Howdy All, Below are the direct download links for both 32 & 64 bit versions of the J18 Beta 3 + what's new:
32 Bit: https://jaws18.objects.cdn.dream.io/181834BEJ02X/J18.0.1834.400-enu-x86.exe 64 Bit: https://jaws18.objects.cdn.dream.io/181834BEJ02X/J18.0.1834.400-enu-x64.exe Enhancements in JAWS 18.0.1834 (Public Beta 3) The following is a list of improvements made between Public Beta 2 and Public Beta 3. Note that while many customer-reported enhancements are included in this release, the following is a list of more notable changes. list of 4 items . You can now quickly toggle audio ducking by using the new layered keystroke, INSERT+SPACEBAR, D. If this feature is off in Settings Center, which is the default, it will turn it on. If it is on in Settings Center, it will be turned off. The current setting will remain in effect until you press the layered keystroke again, or JAWS is restarted. The audio ducking toggle can also be located using the Command Search feature (INSERT+SPACEBAR, J). . JAWS 18 includes updated braille display drivers from Handy Tech. These new drivers fix issues with braille input and language detection for messages and introduces support for their latest displays. . Resolved an issue where audio from other programs was continuing to be ducked even when JAWS speech was turned off. . Addressed multiple issues with the Dutch version of JAWS. list end Enhancements in JAWS 18.0.1811 (Public Beta 2) The following is a list of improvements made between the first Public Beta and Public Beta 2. Note that while many customer-reported enhancements are included in this release, the following is a list of more notable changes. Lower the Audio from Other Programs While JAWS is Speaking In Windows 8 and later, you can now specify that the volume of audio from other programs be lowered while JAWS is speaking using the Eloquence or Vocalizer Expressive synthesizers as well as any SAPI5 synthesizer. This is commonly known as audio ducking. For example, if you are listening to music or playing a video and JAWS begins talking, the volume of the music or video will be slightly lowered so you can comfortably hear JAWS and then raised back to its current level when JAWS stops talking. For JAWS users with a braille display, you can also choose to mute JAWS speech (INSERT+SPACEBAR, S) while listening to audio from other programs and still use JAWS with braille output only, without the audio from the other programs being reduced. By default, audio remains at the same volume as JAWS speech. To change this, there are two ways. The easiest way is to open the Startup Wizard from the JAWS Help menu and select the Lower the volume of other programs while JAWS is speaking checkbox located on the Speech Settings page. Alternatively, you can change this option through Settings Center by doing the following: list of 5 items 1. Press INSERT+F2, and select Settings Center. 2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to load the JAWS default settings. 3. In the Search edit box, type "volume" without the quotes. 4. Press DOWN ARROW to move to "Lower the volume of other programs while JAWS is speaking" in the filtered search results in the tree view. 5. Press SPACEBAR to toggle this option. list end More Dynamic Braille Auto Advance Mode Auto Advance Mode is equivalent to the Say All command for braille readers and has been available in JAWS for many years. After performing the appropriate command on your braille display (left and right selector buttons on the Focus series displays), the braille display is automatically panned at a specific speed through an entire document, automatically skipping over blank segments and blank lines. In prior versions, users could configure how long JAWS paused before automatically panning the display. Once configured, the display would pan at the same speed regardless of how much information was on the display, so most users would set the timer for optimal reading when the display was full. However, if the display panned to a short line containing only a few words with the remaining cells being empty, which could occur more frequently with larger displays such as those with 40 or 80 cells, this could be inconvenient as the user would have to wait for the display to advance which could cause an interruption with reading. To improve the reading experience when using Auto Advance Mode, JAWS now pans faster or slower depending on the length of the current braille line. The display will pan faster for short lines so you can instantly move to the next segment without having to wait once you have finished reading, but will pan slower for longer lines up to a maximum length of time which is used when the display is full. This maximum value can be configured through Settings Center using the new Auto Advance Maximum Interval option. By default, it is set to 5000 milliseconds, or five seconds. For example, if you have an 80 cell display and the current braille line takes up the majority of the display, JAWS will pan the display after five seconds. If the display pans to a short line containing only a few words and the remaining cells are blank, JAWS will pan the display within a couple seconds. Improved Performance when Using JAWS and ZoomText Together JAWS 18 introduces greatly improved interoperability with the soon to be released ZoomText 11. Users of both these industry leading products will experience more seemless operation when running JAWS 18 and ZoomText 11 together regardless of the order in which they are installed as well as which product is started first. When JAWS 18 and ZoomText 11 are running together, users should note the following: list of 4 items . JAWS handles all speech functions except for ZoomText's App Reader feature and speech directly from ZoomText , such as ZoomText scripts. . All ZoomText magnification features will continue to work as expected. In addition, ZoomText will now visually highlight and track during a JAWS Say All, or when navigating using the Virtual Cursor. . If there is a keystroke conflict, the JAWS keystroke is used instead. Otherwise, JAWS and ZoomText keystrokes will continue to work as expected. . ZoomText handles all touch related functions. list end Since JAWS takes over all speech functions when running with ZoomText, this also includes mouse echo. If you want the mouse to echo as it is moved, you will need to enable mouse echo in JAWS as it is off by default. The easiest way is to press the layered keystroke, INSERT+SPACEBAR, E, O. However, this is only temporary and will revert back to off if JAWS is restarted. If you intend on using mouse echo all the time, you can permanently enable it by doing the following: list of 3 items 1. Press INSERT+F2, and select Settings Center. 2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to load the JAWS default settings. 3. From the tree view, expand the Mouse Echo group and press SPACEBAR on Enable Mouse Echo. list end Touch Improvements list of 9 items . JAWS touch gestures are now included in the Command Search feature (INSERT+SPACEBAR, J). If you search for a command that can be performed using a keystgroke or a gesture, both the keystroke and gesture are displayed in the search results. You can also search for gesture-specific commands, such as toggling the Touch Keyboard, or cycling through Touch Navigation, Text Reading, or Speech Settings gesture modes. The JAWS Command Search only includes gestures if JAWS detects that it is running on a touch screen enabled device. . Addressed issues with using gestures to switch to an application in the task switching window that displays when you swipe from the left edge of the screen. When the task switcher opens, flick left or right through the list of running applications and when you locate the one you want, double tap it to move focus in to that app. . Improved the experience when using touch gestures to log into Windows. If the Login screen is active and focus is on the Password edit field, performing a double tap will immediately open the touch keyboard allowing you to enter your password. Otherwise, flick right or explore until you locate the Password edit field and then double tap to set focus and open the touch keyboard. . JAWS no longer repeats the password label field multiple times on the Windows 10 Login screen. . In response to user feedback, the default typing mode for the touch keyboard is now Touch Typing, which means a key is typed as soon as the finger is lifted from the keyboard button, or you perform a split tap. . If the gesture mode is set to Text Reading, you can now perform a four-finger swipe down to begin a Say All in the currently open document, similar to pressing INSERT+DOWN ARROW on the keyboard. To stop reading, tap anywhere on the screen. . In response to customer requests, added a new option to the Touch Cursor group in Quick Settings that allows you to choose the element type that is navigated to when using the flick up and flick down gestures. The available choices are Regions (selected by default), Headings, List Items, Buttons, Links, Groups, and Form Controls. Note that not all apps support these navigation types, they are typically available in modern apps and web applications. . If you perform a JAWS touch gesture and then do a five-finger rotate to turn off all JAWS gestures, resolved an issue where Windows-specific gestures would no longer work until you restarted JAWS. . Addressed an issue where the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons in the title bar of an application were not being announced by JAWS when exploring the screen. list end Google Docs list of 6 items . You can now type text into a document using Contracted Braille. . Added speech and braille support for navigating tables inserted into documents. . Resolved several issues with JAWS not detecting live region updates. . Addressed issues where JAWS was announcing extraneous information when opening menus. . Resolved several issues with menus and focus. . Resolved multiple issues where focus would unexpectedly jump to other places while editing a document. list end JAWS list of 7 items . Addressed an issue where Settings Center changes made after migrating or importing settings were not taking affect unless JAWS was restarted. . If the mouse echo feature is disabled, addressed an issue where speech was still being interupted when moving the physical mouse. . In response to customer feedback, updated the Adding Special Symbols help topic with the correct location for the Eloq.sbl file. . If a Windows 10 alarm goes off, addressed an issue where the volume of JAWS speech would unexpectedly be lowered to an unusable level, making it difficult for a speech-only user to turn off the alarm. . Addressed an issue that was observed in multiple applications where JAWS was reading the wrong word when pressing CTRL+BACKSPACE to delete the prior word. . Added a new Hebrew Computer Braille table. You can set this as a preferred table or set it as the primary table through the Braille Tables dialog box, accessed by selecting the Computer Braille Tables option in Settings Center. Braille output must be set to Computer Braille before you can make this change. . A customer using the Spanish version of JAWS reported several English messages and keystroke conflicts. These have been resolved. list end Microsoft Outlook list of 5 items . Addressed an issue with Outlook 2016 where JAWS was not reading all of the info in the meeting attendees list. . If a calendar appointment lasts for more than one day, resolved a customer reported issue where JAWS would not indicate the appointment after moving past the first day. . If a calendar event is set to all day in Outlook 2013, resolved a reported issue with JAWS not reading the end date. . Addressed a reported issue with the Outlook 2016 Office Theme combo box, located in the Options dialog box, not being displayed properly in braille. . Addressed a reported issue with the INSERT+F keystroke to read the font and point size not saying anything when used in the message list in Outlook 2013 and 2016. list end Microsoft Word list of 2 items . Resolved an issue where JAWS would unexpectedly restart and Word 2013 would become unresponsive when attempting to insert a comment. . When using CTRL+PAGE UP and CTRL+PAGE DOWN to switch pages, addressed a reported issue where JAWS was announcing the line from the prior page. list end Web Browsers list of 7 items . Added support for several ARIA 1.1 features including the aria-modal, aria-current, and aria-placeholder attributes, as well as support for partially visible tables. . When navigating to links in Firefox with the mouse and the new mouse echo feature is enabled, resolved an issue where JAWS was not announcing the text of the link as it appears on the web page. . Addressed an issue in Firefox where pressing INSERT+R was not toggling Virtual Cursor restriction as expected in web-based dialog boxes. . If END is pressed in an edit field in Google Chrome, addressed an issue where text in an edit field was no longer indicated in speech or braille. . Resolved an issue with certain edit combos not being identified correctly in the virtual buffer in both Firefox and Chrome. . Resolved an issue where tab controls would appear twice in the virtual buffer in Chrome. . Addressed an issue with heading level indication in Chrome. list end Windows list of 2 items . Worked with Microsoft to resolve a reported issue with JAWS double speaking when entering text into a Windows 10 command prompt. This fix will be available in a Windows update. . JAWS now announces Microsoft UIA Alert Events. As a result you may now hear more Windows Notifications, and Mouse Echo can now speak more UIA elements, like minimize, restore and maximize window controls. list end Take care. Mike Sent from my iBarstool. Go Dodgers! For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
