---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 13:49:33 -0500
From: Clarence Whaley <[log in to unmask]>
To: gw-news <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Window-Eyes 4.1 is shipping!!!!!!



The subject of this message says it all. WINDOW-EYES 4.1 IS RELEASED AND
SHIPPING.  The first copies of Window-Eyes 4.1 will be heading out to you
today.  We listened to all you had to say throughout the beta process and
fixed the problems you reported.  It is only with your help and the help of
our private beta team that Window-Eyes can continue to be the world's most
"rock solid" screen reader.

Remember for those of you that purchased a brand new copy of Window-Eyes on
or after March 12, 2001 you may download your upgrade from our site free of
charge.  Just go to
http://www.gwmicro.com/upgrade
and complete the form. If you have difficulties contact our support office
at 219-489-3671 and have your serial number handy.


Here are a few things that you will immediately notice when you get your
registered copy of Window-Eyes.  You will no longer have to deal with
unreliable cassettes.  When you start to install Window-Eyes you will be
presented with some new and exciting options.  You will be asked if you
want to install the program or listen to the tutorial or manual in MP3
format.  The quality is great and no more worrying about where are the
tapes for the manual.  They are on your CD and at your fingertips.  In
addition, the Window-Eyes help has been much improved, and you will have
the manual in MP3 format, HTML, PDF and in text.  It couldn't get any
better. You notice I said PDF?  That's right!  One of the new and exciting
features of Window-Eyes 4.1 is the ability to read PDF documents just as
easily as you browse the web.  All you need is Window-Eyes 4.1 and the
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0.  Then you will be ready to read PDF documents
easily and fill out those online electronic forms just as easily as you
make those online purchases today with Window-Eyes and IE.

As you know, we now offer an SMA or software maintenance agreement
program.  This allows you to purchase the next three upgrades after 4.1 for
only $199.00 through May, 2001.  After that date the price will be
$249.00.  This price includes shipping both in the US and internationally.

What makes this different from other SMA programs available?  Well, it is
this.  If you choose to pay for an upgrade you may do so and save your SMA
count.  Remember though, that all upgrades must be purchased or counted
against your SMA consecutively.  For example, you cannot choose to skip an
upgrade and later use the SMA to get you up to date.

I am listing below some of the major changes and enhancements between 4.0
and 4.1.  However, space is limited so I encourage you to read the complete
readme file, and you will see just how much we value and use your input.

If you haven't placed your order yet I know you will want to call your
favorite distributor, dealer or reseller as soon as you read the
information below.  Also, feel free to call our office at 219-489-3671 and
we will provide you with the name of the authorized GW Micro representative
closest to you.

Read on:

* Grade two Braille support:
With this feature you can toggle to grade two Braille with one keystroke
making reading a real joy. You also have the ability to automatically
untranslate the word under the caret as you are proofing a document.  Or
you can manually untranslate the word under the caret or mouse.  Also,
punctuation symbols that aren't defined in grade 2 braille can be either
spelled out or left alone depending on your individual needs.  GW Micro and
our representatives are now offering the BAUM Vario 40 and 80 Braille
displays which are very affordable to make your reading pleasure even
better.  The Vario80 sells for $9,800.00 and the Vario40 for only $4,800.00
making this an attractive and affordable option.

* We have added table support for Internet Explorer.  With this new feature
reading those complicated tables is a breeze.  With a few keystrokes you
can examine complicated airline schedules and more and get exactly the
information you need.  We even work with those nested tables which give
other screen readers the shakes.

* You can now use the right arrow to jump forward a line and the left arrow
to jump backward a line while in read-to-end. This is great for skimming or
replaying information.

* Window-Eyes will now indicate when an application is flashing its title
bar or task bar icon indicating that it wants your attention.  Note that we
will ignore this if the application is the current active
application.  This announcement is part of the auto speak tooltips
setting.  Both the auto and on settings behave the same with this
feature.  Usually applications flash multiple times, but Window-Eyes only
reads the first flash.  If an application stops flashing and then starts
flashing again we will read the new flash. Window-Eyes says the title bar
of the application followed by "wants attention" to indicate that the
application wants your attention.  MSN Messenger is an example of an
application with this feature.

* We have added the Read Progress or Scroll bar hotkey.  This key defaults
to CTRL-INS-B.  This key will first look in the active window for progress
bars and if it finds them it will read them from top to bottom along with
their field names.  If it doesn't find any progress bars it will search the
focus window for scroll bars and read them first vertical and then
horizontal.  If it doesn't find either progress or scroll bars it will say
"no progress or scroll bars found."  Scroll bars are relative to the edge
of a window so a vertical scroll bar that has a range of 0 to 100 means
that when you are on index 0 that index 0 is at the top or bottom of the
focus window depending upon the direction of the scroll bar.  Note that
most scroll bars are left to right for horizontal and top to bottom for
vertical. Although this doesn't have to be the case, we have never seen it
not be the case. Therefore, we haven't addressed the case of a scroll bar
being right to left or bottom to top.  In our example if you are at index 0
that means that index 0 is at the top of the window so you will have to
scroll through the contents of the window and actually get the contents to
scroll to change the index.  Once you get to the bottom of the data in the
window the scroll bar might be at 80 of 100 meaning that the top of the
window is at index 80 so you will never get to 100 of 100, but the bottom
of the window is actually at 100 of 100. This is explained in Section 8.22
of the Window-Eyes 4.1 manual.

* We have added the use specified speech parameters check box to the select
synthesizer dialog.  You can check this box for as many synthesizers as you
wish. If it is checked, Window-Eyes will use the specified speech
parameters that are currently being used for the global speech parameters
when you use this particular synthesizer. This allows you to have multiple
settings specified for multiple synthesizers. For example, if you prefer
using SAPI on rate 9, and the DECtalk Express on rate 5, you can specify
these settings per the instructions above. When you switch synthesizers,
the settings you specified will be used.

* We have added the use as backup synthesizer checkbox to the select
synthesizer dialog.  You can only have one synthesizer checked at a time.
Window-Eyes saves this setting with the apply and ok buttons.  By default
we set SAPI as the backup synthesizer.  You can activate this synthesizer
by holding down either shift key while Window-Eyes is launching.

* We have added the silence password Edit Boxes miscellaneous verbosity
option.  This defaults to checked, and when checked Window-Eyes will say,
"star" when you type in an edit box with the password style. This is useful
for keeping network password information from being recognized from
eavesdropping ears.

* All SAPI synthesizers will now default the Window-Eyes pitch 3 setting to
the internal default pitch of the synthesizer.  Previously Eloquence was
using a much higher pitch than it's normal voice.  All SAPI synthesizers
will be affected by this change.

* The top speech rate for Eloquence has been increased.

* Many enhancements have been made for AOL 6.X.

* We added support for Borland Delphi tab controls and treeviews.

* We added support for Corel Draw 10 tooltips.

* We put the final touches on the improved field name support for forms in IE.

* We solved a problem of not allowing you to use MSAA mode in the help
accessed from the Adaptec Easy CD Creator dialogs.

* We fixed problems returning to the last position or to the visible
location in MSAA mode.

* We have solved more MSAA mode problems and can no longer duplicate loss
of speech, crashes, or the mode not turning on or off correctly.

* Window-Eyes is now less aggressive when merging links in MSAA mode to
avoid merging JavaScript links that might actually point to different targets.

* Window-Eyes now recognizes buttons that don't have either a title or
button text as buttons rather than custom controls when tabbing outside of
MSAA mode in IE.




Clarence Whaley
Director Of Sales And Marketing
GW Micro
E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]
Direct Voice (615) 383-6248
Direct Fax (615) 269-5288
GW Micro Voice Number 219-489-3671
http://www.gwmicro.com



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