Hi Walt, While I agree with you in terms of what Jaws reads and how beneficial a visual layout is in an IE context, I think you completely missed my point.
The reason for the visual description of the layout of Outlook Express was to outline that the amount of information displayed in the subject line could not possibly be affected by having your contact list pane open. Again, it is true that what Jaws reads from Internet Explorer is different than what a sighted person sees, but that isn't to say that it isn't somewhat alike. The fact is that Jaws takes a webpage from IE, reads it, and displays it in a form that is congruent, formed for easy navigation with sidebars, top links and body text and navigation frames being read in their due course. I must say, however, that having had sight in the past, having my brother tell me what a web site looks like visually, can sometimes aid me in the navigation. For example, whenever I go to Amazon.com looking for a particular audio CD, I scroll down to the section where I can try and buy it so I can hear whether it would be worth buying the whole CD or just downloading the one song from Kazaa. The links for sampling the songs are not laid out in a table format, or at least they weren't and I haven't been back there for a while and you had no idea if you were clicking on a link for Winamp or Media Player or something else entirely. This can make for a tedious process...Especially when you're on dial-up, which I was at the time. The point is, having known what the visual layout of the page looked like, helped me figure out, logically, what I should click on and what not to click on. Mostly because they links were graphic buttons with bad tags on them that were numbered. I'm sure we can all figure out what language I'm referring to, Internet Jaws lingua code, the one that Jaws pronounces that totally distorts the word so you have to go through it one letter at a time. Anyway, Walt, that was the point of the visual description of Outlook Express, not to describe what Jaws is seeing, but what the screen is displaying. Secondly, what Jaws reports is exactly what is on the screen in an Outlook Express window. In fact, when you tab around the panes, Jaws tabs clockwise, the way I was describing it. When Jaws reads the contents of each pane, it reads it word for word as it is displayed on the page. I know this because, as I said, I was, at one time sighted, so I know what Outlook Express windows look like visually. This actually came in handy when I was first going through the motions of learning how to use Jaws on my own. I needed to sort my message list, and new how to do it visually, by clicking on the headers with the mouse cursor, once for a particular direction, and twice for the reverse direction. Easy, I know, but with Jaws, I actually had to know names and commands, such as sort ascending, and descending and all that stuff, which I had no idea about. Knowing that the message either went from one order to the other, helped me figure out what the words meant in the context of Outlook Express. I also new that whatever way I sorted the messages, the messages would go up or down, and since I preferred down, I just played around with it until I got the desired way of arrowing. The easiest way to describe the layout of Outlook Express to a person is to say that it's exactly like Windows Explorer. Folder tree views on the left, files on the right and other information below and to the left of those two windows. If you don't believe me, just ask a sighted person to look at the two windows and they'll tell you the same. Heck, Jaws even navigates around the two windows exactly the same, in a clockwise direction through the different panes and buttons. The only difference between the two windows is that some of the buttons on Explorer you can use in the tab order, such as go up a level, last folder viewed and the like, where as the only buttons in Outlook Express are the toolbars and they are most definately, not in the tab order. Anyway, I'm going to go now because this has turned into quite the saga. Victor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Visit the JAWS Users list home page at: http://www.jaws-users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the JAWS Users List send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jaws-users/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
