Navigation:  8: Introducing Window-Eyes Hot Keys > 8.3: Reading Characters, Words, Lines, Sentences, and Paragraphs

Some of the most basic Window-Eyes hot keys are the ones that read information from the perspective of the cursor.

 

While you are composing a document, you may need to leave your computer to attend to other tasks. When you stop typing, your cursor is left at the end of the current line (assuming you left immediately after you stopped typing). When you resume your typing, you may not remember where you are in the document. By using a combination of the CTRL and NUMPAD ARROW keys, you can read various parts of the document without disturbing the application.

 

Pressing CTRL-NUMPAD-DOWN ARROW at your current location will read you the sentence your cursor is located in. CTRL-NUMPAD-RIGHT ARROW will read the word where your cursor is located. This is assuming that your cursor is in the middle of some text. If you finished typing a sentence at the end of your document, your cursor wouldn't be in the middle of a word, so CTRL-NUMPAD RIGHT ARROW would most likely ding at you in this case. If you are in the middle of some text, Pressing CTRL-NUMPAD-RIGHT ARROW a second time will spell the current word letter by letter. Pressing CTRL-NUMPAD-RIGHT ARROW a third time will spell the current word phonetically, using letters in an aeronautic radio style: Alpha for 'A', Bravo for 'B', Charlie for 'C', and so on. Pressing CTRL-NUMPAD-LEFT ARROW will speak the current character. Pressing CTRL-NUMPAD-LEFT ARROW twice will speak the current character phonetically. If no cursor is available while pressing the current line hot key (CTRL-NUMPAD-CENTER), Window-Eyes will execute a speak summary command, providing you with a single keystroke that will always provide some information. All other cursor related hot keys will beep if no cursor is present. All of these hot keys can be performed without moving or disturbing the cursor.

 

The factory default settings for these functions are as follows:

 

Character  Prior = Undefined

Character  = CTRL-NUMPAD-LEFT ARROW

Character  Next = Undefined

Word  Prior = Undefined

Word  = CTRL-NUMPAD-RIGHT ARROW

Word  Next = Undefined

Line  Prior = Undefined

Line  = CTRL-NUMPAD-CENTER

Line  Next = Undefined

Sentence  Prior = Undefined

Sentence  = CTRL-NUMPAD-DOWN ARROW

Sentence  Next = Undefined

Paragraph  Prior = Undefined

Paragraph  = CTRL-NUMPAD-UP ARROW

Paragraph  Next = Undefined