After you have created your messages, you can use one of the built-in speaking functions to speak the message. Your choices are:
You will find other functions that speak messages such as SayUsingVoice, but the three listed above are the most widely used.
The Say built-in function does offer the flexibility of allowing for user verbosity preferences about types of messages spoken by JAWS. However, the function does not honor your message length verbosity setting. In other words, the function does not allow for short and long messages. For example, pressing CTRL+C to copy text to the clipboard while using beginner verbosity causes JAWS to speak "Copied selection to clipboard." When you press the same keystroke to copy text using intermediate verbosity, JAWS speaks "copied."
The SayMessage and SayFormattedMessage built-in functions not only allow for output type considerations, but also allow for short and long messages. Of the 2 functions, the SayFormattedMessage function is the newest and is more widely used by script developers at Freedom Scientific. Therefore, you should always use the SayFormattedMessage function when speaking messages in your scripts.
When you use the SayFormattedMessage function to speak messages in your scripts, you must provide two parameters; output type and long message. A third parameter, the short message, is an optional parameter along with nine additional parameters for substituting place holder values. You should always try to provide a short message when you are speaking messages to account for both long and short message length settings.
The first parameter is an output type constant. This output type constant represents a numeric value that indicates the message type. JAWS uses this value to determine how and when to speak the message. You can find a list of all output type constants in the default constant file, HJConst.jsh. Output type values range from screen messages, help messages, smart help messages, and more.
You should determine what type of output type to use based on the context of your message. For example, when you create a help message that is spoken from a script, you should choose the OT_ HELP output type constant. This constant value tells JAWS this is a help message and it should be spoken accordingly. Not only should you consider the context of the message, but you should also consider the possibility of the message being turned off from within the Settings Center. You do not want a critical error message turned off. You can use the output type constant, OT_NO_DISABLE, to tell JAWS to always speak the message. When you use this constant value, JAWS will speak the message regardless of the verbosity setting in use.
You provide the long message in the second parameter of the SayFormattedMessage function. JAWS speaks this message when you are using the beginner verbosity setting. When you create this message in your message file, you can append the text of "_L" to indicate the long message. For example, you could use the following message names to indicate long messages:
MsgMyName_L
MsgCopiedText_L
When you add the "_L" to the end of your message name, you can easily identify the message in your script file as being a long message.
You provide the short message as the third parameter of the SayFormattedMessage function. JAWS speaks this message when you use the intermediate or advanced verbosity setting. You can indicate the short message in your message file in much the same way as the long message. You can append "_S" to the end of the message name. For example, the short versions of the previous long message examples would be:
MsgMyName_S
MsgCopiedText_S
When you add "_S" to the end of your short messages, you can easily identify them in your script files.
Note: The short message parameter is optional. If you only want to speak one message regardless of the message length setting, do not provide a message in this parameter. You can also use the message constant value of cmsgSilent. You can find this message in the common.jsm message file located in your JAWS shared settings folder.
The fourth through the twelfth parameters are optional and should be used to substitute values for percent place holders you may have used in your message. For example, the fourth parameter of SayFormattedMessage should be the value that will replace %1 in your message. These values can be quoted strings of text, constants, variables, or functions that return string values. If you did not use percent place holders in your message you should not use these parameters.