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6.7: The Rest of the Mouse Menu   
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6.7: The Rest of the Mouse Menu
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The Mouse Boundary
Once you have set your preferences for the rate, pitch, tone, and volume of the mouse voice, you can move on to the rest of the Mouse menu, starting with a Window-Eyes' feature that lets you restrict mouse pointer movement when you are using the mouse hot keys, as follows:
Y = Mouse Boundary-Default = Active Window
Choosing this item opens the Select Mouse Boundary Mode dialog box with a list box which contains the following four items:
• Full Screen
• Active Window
• Focused Window
• User Window
The four settings work as follows:
Full Screen
This setting places no restrictions on the mouse hot keys; they can be used to move the pointer anywhere on the screen.
Active Window
This setting restricts mouse pointer movement by hot keys to the contents of the active window. Any background applications which may be displayed on the screen will be out of range. The mouse pointer will not leave the active window.
Focused Window
This setting restricts mouse pointer movement by hot keys to the contents of the focused window. This may be a very small area like a button or a very large area such as an entire application window. The mouse hot keys cannot move the mouse pointer in areas within the active window but outside the focused window.
User Window
This setting restricts mouse pointer movement to the area defined as the current Window-Eyes user window. User Windows are fully discussed in Section 12. By default, user windows are the size of the active window and so these two options are exactly the same. If you define a user window to be a smaller portion of the active window, however, such as one column of text or only the lower portion of the active window, the hot keys used to move the pointer will not allow it to move outside your user window.
Remember that these settings affect only mouse movement hot keys. Movement of the physical mouse and the find feature are not restricted to these boundaries.
This menu item is identical to the function of the Mouse Boundary Rotor hot key, CTRL-SHIFT-B, described in Section 10.6.
Mouse Buttons
Through the next item of the Mouse Menu, you can determine whether the mouse buttons or hot keys which serve as mouse buttons speak when pressed, as follows:
B = Mouse Buttons-Default = On.
When this item is set to On, Window-Eyes announces the name of the mouse button when it is pressed or when the hot key to click or double-click the button is pressed. When this item is set to Off, the button name is not announced for the physical mouse. Window-Eyes will, however, continue to announce the click and double click hot keys.
Adjusting the Distance for Mouse Movement
When you move the mouse pointer by pressing one of the Window-Eyes mouse-movement hot keys just one time, you move the mouse pointer a specified number of pixels. That number is set with the following Mouse menu items:
U = Pointer Up Delta
D = Pointer Down Delta
L = Pointer Left Delta
G = Pointer Right Delta
As explained in Section 10, the mouse pointer can be moved by pressing any of the four hot keys for the four directions. These four keys are defined as CTRL-SHIFT-NUMPAD-UP ARROW, CTRL-SHIFT-NUMPAD-DOWN ARROW, CTRL-SHIFT-NUMPAD-LEFT ARROW, and CTRL-SHIFT-NUMPAD-RIGHT ARROW. These four Pointer Delta items on the mouse menu determine how far the mouse pointer can move in each of the four directions when any of the hot keys are pressed.
The Delta value for each of these directions is set to a value of five by default. This means that the mouse pointer will move five pixels in the specified direction each time the hot key is pressed. Experiment with these settings by first pressing your mouse position hot key (CTRL-INS-NUMPAD-+) to find out where your mouse pointer is, then pressing one of the CTRL-SHIFT-NUMPAD-ARROW keys then pressing the Mouse Position hot key again to see that the pointer has moved five pixels.
The values you prefer for these four settings will depend largely on how you and your application use the mouse pointer. If you primarily use the mouse to read the screen, large values that allow you to move the pointer quickly might be preferable. If, on the other hand, you prefer a higher degree of control over the movement of the mouse pointer, you may prefer smaller values. You can set the value for each of these items from 1 to 99 pixels.
Interrupting Speech in Progress
Through the next item on the Mouse menu, you can determine which mouse activities will interrupt speech in progress, as follows:
I = Interruptability-Default = Move or Click Buttons.
Choosing this item opens the Select Interruptability Mode dialog box with a list box containing the following items:
• Move
• Click Buttons
• Move or Click Buttons
• Off
When Interruptability is set to Off, no mouse activity interrupts speech in progress. Text on the screen which is passed over by the mouse pointer has to wait to be voiced until the speech in progress is complete.
When Interruptability is set to Move, pointer movement interrupts speech. This applies to movement by means of both the physical mouse and Window-Eyes hot keys.
When Interruptability is set to Click Buttons, buttons on the physical mouse or the Window-Eyes hot keys that emulate mouse buttons interrupt speech.
When Interruptability is set to Move or Click Buttons, any movement of the mouse pointer or any click of a mouse button, either on the physical mouse or a hot key, interrupts speech.
The responsiveness to Interruptability varies from model to model of speech synthesizers.
Automatic Tracking of Focus with the Mouse
Through the next item of the Mouse menu you can set the mouse pointer to move when focus changes. As you type, the mouse stays with the cursor. As you move focus from control to control, the mouse pointer moves with you. This setting is made as follows:
K = Track Mouse with Focus-Default = Off.
Note: the mouse will not track menu options. This was blocked on purpose since the presence of the mouse on a pull down menu option causes the menu to automatically be opened.
Reading Characters, Words, or Lines with Vertical Mouse Movement
When you move the mouse up and down by using the Numpad-Up and Down Arrow keys, Window-Eyes can read either the character the mouse pointer lands on, or the word or line. You set this up through the next item of the Mouse menu, as follows:
S = Up Down Speak-Default = Line.
Choosing this item opens Select Mouse Up Down Speak Mode dialog box with a list that contains the following items:
• Character
• Word
• Line
• Beginning of Line to Mouse
• From Mouse to End of Line
You can also change this setting functionally and in the menu item with the Mouse Up Down Speak hot key, which is ALT-NUMPAD-CENTER. The settings on this hot key work exactly like the settings in the menu item.
When this item is set to Character, the character under the mouse pointer is spoken. If the mouse lands at a place on the new line that does not contain a character, Window-Eyes beeps. When this item is set to Word, the word under the mouse pointer is spoken. If the mouse lands at a place on the new line that does not contain a word, Window-Eyes beeps. When this item is set to Line, the line under the mouse pointer is spoken. When this item is set to Beginning of Line to Mouse, the beginning of the line up to the mouse pointer will be spoken. When this item is set to From Mouse to End of Line, the word under the mouse pointer to the end of the line will be spoken.
If the mouse pointer passes a line containing only blank characters (such as spaces, or tabs), and the Blank Lines setting is set to on, Window-Eyes will say, "Blank." If it crosses several lines containing only blank characters, Window-Eyes will only say, "Blank" at the first blank line it encounters. If the mouse pointer passes blank characters, and the Blank Lines setting is set to off, the blank lines are skipped.
Searching for New Attributes
You can search for the next or previous change in attributes with the Attribute Prior and the Attribute Next hot keys.
A = Attribute Search Selection
Selecting this item opens the Attribute Search Selection dialog box containing the following check boxes:
• Underlined
• Bold
• Highlighted
• Italic
• Strikeout
All of these check boxes are unchecked by default. Check boxes were used for controlling this Window-Eyes feature so that you can use any, some, all, or none of them in using the mouse to search for the next or previous attribute change. You can move up or down from check box to check box with arrow keys and check or uncheck them by pressing the SPACE BAR or by pointing and clicking with the mouse. The ENTER key presses the OK button, closes the dialog, and deactivates the menu bar. ESC presses the CANCEL button, closes the dialog, and deactivates the menu bar.
This feature is especially useful for finding hypertext links. Use it to select the attribute or attributes used by your application to denote links, such as underlined text.
If the mouse pointer is located within the Window-Eyes Mouse Boundary, Next and Prior hot keys (both undefined by default) move it to the next attribute within the mouse boundary. If the mouse pointer is outside the Mouse Boundary, the search for the next attribute begins at the top left of the area within the Mouse Boundary. CTRL-SHIFT-B rotors through available settings of the Mouse Boundary.
H = Specify Highlight Window.
This option pops up a dialog that allows you to specify a highlight window that the Route to Specified Highlight hot key will use to route the mouse. This option is discussed in more detail in Section 8.9.