look, mum, no hands!

Categories: Navigating Windows XP, Navigating applications, Natlink/Vocola for beginners

Life would be much easier if you could say the name of any element of any Windows program and have it respond accordingly!  While the former is not yet possible, it is possible to move towards hands-free computing through the use of dictated keyboard shortcuts.

One type of keyboard shortcut is an assigned keyboard shortcut for a given element.  An example of this is Ctrl + S for saving a file.  You can often find a list of these by going to your application's Help menu (index tab) and doing a search for "keyboard shortcuts", "keys", "shortcut keys", or "function keys".  Another way of finding lists of keyboard shortcuts is to do a google search.

The other type of keyboard shortcut is a general shortcut for working with a type of element.  These help you to navigate Windows applications when you can't call the name of the window elements or toggle them through a specific keyboard shortcut.  Some of these general shortcuts may not work for all applications, but they should all work with Microsoft applications.

These apply no matter which voice recognition software you use (as long as you can “press” keys by voice) or which macro software you use (if any).  For users who are interested, I have written some tips for automating actions through macros at the bottom of this post.

Navigating to an area of an application window
You have an application up and running and want to move the focus to a different section
To move the focus to the next area of an application window, use the F6 key.
To move the focus to the previous area of an application window, use Shift + F6.
(Example: moving between the left and right hand sides of Windows Explorer, or moving between the task pane, main window, and toolbars in Microsoft Word.)

Navigating to a specific text box, listbox, radio button, etc
The focus is in the right section, but you want to select a specific element in the section
To move the focus to a specific element in the current area, use the Arrow keys.
OR
To move the focus to the next element in the current area, use the Tab key.
To move the focus to the previous element in the current area, use Shift + Tab.
If the label next to the element has an underlined letter, use Alt + the underlined letter.
To move the focus to the first element in the current area, use the Home key.
To move the focus to the last element in the current area, use the End key.

Working with text boxes
The focus is on the text box, but you want to be able to enter text into the text box
To insert the cursor in a selected text box, use the F2 key.  (Example: inserting the cursor in a Publisher text box.)
To remove the cursor from a selected text box, use the F2 or Escape keys.
To select the contents of a text box, use Ctrl + A.

Working with list boxes
The focus is on a list box, but you want to expand it or return it to normal view
To expand a selected list box, use the F4 key (most Windows list boxes) or the down arrow key (special “list boxes” like the Word font colour icon).
To return a selected list box to default view, use the F4 key (most Windows list boxes) or the Escape key (special “list boxes” like the Word font colour icon).

The list box is expanded, but you want to select an item in the listbox
To move the focus along items in a list box, use the up and down arrow keys.
To move the focus to the first item in a list box, use the Home key.
To move the focus to the last item in a list box, use the End key.
It is sometimes possible to move the focus to a word in a list box by using the key corresponding to the first character of that word.
To select an item in a listbox, use the Enter key.

Working with radio buttons
To select/un-select a radio button that has the current focus, use the Enter key.

Working with folders
To expand and contract selected folders, use the right and left arrow keys or the Enter key.


Working with menus and dialog boxes
To expand a menu, say the name of the menu or use the Alt and underlined keys.  For example, to expand the bookmark menu in Firefox, say “bookmarks” or use Alt + B.
To select a menu or dialogue box item, use the underlined key.  For example, to select the Width attribute of the Microsoft Publisher Format Picture dialog box, use the “w” key .

Automating commands with macros
If you use Dragon Naturally Speaking, there are a few different tools at your disposal for automating the above kinds of actions in applications.

Dragon Professional has macro recording and scripting capability and Preferred allows you to create shortcuts.  There are also a wide range of tools that are used with all editions of Dragon, from the all-purpose Macro Express to the Dragon add-ons KnowBrainer and Vocola.

Here are some tips for automating commands by putting together a series of key strokes, no matter what tool you use with your speech recognition software.

• This is a tip for impatient people like me: read up on how your tool works before you go crazy writing macros.  It's often helpful to read other people's experiences on forums like speechcomputing.com, voicerecognition.com and knowbrainer.com.


• Don't reinvent the wheel if you can help it.  I find the Vocola macro repository at http://speechwiki.com/NL/VocolaMacros.html to be very helpful.


• The process that works best for me with writing macros is to try out the action first using only dictated keystrokes.  Then, I perform the action again and write down the keystrokes as I go.  Finally, I put it all into a macro.  This usually ensures I don't miss something!


• Focus is an important issue.  A command may work when the focus is on one part of the screen but not another.  One way of troubleshooting this is to start the macro by shifting focus to a neutral area.  For example, say you wanted to write a macro to work with folders or files on the right-hand side of Windows Explorer.  There are three sections of Windows Explorer: the left pane, the right pane, and the address bar.  You can switch through the different sections clockwise by using the F6 key, or anticlockwise by using Shift + F6.  However, in this example, you want to make sure that you will always end up on the right pane.  As it turns out, there is a keyboard shortcut for shifting the focus to the address bar (Alt + D).  So, we can move the focus to the address bar with Alt + D, and then use F6 twice to ensure that the focus will be on the right pane, no matter which area we start from.

If you have any questions about the above, I'm happy to be of any assistance that I can.