11.5 Chapter Exercises

The following exercises give you practice creating and using messages in the virtual viewer. Before you start these exercises, make sure you have the Notepad.jss script file open within the Script Manager. This file should contain any practice scripts from earlier chapters of this manual.

If you run Script Manager from within Notepad and a blank file is opened, type the following lines at the top of the file:

; Script file for Notepad
; JAWS version 12.0
include "hjconst.jsh"
include "common.jsm"

Exercise 11.1: Displaying a Message in the Virtual Viewer

The objective of this exercise is to create a message and display it in the virtual viewer. You should start Notepad and run the Script Manager from within Notepad for this exercise.

Before you write your script, you need to create the message used by your script in the Notepad.jsm message file. You can open the file within the Script Manager and add your message. If you already have a Notepad.jsm message file, do the following to open the file in the Script Manager:

1. Press CTRL+O to display the Open File dialog.
2. Type Notepad.jsm in the File Name edit box and press ENTER.

If you have not previously created the Notepad message file, perform the following:

1. Press CTRL+N to display the New File dialog.
2. The active control is a list of file types. Press M to select Messages followed by ENTER. This will open an untitled message file in the Script Manager.
3. Type the following text in the file:

; Message file for Notepad
Messages
EndMessages

4. Press CTRL+S to save the file. JAWS prompts you for the filename. Type Notepad in the File Name Edit box followed by ENTER.

Now you are ready to insert the individual message in the Notepad.jsm message file. To add the individual message, perform the following:

1. Press UP ARROW until you reach the line entitled "Messages."
2. Press END to move to the end of the line.
3. Press ENTER twice to create two blank lines.
4. Type the following message:

@MsgVirtualViewer
This text is being displayed in the virtual viewer. You can use the virtual viewer to display helpful messages and other information.
Press ESC to close this message.
@@

5. Press CTRL+S to save the file.
6. Press CTRL+TAB to move back to the Notepad.jss script source file.

NOTE: After you have moved back to the Notepad.jss script file, be sure to include the Notepad.jsm file. Failure to do so will result in errors at the time of compilation. For more information on the include statement see 5.0 Creating Scripts.

After you have added the message to the Notepad.jsm message file, you are ready to create the script. Your script should begin by determining if the virtual viewer is currently being displayed. If it is, then use the UserBufferDeactivate function to close the viewer before displaying the new message. After you have determined if the viewer is active and closed it if necessary, you should use the SayFormattedMessage function to display the message in the virtual viewer.

DisplayVirtualViewer Script Documentation:

• Script Name: DisplayVirtualViewer
• Can be Attached to Key: checked
• Synopsis: Displays a message in the virtual viewer.
• Description: Displays a message in the virtual viewer using the SayFormattedMessage function.
• Category: None
• Assign to: CTRL+SHIFT+V

DisplayVirtualViewer Script:

Script DisplayVirtualViewer ()
If UserBufferIsActive () Then
UserBufferDeactivate ()
EndIf
SayFormattedMessage (OT_USER_BUFFER, MsgVirtualViewer)
EndScript

Exercise 11.2: Displaying Keystrokes in the Virtual Viewer

The objective of this exercise is to take the previous exercise and add a keystroke link to the message JAWS displays in the virtual viewer. To add a keystroke to the message, you need only modify the message, save the message file and recompile the Notepad.jss script file.

Start by performing the following steps to modify the message from the previous exercise:

1. Press CTRL+TAB until you reach the Notepad.jsm file.
2. Press CTRL+END to move the insertion point to the bottom of the file.
3. Press UP ARROW until you reach the line containing the text of “Press escape to close this message.”
4. Press HOME to move to the beginning of the line followed by ENTER twice. This will insert two blank lines above the current line of text.
5. Press UP ARROW to move to one of the blank lines.
6. Type the following text on this line:

Press %KeyFor(DisplayVirtualViewer) to redisplay this message

Follow this text by pressing ENTER twice.

After you complete the above steps, your message should look like the following:

@MsgVirtualViewer
This text is being displayed in the virtual viewer. You can use the virtual viewer to display helpful messages and other information.
Press %KeyFor(DisplayVirtualViewer) to redisplay this message.
Press ESC to close this message.
@@

After you have modified the individual message, press CTRL+S to save the message file. You then need to recompile the Notepad script file.

When you receive the “compile complete” message, you can move back to Notepad. Test the script by pressing the keystroke to activate the script. Your message should be displayed in the virtual viewer. Use the arrow keys to move through the message. Did you hear JAWS speak the keystroke as a link? If so, then press ENTER on the link to redisplay the message. If not, then return to the Script Manager and make sure your message is identical to the message shown above.