Hi all,
I finally found Dropbox on my windows 10 tablet. After a couple of
weeks, I broke down and installed NVDA, and as soon as I did, I found
the All Apps button, so I found Dropbox amid all my apps.
The Narrator experience was interesting. I have to admit that I wasn't
very systematic about learning narrator commands, so I don't feel I can
say that Narrator is or isn't usable. I just know a few of the basic
commands, including scrolling, learned a couple more, and figured that
would get me by, but ... well ... no. for example, using NVDA, I find
the All apps button by pressing the Start button to get to the search
box, then arrowing up once or down about six times. when I was using
Narrator, I never found that button with the keyboard, and yes, the
first thing I tried was arrowing up once. My lack of familiarity with
Narrator hit me hardest when I dealt with tool bars. I'd get stuck in
them and forget how to get out.
Exploring the screen is a little disorienting. I know from my desktop,
which has a touch screen, where things are located, but since I don't
have to locate them very often, I don't have to think about it. When I
was using Narrator, I sometimes found it quicker to get to a button by
touching the screen, so I had to try to understand where things were in
relation to each other, not so much as it concerned buttons, but as it
concerned the different windows.
The most annoying thing to deal with was the sluggishness of Narrator or
probably the voices. Whenever I would launch an app, I'd go through a
very long period of silence, maybe 20 to 30 seconds, so I wasn't sure
whether the tablet or the TTS was slow. Speech seemed to be a more
likely culprit because, once the "app launched," everything worked fine.
Then I'd change screens, and I'd have to wait another 20 seconds. As I
spent more time with the tablet, these pauses became more and more
frustrating.
Narrator's sluggishness also interfered with working with the touch
screen. Generally, swiping worked better than exploring. when I ran my
finger over the screen to locate controls, Narrator tended to forget to
announce items, especially smaller ones. But swiping wasn't ideal
either. For instance, when I pressed the Start button and started
swiping to find the All Apps button, the first thing I heard was Account
picture, then an item, then Account Picture again, then another item,
then Account Picture, etc.
I was starting to gear up for returning the tablet when I installed
NVDA. The experience is so much better. I'm finding things where and how
I expect, and the tablet is surprisingly responsive. It's slower than my
desktop, of course, but it might be a little faster than my little netbook.
One thing I'll mention is that all the information I found on the web
said that desktop mode isn't available on tablets smaller than 8 inches.
I bought a 7-inch tablet because I hadn't read that yet, so when I came
across that tidbit, I panicked. My HP Stream does go into desktop mode.
Press enter on Settings, which is near All Apps, and press enter on
Tablet Mode On to toggle it to Off.
Just letting everyone know.
Ciao
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