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J-Days User Guide

For use with JAWS for Windows 8.0 and Microsoft Outlook 2007

T&T Consultancy Ltd
Office Suite 5
Imex Technology Park
Trentham Lakes South
Stoke-On-Trent
Staffordshire
ST4 8LJ

Telephone: 08452-303015

Web Site: www.tandt-consultancy.com

This manual along with the entire contents of the J-Days product is bound by copyright law. Unauthorised distribution, copying or alteration of this product and associated material is strictly prohibited.
J-Days Copyright © T&T Consultancy Ltd 2007

Introduction

Congratulations on purchasing J-Days! Using this product in conjunction with JAWS for Windows, you will be able to take full advantage of the Calendar component of Microsoft Outlook 2007.

The wide ranging functionality offered within the Calendar as part of Microsoft’s new Office suite allows people to create Appointments, All Day Events and Meeting Requests to suit a range of need both personal and within employment. J-Days will allow you to easily and accurately obtain information regarding scheduled Calendar items using the same Outlook program interface enjoyed by sighted friends and colleagues.

J-Days is extremely responsive and performs well within a local Calendar (stored on the computer itself), or within an Exchange Server environment (often referred to as a Shared Calendar as potentially other people can view it if permission has been assigned).

This J-Days short User Guide does not provide you with a tutorial on how to use all the features of the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar. Context Sensitive Help is built into J-Days so as to provide you with guidance concerning creating and viewing Calendar Items. The purpose of this Guide is to provide you with:

• The J-Days installation procedure;

• Customising the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar to perform optimally with the J-Days product;

• Information concerning each and every function which is available as part of J-Days;

• How to obtain Keystroke and Context Sensitive Help information from the interface.

Due to the low cost of J-Days, Technical Support is available by Email. Support can be obtained from the J-Days Team by sending a message detailing your enquiry to:

enquiries@tandt-consultancy.com

If J-Days has been purchased from a company other than T&T Consultancy Ltd, please consult the seller’s web site for Technical Support details.

We hope you enjoy working with J-Days and that you are able to successfully use the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar.

Chapter 1: Installing J-Days

Introduction

Prior to installing J-Days, you should ensure that JAWS for Windows version 8.0.2173 is installed onto your computer. Failure to do this will result in J-Days not functioning correctly.

If in doubt, you should download and run the latest JAWS for Windows 8.0 installer program available from the Freedom Scientific web site at
www.freedomscientific.com

Once the program has been launched, if Build 2173 already exists on your computer, you will be advised of this and no further action is necessary. However, if an earlier Build than 2173 exists, the file will update the JAWS program to the required release of the program. Once the process is complete you may be requested to re-start the computer and, if so, you should accept this option.

J-Days is designed to be extremely easy and intuitive to install and can be achieved even if you have limited technical knowledge, so please do not be concerned if you have not installed a software package before.

The installation procedure is in two parts: first, you need to download from the Internet, and install, the J-Days program. This will automatically install a demonstration copy of J-Days as described below. Second, the J-Days Authorisation File should be installed, if you have one.

Installing the J-Days Program

The latest release of J-Days can always be downloaded from the T&T Consultancy Ltd web site.

To visit the T&T Consultancy Ltd web site please browse to
www.tandt-consultancy.com
and from the home page select the J-Days link.

Once the J-Days program has been downloaded you should press the Enter key to begin the launch procedure. It is likely that a Dialog Box will appear, asking whether you would like to run the file or save it to your computer. You should select the “Run” option, either by pressing the Tab key until the Button is reached, followed by the Space Bar to activate it, or alternatively press “ALT+R” which will launch the Installation Wizard.

Once the install process has commenced, spoken instructions will assist you with installing J-Days. Once all necessary components of J-Days have been installed, you will be prompted to re-start the computer and you should comply with the request.

As explained previously, installing J-Days automatically installs a demonstration Authorisation File onto your computer. The purpose of this file is to allow you to test the functionality of J-Days prior to purchase. The Demonstration Authorisation File will allow you to evaluate J-Days for ten minute periods, after which time the computer should be re-started to gain a further ten minute trial.

Installating the J-Days Authorisation File

If you have purchased J-Days, an Email would have been sent to you containing a link to the T&T Consultancy Ltd web site from where your individually created authorisation file is located. The resulting file, entitled “authorisation.exe”, should be downloaded to your computer.

Once downloaded, you should launch the installation and install it, employing exactly the same methods you used to install the J-Days main program including re-starting the computer.

Once the J-Days Authorisation File has been installed, the demonstration Authorisation file will have been overwritten and you can enjoy full unrestricted access to the Microsoft Outlook 2007 calendar.

Note: J-Days can be installed on any computer onto which your current version of JAWS For Windows has been installed. However, Do not under any circumstances attempt to install J-Days on a computer using a different JAWS For Windows serial number than that for which your J-Days Authorisation has been created. This will result in the JAWS software not working properly! The only exception to this would be if you are using the specially created Demonstration Authorisation File.

All necessary components of J-Days have now been successfully installed!

J-Days Installation Verification

To verify that J-Days has been installed correctly, please launch Microsoft Outlook 2007. Once the program has been launched, press “Insert+Q”. JAWS will announce that Microsoft Outlook 2007 settings are loaded and that J-Days is active. The version number of J-Days will also be announce. This is useful since you can compare it with the version number appearing alongside the main program details located on the T&T Consultancy Ltd web site. If the version number on the web site is higher than the figure given by pressing “Insert+Q”, you may consider applying the update by downloading the installer program and launching it. Your previous J-Days files will be overwritten.

Uninstalling J-Days

In the unlikely event you wish to uninstall J-Days, please work through the following procedure:

1. From the Windows Start Menu, use the Down Arrow key to select Programs or All Programs. The option contained in this respect on the start Menu will depend upon whether or not the Start Menu is set to displaying a “Classic” view. Once the appropriate item has been spoken by JAWS, please press Enter.

2. Press Down Arrow until you reach the “J-Days” menu item and press Enter to move into this program group.

3. Press Down arrow until you reach the option entitled “Uninstall J-Days”. Press Enter to commence uninstalling the product. At this point your JAWS software will ask whether you would like to uninstall the J-Days program. Press the letter “Y” to confirm you would like to do this.

4. At the end of the uninstall process you will be requested to re-start the computer and you should comply with this request.

The J-days program has now been removed from your computer. However The J-Days Authorisation File will remain on the computer’s Hard disk but not effect in any way the JAWS installation. Unlike the JAWS authorisation token the J-Days Authorisation is purely a linking mechanism and only needs to be installed and does not need to be removed as it is not a token but instead a link to your JAWS Serial Number.

Chapter 2: Customising Microsoft Outlook 2007 for use with J-Days

In order that J-Days can be used with Microsoft Outlook 2007, a number of configuration changes may need to be made to the application. The table below describes the majority of these changes. Failure to verify the changes have been made will mean that J-Days is unlikely to function.

At the time of the preparation of this User Guide, J-Days only functions within the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar Day View. Future updates will ensure that additional views, such as the Week or Month Views, are compatible with the product. Feedback from J-Days users will determine the usefulness of other views.

To customise the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar, you should first launch Microsoft Outlook and, once in focus, press Control+2 (figure 2 on the main QWERTY keyboard) to bring the Calendar into view. Assuming J-Days has been installed, JAWS will say “moving to Calendar”. The changes can now be made.

The following points should also be borne in mind:

Only one Calendar can be viewed at any time. For example, it is not possible to have a Shared Calendar and a Personal Calendar on the screen simultaneously.

If working within the United Kingdom, the Calendar window must be maximised, in other words filling the entire screen. The technology used for obtaining the weekday within the United Kingdom is different to other English speaking countries and relies upon data which appears on the screen.

Additional JAWS Features

As will be described within Chapter 4, if the “Additional JAWS Features” option is selected, J-Days is able to deliver important information to you concerning each Calendar Item which is in addition to the default speech and Braille output delivered by the product.

In order to obtain this information, JAWS needs to make extensive calls to the Microsoft Object library. Put simply, if the “Additional JAWS features” are enabled, J-days will constantly ask Microsoft Outlook for information which ordinarily it is reluctant to give concerning each appointment.

If your Virus Checking software is up-to-date, and your computer’s operating system contains the very latest Windows Updates as provided by Microsoft, it is likely that you will be able to take full advantage of the “Additional JAWS Features” without making any configuration changes to Microsoft Outlook.
To enable the “Additional JAWS Features”:

1. From within the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar press “Insert+H” to activate Hotkey Help mode. Please refer to Chapter 5 for a full description of Hotkey Help.

2. Press “Down Arrow” repeatedly until you reach the option entitled “please activate this link to enable “Additional JAWS Features””.

3. Press “Enter” on this link. JAWS will confirm that the “Additional JAWS Features” are enabled.

4. Press “Escape” to exit the J-Days Help system.

Now try working through the topics as described within Chapter 4, particularly those relating to moving through Calendar Items and listening to the resulting output. If when navigating to each Calendar Item a Security Dialog Box appears, this means that Microsoft Outlook 2007 will not allow JAWS to gain the information it needs. You now have two choices:

Disable Programmatic Access

1. With Microsoft Outlook in focus, press “ALT+T, S” to access the “Trust Centre”.

2. Press “Down Arrow” repeatedly until JAWS announces “Programmatic Access”.

3. Press “Tab” once to a group of Radio Buttons relating to Security.

4. Press “Down Arrow” until JAWS says “Never warn me about suspicious activity (not recommended)”.

5. Press “Enter” to dismiss the Dialog Box.

JAWS will now have full control of Microsoft Outlook 2007.

Disable “Additional JAWS Features”

If you are working within a Corporate environment for example where unselecting the above mentioned option would breach Security policy, or indeed if you do not wish to disable it, you can deactivate the “Additional JAWS Features” instead:

1. Within the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar press “Insert+H” to activate Hotkey Help mode. Please refer to Chapter 5 for a full description of Hotkey Help.

2. Press “Down Arrow” repeatedly until you reach the option entitled “please activate this link to disable “Additional JAWS Features””.

3. Press “Enter” on this link. JAWS will confirm that the “Additional JAWS Features” are disabled.

4. Press “Escape” to exit the J-Days Help system.

Chapter 3: Creating a Simple Appointment and Getting Help

Introduction

Before you learn about the primary functions available as part of J-Days within Chapter 4, you may not be aware how to create Appointments or All Day Events. An All Day Event occupies an entire day or a number of days, while an Appointment lasts for a specific period within the day, for example 2 hours. While as we indicated within the introductory section that this User Guide will not provide you with in depth information concerning creating Calendar Items, we will describe how to create a simple Timed Appointment. This is because it affords us the opportunity of referring to the extensive Context Sensitive Help information which will assist you when working within the Microsoft Outlook Calendar and J-Days. The keystroke for activating the Context Sensitive Help is “Insert+F1”.

Creating a Simple Appointment

Please use the following example to create a Timed Appointment to remind you of a dinner you are going to attend at a restaurant on 4 July 2007 between 8 PM and 11 PM.

1. Having launched Microsoft Outlook 2007, press Control+2 (figure 2 on the main QWERTY keyboard) to enter the Calendar. JAWS says “moving to Calendar”.

2. Press “Control+G” to activate the Microsoft Outlook “Go to Date” Dialog Box.

3. Type the date you would like to move to, which you can do in the form relative to your regional English language. Microsoft Outlook is quite flexible about the method by which you can enter dates. For example, within the United Kingdom you might enter “4 July 2007” or “04/07/2007”, however within the United states of America you could type “July 4 2007” or “07/04/2007”, etc.

4. Once the date has been typed, press the “Enter” key.

5. Press “Insert+Tab” to verify that the desired date has been selected. JAWS speaks the day and date.

6. Press “Insert+F1” to bring into view the Context Sensitive Help facility within the JAWS Virtual Viewer. A full discussion of the capabilities of the Virtual Viewer can be found in the next Chapter, however suffice it to say for the moment that you can use the “Arrow” keys to move through the Help text or read it on your Braille display. As the name suggests, the Context Sensitive Help is presenting to you information directly relating to your focused location, in this instance concerning the Day View Window. The “Escape” key can be pressed to exit the Virtual Viewer and return to the Microsoft Outlook Calendar Day View Window.

7. Once the “Escape” key has been pressed to exit the Help system, press “Control+N” to create a new Calendar Item. JAWS informs you that a new Item is being created and presents you with the “Subject” field for it. The “Subject” field should contain a one line summary of the nature of the Item, such as “Dinner at restaurant”.

8. Once this has been entered, the “Tab” key can be used to move from one field to the next. Note that most of the fields are self-explanatory, for example “Start Date” and “Start Time”. Indeed the “Start Date” field will already contain the 4 July 2007 date we previously selected. While moving from one field to the next, be sure to use the Context Sensitive Help facility by pressing “Insert+F1” to gain a full description of how to interact with the focused field.

9. For the purposes of this appointment, you need only complete the “Subject”, “Start Time” and “End Time” fields. When the details have been entered, press “ALT+S” to save the Calendar Appointment and return to the day View Window. The “Insert+Tab” key combination can be used to verify this fact and if successfully returned to the Day View Window JAWS will announce the day and date.

Chapter 4: Using J-Days to Examine Calendar Items

Introduction

This Chapter describes the various functions of J-Days and how they are used when navigating through, and obtaining information about, Calendar Items.

Moving Through Days of the Week

There are various methods for locating a specific day of the week:

You can use the Left and Right Arrow keys to move through the days. Alternatively, Press “Control+G” to bring into view the Microsoft Outlook 2007 “Go To Date” Dialog Box. Type a date in the format appropriate to your country and press Enter. Entry of dates into this Dialog Box was described within the previous Chapter.

However you have chosen to move to a date, JAWS announces the day of the week which has focus, the date and the number of Calendar Items if they exist. J-Days refers generically to Calendar entries as Items so as to provide you with a rapid overview as to how many Items appear on a specific date. If no appointments exist, JAWS announces “No Items”.

To repeat the day, date and Calendar Item count at any time, press “Insert+Tab”.

While within the Day View Window, press “Page Down” to move forward through the Calendar by one week. Press “Page Up” to move in the reverse direction by one week.

Similarly, pressing “Control+Page Down” will move through the Calendar by four weeks, while conversely “Control+Page Up” moves to the previous four week block.

“ALT+Control+T” will move back within the Calendar to today’s date if an alternative date has been selected.

Moving Through Calendar Items

To reiterate a point from an earlier Chapter, J-Days defines Calendar Items in one of two ways:

• An All Day Event is a Calendar Item which occupies the entire day or spans a series of days.

• An Appointment is a Calendar Item occupying a specific period within the day, for example two hours.

If JAWS had advised you that Calendar Items exist for a given day, press “Tab”. JAWS will announce information pertaining to the Calendar Item which has focus:

• If an All Day Event has focus occupying one day only, JAWS announces the words “all day”.

• If an All Day Event has focus occupying several days, and the focused date is the first day within the Event, JAWS will say “Day 1 of an all Day Event lasting X days to”, followed by the date on which the Event terminates. The term “X” in the example represents the duration of the Event, such as 3 days”. For example, you may hear “Day 1 of an All Day Event lasting 3 days to 21 July”. Please see the “Additional JAWS Features” section below.

• If an All Day Event has focus occupying several days, and the focused date falls within the Event, JAWS will say “within an all Day Event lasting X days”, followed by the dates on which the Event begins and ends. The term “X” in the example represents the duration of the Event, such as 3 days”. For example, you may hear “Day 1 of an All Day Event lasting 3 days from 19 July to 21 July”. Please see the “Additional JAWS Features” section below.

• If a Timed Appointment has focus, JAWS will announce the start and end time of the Appointment, together with the duration in minutes. For example, “from 12 PM to 2 PM, 120 minutes”. Please see the “Additional JAWS Features” section below.

• The Calendar Item subject is then announced.

• JAWS will inform you of any other relevant information concerning the Calendar Item, including the Organiser (the person who has composed the Item), the Status (such as “Busy”, “Free” or “Tentative”), and the location (such as a meeting room number or office).

• Finally, JAWS will advise you if the “Item has notes” if they exist. When creating a Calendar Item or Meeting request, an opportunity exists to type Nnotes into a special field for the purpose. There are two ways in which the Notes can be accessed. Firstly, you can press the “Enter” key while focused on the Calendar Item. The “Arrow” keys can then be used to explore and read the Edit Field containing the Notes. The “Escape” key is pressed to exit the Notes field and return to the Calendar Item details. The second method is to place the Notes into the JAWS Virtual Viewer. Please refer to the later section of this chapter concerning the JAWS Virtual Viewer and its relationship with the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar.

To repeat the details of the Calendar Item which has focus, press “Insert+Tab”.

When the final Calendar Item for a specific date has been spoken, JAWS will advise you that you have reached the final Item and that pressing the “Tab” key once more will place you back within the Day View. The “Left” and “Right Arrow” keys can then be used to move to an alternative date.

“Additional JAWS Features”

Within Chapter 2, you learned about the “Additional JAWS Features” which can be enabled or disabled through the Hotkey Help facility (“Insert+H”). As explained previously, there are significant reasons why the “Additional JAWS Features” are disabled by default. If they are disabled, you will not be advised of the following items when moving through appointments:

• The number of days given to an All Day Event, such as “3 days”. However, you will hear the date span, such as “from 19 July to 21 July”;

• The number of minutes given to an Appointment, such as “120 minutes”. However, you will hear the start and end times, such as “from 2 PM to 4 PM”;

• Whether Notes exist. It will not be possible to place the contents of the Notes field into the JAWS Virtual Viewer. Please refer to the later section of this chapter concerning the JAWS Virtual Viewer and its relationship with the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar.

While not having these announcements made could be disappointing, in reality J-Days still allows you to gain access to all the above information as has been previously demonstrated within this User Guide. The “Additional JAWS Features” simply provide a more intuitive method of gaining the details.

As a reminder, the links for the “Additional JAWS Features” can be located towards the end of the Hotkey Help keystroke list.

Using the JAWS Virtual Viewer

So far, you have listened to you’re Calendar Item details and will have noticed there is a great deal of information to absorb. While it is correct that “Insert+Tab” can be pressed to repeat the Item, it is likely that even the most experienced JAWS users may wish to examine the contents of the Appointment or Event more thoroughly or slowly. In addition, you may wish to copy the Item details to the Windows Clipboard, perhaps for pasting into an alternative source such as an ~Email message, or maybe you have a braille display and you would like to read in Braille the details of your Calendar Items for a specific day.

J-Days provides a convenient method for accomplishing all of these things which involves placing the Calendar Item into the JAWS Virtual Viewer – a flat, linear environment to provide access to specific data which requires closer examination. Once the Item is in the Virtual Viewer, the “Arrow” keys or your Braille display can be used to move through it as thoroughly as you wish.

To bring a Calendar Item into the Virtual Viewer, when focused upon it press “Insert+Tab” twice quickly. JAWS announces “Item in Virtual viewer”, and you will find that the cursor is on the top line of the Virtual Viewer Window which you can now explore.

Where possible, the Item details have been divided onto separate lines. It is therefore possible to press “Down Arrow” repeatedly for example and, each time this is done, a segment of the Item will be announced. All the details which are normally announced when placing focus upon an Item by pressing “Tab” are presented within the Virtual Viewer, beginning with the day and date on the first line.

If the “Additional JAWS Features” are enabled, and if the Item has Notes, they will be presented within the Virtual Viewer below the Item details. The line spacing used by the author of the Item when creating the original notes is preserved. In other words, if in the Notes field you typed an address presented on several lines of text, they will be presented in the same way within the Virtual Viewer.

Below the Item and Notes if appropriate, you will find three Hyperlinks within the Virtual Viewer Window:

• “Edit the focused Item, ALT+E”. Pressing the “Enter” key on this link, or by activating the “ALT+E” shortcut keystroke within the Virtual Viewer will cause the Viewer to be dismissed and focus will be placed in the Notes field of the Calendar Item.

• Next Item, “ALT+N”. Pressing the “Enter” key on this link, or by activating the “ALT+N” shortcut keystroke within the Virtual Viewer will cause the next item on the same date to be placed within the Viewer. JAWS will announce “Next item, item in Virtual Viewer”. You then have an opportunity to read the next Calendar Item of relevance to the focused day within the JAWS Virtual Viewer. Potentially therefore, it would be possible to move through all Calendar Items for a specific date by remaining within the confines of the Viewer. If no further Calendar Items can be found, JAWS will inform you about this and the Viewer will be dismissed.

• Previous Item, “ALT+P”. Pressing the “Enter” key on this link, or by activating the “ALT+P” shortcut keystroke within the Virtual Viewer will cause the previous item on the same date to be placed within the Viewer. JAWS will announce “previous item, item in Virtual Viewer”. You then have an opportunity to read the previous Calendar Item of relevance to the focused day within the JAWS Virtual Viewer. Potentially therefore, it would be possible to move back through all Calendar Items for a specific date by remaining within the confines of the Viewer. If no previous Calendar Items can be found, JAWS will inform you about this and the Viewer will be dismissed.

Following the three Hyperlinks, you will encounter a blank line. Finally, the last line in the Viewer contains the words “Press Escape to close this Window”. Pressing the “Escape” key will indeed dismiss the Virtual Viewer Window and you will return to the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar.

Time Slots

When creating a Calendar Item, rather than entering a value into the “Start Time” Edit Field, it is possible to pre-select this by means of moving through Time Slots for the focused day as follows:

1. First, locate the date upon which you wish to create the Appointment.

2. Press “Down Arrow” repeatedly in order to move through Time slots for the current day. JAWS will announce each Time slot as you move to it. Each Time Slot occupies a 30 minute segment within the day.

3. When the appropriate Time Slot has been reached, press “Control+N” to create a new Calendar Item. Pressing “Tab” repeatedly will show you that the “Start Date” and “Start Time” fields are now populated with the pre-selected values.

Chapter 5: Miscellaneous

Introduction

You have almost completed working through the J-Days User Guide so congratulations! All that remains is for us to provide you with some additional details of facilities you may find useful.

The Ribbon Bar

The Ribbon Bar is a new feature available within specific components of Microsoft Office 2007 and is designed not only to replace the windows Menu Bar, but it also delivers context sensitive menu options relative to the activity being carried out. For example, when you are creating a Calendar Item, pressing the “ALT” key by itself will bring focus to the Ribbon Bar, whereupon pressing “Tab” repeatedly will move through useful options and utilities you can use to assist with creating or amending it.

Context Sensitive Help information is available for each control on the Ribbon Bar which relates to creating Calendar Items. When focused upon a control on the Ribbon Bar, press “Insert+F1” to learn how you can use the focused option to your advantage. You will also learn the shortcut key combination to be pressed to activate the option without bringing focus to the Ribbon in the future.

Hotkey Help

In addition to Context Sensitive Help available as part of J-Days to support many areas of the Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendar, Hotkey Help will provide you with a list of J-Days specific functions. Pressing “Insert+H” while focused within the Calendar will, within the Virtual Viewer, present you with a list of the keystrokes. Use the “Arrow” keys to move through and listen to each keystroke and function.

As a reminder, close to the bottom of this Window can be found two Hyperlinks for enabling and disabling the “Additional JAWS Features”. A full discussion of the implications of activating or deactivating the “Additional JAWS Features” can be found within Chapters 2 and 4.

Appendix 1

Useful Keystrokes

The table below contains a list of keyboard commands which are specific to using J-Days together with some commonly used Microsoft Outlook Calendar shortcuts.