Guess What? Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 and Microsoft PowerPoint
Oct-09-2006Disclaimer
The following message includes information regarding Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1. Please note that Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 HAS NOT been released at this time. We are, however, providing you with some small glimpses into the features that Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 will contain. We are currently not answering any questions regarding the functionality of the beta. The only things we're going to talk about will be what we have included in our new Guess What series, which will continue daily up to the beta release date, October 16, 2006. We will answer all questions at that time. Please be patient; you will be rewarded.
If you're subscribed to the GW Micro or Guess What podcast feed, you'll automatically receive this Guess What in MP3 format. Check out www.gwmicro.com/podcast for more information. If you want to download the MP3, read this article online, or view more Guess What articles (when they are released), please visit www.gwmicro.com/beta.
Enjoy!
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Welcome to GW Micro's "Guess What?" series, an introductory look at the upcoming release of Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1.
We’ll be covering a new feature in Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 every day until its release, so stop by our web site (www.gwmicro.com/beta) daily to make sure you don't miss any of the exciting new features.
GW Micro is making your life easier with the great features that Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 is providing. With the release of Window-Eyes 5.5, blind consumers gained access to Microsoft Excel, Mozilla Firefox, and more. Window-Eyes 6.0 promises to be even better, and offer our customers the features that have been requested the most. In today's first edition of the Guess What series, we are going to take a close look at Window-Eyes support for PowerPoint. Window-Eyes provides the power in PowerPoint.
Since access to PowerPoint has been relatively limited to blind consumers before now, many may not know what PowerPoint is. So, exactly what is PowerPoint? It is a presentation software package, which provides visual information through the use of slide shows to enhance oral presentations such as training sessions, classroom lectures, and business seminars. PowerPoint slides contain combinations of text, images, and multimedia effects, and are often displayed by connecting a computer to a projection system so the presentation can be visible to a large number of people. PowerPoint presentations can also be distributed electronically, and accessed much like other Microsoft Office documents.
Now that you know what PowerPoint is, why does Window-Eyes work better with it over any other screen reader? Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1 goes directly to the Document Object Model (DOM) to communicate with PowerPoint slide data. So, just like in Microsoft Word, Window-Eyes is the only screen reader to be 100% text accurate, 100% of the time when presenting PowerPoint slide data. Thus, you get better access to PowerPoint than ever before.
I already have a blank PowerPoint presentation open on my screen. There are four different panes: the Slide pane, the Task pane, the Notes pane, and the Thumbnails pane. By default, you are put into the Slide pane. This is where you can edit your slide. I'll press Tab to get to the first area to edit.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
You heard that this object is a title placeholder. Visually, it is the title of the slide with a large font size. Window-Eyes also told you the position of the object relative to the slide. If you wanted to move the position of the object, you can use any of the dedicated Arrow keys. I'll push the Left Arrow, so you can hear what Window-Eyes will say.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
You heard the new position of the object. Now that you know where the object is, let's place some text in it. I'll type, "Screen Reader Presentation." First, I have to press Enter. You will hear "edit object," and then I'll type in the text.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Once I'm done, I press the Escape key.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
This time, you heard the same information as before, but you also heard the text that I typed in. Let's Tab to the next object.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Again, I'm going to edit this text, and type in "Window-Eyes is the greatest!"
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Ok, this is all of the information I want to place on this slide. To move to the next pane, which is the Task pane, I'll press F6.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
It is possible to close the Task pane on startup of PowerPoint in the Tools menu under Options. You can press the Tab key to get around to various parts of the pane. I'll Tab to a few of them, so you can hear what links are available.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
As you can tell, this Task pane is similar to the pane in Word and Excel. It could be useful to get help regarding PowerPoint. I'll press F6 again to get the Notes pane.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
You heard "Notes pane." The Notes pane is where you can put notes about your slide. These are notes that you do not want other people to see while giving your presentation. They can be whatever you want. Typically, they are information about the slide that you need to remember. I'll type in "Notes are a great way to remember important stuff."
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Later, when we start the presentation, Window-Eyes will read back the information in the Notes pane to us. Or, you can use Window-Eyes keys like Numpad-Center to read the current line, just like in a word processor.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
That is pretty much all there is to the Notes pane. Again, I need to press F6 to get to the Thumbnails pane.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
You heard "Thumbnails pane" and "Screen Reader Presentation." Note that you did not hear the entire slide. You only hear the title in this pane. Suppose you want to view the contents of the slide in the Thumbnails pane. You can press Ctrl-Shift-Tab in order to do this.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
This is the Outline pane. By default, the entire slide is selected. To move the PC cursor to the top of the slide, press the Up Arrow.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Now, you can use the Down Arrow to hear the information on the slide.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
This is very useful to review a presentation before going through the slide show. Let's suppose you want to add a new slide. The PowerPoint command is Ctrl-M.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
In this view, you heard "slide 2 of 2," and the new slide was inserted. I could press F6 again, and rotor back to the Slide pane to edit this new slide. But, let's keep moving forward to the other great features that Window-Eyes offers in PowerPoint. A great feature that we have added in PowerPoint is the Page Navigation dialog. If you use Word, Excel, or the Internet, you are probably already familiar with the concept of the Page Navigation dialog. Just as in other applications, you can press Insert-Tab to open it.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
The Page Navigation dialog gives you the ability to list hyperlinks, objects, comments, or slides. For any of these items, you can select to list them for either the entire presentation or just the current slide. Since I don't have any hyperlinks, comments, or objects, I can only list slides. So, you heard the title of the first slide, and that it was Slide 1. I was on Slide 2 when we left, so I'll press Enter on Slide 1 to navigate there.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Now, I am in Slide 1, and we are automatically placed directly into the Slide pane. See how easy Window-Eyes is making PowerPoint navigation?
Now, let's move on to the Slide Show. The Slide Show is where the entire presentation will be displayed on the screen. Once you have finished all of your slides, this is how you will display the presentation to a group of people. The PowerPoint hotkey to start the Slide Show is F5.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Window-Eyes automatically goes into Browse Mode for the presentation. As you can tell, Window-Eyes reads all of the information on the slide to us, including the notes. If you want to move around the screen, you can do so just like when using Browse Mode on the Internet. You can even move directly to your notes by pressing the letter H, since the notes are a heading in Browse Mode.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
Thus, I just moved directly to the notes I made. It is important for you to know that there is no cursor while in the Slide Show, so you cannot edit a slide when in a presentation. To move to the next slide, press Space.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
If you want to move to the previous slide, press Backspace.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
And, if you want to exit the Slide Show, just press Escape.
<Window-Eyes Speech>
We have also added new verbosity options for PowerPoint that will allow you to adjust what you hear during playback of the Slide Show or while you are in the Slide Pane. For example, one of the options will allows you to have Window-Eyes not read the notes of the slide during the Slide Show. Of course, there are many more verbosity options, but you will have to wait until the release of the beta.
We hope today's "Guess What?" has given you a glimpse into the power of Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1, and its innovative new support for Microsoft PowerPoint.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's "Guess What?" to learn more about Window-Eyes 6.0 Beta 1.
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