Settings Packager

Settings Packager Overview

Have you ever created special settings for a Web page that you wanted to share with other JAWS users? Perhaps you've customized your corporate intranet site by creating PlaceMarkers that will help others in your organization improve their speed and productivity. Maybe you have created a scheme in Speech and Sounds Manager that helps you proofread documents in your particular office setting. What if you wanted to share personalized Web settings for a Web site that you think would help your friends navigate that site? In the past, you would have to locate the appropriate files that JAWS creates when you do these things, collect them, document where they are stored, and send them to your friends or colleagues. Then your friends or colleagues would have to make sure to correctly copy each of the files into the proper folders on their computers. Settings Packager makes this process much easier and more manageable.

Settings Packager is a program introduced with JAWS 5.10 that allows you to import or export speech and sound schemes, PlaceMarkers, and personalized Web settings. You can use this program to share your JAWS schemes and settings with other users. Settings Packager collects settings information into a single ZIP file that you can send in an e-mail message or distribute on the Internet.

Settings Packager includes the following key features that make sharing settings easier than manually copying JAWS settings files:

• Compresses all settings that you want to export into a single ZIP file that you can send as an e-mail attachment or make available on a Web site.
• Displays all your customized schemes, PlaceMarkers, and personalized Web settings in a single list.
• Creates a plain text and HTML summary of all files included in the ZIP file.
• Automatically collects and packages all files that comprise schemes you want to export, including sound files and voice aliases.
• Warns you when settings you are about to import will replace your existing JAWS settings.
• Lets you sample sound files and voice aliases before you import them.

Using Settings Packager

To begin using Settings Packager, open the Start menu, go to the JAWS program group, open the Tools submenu and choose Settings Packager. The Settings Packager dialog box contains two lists. The Current Settings list shows all of your current custom speech and sound schemes, domains and pages with assigned PlaceMarkers, and Web sites with personalized verbosity settings. Schemes included with JAWS that you have not modified are not shown in this list. The Packaged Settings list shows settings that you are exporting or, if you opened a ZIP file created with Settings Packager, shows settings you can import.

NOTE: You can also press INSERT+F2 and choose Settings Packager from the list of JAWS managers.

To view the details of any item in the Current Settings list, select it and then press ALT+C to activate the Current Settings Details button. To view the details of any setting in the Packaged Settings list, select the setting and then press ALT+P to activate the Packaged Settings Details button.

TIP: For more information on Settings Packager, start Settings Packager, open the Help menu and choose Help Topics. These procedures are described in detail there.