10.2 Giving Keyboard Access

When you encounter an application that does not use keyboard shortcuts, there are several keystrokes needed to perform a specific menu item. With a script you can accomplish the same thing with one keystroke. You can also add a helpful message to the script that JAWS speaks after the keystrokes have been processed.

Before you write this type of script, you must determine the keystrokes required to move to the menu, select to the desired item and perform that item. You should be certain that the keystrokes you pass in your script match those steps exactly. For example, if you want to select a menu item that begins with S and has no access key, you must make certain there are no other menu options starting with S. If there are multiple items in the File beginning with S, you must use conditional statements to make sure you are selecting the correct menu item.

Moving to the Menu Bar

The first action your script should perform is to move to the menu bar. You can move to the menu bar in one of two ways:

The ActivateMenuBar function moves to or closes the Menu bar for the active application. When you use this function, it acts as if you pressed ALT to move to the menu bar or to close open menus. This function is useful in situations where you only want to move to the menu bar or close menus that are already open.

You can use the TypeKey function to move to the menu bar as well. If you only want to move to or close the menu bar, you should use the ActivateMenuBar function. But if you want to move to and open a specific menu, then the TypeKey function works best. The following examples illustrate the use of both functions to move to the menu bar:

ActivateMenuBar ()
TypeKey ("Alt")

Checking the Menu Bar

After you move to the menu bar, you should make sure the move was successful. You don’t want to call the TypeKey function to pass a keystroke to activate a menu item when your script did not move to the menu bar successfully. To do so may produce unwanted results. You can use the MenusActive function to determine the state of the menu bar. The function returns a constant value of ACTIVE to indicate the move to the menu bar was successful. When the menu bar is closed, the function returns the constant value of inactive.

You can use this function in a conditional statement to determine if the move to the menu bar was successful. The following code example moves to the menu bar and verifies the move was successful:

Example 1: Moving to the Menu Bar

ActivateMenuBar (); move to the menu bar
If MenusActive () Then
SayFormattedMessage (OT_STATUS, "The move to the menu bar was successful")
Else
SayFormattedMessage (OT_ERROR, "The move to the menu bar was not successful")
EndIf

The following code example moves to the menu bar, opens the File menu, makes sure the move to the menu was successful then passes S through to the application to activate the Save option. You could use this example in any application that does not make use of the CTRL+S keystroke shortcut.

Example 2: Opening and Selecting an Option in the File Menu

; constant definitions for keystrokes
; these should be added to a JAWS script header file
Const
KSFileMenu="F",
KSSave="S"
; script to save the current file
Script SaveFile ()
ActivateMenuBar ()
If MenusActive () Then; determine if menu is open
TypeKey (KSFileMenu); open the File menu
TypeKey (KSSave); select and initiate the Save action
Else
SayFormattedMessage (OT_ERROR, "The File menu could not be opened.")
EndIf
EndScript

In the above example, the ActivateMenuBar function moves to the menu. The MenusActive function determines the state of the menu bar. If the move to the menu was successful, then JAWS performs the two TypeKey functions to open the File menu and perform the Save option. If the move to the menu bar was not successful, then JAWS speaks an appropriate error message.

 

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