Hello Alan,
My apology, for where my mind was at, when I wrote you the below
critique; as for some reason, I was lost in mental hurdles and I
had Classic View on the mind, and Virtual Ribbons had me thinking
of a different perspective of menus.
Sorry for the mental flakiness.
Respectfully,
Dooie
100% Blind USN Vet
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Robbins" <arobb...@nycap.rr.com
To: <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
Date sent: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:51:34 -0400
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Virtual Ribbons Explained
Mike had explained this in detail earlier today. Try it out,
just run
your setup wizard and select it
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: JAWS-Users-List
[mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com]
On Behalf Of dooie13
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:45 PM
To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Virtual Ribbons Explained
Hi Alan,
Why did you not outline & provide all info about this Virtual
method
you are
telling Mike about?
Thanks for these Virtual details you may present.
-----Original Message-----
From: JAWS-Users-List
[mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com]
On
Behalf Of Alan Robbins
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 09:52
To: jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Virtual Ribbons Explained
Mike,
I have been using this since it came out in version 12. What I
don't
understand, and maybe you could comment, is why JAWS users that
have
difficulty with ribbons don't use the virtual option?
Best,
Al
-----Original Message-----
From: JAWS-Users-List
[mailto:jaws-users-list-boun...@jaws-users.com]
On Behalf Of Mike B.
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2014 10:52 AM
To: Jaws-Users List
Subject: [JAWS-Users] Virtual Ribbons Explained
Hi LeDon,
I believe you wanted the Virtual Ribbons explained. Here you go,
from
Jaws
training:
The Virtual Ribbon Menu Feature - New in JAWS 12
Introduction
The ribbon is a new style of menu available in many new
applications
being
released today. Ribbons first appeared in Office 2007 programs,
but
are now
becoming more common in other applications tailored for the
WindowsR 7
operating system. Ribbons create an accessibility challenge due
to
inconsistent
navigation between various groups and items. For example, the
lower
ribbon
contains groups of icons, sometimes arranged in several rows.
When you
press
the ARROW keys to move between items in a group, you can skip
items if
there
is a row above or below the one you are on. When pressing the
ARROW
keys or
TAB, no indication is given when focus leaves one group and
enters
another.
You cannot use first letter navigation in the ribbons, because
pressing keys
might activate ribbon key tips. Finally, because of a group's
layout,
you do
not know if you should navigate up, down, left, or right to
select an
item.
The new virtual ribbon menu feature in JAWSR screen reading
software
provides predictable navigation, lets you see everything in the
ribbon, and
offers
consistency when navigating with the ARROW keys. For example,
each
group on
the lower ribbon is treated as a submenu. Once you open the
group
submenu,
you can press DOWN ARROW to move through all of the items within
that
group.
When you reach the bottom of the items in that group, focus wraps
back
to
the top item, and vice versa. You can also use first letter
navigation
in
the virtual ribbon menu. Here are a few keystrokes to help you
get
started
using
the virtual ribbon menu:
list of 6 items
. Move from one ribbon tab to another, ALT to move to the first
tab,
then
LEFT or RIGHT ARROW. JAWS reads the name of the tab as you move
to it.
. Move from an upper ribbon tab to the lower ribbon groups,
DOWN ARROW
or
ENTER. JAWS announces and treats the lower ribbon groups as if
they
were
submenus.
. Open a ribbon group submenu, RIGHT ARROW or ENTER.
. Navigate the items within each submenu, UP or DOWN ARROW, or
first
letter
navigation.
. Close a submenu, LEFT ARROW or ESC.
. Move from the lower ribbon back to the upper ribbon, ESC.
list end
NOTE: One nice feature of the JAWS virtual ribbon menu is that
when
you
activate an item and focus returns to the document or application
you
are
working
on, JAWS remembers where you just were on the ribbon. If you
press ALT
again, instead of having to go back to the upper ribbon and find
your
place
again,
JAWS goes right back to where it was previously, in the same
group,
and on
the exact same control you were last on.
I'll demonstrate all of these things to you, and you can practice
along with
me in just a few minutes.
Also, just a reminder, whenever you want to pause the audio of
this
DAISY
book, just press CTRL+P. When you are ready to resume, press
CTRL+P
again.
Remember,
you can leave the DAISY book in the background and use this
keystroke
to
play or pause the audio while working on your practice documents
in
the
foreground.
When FSReader DAISY player is open, even in the background, use
this
keystroke to toggle the audio on and off. If you need to print
something
while FSReader
is open, just go to the File menu and choose Print.
Using the JAWS Virtual Ribbon Menu as Opposed to the Microsoft
Ribbon
- Some
Differences
The virtual ribbon menus feature allows for ribbon navigation
using
standard
menu type commands such as scrolling with the arrow keys and
first
letter
navigation. While virtual ribbon menus are enabled with JAWS,
the
built-in
key tips and accelerator keys that appear visually on the ribbon
and
on the
buttons are disabled.
For example, to insert a bookmark in MicrosoftR Word, here are
the
steps for
both scenarios, one using the ribbon, and the second one using
JAWS
virtual
ribbon menus:
Using Microsoft Word Key Tips:
list of 2 items
. Using the built-in keyboard access in Microsoft Word, you
would
first
press ALT+N to move to the Insert tab of the ribbon.
. Next, you press the letter K, the Microsoft key tip to
activate the
bookmark button.
list end
Using JAWS Virtual Ribbon Menus:
list of 4 items
. In order to activate the button using the virtual ribbon
menus you
first
press ALT+N to move to the Insert tab of the ribbon.
. Next, you would press DOWN ARROW or ENTER to go to the lower
ribbon.
. Once on the lower ribbon, you would press L to move to the
Links
submenu,
using first letter navigation. The submenu opens, and focus is
on the
Hyperlink
button.
. Finally, you press B for Bookmark.
list end
The nice thing about this is that these keystrokes are easy to
remember,
because it is first letter navigation.
If you are comfortable using the Microsoft built-in keyboard
commands,
it
may be best to leave the virtual ribbon menu feature off. The
majority
of
people
however have not memorized many of the Microsoft access keys for
programs
using the ribbon and thus will not lose any functionality by
enabling
the
feature.
Turning the Virtual Ribbon Menu On and Off
By default the virtual ribbon menu setting in JAWS 12 is turned
off.
This
means that JAWS 12 behaves as in prior versions when interacting
with
the
ribbons.
You can enable virtual ribbon menus using the JAWS Startup Wizard
or
Settings Center.
The JAWS Startup Wizard
The JAWS Startup Wizard runs the first time you start JAWS after
it
has been
installed, or by activating the Startup Wizard item in the Help
menu.
The
virtual ribbon menus check box is located on the third page of
the
wizard.
When the check box is checked, the virtual ribbon menus are
active.
JAWS Settings Center
Perform the following steps to use JAWS Settings Center to enable
or
disable
Virtual Ribbon Menus:
list of 7 items
1. First, press INSERT+F2 to activate the Run JAWS Managers
list.
2. Press the letter S until you land on the settings center item
and
press
ENTER to activate it. The settings center dialog box opens with
the
cursor
in
the search edit box.
3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to activate the default settings.
4. Type the word "ribbon" (without the quotes).
5. Press the DOWN ARROW to move through the list of search
results
until you
land on the Use Virtual Ribbon Menu check box.
6. Press the SPACE BAR to check or uncheck the box.
7. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and activate it with the
SPACEBAR.
list end
If you haven't already enabled virtual ribbon menus, go ahead and
do
so
before continuing with the practice section that comes up next.
If
necessary, pause
the audio of this DAISY book by pressing CTRL+P. When you are
ready to
resume, press CTRL+P again. Remember, you can leave the DAISY
book in
the
background
and use this keystroke to play and pause the audio. CTRL+P does
not
access
the print dialog box when FSReader DAISY player is open.
Using WordPad in Windows 7 for Practice
EXERCISE: Open WordPad in Windows 7 on your computer and follow
along
with
the instructor to explore the virtual ribbon menu feature in JAWS
12
or
later.
NOTE: If you do not have Windows 7 and the ribbon version of
WordPad
you can
still learn to use the Virtual Ribbon Menus in Word 2007 or 2010
in
Windows
Vista or Windows XP. The instructions below will work the same
there;
it is
just that you will hear different results. For example, in Word
2010
there
is a File tab, as well as tabs for Home, Insert, Page Layout,
References,
Mailings, Review, and more depending on how you have customized
Word.
The
lower
ribbon of the Home tab contains a Clipboard, Font, Paragraph,
Styles,
and
Editing group. So even though you may not hear exactly the same
thing
if you
are using an Office 2007 or Office 2010 product, every concept
should
be the
same. Just pause the audio and practice the techniques I'll show
you,
realizing
you will have even more to explore and practice with in Office
than
WordPad.
Overview of the Virtual Ribbon Structure with JAWS in WordPad
I'm going to open the start menu and type WordPad. There it is.
I'll
press
ENTER to open it. Go ahead and open WordPad on your computer as
well.
I always like to go through an overview of what the window looks
like
for
each program. WordPad in Windows 7 has the following items on
the
screen,
going
from the top to bottom:
list of 5 items
. The title bar at the top of the screen, which has the
minimize,
restore,
and close buttons on the right side, and the system icon on the
far
left
side.
The system icon is used to open the menus to minimize, restore,
move
the
program window, and so on. Just to the right of the system icon
is the
Quick
Access
Toolbar, or QAT, pronounced cat.
. On row two of the screen is the upper tabs of the ribbon.
From left
to
right they are the Application Menu, basically the same as the
File
menu,
then
Home and View tabs. It's pretty simple compared to programs like
Word,
ExcelR, and PowerPointR.
. On what basically would be rows three through six is the
lower
ribbon. The
lower ribbon contains buttons, edit boxes, and other controls
arranged
in
groups.
. The next line below the lower ribbon contains a ruler bar.
. The main application window for WordPad is next, and at the
bottom
row of
the screen is a typical status bar.
list end
Let's do a little bit of exploring together.
list of 5 items
1. First, press ALT to move to the Home tab of the WordPad
screen.
JAWS
announced virtual ribbons, home tab.
2. Next, press LEFT ARROW. There's the first tab. In programs
like
Word 2010
and Excel 2010, this is called the File tab. Here JAWS announces
application
menu drop down grid. It's basically the same as the File menu
was in
earlier
versions of WordPad. We'll look at it more in a minute.
3. Press RIGHT ARROW now to move past the Home tab to the View
tab.
When
focus moves to the View tab, the lower ribbon changes to show the
controls,
again
in groups, that have to do with different things that apply to
viewing
documents. The groups there are Zoom to zoom in and out, Show or
Hide
(for
the ruler
and status bar), and Settings for things like word wrap and
measurement
units.
4. If you keep going to the right you find a Help button, then
focus
wraps
around to the first tab, which I'm going to call the File tab
going
forward
in this lesson. When focus goes to the Help button or the File
tab,
the
lower ribbon does not change. Activating the File tab opens a
drop-down
menu.
5. Press RIGHT or LEFT ARROW again until you move back to the
Home
tab.
list end
Next, we'll look at how to access some of the items in the lower
ribbon of
the Home tab.
list of 5 items
1. Press DOWN ARROW. Focus moves to the Clipboard group on the
lower
ribbon.
Visually, there is a highlight rectangle around this group that
JAWS
has put
on the screen. JAWS says lower ribbon, clipboard submenu.
2. Press DOWN ARROW again and notice you hear the other groups
as you
continue. There's the Font submenu, the Paragraph submenu, the
Insert
submenu, and
the Editing submenu. Finally, focus wraps back to the Clipboard
submenu. I'm
not going to spend time on the items here in the Clipboard group,
since most
of us use CTRL+V to paste, but there is also a cut and a copy
button
there.
3. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the Font group. JAWS says font
submenu.
4. Press RIGHT ARROW to open the Font submenu. JAWS says font
family,
edit
combo, Calibri. This is where you change the font when you want
to.
5. For now, just press DOWN ARROW again, just as if you were
going
through
an open submenu in a normal program. JAWS says font size, edit
combo,
11.
The
current font size is 11 point. Again, you can change this here,
but
for now,
go ahead and press DOWN ARROW again to explore all the items
here.
You'll
find about 10 other buttons. Eventually focus wraps back to the
font
name,
Calibri.
list end
Isn't this great?! JAWS takes all the controls within the Font
group
and
puts them into a nice, tidy vertical menu. It makes it very easy
to
find all
the
controls.
First Letter Navigation between Ribbon Groups
You also have the ability to navigate by using first letter from
one
group
to another.
NOTE: The rule of thumb for first letter navigation in menus is
if
there is
only one item beginning with that letter, it gets activated and
focus
leaves
the menus. If it is a submenu, the new menu opens and focus is
placed
on the
first item in the group. If there are multiple items that begin
with
the
same
letter, pressing that letter cycles between them and you press
ENTER
to
activate the one you wish.
Let's explore how first letter navigation works in moving from
one
ribbon
group to another.
list of 7 items
1. First, press ESC a couple of times to make sure you are not
in the
ribbon.
2. Next, press ALT by itself to move to the Home tab of the
ribbon in
WordPad.
3. Press RIGHT ARROW to move to the View tab.
4. Press DOWN ARROW and let's explore the three groups that are
here
with
the arrow keys first. The first group is the Zoom group. JAWS
said
Zoom
submenu.
5. Press DOWN ARROW again. There's the Show or Hide group.
6. Press DOWN ARROW again. There's the Settings group.
7. Press DOWN ARROW again. Focus moves back to the Zoom
submenu.
list end
So, here on the View tab there are three groups on the lower
ribbon.
If you
press Z, don't do it just yet, focus would move to the Zoom
submenu
and open
it, and focus would be placed on the first item in that group.
If you
press
S, since there are two items that begin with that letter here,
focus
simply
switches between the two. You need to press ENTER to open either
of
these
submenus. Let's practice this now.
list of 9 items
1. Press S a few times to cycle between the Show or Hide group
and the
Settings group.
2. Now, say that you want to go into the Show or Hide group.
Press S
until
you are on that submenu, and then press ENTER to go into that
group.
Focus
is
on the first item in that group, the Ruler check box. Remember,
the
ruler is
located on the screen between the bottom of the ribbon and the
top of
the
document area. So here is where you can turn this on or off.
I'm going
to
leave it alone for now.
3. Press DOWN ARROW a few times to look at the other items in
the Show
or
Hide group. There are only two items here.
4. Press ESC to move back out of this group and back to the
prior
level.
You're back at the submenu level, or the group level, on the
lower
ribbon.
5. Now, press Z. What happens? Since there was only one item at
this
level
that began with the letter Z, the Zoom group, the Zoom submenu
opened
and
focus
is on the first item within that group, the Zoom In button.
6. Press DOWN ARROW a few times to look at the other items in
the Zoom
group. There are three items here.
7. OK, press ESC to move back out of this group and back to the
prior
level.
8. Press ESC one more time to go back to the upper tabs of the
ribbon.
9. Finally, press ESC once more to exit the ribbon and put focus
back
in the
document.
list end
First Letter Navigation in the Lower Ribbon Groups
We are going to look at the items on the Home tab in the Font
group
for this
exercise. I will show you how to use first letter navigation to
get
things
done quickly in the lower ribbon.
list of 10 items
1. Press ALT to move to the upper tabs of the ribbon in WordPad.
2. Press LEFT or RIGHT ARROW to move focus to the Home tab, if
necessary.
3. Press DOWN ARROW until you find the Font group. JAWS says
Font
submenu.
4. Press RIGHT ARROW to open the Font submenu. Focus is on the
item
Calibri
in the font submenu.
5. Earlier, when we moved through the controls here, you
probably
heard
there was a bold button. Press B now. Focus moves back to the
document, and
the
bold button is now pressed. You could also just press CTRL+B but
I
wanted to
show you how to use first letter navigation in the virtual ribbon
menu.
Let's
look at this again.
6. Press ALT by itself. Notice how focus returns right back to
the
same spot
on the ribbon, on the Bold button? JAWS said bold button pressed.
This
is
fantastic! Without JAWS running, focus would have gone back to
the
Home tab
and to move here you would either have to press TAB about eight
times
or
DOWN
ARROW twice to the Font group and open the submenu again. The
way JAWS
remembers where you were in the ribbon is a great feature!
7. Next, press I. Focus moves back to the document, and the
italic
button
has now been pressed. So if you type something right now it
would be
both
bold
and italic. But, let's look at one more thing here with first
letter
navigation.
8. Press ALT to go back to the ribbon. JAWS says italic button
pressed.
Again, you are placed right back where you left off in the lower
ribbon.
9. Now press the letter S. JAWS announces the strike through
button.
But it
did not activate it. Why? Because there are other items here
that
begin with
the letter S as well. Press S several times to cycle through
them. You
should hear subscript, superscript, and shrink font buttons in
addition to
the strike
through button. When there are multiple items that begin with
the same
letter, press ENTER on the one you want to activate and focus
returns
to the
document
area.
10. For now, if you did not press ENTER on any of the items that
began
with
the letter S, just press ESC a couple of times to get out of the
ribbon and
put focus back in the document.
list end
Let's work through another example together:
list of 4 items
1. What if you want to insert a picture, or insert the date and
time
into a
document? First press ALT to move to the Home tab of the ribbon.
2. Now, press DOWN ARROW to move to the Insert submenu, and
RIGHT
ARROW to
open it.
3. Navigate through the submenu by pressing UP or DOWN ARROW
first.
Listen
to what is there and notice that two items start with the letter
P,
one
starts
with the letter D, and one starts with the letter I. Therefore,
to
insert
the date and time you would only need to press D once, the date
and
time
dialog
box opens with a choice of formats for the date and time that you
can
insert
into the document at the cursor location. However, to insert a
picture
you
will have to press P to move to the word Picture followed by
ENTER.
4. For the moment, just press ESC a few times to get out of the
ribbon
and
put focus back in the document.
list end
Edit Boxes and Edit Combo Boxes Using the Virtual Ribbon Menu
Let's now look at how to change the font and the point size in
the
virtual
ribbon menu.
list of 6 items
1. Press ALT to move back to the ribbon. Focus is on the tabs
in the
upper
ribbon.
2. If necessary, press LEFT and RIGHT ARROW to move to the Home
tab.
3. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the Font submenu, and press RIGHT
ARROW
to
open it.
4. Focus is on Calibri in the menus. Notice that focus does not
go
into edit
mode on this or the point size edit combo boxes. When using the
virtual
ribbon
menus in JAWS, in order to change an edit box value, you need to
go
into
forms mode.
5. Press ENTER on Calibri to go into forms mode. I heard the
sound
that
indicates forms mode is on.
6. Now press DOWN ARROW or UP ARROW and notice that the focus
moves
through
the various font choices available. When you want to change to
another
font,
just press ENTER when you find the one you want. Forms mode goes
off
and
focus returns to the document. The font is now changed to the
new one
in the
document.
list end
NOTE: For check boxes in the ribbon, use the SPACEBAR to toggle
the
selection. For split buttons, often SPACEBAR will perform one
action
and
ENTER will
perform another. This depends on the actual button, so you will
sometimes
need to experiment.
Using the Quick Access Toolbar with the Virtual Ribbon Menu
What is the Quick Access Toolbar, QAT? The Quick Access Toolbar
is a
small
toolbar that has buttons for activating common tasks. Usually,
the
default
buttons
there are the Save button, the Undo button, and the Redo button,
and
so on.
It also depends on what program you are using. These buttons can
be
deleted
and new buttons can be added. Whatever button is the first
button on
the QAT
can be activated by pressing ALT+1. The second button on the QAT
can
be
accessed
by pressing ALT+2, and so on. Since keyboard users typically use
CTRL+S to
save, CTRL+Z to undo, and CTRL+Y to redo, I usually remove these
from
the
QAT
and add buttons that I use most often in that particular
application.
NOTE: In an open message in OutlookR, the keystrokes ALT+1,
ALT+2, and
so
on, perform different actions and do not access the QAT when JAWS
is
running.
You can still access the buttons on the QAT by moving to the QAT
as
described in the next paragraph.
When virtual ribbon menus are active, you can navigate to the
Quick
Access
Toolbar (QAT) by moving to one of the tabs on the left side of
the
ribbon
and
pressing UP ARROW. Remember, the QAT is located on the title bar
on
the far
left side of the screen. For example, in WordPad, Word, or Excel
press
ALT+H
to move to the Home tab. The last time I was in the ribbon I was
in
the Font
group, so I'm going to go back to the ribbon by pressing the ALT
key,
and
press ESC until I get to the upper ribbon. Then once you are on
the
Home tab
press UP ARROW once and the cursor moves to the QAT. In this
case the
Redo
button is the last button on the QAT. Once you reach the QAT,
press
RIGHT or
LEFT ARROW to move between the buttons there. Press DOWN ARROW
to
return to
the ribbon or press ENTER on one of the buttons to activate it.
Let's look at the QAT in WordPad together.
list of 3 items
1. On my computer I heard JAWS announce redo button unavailable.
I
just did
a Say Word, INSERT+NUM PAD 5, to repeat that. I have not undone
anything yet
in WordPad, so this button is unavailable at the moment. The
help
message
told me that this is button three on the QAT, ALT followed by 3.
2. Press LEFT ARROW to explore the other buttons here. There is
also a
Customize Quick Access Toolbar button. You can use it to remove
these
buttons if
you want to. There are some other choices there as well.
However, you
can
add ANY button on the ribbon to the QAT, not just the few shown
in the
Customize
Quick Access Toolbar dialog box.
3. For now, press ESC a couple of times to get out of the ribbon
and
return
to the document area.
list end
Adding an Item to the QAT
Let's say you need to use the insert date and time button a lot.
Perform the
following steps to add it to the QAT:
list of 8 items
1. Press ALT+H to move to the Home tab of the ribbon.
2. Press DOWN ARROW to move to the lower ribbon.
3. Press I to move to the Insert group. The submenu opens and
focus is
on
the Picture button.
4. Press DOWN ARROW until you find the Date and Time button in
the
menu.
5. Press INSERT+NUMPAD MINUS to route the JAWS cursor to the
button.
If you
are using laptop keyboard layout, press CAPS LOCK+LEFT BRACKET to
route the
JAWS cursor to the button.
6. Press NUMPAD ASTERISK to perform a right mouse click. Laptop
keyboard
layout users press CAPS LOCK+9 on the numbers row to perform the
right
mouse
click.
7. Use the ARROW KEYS if necessary to find the item Add to Quick
Access
Toolbar, and press ENTER on it. This button is now added to the
QAT in
the
next
position in line. For example, if you still have the first three
buttons
there, now the Date and Time button is button four.
8. Verify this and see if it works. Try pressing ALT+4 to see
if the
Date
and Time dialog box appears. It worked on my computer. I'll
press ESC
to
close
the dialog box for now.
list end
The File Menu in WordPad
Press ALT+F to open the File menu in WordPad, and then use DOWN
ARROW
to
explore the items there. Here is where you find the following
choices:
list of 10 items
. New
. Open
. Save
. Save as
. Print
. Page setup
. Send in e-mail
. About WordPad
. Exit
. Also if you have opened any recent documents, they will be
listed
here, in
the right hand column of the menu with the most recent listed
first.
list end
I'm going to press ESC a couple of times to get out of the File
menu
and
return focus to the document area.
Don't forget to close WordPad when you are finished practicing
with
the
ribbon.
Conclusion
The virtual ribbon menu feature of JAWS definitely makes
navigating
the
complexities of the new ribbons from Microsoft and other software
manufacturers
a breeze! I'm going to be using it a lot from now on, and I hope
you
will
also. Thanks for joining me in this DAISY book and I hope you
enjoy
using
the
new virtual ribbon menu feature in JAWS!
Last revised 2010-12-17
Take care.
Mike
This email was sent from my, iBarstool.
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