Temporary Versus Permanent Changes

With both JAWS and MAGic you have the flexibility to make changes quickly that are temporary, or you can make changes that stay in effect permanently. Throughout the exercises in Surf's Up - Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic you will encounter some of these differences, which are described below.

Adjust JAWS or MAGic Options Dialog Boxes

Use either the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box or the Adjust MAGic Options dialog box to make changes very quickly without having to go into various other dialog boxes to do so. There are three different types of changes that can be made in the Adjust JAWS (or MAGic) Options dialog box:

When you press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box, or CAPS LOCK+O to open the MAGic Options dialog box, the items at the top of this list are specific to the program that has focus when the keystroke is pressed. So pressing INSERT+V while in Internet Explorer® shows options specific to Internet Explorer, whereas the items near the bottom of the list are more generic. This is very handy for making quick changes for testing or reading purposes.

MAGic Tip: The Adjust MAGic Options dialog box is currently available only when using MAGic in Internet Explorer, Microsoft® Word, Microsoft Excel®, or Microsoft Outlook®. The Adjust MAGic Options dialog box operates in the same manner as described below in the section for the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box, however the features available within each of the two Options dialog boxes differ depending on the program in use.

Documentation for the Adjust JAWS or MAGic Options Dialog Boxes

The Adjust JAWS or MAGic dialog boxes have a tree view of different options that can be changed, depending on the program being used. There is also a read-only documentation area within each dialog box that describes what each option does. To move to and read the documentation for any given item, select the item and press the TAB key to move to the read-only edit area and use normal reading commands to read the text describing what that option does.

EXERCISE: Follow the instructions below to experience for yourself how the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box allows you to make changes quickly and easily:

Temporary Changes That Revert Back When You Move Between Programs

  1. Press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box while you are on this page here in Surf's Up. Press UP or DOWN ARROW to explore the list and notice that the items near the top of the tree view are specific to Internet Explorer.
  2. Press N until the item Navigation Quick Keys - On is selected.
  3. Press SPACEBAR to toggle this to Off.
  4. Press ENTER to close the dialog box.
  5. Try pressing any of the navigation quick keys for JAWS. In the previous lesson, Navigating Web Pages, you used the letter H to move from one heading to another. Does it work now? No.
  6. Press ALT+TAB to move to another program besides Internet Explorer. You could switch to the JAWS window or any other window that you have running, as long as it is not an Internet Explorer window.
  7. Now, press ALT+TAB to move back to the lesson in Internet Explorer and try pressing any of the navigation quick keys, such as H for headings. Do they work again? Yes.

This is an example of a change that is temporary and only lasts while you are working in the program where you made the change. As soon as you move to another program, JAWS switches back to normal, default behavior.

Temporary Changes That Remain in Effect until JAWS Closes

  1. Press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box.
  2. Press U until you select the item User Verbosity - Beginner. If you have previously changed the user verbosity in JAWS to something else, for example either intermediate or advanced, that is fine--continue on to the next step either way.
  3. Press SPACEBAR to change the setting from beginner to intermediate or advanced. Or change it from whatever it was in your case to something else by pressing the SPACEBAR.
  4. Press ENTER to close the dialog box.
  5. Press ALT+TAB to move away from Internet Explorer and switch to another program. You could switch to the JAWS window or any other window that you have running, as long as it is not an Internet Explorer window.
  6. Open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box again and press U until you select the item User Verbosity. Is it still set to what you changed it to? Yes.
  7. Press ESC to close the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box.
  8. Now, press INSERT+F4. The Quit JAWS dialog box appears.
  9. Press ENTER to quit JAWS.
  10. Restart JAWS and open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box one more time with INSERT+V.
  11. Press U until you select User Verbosity. Is it back to how you normally have it set? Yes.

This is an example of how some items in the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box are persistent as long as the current JAWS session continues. JAWS goes back to however you have set it up for default behavior when you start it up again the next time.

Permanent changes that stay in effect until you change them again at some other time.

In the lesson Navigating Web Pages you learned that the default behavior for JAWS is to immediately begin reading new Web pages from the top down. New beginning with the JAWS 9.0 update 1 is the ability to have JAWS only announce the number of headings and links for each new page and NOT begin reading the page automatically. Here's how to change that:

  1. Within Internet Explorer press INSERT+V to open the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box.
  2. Press D to move to the item Document automatically reads - On.
  3. Press SPACEBAR to change this to Off.
  4. Press ENTER to close the dialog box.

This is an example of how to make a permanent change using the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box. Even if you shut down and restart JAWS, this setting remains set until you change it again with the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box. Feel free to change it back if you wish to now.

Permanent Changes for JAWS

The Configuration Manager allows you to make permanent changes to the way JAWS behaves on the Web, or in other programs. When you press INSERT+F2 in Internet Explorer, the JAWS List of Managers appears. Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select "Configuration Manager." Press ENTER to open the Internet Explorer.jcf window. The file extension JCF stands for "JAWS Configuration File." To take a look at where to go to make these changes, do the following:

  1. Press ALT+S to open the Set Options menu.
  2. Select HTML Options and then press ENTER.

The HTML Options dialog box appears. This is a multi-page dialog box and you can press CTRL+TAB to move from one page to another. On any page, you can press the TAB key to move from one option to another, making changes as needed.

JAWS Tip: You can press INSERT+F1 on an option in any JAWS dialog box to find out more information about that option.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you NOT make any changes to the Configuration Manager without having first tested them temporarily with the Adjust JAWS Options dialog box. For the purposes of this exercise, press ESC to get out of this dialog box without saving any changes.

If you really want to make any changes, choose the OK button to close the HTML Options dialog box. You will then be back in the Internet Explorer.jcf file. Press CTRL+S to save your changes and then press ALT+F4 to close the configuration file.

JAWS stores JCF files in your user files location for the version of Windows® you are using. Two examples follow:

The word username in the paths above represents your user login name for your computer. The word version in the paths above represents the version of JAWS or MAGic you are using. For example, you might have the number 10.0 as the version for JAWS, or the number 11.0 for MAGic.

Other ways to make permanent changes for JAWS include:

Permanent Changes for MAGic

There are a few ways to make permanent changes for MAGic besides using the Adjust MAGic Options dialog box. They include:

Personalized Web Page Settings with JAWS

If you want to make changes that are permanent, but only for a specific Web site, you can use the JAWS list of Personalized Settings for Web Pages. This is discussed in more detail later in Surf's up-Surfing the Internet with JAWS and MAGic.