I thought these tips might be helpful to Tom in his search for hams, or to
others who like to net surf.
Harvey
----- Original message ----- From the Training Department: Five Tips for
Navigating Web Pages with JAWS
We've all been there, right? You're browsing the Web with JAWS, looking for
the perfect birthday present for Aunt Mable or researching some last minute
information for a school report, and you just can't seem to find information
that you know is on a Web page. You stumble around, scrolling through the
page, and it seems as if there are a million links, graphics, and
advertisements - but none of it is useful to you. These five tips may help
you find what you are looking for on those huge and cluttered Web pages.
Listen Carefully to JAWS when a New Page Loads We all get "Control key
happy" sometimes, and we just want to press it to make JAWS hush up.
However, when a Web page finishes loading, JAWS will announce information
about the page that can be very useful. JAWS will always announce the number
of links on a page, and will also announce the number of frames and
headings, if they exist. This gives us some idea of the size of the page.
.
H is for "Heading" Sometimes Web page designers use headings to separate
pages into sections. You can use JAWS to quickly read the headings on a
page. This may help you to find the content you are looking for - or at
least get an idea of how the page is organized. Press H to make JAWS cycle
through and read all the headings on a page. You can also bring up a list of
all headings by pressing INSERT+F6. You can navigate to the heading you want
to move to and then press ENTER. If the page is laid out with a logical
hierarchy of headings, this can be a really easy way to find what you are
looking for.
Putting the N Back in Navigation Many pages contain large navigation menus
with links designed to help users quickly move to different pages on a site.
Listening to these links every time you visit a new page on a site can
become very tiring and can take up valuable time. Fortunately, JAWS allows
you to quickly jump past a group of links by pressing the letter N. Each
time you press N, JAWS moves to the next block of text that is not a link.
The default behavior of JAWS is to look for a block of text that is at least
25 characters long that is not a link. This length can be changed in the
HTML Options section of the Configuration Manager. For example, if you were
searching for a CD on
www.amazon.com,
you could press the N key several times to move to the search results,
instead of scrolling down with the arrow keys through hundreds of links.
This technique is effective on any page with lots of links that you want to
quickly move past.
Let the JAWS Find Work for You Why should you have to scroll down through an
entire Web page just to find a certain word or phrase? The JAWS Find can do
that for you. Press CTRL+F to open the JAWS Find dialog box, and type in the
word or phrase you want to locate on the page. Press ENTER, and let JAWS do
the work. If JAWS finds the text you searched for, you will immediately be
taken to that spot on the page. You can then press F3 or SHIFT+F3 to cycle
forward or backward through other instances of your search string on the
page. Using the example of finding a CD on amazon.com again, if you've
selected a CD and land on the page with the CD information and track
listing, you could use the JAWS Find to move directly to the track list
rather than trying to find it on your own. You could simply search for "1"
because it's safe to assume that the number one will be in front of the
first track name. This quick trick can save tons of time.
Ever Heard of INSERT+F3? This keystroke often gets lost in the shuffle, and
can be quite handy. Pressing INSERT+F3 brings up the Virtual HTML Features
dialog box. This is a list of all the different page elements you would find
on a Web page. Pressing ENTER on any of the items in the list will display a
list of those particular items found on the page. To view a list of tables
on a page, just choose "Tables list" in the dialog box. To view a list of
paragraphs, choose "Paragraphs list." To view a list of form fields, choose
"Form fields list." All of these lists can be activated through other
keystrokes but with the INSERT + F3, you don't need to remember all those
other keystrokes.
Remember, when dealing with Web pages, be patient, persistent, and try and
find patterns to help you find the information you are seeking. You'll also
find additional tips and techniques for navigating Web pages with JAWS on
Freedom Scientific's Surf's Up Web page.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/Surfs_Up/_Surfs_Up_Start_Here.htm
|