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UNSUBSCRIBE PAGE June - July 2006 - Volume 5 Issue 4 - @Freedom Scientific Newsletter @Freedom Scientific is a free newsletter packed with the latest information about Freedom Scientific technology. Please feel free to send us your feedback. Join Freedom Scientific at the NFB and ACB National Conventions MAGic 10.0: Powerful New Features and Enhancements to Speech Comprehensive New MAGic Basic Training Available From the Training Department JAWS 7.10 Final Release to be Posted Soon WYNN 5.0 Released JAWS Helps Create Accessible Games Ask Tech Support: JAWS Forms Mode Join Freedom Scientific at the NFB and ACB National Conventions See all the latest hardware and software product updates available from Freedom Scientific at the NFB and ACB national conventions. The NFB National Convention takes place July 1 through 7, at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The ACB National Convention will be held July 8 through 15, at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida. Stop by the Freedom Scientific booth to experience all of the latest hardware and software product updates including: JAWS® 7.10, featuring automatic updates, new Navigation Quick Keys in Microsoft Word™, and more. MAGic® 10.0, featuring new speech capabilities, application-specific settings, and seamless integration with JAWS 7.10. PAC Mate™ 4.0, featuring an improved Braille Study Mode, opening two FSEdit documents simultaneously, and expanded FSCalc functionality. ScanTalker 2.0, featuring omni-directional scanning and 1.2 million product database. SARA™ 7.8, featuring support for playing audio CDs, access to DAISY books including audio-only DAISY books, and new low vision features. Low vision users will also have an opportunity to try out Freedom Scientific’s new line of video magnifiers: the TOPAZ™ desktop video magnifier and the OPAL™ ultra-portable video magnifier. Current and prospective PAC Mate users will want to attend the PAC Mate training sessions, which Freedom Scientific will hold each day during exhibit hours at both conventions, except Friday, July 7 at the NFB convention. These popular sessions allow a user to work one-on-one with a trainer. Current users can bring along their PAC Mate and ask questions about using various features and applications. Prospective users will have an opportunity to receive extensive hands-on exposure to the PAC Mate to learn about all the great features it has to offer. The location of the PAC Mate training will be provided at the booth at each show. For those interested in one or more of the upcoming JAWS training classes offered by Freedom Scientific, a representative will be available at the booth to provide information. Sign up for a class at the convention and receive a 10 percent discount on the registration fee. While visiting the booth, take a moment to register for our drawing to win your choice of a PAC Mate BX or QX with ScanTalker. At the NFB convention, the winner will be announced Thursday, July 6, at the banquet. At the ACB convention, the winner will be announced Tuesday, July 11, at the Sponsors-Only Exhibitor Night. Freedom Scientific will also be holding two daily drawings for other prizes, so there are plenty of chances to win. If you are attending one of the conventions and want to avoid the long lines, register online by visiting the Prize Drawing Registration page on the Freedom Scientific Web site. Service technicians will be on-hand during exhibit hours to provide repairs for the following Freedom Scientific products: PAC Mate BX and QX Millennium 20 and Millennium 40 Braille Lite 18, 2000, and 40 Braille ‘n Speak 640 and 2000 Type 'n Speak Type Lite Please note that braille cell repairs (individual or complete displays) cannot be done at the show. In addition, not all product repairs may be completed on-site. Some repairs may require the product to be taken in for service and shipped back to the owner. You will be asked to back-up your own files prior to service repairs. At both conventions, make plans to attend two highly-informative sessions conducted by Freedom Scientific. Freedom Scientific Sessions at NFB Saturday, July 1 Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM Topic: JAWS for Windows 7.x: Demonstrations, Questions, and Answers Presenter: Eric Damery Location: Fleur-de-Lis B room (Atrium Mezzanine) Description: JAWS Product Manager, Eric Damery will discuss and demonstrate many of the new advances made in the JAWS 7 version and the 7.10 update. The demonstration will include the latest features such as Navigation Quick Keys in MS Word documents, FSClipboard, exciting innovations in MS Excel including how you can build accessibility into your spreadsheets, and even a new feature which lets you create and review a summary of specific cells or blocks of cells. Eric will also provide everyone with a list of some great resources for expanding your training and access to many third-party programs including a great typing tutorial designed specifically for JAWS. The session will end with questions and answers and a look at MSN Messenger and the latest in Skype. Time: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Topic: What’s New in PAC Mate? Presenter: Brad Davis Location: Fleur-de-Lis B room (Atrium Mezzanine) Description: PAC Mate Product Manager, Brad Davis will demonstrate the latest features and add-on applications offered in the recent 4.0 release. Features such as two simultaneous word processor sessions using FSEdit, scientific and financial calculations using FSCalc’s expanded memory capabilities, and pre-installed alternative braille tables will be demonstrated. The powerful new Braille Study Mode that provides instant help anywhere on the PAC Mate regardless of which braille table is in use will also be included. Attendees will have the opportunity to try the new easy-to-use ScanTalker 2.0 with omni-directional bar code reader and 1.2 million product database. The session will end with a demonstration of recording and editing on the PAC Mate with Resco Audio Recorder. Freedom Scientific Sessions at ACB Sunday, July 9 Time: 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM Topic: JAWS for Window 7.x: Demonstrations, Questions, and Answers Presenter: Eric Damery Location: City Terrace 4 Room (third floor) Description: See above. Monday, July 10 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Topic: New Features of MAGic 10.0 Presenter: Dusty Voorhees Location: City Terrace 11 Room (third floor) Description: MAGic 10.0 advances to a whole new level with completely revised and enhanced speech capabilities, including individual voice settings, voice profiles, verbosity schemes, and more. Combine that with new features like application-specific settings, the MAGic Context Menu, and mouse commands, and you’ll find a lot to be excited about in this release. MAGic 10.0 works better than ever when used with JAWS. Similar keystrokes for speech functions help users transition smoothly between these two programs. While JAWS automatically handles speech-related tasks, it also communicates seamlessly with MAGic to allow for visual tracking of the text or item being spoken, even when JAWS is using the Virtual Cursor. This session will allow you to observe first hand the great new possibilities that are available when using MAGic Screen Magnification with Speech. For the latest convention information, watch the Freedom Scientific Events page. Return to Table of Contents from the First Story MAGic 10.0: Powerful New Features and Enhancements to Speech Freedom Scientific will release MAGic 10.0 in the next few weeks and anticipation is high. This major upgrade contains many significant improvements in speech, HTML navigation, application support, and much more. Some of the new features that make MAGic a must-have for any magnification user include: MAGic basic training. More than two and a half hours of MAGic basic training in DAISY format, so you can quickly learn all the essential functions of MAGic. New speech engine. Offers greater responsiveness and improved support for SAPI synthesizers. Individual voice settings. MAGic now uses individual voice settings for five context areas (reading documents, announcing messages, speaking menus and dialogs, announcing items that you point to with the mouse, and echoing keystrokes). You can define unique settings for pitch, rate, speaker, and punctuation for each of these five context areas. Voice profiles. This powerful new enhancement allows you to define settings for specific operations or environments. The profiles include synthesizer, language, and individual voice settings. Common voice profiles include language switching, proof reading, and speed reading settings. Once profiles are defined, you can press a single key combination to display a list of their profiles and easily switch to using a different profile. New MAGic Context Menu. Offers immediate access to changing MAGic settings without the need to memorize command keystrokes or toggle to the MAGic interface to make the changes. Command MAGic using the mouse. MAGic includes the mouse controls in the options for keyboard assignments for MAGic functions. Default assignments include displaying the MAGic context menu, starting reading, and toggling to 1x magnification for viewing a page layout. You can make further assignments including the mouse controls through the MAGic keyboard manager. JAWS and MAGic synchronization. With the release of MAGic 10.0 and JAWS 7.10, JAWS and MAGic share more common code than ever before. JAWS and MAGic communicate with each other to provide the optimal experience when using magnification together with full screen reading. When using the two products together, JAWS now coordinates MAGic’s visual tracking to follow the text being spoken, even when JAWS is using the Virtual Cursor. Users will find more commonality between learning the two products as well. MAGic uses the same key combinations on the num pad portion of the keyboard to carry out speech commands. The two programs share the same key commands for table navigation and reading in Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader, and Word. Special functions created for popular programs also share the same key assignments. This allows for easier transitions when moving from using MAGic’s low vision speech to using the full screen reading capabilities of JAWS. Application-specific settings. You can now easily establish applications specific settings. When an application gains focus, any settings assigned to that application are automatically applied, eliminating the need to manually change settings as you move between applications. Verbosity schemes. Gives you more control over what items MAGic announces, how they are announced, and lets you define custom text that is spoken when you move to a control or element. You can even have MAGic play a sound, combine both speech and sounds, or have MAGic ignore specific items entirely. You are given an opportunity to try out using sound effects when you start MAGic 10.0 for the first time. Remote access via Citrix and Terminal Services. You can now use MAGic in remote access terminal sessions with Citrix MetaFrame and Microsoft Terminal Services. MAGic provides users of client computers with speech and magnification access to the terminal session environment. New HTML reading support. Navigating and reading Web pages in Internet Explorer is now as easy as navigating and reading any other text document. Use the arrow keys to navigate a Web page by lines, words, or characters. If you see something interesting somewhere else on the page, simply move your mouse to the text and start a Say All. MAGic will begin reading from the position of the mouse. A new function to post a list of form fields and the status and information contained in them makes reviewing forms you have filled out easy. If you need to change the contents of a field, simply select the field in the list and press ENTER. You will automatically be placed in the form field for editing. Enhanced support for Microsoft Word, Excel, Adobe Acrobat/Reader and Internet Explorer. Special functions created specifically for these applications improve the user experience by consolidating or providing easier access to screen information and improving navigation. View a complete list of new features and enhancements on the MAGic 10.0 page. When released, MAGic 10.0 will be available for download from the Freedom Scientific Web site. This is a free upgrade to users with a current MAGic Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA). MAGic CDs will begin shipping to SMA holders in July. SMA customers who have not changed over to ILM authorization will be issued a new serial number and sent an authorization disk with their program CD as part of the SMA shipment. Additionally, all users who have purchased MAGic since March 1, 2006 will be sent a free update to MAGic 10.0 in July. Users who do not have a current SMA and wish to purchase MAGic 10.0 should contact Freedom Scientific at 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000. Return to the Table of Contents from the Second Story Comprehensive New MAGic Basic Training Available From the Training Department New in MAGic 10.0! Over two and one half hours of comprehensive training for all the essential functions of MAGic. This is in addition to what already comes with MAGic, including a user’s guide and an extensive on-line help system. You'll learn everything you need to know to get started quickly with MAGic and how to make use of its wide-ranging set of features. This training is in digital talking book (DAISY) format, allowing you to follow along with text and/or narrated audio. Some of the major topics covered in the MAGic Basic Training include: Quick start changes to MAGic, such as the magnification level and global voice rate. The MAGic help system, including context-sensitive and online help. Common shortcut keys for MAGic, including those for magnification, enhancements, document and text reading, panning and screen movement, and more. Follow along with the narrator as he demonstrates other features! Use the sample documents provided as part of the DAISY book format to learn more, such as: Application-specific Settings Customizing MAGic Verbosity schemes Voice profiles Mouse and cursor enhancements Creating a quick view frame Using MAGic with Microsoft Word and Excel. Feedback from beta testers has been very positive. “With the new MAGic training in DAISY format I have the best of choices: magnified text with human audio, or highlighted text with MAGic speech and magnification," says Karen McCall, Technical Director, Karlen Communications. "It is also great having it all in one place - a DAISY reader.” When MAGic 10.0 is officially released, the new Basic Training will be included on the program CD. For those who want to download it, the file will be placed on the MAGic Training Headquarters page. Check here often for new DAISY materials and training information. If you have any questions, please contact the Training Department at Freedom Scientific. Return to the Table of Contents from the Third Story JAWS 7.10 Final Release to be Posted Soon Freedom Scientific will be posting the final release of JAWS 7.10 for download in the next few weeks. JAWS 7.10 is a free update to existing 7.0 users. JAWS 7.10 contains many exciting new features and enhancements which improve on performance and ease-of-use when navigating HTML and PDF documents, working with spreadsheets, editing Word documents, and much more. The new installation program, using Microsoft Windows® Installer technology, enables support for automatic updates. This new option, located on the JAWS Help menu, will let users install minor fixes for JAWS as soon as they become available from Freedom Scientific. Three new Navigation Quick Keys in Microsoft Word™ enable you to quickly search through a document for spelling and grammatical errors without having to launch the Spelling and Grammar checker. With Navigation Quick Keys on, press A to move to the next grammatical error, M to move to the next misspelling, and R to move to the next revision if Track Changes is active. Corel WordPerfect users are excited about the new support that is available for WordPerfect Office X3. In addition, Freedom Scientific would like to thank the thousands of users who installed and participated in the public beta of JAWS 7.10 that Freedom Scientific ran between March and June. Since the initial posting of the public beta in March, Freedom Scientific has released five updates and thanks to the great feedback that was received, hundreds of issues have been addressed, making JAWS 7.10 one of the most stable releases to date. View a complete list of new features and fixes on the JAWS 7.10 page. Watch the Freedom Scientific Web site for further details on downloading the final release. Return to the Table of Contents from the Fourth Story WYNN 5.0 Released The Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group (LSG) has announced the release of WYNN™ 5.0. WYNN is a dynamic literacy tool that transforms printed text into understandable information for readers of all ages and abilities. WYNN 5.0 features a completely redesigned Web module, plus enhancements in highlighting, file navigation, speech, and more. Read the full WYNN 5.0 press release for further details on what’s new. Return to the Table of Contents from the Fifth Story JAWS Helps Create Accessible Games When Justin Daubenmire started BSC Games four years ago, he never anticipated how much of a desire there is for accessible games in the blind and visually impaired community and that his games would be used for more than just entertainment. While JAWS is not required to play his games, he relies on JAWS daily to help him keep his company running. Justin, who has been using JAWS since the Windows 3.1 days, graduated in 2000 from Youngstown State University in Ohio, where he lives, with a degree in Computer Information Systems (CIS). After graduation, he began working full-time for a local company as an Internet technical support representative and a Web developer using classic ASP and Visual Basic 6. In 2001, he started BlindSoftware.com LLC, which develops productivity software for the blind and visually impaired. Their most popular application is Day-By-Day Professional, which is an accessible calendar and address book managing program. All of their productivity applications are fully accessible out of the box with JAWS or there is a self-voicing option. In 2002, after receiving many requests from users asking about accessible games, Justin and his team opened a sub-division of BlindSoftware.com called BSC Games and released their first game, Troopanum. Troopanum is a space style shooter game similar to Galaxian and Space Invaders. It was warmly received by the blind and visually impaired community, so much so that BSC Games even created a Spanish version of Troopanum. It began to escalate from there. “For starters, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) in the United States purchased a site license for Troopanum,” said Justin. “Back then, Curtis Chong was the Director of Technology for the NFB. According to Curtis, he wanted to demonstrate that technology for the blind could be fun, entertaining, and instructive. We found it very interesting that other agencies and schools started to use Troopanum as an instructional aid in classrooms and computer labs. We started to see an increase of e-mails coming in saying that Troopanum was being used to teach ear and hand coordination and spatial conceptualization skills to blind students. This fascinated us since we never envisioned our games being used as educational aids. We always envisioned the games simply as entertainment and never even considered them being used for educational purposes.” Today, besides Troopanum, BSC Games offers two more arcade games including Pipe2 Blast Chamber, and Hunter. They also offer three educational games – Word Strain Volume 1, Word Strain Volume 2, and 15 Numbers, as well as several free games. By day, Justin works as a Microsoft Certified Professional in ASP.NET Web development and runs BSC Games out of his home in Ohio in the evenings – sometimes putting in almost 30 hours a week. The staff of BSC Games including developers, sound engineers, technical writers, technical support, and beta testers, all of whom are also blind or visually impaired, are located in various parts of the world, so he relies on the telephone, the Internet, e-mail, and chat software to communicate. While Justin programs some aspects of the games, he primarily fills the role of business owner/operator to ensure that projects remain on schedule. “JAWS has excellent support for Internet applications such as Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express, and chat programs such as MSN Messenger,” says Justin. “From my home in Ohio, JAWS gives me the ability to virtually operate BSC Games, both efficiently and productively, via the support it has for these applications. It is wonderful!” JAWS is also used heavily during game development. Games are developed using Visual Basic 6 or Visual C++ 6 and the latest DirectX technology. The sound engineers use Sound Forge or Cool Edit to create game sound effects. Additional tools that are used include ASP.NET for creating Web pages, FTP programs for Web site development, Internet Explorer for testing the Web site and shopping cart system, and Microsoft Word for writing game documentation. One of Justin’s favorite JAWS features is the HTML support it offers. “As a Web developer, it is very important for me to program and then quickly test my changes,” explains Justin. “JAWS lets me do that very easily in Web pages via the quick key navigation such as T for table, B for button, X for check box, and so on. I use those features extensively and really appreciate them! As a programmer, I also appreciate the scripting language that JAWS comes with for customizing applications. There are times I dive into it to get just a bit more functionality that I might need from a development tool.” BSC Games has a world wide presence with customers as young as five and as old as 70 and continues to expand in popularity. “JAWS has been a great aid in helping me run BSC Games,” says Justin. “Without JAWS I would not be operating BSC Games nor would I be a full-time .NET programmer. I am deeply grateful for JAWS and what it has empowered me to do!” Visit the BSC Games Web site at www.BscGames.com to learn more about and download trial versions of all their games. The Web site also offers some resources for blind programmers interested in developing their own accessible games. Contact them at 559-224-2436 Monday through Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM PST or send an e-mail to sales@BSCGames.com. Learn more about JAWS by visiting the JAWS Headquarters page on the Freedom Scientific Web site. Return to the Table of Contents from the Sixth Story Ask Tech Support Question: Why can't I type in forms on the Internet while using JAWS? Answer: You can type in a form on a Web page, but you must activate Forms Mode. This is necessary because by default, when you are using JAWS on the Internet, you have a number of Navigation Quick Keys available for faster reading. If you press H, JAWS moves you to the next heading level. If you press P, JAWS moves you to the next paragraph. L moves through lists, T moves through tables, and so on. You can learn more about using Navigation Quick Keys to navigate around Web pages by visiting the Surf’s Up Web page on the Freedom Scientific Web site. For example, let’s say you are on a Web page that contains a login form and you are in the edit field where you need to type a password. If your password starts with H and you type an H, instead of the H being entered into the field, you will be moved to the next heading level. In order to enter your password into the edit field, you need to first turn on Forms Mode by pressing ENTER while in the edit field. This will turn off the Navigation Quick Keys and allow you to type in the field. Once you have submitted the form and the new page loads, Forms Mode will automatically be turned off and the Navigation Quick Keys will be active again. To learn more about filling out forms with JAWS, visit the Using Forms with JAWS page on the Surf’s Up Web page. Return to the Table of Contents from the Seventh Story GET A FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP TO AUDIBLE.COM Enjoy daily audio subscriptions to national newspapers, weekly business and science magazines, and more than 6,000 audio books with a trial membership to Audible.com®. Users of Freedom Scientific’s industry-leading assistive technology products, including JAWS® for Windows® and the PAC Mate™, are eligible for a free trial membership to sample from 34,000 hours of valuable spoken word audio. To learn more, go to our Audible.com information page. Freedom Scientific's mission is to develop, manufacture, and market innovative technology-based products and services that those with vision impairments and learning disabilities use to change their world. @Freedom Scientific is published by Freedom Scientific 11800 31st Court North St. Petersburg, Florida 33716-1805 800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000 www.FreedomScientific.com Those having hardware or software technical support queries can address them to Support at FreedomScientific.com