HENTER-JOYCE NEWSLETTER June, 1993 July 3rd. through the 10th. Henter Joyce will be attending the NFB and the ACB Conferences. Conferences such as these are of great importance to us. Providing us an excellent opportunity to hear directly from our many JAWS / FormMate users. Your comments and suggestions help us to provide superior product. We count on you to let us know what you need. JAWS 2.3 was released a few months ago and the feedback has been tremendous and very positive. Thank you! Please be sure to stop by our booth and talk with us we look forward to your many questions and suggestions. Attending the NFB or ACB? Be certain to join us for a discussion on JAWS For Windows. At the NFB conference be present for the Computer Science meeting July 5. Our Senior Software Engineer Charles Oppermann will be demo'ing and discussing JAWS for Windows. At the ACB conference, we will discuss these same issues during the VIDPI meeting July 5. MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT JAWS Because of your need for support of new products we have completed the following new versions of JAWS: 1. JAWS for Kurzweil Reading Edge and all Xerox Imaging System (XIS) products. 2. JAWS for Prose Spanish version. 3. JAWS for Infovox external synthesizer (several languages to choose from.) 4. JAWS for Apollo external synthesizer, which also supports several foreign languages. Are you or someone you know using these synthesizers? If so call, fax, or write us for your FREE DEMO of JAWS. 5. Alternative Input is now available for JAWS 2.3. This is an extra piece of software that interfaces JAWS to alternative input devices like voice input (Dragon Dictate, Voice Type, etc.) or Morse code devices. If you need it just down-load it from our BBS by calling 813-528-8903. 6. Many of our customers need to access mainframes and use emulator's to do so. Many users boast about JAWS because there are little to no conflicts. If you are using ATTACHMATE, AVATAR or MUXLABS, JAWS will handle it. We have also heard that SYMPC works well with JAWS. If you have any helpful hints about JAWS and emulation, please let us know so we can share it with other users via newsletters and the BBS. If you use Kurzweil, Blazie, or Arkenstone products then give JAWS a try. We have worked very closely with the manufactures to assure the user the best support for a wide range of products. JAWS is not proprietary and will support almost any other software or hardware that you are currently using. Call, fax or write us for a FREE DEMO and discover why so many prefer JAWS. 7. IN HOUSE INFO: Because we take a keen interest in your needs, Henter-Joyce constantly looks at other companies software. We are always testing and evaluating what will work best and how JAWS can make it even better. Jeff Belina, has been working with WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS and Microsoft Word 5.5. Chuck Oppermann, is working with Windows NT, Microsoft Office and WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows. Yong Sun is working with the Sound Blaster sound board from Creative Labs. Jeff say's that in most areas MS-DOS 6.0 is available for less than $50 (upgrade). 6.0 offers disk compression, virus checker, and a new backup system based on the Norton Backup package. Henter-Joyce has been beta testing MS-DOS 6.0 for 6 months prior to it's release. We are happy to report that JAWS completely supports all the features. In fact, if you load JAWS in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, the new MEMMAKER command will attempt to load JAWS into high memory if it is possible. When WordPerfect 6.0 hits the streets, we should have a complete JAWS configuration to complement it's powerful features. CATALOG JAWS 2.3 The Smarter Screenreader. Includes complete manual and training tapes $495.00 JAWS 2.3 Upgrade from JAWS 2.2 Includes disks, and install/new features tapes $99.00 JAWS 2.3 Upgrade from JAWS 2.x Includes disks, and install/new features tapes $149.00 JAWS 2.3 Upgrade from JAWS 1.x` Includes disks, and complete set of training tapes $249.00 JAWS 2.3 Print Manual $20.00 JAWS 2.3 Training tapes $25.00 FormMate Complete Form filler Utility Includes complete manual and training tapes $295.00 Complete set of JAWS WP, DOS & Macro training tapes CALL Shipping and handling by UPS ground $5.00 FOR SALE Accent Mini, less than one (1) year old. 904-359-4196 or 904-739-1480. David Dominic. $350.00 Nancy Coffman wants a used synthesizer or Braille 'n Speak, call 402-488-8610. David Steppe wants to sell his Accent Mini, 305-975-5544. Henter-Joyce Golf Shirts are light cream/natural in color with the Henter-Joyce and JAWS logo on the pocket. Look great this summer in one for only $12.00 plus $5.00 UPS Ground Shipping. They come in medium, large and X-large. YOU ASKED FOR MORE We received another shipment of Discover Accent SA's. You get the advantage of an Accent SA for nearly 1/2 the price. Supplies are limited and are available on a first come first serve basis. At only $500.00 it's understandable why our customers asked us for more. As we said before "get them while we have them", we cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain more. An even better deal is JAWS / Accent Discover SA at the low price of $995.00, this is still less than the cost of a new Accent SA Synthesizer. TECH TIPS Because many of our readers have praised the helpful hints in tech tips and have asked for all we can give on a regular basis we now have a separate sheet or two for just technical information. Many have not encountered problems and may never need to be concerned about the solutions. However, for the power user's who are a bit more demanding, we suggest that you check out the additional pages. Naturally, you can download all or part of this information (both newsletters and tech tip sheet's) from the BBS at any time. 813-528-8903. TECH TIPS, HENTER-JOYCE NEWSLETTER June, 1993 If you have not encountered the problems described below then you need not be concerned about the solution. However, you may want to keep these helpful hints on file for future reference. 1. WordPerfect Solutions: If WordPerfect, or another word processor, seems to be cutting off words, or repeating words at the end of lines, the file needs to be re-formatted. The file was created and saved with margins different than what your WP is currently set for. You can make your margins bigger or smaller to fit, or just go to the bottom of the file and then back to the top to re-format.Usually HOME-HOME-DOWN ARROW will get you to the bottom of the file, HOME-HOME-UP ARROW to the top. Sometimes the type font selected for that file is very small, allowing more than 80 characters per line of print. In that case words will be off the screen, not visible to a sighted user or to JAWS. You can change the font selected, which is usually stored in "reveal codes" at the top of the file, or you can change the width of your screen to 133 characters. To change the width refer to your hardware documentation or WP manual. If the screen width is changed be sure to activate frame 0 in JAWS so it can recognize the new screen. WordPerfect set file: If JAWS's spell check macro (CONTROL+NUMPAD-) does not find the misspelled word, or the Files menu macro (ALT+NUMPAD 5 or NUMPAD END) does not read the highlighted file, then someone has modified your Word Perfect colors. The simplest way to restore the colors, and other parameters, to the default is to rename the WP{WP}.SET file. This is in your WP subdirectory. Exit from WP, rename this file so you can get it back later if necessary, and re-load WP. The macros should work fine then. If you do not want to change WP then you can change the color that the JAWS macro is looking for. Refer to the section in the manual titled "The Spell Check Macro". 2. Alternative Input Is Now Available For JAWS 2.3: This is an extra piece of software that interfaces JAWS to alternative input devices like voice input (Dragon Dictate, Voice Type, etc.) or Morse code devices. It is available on disk for $25. 3. An Open Book Batch File: If you want to use the Arkenstone An Open Book reader system on the same computer as JAWS use the following OB.BAT file, which will unload JAWS from memory before loading An Open Book. When you exit An Open Book the batch file will re-load JAWS. @echo off c:\jaws\j_unload.exe c:\jaws\j_delay.com c:\dectalk\dt_start "Loading An Open Book. Please Wait." win /3 c:\openbook\openbook.exe call c:\jaws\jaws.bat 4. Breaking Up Words Using A Modem: Sometimes when receiving data over a modem the words will be broken up, they will be spoken in pieces. This happens when the data appears or comes in slower than JAWS expects. To tell JAWS to slow down add "/I:##" to the command line. The higher the number the more patient JAWS becomes. Probably 20 up to 60 will work well. Each number represents about 1/20th of a second, so /I:20 is about one second, /I:60 is about 3 seconds, which is a very long time in computers. Please note that this number was changed with this release, previously you needed a much larger number. This new technique is not dependent on the speed of the computer. This command line parameter also has the added benefit of slowing down the cursor-movement time-out. When JAWS asks the cursor to move it sets a timer and waits only a certain amount of time. If the cursor does not move within that time period JAWS will beep to let you know. Sometimes, like when connected to a mainframe or other remote computer, it takes a long time to move the cursor. Using the /I option will allow more time to move the cursor. 5. Using Jaws With Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1, And Maybe Other Versions: This program will automatically go into graphics mode if it can. Therefore you must install, or re-install it, and select "monochrome" or "CGA" as the video choice. This should keep it in character mode. 6. JAWS - 100 Frames: Remember that JAWS 2.3 comes with 100 frames, numbered 0 through 99. Frame 0 cannot be revised, it is designed to match the size of the entire screen. If you change the screen size then activate frame 0 and it will adjust itself. Frame 1 is pre-defined to be the entire screen also, but it can be revised to focus attention on a part of the screen, or block part of the screen. This is a monitored frame, it performs macro INSERT-R when data on the screen within frame 1 changes. The other 98 frames, 2 through 99, are not defined in the standard or default JAWS.JFF frame file. However, in the other frame files we provide, like WP.JFF, several frames are defined and some are monitored frames. 7. Changes To JAWS 2.3: Thanks to dependable users and testers we are constantly collecting comments and bug reports. We constantly make changes to JAWS 2.3. Some of these changes are to fix bugs that surface from time to time. Others are just suggestions for improvements. Some effect only specific synthesizer-versions of JAWS 2.3, others effect all JAWS 2.3 versions. This technique of re-releasing software at various time intervals is quite common with commercial software like WordPerfect, and is the only way to keep current. If you are interested you should periodically down load our "CHANGES" file from our BBS, (813) 528-8900. If you want a disk of the latest changes send $10 for shipping and handling. 8. List Of JAWS 2.3 Changes, as of 6/2/93: "alt ay" changed to "alt a" for all synthesizers, to correct pronunciation problem on DECtalk-PC. Added a "menus active" API call, so external program can tell if the JAWS menus or external programs are active. Changed the "speech flush" function to be the same as "speech silence". This should cause JAWS to silence speech output when any key is pressed, not just the silence key. Previously any key would silence the speech when interruptable was on, but if you were displaying a long file to the screen, like using a communications package, the speech would come back on. Now it will stay silent until another key is pressed. It also dumps the rest of the data to the screen faster. Toshiba arrow keys were changed to handle the key board differently. This fixes the problem with some menu programs that would seem to lock up when the arrow keys were used. Use the "/T" command line parameter to invoke this new feature, which is the commonly used Toshiba flag that is put into the JAWS batch file automatically by the install program if you select the Toshiba keyboard during the installation. Typing capital letter after backspace will now produce the correct higher pitch. Previously the pitch did not reflect the upper case status. DECtalk-PC, added "Citation" mode, "Punctuation" mode, and "Proper name" mode to the "Extra" menus. Citation mode causes it to say "A" instead of "ah". Punctuation mode gives the user control over the DECtalk-PC punctuation choices. To be sure this works correctly, put the JAWS "Symbols" choices in the Universal menu to "Off". Proper Names will cause names to be spoken better. This is not recommended for general use, but only when reading text with a lot of names. F9 and F10 are now "Rewind" and "Skip ahead". The original keys for this, NUMPAD- and NUMPAD+ are still functional also. This change is useful for Toshiba and other lap tops with no numeric pad. "Say Time" and "Say Date" have been changed, they no longer are invoked when you do not want them with the Sounding Board synthesizer. And they should not make "DOS busy". There is a new "Command" file on the disk but not in the print version. This has more information on command line parameters. JAWS has been changed to recognize the foreign language characters that are in the extended ASCII set, above 128 in value. This is important for foreign language synthesizers. We now support the Prose 4000 in Spanish, and the Infovox external and Apollo external synthesizers. These last two can speak about 7 languages. Because of the foreign language support JAWS may not say the foreign characters when using an English synthesizer. The character is being sent out but the synthesizer does not know what to do. You can do a "phonetic spell", press the Say Character key twice within a second. Or you can load the "SAMPLE.JDF" dictionary file, which has entries for each of these characters and will cause JAWS to speak the name of the character, e.g. "u umlaut". WordPerfect and Keyboard Echo set to Words: If the cursor was on row 1 and between column 1 and 21 the word just typed would not be spoken when the space bar was pressed. This was caused by a new WP configuration file that monitored line 1, to provide more speech interaction in some of the WP menus. Now it has been fixed. Braille 'N Speak version of JAWS has been modified to suit the older BNS as well as the new 640 model. During installation a /NI will be added to the command line in the JAWS.BAT file if you select the older BNS. This stands for No Indexing and will also disable some of the speech controls in the JAWS menu. You then must use the BNS keyboard to change the voice parameters. It no longer initializes the speech rate to a slow speed, it just leaves it alone. If you select the newer 640 model during the install then all the speech controls like pitch and rate will work in the JAWS menus, and the indexing will let you stop on the last word spoken, change speech during say all, and rewind/skip ahead. Cursor movement time-out: see the section above about words breaking up, /I command line parameter, and cursor movement time-out. How To Reach Us: Henter-Joyce, Inc. 2100 62nd Avenue North St. Petersburg, FL 33702 PHONE: (813) 528-8900. US Toll free: (800) 336-5658, FAX: (813) 528-8901 BBS: (813) 528-8903. E-MAIL: InterNet: JAWS@mechanic.fidonet.org. CompuServe:72150,575 Genie: T.HENTER OFFICE HOURS: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., EST. Even after hours your call is important to us, and we do have a answering machine for your convenience. Please leave a message and we will get back with you. Thanks for choosing JAWS as your screen reader. We develop it with the user in mind and feel that JAWS can open a whole new world of opportunity for visually impaired persons. Sincerely, Ted Henter President PS: Is there something special you want to know or contribute? Call, Fax, or Write us. We want to hear from you!