 8-Dot Braille. JAWS Help System.
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23. The JAWS Help System has been greatly enhanced and reorganized, with a new structure and new sections.

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