pwWebSpeak(tm) Release 2 Documentation
Last Updated: August 12, 1998
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Overview of Functionality
1.2 Hardware and Software Requirements
1.3 Getting Started
1.3.1 Product Installation
1.3.2 Testing pwWebSpeak
1.3.3 Setting Up Your E-Mail Response
Capability
1.3.4 Transferring Your Favorites File
to This Release
1.3.5 Basics of Browsing
1.3.6 Interacting With Dialogs and Data
Entry Fields
1.3.7 Getting Help
2. New Facilities in pwWebSpeak Release 2
3. The Setup Dialog and the pwWebSpeak INI File
3.1 The Setup Dialog
3.2 The pwWebSpeak INI File
3.2.1 Speech Synthesizers - The [Speech]
section
3.2.2 The [Speech] section - Speech
Rate, and Volume
3.2.3 The [Settings] section - Starting
Web Page
3.2.4 The [Settings] section - Default
Search
3.2.5 The [Settings] section - Proxy
Servers
3.2.6 The [Settings] Section - Other
Options
3.2.7 The [Mail] Section
4. Command Line Parameters
4.1 Working Directory
4.1.1 Files and Directories Used by
pwWebSpeak
4.2 Initial Page to be Loaded
4.3 Kiosk Mode
5. The Command Menu
6. Command and Function Details
6.1 Command Summary
6.2 Opening a Page
6.2.1 Opening Local Pages
6.3 Saving a Page
6.4 Saving a Page Element to the Scrap Book File
6.5 Maintaining and Using the Favorites List
6.5.1 The Favorites File - webspeak.fav
6.6 The History List - Going Back to Prior Pages
6.6.1 The History List File -
webspeak.his
6.7 Ways to View a Page
6.7.1 Recognizing and Reviewing Images
6.7.2 Client-Side Image Maps
6.7.3 Reading Tables within a Page
6.7.4 Recognizing and Using Pages with
Frames
6.7.5 Media Support - Audio, Music and
Video
6.7.6 Downloading Files and FTP Support
6.7.7 Sending E-Mail to Links on a Page
6.8 Filling in Forms
6.8.1 Completing a Form
6.8.2 Types of Form Fields Supported
6.9 Searching the Web
6.10 Control of Visual Presentation
6.11 Terminating the pwWebSpeak Session
7. Customizing the Keyboard Commands
8. Customizing the Help File
9. Customizing the Audio Style Sheet
10. Customizing the Command Menu
pwWebSpeak is a trademark of The Productivity Works, Inc.
Copyright © 1995-1998 The Productivity Works, Inc.
Other Trademarks and Service Marks used within this
documentation are the property of their respective companies.
pwWebSpeak was designed and developed by The Productivity Works,
Inc. in conjunction with DeWitt and Associates as accessibility
consultants, and Thomas Edison State College.
----------
1. Introduction
pwWebSpeak is a browser designed for users or applications that
wish to access information and services in a non-visual or dual
mode manner. This includes users who cannot be tied to a
keyboard or monitor, blind or visually impaired users, users
with dyslexia or other learning disorders, and users who are
learning new languages. pwWebSpeak is also for use in Kiosk and
other applications where audio feedback from local or Web-based
Pages is required.
pwWebSpeak is designed specifically to interact directly with
the information on the Pages and to translate the information
content into speech. The user may navigate through the structure
of a page or set of pages based on their contents and
interactions rather than having to deal with scrolling and
interpreting a structured screen display.
The intelligence built into pwWebSpeak understands the HTML
constructs that define the Pages, and automatically bypasses
those constructs that have no relation to the information
content of a document. Both speech and large character
interpretation of the Pages are provided so that all classes of
users can use the software effectively.
NOTE: This documentation references keyboard commands and the
Command Menu that are the defaults for pwWebSpeak. You may
customize both the keyboard commands and the Command Menu for
your own usage, for usage by a set of similar users, or for an
application. The methods used for customization are completely
described within this document.
The following sub-sections of the Introduction provide you an
overview of functionality, hardware and software requirements, a
section on getting started, and then some other basic
information which may be of immediate interest or use to you.
We have prepared this documentation to help you install and work
with the pwWebSpeak and to assist us in providing you support
for the product. We welcome your feedback on the product and the
documentation. Please feel free to send us feedback either by
e-mail or regular mail:
Our e-mail address for feedback is: [log in to unmask]
Our mailing address is:
Customer Support
The Productivity Works, Inc.
7 Belmont Circle
Trenton, NJ 08618
USA
1.1 Overview of Functionality
pwWebSpeak has the following key functions:
* Direct support for speech output through understanding the
HTML itself
* Simplified character-oriented presentation of the Page
information that includes synchronization of audio and
display when reading Page Elements as well as user
controlled font size and contrast to give a large character
display for low vision users
* Simple command structure for interacting with both
pwWebSpeak and the information content of the Pages as well
as automatic recognition and identification of headings,
links, forms and other major page attributes
* Browsing of the Page structure and links without having to
go through the text itself
* Support for reviewing an element of a Page, e.g. a header or
paragraph, one word at a time and being able to spell out,
character by character, any word
* Support for Tables, Client-side image maps, Frames, and
Forms to allow full user interaction with applications and
search engines, e.g. Alta Vista, Yahoo, InfoSeek, etc.
* Reading speeds that may be set dynamically
* Support for multiple speech engines
* Support for special file types and functions including:
MAILTO, Audio, and Video (audio portion)
* Support for Real Audio and Real Video (audio portion only)
* Searching for text within a full Page, a special simplified
interface to the major search engines for simplified
specification of search topics across the Web (this includes
Alta Vista, Yahoo, Lycos, Info Seek, and Excite)
* Creation and maintenance of a list of favorite Pages as well
as automatic loading of an initial page on execution
* Fully accessible History List
* Support for Proxy Servers to allow users on a LAN to get
into the Internet through a firewall
* Support for browsing Pages locally, including following
links to local and Web-based Pages
* Support for saving Pages locally in either HTML or text
formats and support for saving or appending individual
elements of a Page or Pages into a scrapbook file
1.2 Hardware and Software Requirements
pwWebSpeak Release 2 is a 32-bit Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT
program. It requires approximately 5 megabytes of hard disk
space and a recommended minimum of 16 megabytes of main memory
for Windows 95 and 98, and 32 megabytes of main memory for
Windows NT. pwWebSpeak is used in conjunction with, and
requires, one of the supported speech synthesizers. pwWebSpeak
Release 2 supports both the 32-bit version of the SoftVoice
synthesizer, the DECtalk Software synthesizer and Microsoft
Speech API (SAPI) compliant speech synthesizers, which register
their voices.
Later releases will include support for the 32-bit Arkenstone
SSIL drivers so that all speech synthesizers that have an SSIL
driver may be used with pwWebSpeak Release 2, as well as
extended support for SAPI synthesizers.
pwWebSpeak will operate on both local and Web-based pages and
text files. To access the Internet, however, it requires that
you have either a direct Internet connection or a connection to
Internet via a dial-up account. This release of pwWebSpeak uses
the standard 32-bit winsock connection to Internet that is part
of the Windows operating systems.
1.3 Getting Started
The following sections describe how to get started with
pwWebSpeak and how to test the product. They also provide you a
basic introduction to browsing using pwWebSpeak.
1.3.1 Installation
To install the program, you will need to run the setup program
as indicated in the installation instructions delivered with the
product and in the readme.txt file that accompanies the
installation CD or diskettes. The installation process uses a
standard Windows Installation Wizard which provides you a series
of prompts which guide you through the simple installation
process. If you are installing to a LAN directory, you will need
to make sure you have authorization to do so and you should
check the sections on Command Line Parameters and Working
Directory, for more information on running on a LAN using a
shared copy of pwWebSpeak.
The installation process goes through the following steps:
* Introductory and verification screen - This is a
basic welcome screen that lets you know you are
installing pwWebSpeak.
* End-User License Screen - This is the license for
you to use pwWebSpeak, and you must accept this
license before you can move forward and install
and use the product.
* Selection of installation directory - by default
pwWebSpeak will be installed into the:
\Program Files\pwWebSpeak32\
directory. You may change this by pressing the
Browse button and select any directory you wish to
install into.
* Creating Backup Copies of Files - By default the
installation process will create a BACKUP
sub-directory and copy current versions of your
files to this directory if they will get updated
by the install process. You may select whether or
not to create the backup copies of the files, and
you may also select a different directory for the
backup copies if you so desire. It is recommended
to always select to create backup copies as you
can then roll-back your system to its current
state if you need to un-install pwWebSpeak for any
reason.
* Setting Your Default Browser - You are now
prompted to see if you wish to set pwWebSpeak as
your default browser. This means that any files
with the .HTM or .HTML extension will
automatically be displayed using pwWebSpeak if you
select the file. The default is not to have
pwWebSpeak set as your default browser.
* Select the Speech Synthesizer - The next dialog
asks you to specify the synthesizer being used.
You may select the SoftVoice synthesizer, DECtalk
Software synthesizer, or the generic SAPI
compliant synthesizer. pwWebSpeak supports direct
interfaces to both SoftVoice and DECtalk Software
synthesizers. Please note that your synthesizer
may be changed at a later point by simple
modification of the webspeak.ini file as described
in the section on The Setup Dialog and the
pwWebSpeak INI File.
You have now completed the questions associated with the
installation and the last dialog presented allows you to start
the actual installation process and the copying of the
installation files.
Once the installation is complete, it is always a good idea to
re-start your PC before testing pwWebSpeak and entering the
setup parameters for your e-mail address.
NOTE: With pwWebSpeak Release 2, the favorites list from any
prior releases is not supported. The format of the favorites
file has changed. A utility will be provided to move favorites
to the new format.
1.3.2 Testing pwWebSpeak
pwWebSpeak is very simple to test, and you do this without even
needing a connection to the Internet. There are some simple
steps that are useful to follow in this process.
Step 1 - Create a shortcut on your PC's desktop to run
pwWebSpeak. It is also useful to create a shortcut key at this
time as well. You do this using standard Windows facilities.
Step 2 - Run pwWebSpeak. You can do this via the shortcut icon
or the shortcut key if you created one, or from the Start and
Programs menu. Please note that pwWebSpeak is a self voicing
application, this means that it will be reading to you. If you
have a screen reader running, you will need to turn off the
screen reader's voice. Otherwise you will end up with both
pwWebSpeak and the screen reader trying to read to you.
Step 3 - pwWebSpeak will display and voice an introductory
screen, usually called the splash screen, and you can move past
this simply by pressing the Enter key. You will then hear a tone
as pwWebSpeak completes its loading process followed by the
announcement that the starting Page has been loaded.
By default pwWebSpeak will load a Page when it is run, and this
page is called the pwWebSpeak Start Page.
Step 4 - To check that pwWebSpeak is working correctly, press
the F10 key which reads you a summary of the contents of the
page. You can then read the page itself either one paragraph at
a time or the entire page. You can read a paragraph at a time by
pressing the Cursor Down key for the next paragraph, and the
Cursor Up key for the prior paragraph. You can read the entire
page by pressing the F3 key.
You have now tested pwWebSpeak on a local file and it is working
correctly if it is reading to you understandably. If there are
any problems, just follow the procedure noted in the Getting
Help section below.
1.3.3 Setting Up Your E-Mail Response Capability
pwWebSpeak allows you to send e-mails to links on pages that are
explicitly e-mail links. pwWebSpeak is not a full e-mail package
and you cannot receive e-mail using pwWebSpeak. Our pwEMail
software is a full e-mail package, and you should visit out Web
site if you are interested in this capability.
In order to set up pwWebSpeak to be able to respond to e-mail
links on pages, you need to first setup your e-mail server name,
or SMTP name, and your e-mail ID. To do this you run pwWebSpeak
and then go to the Setup Dialog by selecting this from the
Command Menu or by pressing Alt-U. The Command Menu is accessed
by pressing Shift-F1.
Once the Setup Dialog is announced and the Starting Page field
is announced, press the Tab key until you are at the E-Mail
Server field. The default value entered, which is read to you,
must be replaced with your actual e-mail server name. This is
typically in the form:
mailreader.isp.net
When you are positioned on the field, type the address of your
e-mail server as provided to you by your Internet Service
Provider. Then press Tab to move to the E-Mail ID field. This
field allows you to enter your e-mail address and this will be
posted on all e-mails you send from pwWebSpeak. You need to
ensure this is correct so that recipients of your e-mails can
simply reply to them. You may enter just your e-mail address,
for example:
[log in to unmask]
Or you may enter both your full name and your e-mail address in
order to better identify yourself. To do this, use the syntax
shown below:
Brian Phillips <[log in to unmask]>
Now Tab to the Save Settings button on the Setup Dialog screen,
and press either the Space Bar or the Enter key. This will save
your settings for all future times pwWebSpeak is run.
Please note that more details of the Setup Dialog are covered in
the section on The Setup Dialog and the pwWebSpeak INI File.
1.3.4 Transferring Your Favorites File for This Release
The file in which information on your favorites is stored has
changed with this release of pwWebSpeak. If you are currently
using pwWebSpeak Release 1.4.3, or an earlier release, or the
beta version of pwWebSpeak 32, then you will need to transfer
your favorites files over to the new format.
The prior releases used two files to hold the favorites
information: webspeak.hsl and webspeak.hst, and this release
uses a single file, webspeak.fav, into which all information is
saved.
A utility has been created to allow you to transfer favorites to
the new format. The steps to follow are:
a. Copy your old favorites files, webspeak.hsl and
webspeak.hst, into the installation directory for this
release
b. From the RUN menu, available from the START menu,
execute the file pwfav.exe which is in this releases
installation directory
c. The pwfav.exe utility will read in your old files and
create the new webspeak.fav file with all of your
favorites
Your favorites are now fully accessible in this release.
1.3.5 The Basics of Browsing with pwWebSpeak
pwWebSpeak provides both a keyboard command interface and a menu
interface, called the Command Menu, through which you may
control the process of browsing a page. As you read a page,
pwWebSpeak provides contextual announcements that let you know
where you are on the page.For example, if there is text on the
page identified as being a heading, pwWebSpeak will announce: "A
Heading Entitled". This allows you to place the information in
context with other information on the page.
A basic capability when browsing is to follow a link from one
page to another. These cross references allow you traverse a
series of related pages or play media files, and allow the Page
designers the ability to give you access to more information
without having to clutter a single page. When you are browsing
and a link is recognized, pwWebSpeak announces that a link is
present. You can then follow the link simply by pressing the
Space Bar or the Enter key.
The basic commands that you use to browse a Page are all
directly accessible from the Command Menu. You can then select
what you want to do from the simple menu we provide. To activate
the Command Menu, just press Shift-F1, and then you can move
through the menu using the Down and Up cursor keys, and you can
select any menu item by pressing the Space Bar or the Enter key.
pwWebSpeak also provides a direct keyboard equivalent for these
commands, and the keyboard commands typically used to browse
through a Page are:
Shift-F1 - This causes the Command Menu to be
activated and you can move through the menu using the
Cursor Down and Up keys. Pressing Enter will select an
entry from the Command Menu, and pressing F1 will read
a more detailed description of the option to you. The
Command Menu has two levels, a heading level and an
action level. Pressing Escape will exit you from the
Command Menu or take you back to the heading level.
F1 - This allows you to review the details of each
keystroke command. You step through the help file
using the Cursor Down and Up arrows, or by pressing
the first letter of the command you wish to get help
for. Pressing Enter returns you to the page you were
browsing.
F10 - This reads you a summary of the Page and gives
you the title, number of headings, number of links,
number of data entry forms, and the total number of
tags on the Page. This gives you an idea of the
contents and size of the Page you are dealing with,
and is very useful when you get to new Pages you have
not read before.
F3 - Read the entire Page from my current position
Q - Stop reading
F4 - Pause or re-start reading
Cursor-Down - Read the next element on the Page. This
is frequently a paragraph or a link.
Cursor-Up - Read the prior element on the Page
Enter or Space Bar - This allows you to follow an
announced link.
F2 - Open a new Page. This takes you to dialog into
which you can enter the address of the Page you wish
to go to. For example you could enter: www.npr.org and
this would take you to the National Public Radio Home
Page. When you have entered the address, or URL, of
the Page you wish to go to, you then press Enter and
pwWebSpeak will give you progress messages while it
accesses the Page. When you hear that the Page is
Ready, you can then browse the Page.
Alt-B - Takes you back to the prior page you were on.
pwWebSpeak will retrieve the page again for you and
will give you progress messages and let you know when
the Page is ready again for browsing.
NOTE: Both the keyboard commands and the Command Menu are
customizable, and that the keyboard commands shown above are
those used by default with pwWebSpeak. See the sections on
Customizing the Keyboard Commands and Customizing the Command
Menu for further details.
1.3.6 Interacting With Dialogs and Data Entry Fields
Within pwWebSpeak there are several dialogs into which you may
enter information for requests, settings, or descriptions of
favorites. When you interact with Pages they may also contain
data entry forms. In all these cases you will be making entries
into fields, and editing those entries if you make a mistake,
and this section describes the process of how to make and
correct entries in dialogs and data entry fields on Forms.
There are certain keys that help you with reviewing and changing
your entries. The default assignments for these keys are as
follows:
F9 - This tells you where you are and what the current
value of the field is. Pressing the key again will give
you more detail on the entry, and pressing the key a
third time will spell the entry for you.
F11 - For fields which may contain multiple words, this
is useful as it allows you to review each word
separately. Pressing the key a second time will then
spell the current word for you.
Escape - This is the key you use to exit a dialog
without completing it.
There are a few standard keys which you use to edit or review an
entry character by character, and these keys are:
Home - This takes you to first character of the entry
and will announce the first character
End - This positions you just after the last character
in the entry, and it will announce that you are at the
end of the entry
Cursor Left - This moves the cursor to the left and it
will announce the character over which the cursor has
just moved.
Cursor Right - This moves the current cursor position to
the right and will read the character immediately to the
right of the new cursor position
Backspace - This deletes the character to the left of
the current cursor position and will read to you the
next character to the right of the cursor
Delete - This deletes the character to the right of the
current cursor position and will read to you the next
character to the right of the new cursor position
1.3.7 Getting Help
We supply help to our users primarily through our support e-mail
facility which is:
[log in to unmask]
although you should also feel free to call us at our general
office number if you feel direct support is required.
Please note that ongoing support is provided for users who are
subscribed to our optional support, maintenance and upgrade
services. The first year subscription fee is included in the
commercial cost of pwWebSpeak and is available on a fee basis to
these users for the second and subsequent years of product usage.
Qualified users who get the product at no charge need to
subscribe separately if they desire to receive these support,
maintenance, and upgrade services.
If you need to e-mail support, please provide the following
information:
* A clear description of the problem
* The version of Windows you are using
* The version of pwWebSpeak being run
* The speech synthesizer you are using
* The page address, URL, where the problem occurred
If the problem relates to installation and initial execution of
pwWebSpeak, then the webspeak.ini file and the pwerrlog.txt file
should also be attached to the e-mail with the above information.
----------
2. New Facilities in pwWebSpeak
The following are the new facilities in pwWebSpeak Release 2 as
compared to pwWebSpeak Release 1.4.3
* 32-bit system designed for Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT
* Support for FTP from a single file, link on a page, or from
an FTP directory
* Command Menu function for simple menu navigation of commands
* Ability to customize the Command Menu for an application or
usage style
* HTML 4 options supported: use of the Title and ID attribute
tags; support for the Option tag and the Fieldset, Legend,
and Button tags in Forms processing, and support for the
Longdesc attribute in the Image tag
* Direct search to text capability to skip long lists of links
and most advertising on Web pages
* Ability to add Audio and other direct media links to the
favorites list
* Ability to customize the Keyboard commands for an
application or usage style
* Ability to customize the Audio Style sheet used to identify
characteristics of the pages being read
* Multiple audio style sheets provided to give both concise
and verbose presentation styles
* Enhanced Page-Back capability to return to last browsing
position in prior page
* Support for dynamic changes of audio style sheets by the
user
* Support for large Web pages (the prior release supported
only up to 60K web pages)
* Support for Incremental Browsing so that browsing may start
prior to the page being fully interpreted
* Long files names are supported
* Support for multiple synthesizer voices and languages
* Support for SAPI compliant speech synthesizers
* Support for Real Audio and Real Video (audio portion)
* Enhanced Forms processing
* Enhanced Field Editing Capabilities
* Enhanced Favorites Processing
* Enhanced reading of Tables
* Enhanced History List Processing and History List Maintained
Across Sessions
* Improved performance
* Kiosk-style operation capability
* Ability to set pwWebSpeak as your default browser at
installation time
* Corrections to errors in prior releases
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3. The Setup Dialog and pwWebSpeak INI File
3.1 The Setup Dialog
The Setup Dialog is reached from the Command Menu or directly by
pressing Alt-U. This dialog allows you to change certain
parameters used by pwWebSpeak so that they will remain in place
across uses of the software. These changes are then
automatically written to the pwWebSpeak initialization file,
webspeak.ini, for use the next time pwWebSpeak is executed.
The parameters that may be changed through the dialog are:
Default Page
This is the address of the first Page you wish to have displayed
when the browser is executed. This can be either a local Page or
a Page from the Web. There is a default setting for this Page
which is the standard starting page provided as part of the
pwWebSpeak installation process. The format for entering both a
local and Web Page are described below.
Example for Entering a Local Web Page as the Default Page:
file://c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\pwstart.htm
Example for Entering a Web Page as the Default Page:
http://www.prodworks.com
Speech Rate
The Speech Rate parameter determines the rate at which the
speech synthesizer will read to you. The values may be different
between different synthesizers, but generally represents the
number of words per minute that are spoken. Normal speech is
about 180 words per minute, for example, and this would give a
setting of 180 for this parameter.
E-Mail Server
This is the name of your e-mail server that is provided to you
by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is also referred
to as the SMTP Server name, and it is typically something like:
mailreader.isp.net
E-Mail Address
This field allows you to enter your e-mail address and this will
be posted on all e-mails you send from pwWebSpeak. You need to
ensure this is correct so that recipients of your e-mails can
simply reply to them. You may enter just your e-mail address,
for example:
[log in to unmask]
Or you may enter both your full name and your e-mail address in
order to better identify yourself. To do this, use the syntax
shown below:
Brian Phillips <[log in to unmask]>
Notice that your name comes first and then your e-mail address
is started with the less-than character and terminated with the
greater-than character.
Proxy Server
A Proxy Server is a function that allows you to access Internet
from behind a "firewall". If you are not on a LAN, or not
operating behind a firewall, then there is no need to provide
anything for this field and it should be left blank.
A single Proxy Server may be specified for pwWebSpeak and all
requests out to the Internet will be sent to this Proxy Server
first for verification and response. A sample Proxy Server entry
would be:
http://url_address:port_number
The Proxy Server address may be specified as either a normal
alphanumeric URL, or as a purely numeric IP address. Examples of
both are:
http://some.proxy.com:8080
101.104.106:8080
NOTE: if you are not using a Proxy Server, you must leave the
ProxyServer entry in the webspeak.ini file commented out. The
first character of the line must be ";" (semi-colon).
Current Style Sheet
You may change the current style sheet that is being used by
pwWebSpeak to provide the contextual announcements while
browsing pages. Changing the Style Sheet will update the CfgFile
setting in the webspeak.ini file, and will switch the current
session of pwWebSpeak to the new style sheet directly a new Page
is loaded or the current Page is re-loaded.
3.2 The pwWebSpeak INI File
The pwWebSpeak initialization file, webspeak.ini, contains
information about what speech synthesizer is to be used; the
default rate at which the synthesizer should be set; whether or
not an initial Page should be loaded on execution of pwWebSpeak;
and information on other functions within pwWebSpeak.
The standard webspeak.ini file is shown below followed by a
detailed description of each section of the file.
webspeak.ini file listing
;
; pwWebSpeak Release 2 Initialization and Settings File
;
; August 6, 1998
;
; Lines prefixed with a semi-colon are comment lines.
;
[Speech]
;
; The SoftVoice Synthesizer setting
;
SpeechEngine="pwspeech.sv"
;
;
; The DECtalk Software Synthesizer Setting
;SpeechEngine="pwspeech.dec"
;voice="paul"
;
; The SAPI Compliant Speech Engine Setting
;SpeechEngine="pwspeech.sapi"
;
; The Voice setting for SAPI. Only required for other
than default required
;
;Voice=
;
;Following Two Values Vary by synthesizer
;
Rate= 220
Volume=90
[Settings]
;
; Configuration file to be used
;
Cfgfile=webspeak_brief.tld
;
; Default starting page to be loaded
;
HomePage=file://c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\pwstart.htm
LoadPage=1
;
; Different Search Engine Options for Searching the Web
;
; Alta Vista
WebSearch=http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/
query?pg=q&what=web&fmt=c&q=%s&text=yes
;
; Yahoo
;WebSearch=http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=%s
;
; Lycos
;WebSearch=http://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?query=%s
;
; InfoSeek
;WebSearch=http://guide-p.infoseek.com/
Titles?qt=%s&col=WW&sv=IS&lk=fast
;
LetterMode=-1
FormWarning=1
Textlen=20
trace=0
;
;Color Codes
;
;Number Color Number Color
;0 Black 8 Gray
;1 Blue 9 Light Blue
;2 Green 10 Light Green
;3 Cyan 11 Light Cyan
;4 Red 12 Light Red
;5 Magenta 13 Light Magenta
;6 Yellow 14 Light Yellow
;7 White 15 Bright White
;
ForeColor=14
BackColor=0
;
fontname=Arial
FontSize=15
RAVolume=90
Verbose=-1
;
SCFL=1
;
;
;Sample Proxy Below
;ProxyServer=127.0.0.1:8080
;
[Mail]
EMailServer=mailreader.xxx.net
EMailID=Your Name <"[log in to unmask]">
3.2.1 Speech Synthesizers - The [Speech] section
pwWebSpeak supports the SoftVoice speech synthesizer, the
DECtalk Software synthesizer, and Microsoft Speech API (SAPI)
compliant speech synthesizers. When you install pwWebSpeak you
provide information on the synthesizer you are using, but you
can change this at any time using the SpeechEngine parameter in
the webspeak.ini file. The general syntax of this section is:
[Speech]
SpeechEngine="synthesizer_id"
Voice="voicename 1"
The SpeechEngine parameter specifies which of the speech
synthesizers is being used. The Voice parameter allows you to
set the name of the voice within the synthesizer that you wish
to use. The permissable entries for each synthesizer are
described below.
3.2.1.1 SoftVoice
The SoftVoice synthesizer is specified as follows by default:
[Speech]
SpeechEngine="pwspeech.sv"
Voice="Male"
Valid voice names for SoftVoice are:
* Male
* Female
* LargeMale
* Child
* GiantMale
* MellowFem
* MellowMale
* CrispMale
* TheFly
* Robotoid
* Martian
* Collosus
* FastFred
* OldWoman
* Munchkin
* Troll
* Nerd
* MilkToast
* Tipsy
* Choirboy
3.2.2.2 DECtalk Software Synthesizer
When DECtalk is specified at installation time, the following
are the defaults set:
[Speech]
SpeechEngine="pwspeech.dec"
Voice="Paul"
Valid voice names for the DECtalk Software synthesizer are:
* Paul
* Betty
* Harry
* Frank
* Dennis
* Kit
* Ursula
* Rita
* Wendy
3.2.2.3 SAPI Compliant Synthesizers
The default specification when you select that you have a SAPI
synthesizer does not include the Voice parameter, and is as
shown below:
[Speech]
SpeechEngine="pwspeech.sapi"
This indicates that your systems default SAPI compliant speech
synthesizer should be used, and it should be used with the
default voice. If you have multiple SAPI synthesizers on your
machine and you wish to select other than the default
synthesizer and voice, then you will need to explicitly set the
voice to be used as this will identify both the synthesizer and
the voice. For example:
[Speech]
SpeechEngine="pwspeech.sapi"
Voice="Kerry Watson"
This identifies both the Watson speech synthesizer and the voice
that is to be used with that synthesizer.
3.2.2 The [Speech] section - Speech Rate, and Volume
There are two other parameters in the Speech section of the
initialization file and these are:
Rate=180
Volume=90
The Rate setting determines the default speech rate to be used
by the synthesizer and can be changed to reflect you own
preference. Some synthesizers support dynamic rate changes as
well, and for these synthesizers such changes may be made while
using pwWebSpeak through the command menu or with the default
Alt-F (faster) and Alt-L (slower) commands.
Different synthesizers use different Rate and Volume scales.
Check your synthesizer documentation to see the ranges of
permissible rates and volume settings. Not all synthesizers
support the setting of the volume through software, but for
those that do, the volume may be dynamically changed from within
pwWebSpeak using the command menu or the numeric keypad "+" and
"-" (plus and minus) keys.
3.2.3 The [Settings] section - Style Sheet and Starting Web Page
With these parameters you can define the style sheet that will
be used by pwWebSpeak for the contextual announcements made when
you are browsing and interacting with pages, as well as the the
rate and relative volume of the speech synthesizer. These three
parameters are all in the [Settings] section of the webspeak.ini
file and are specified by default as:
CfgFile=webspeak.tld
HomePage="file://C:\Program
Files\pwwebspeak32\pwstart.htm"
LoadPage=1
Audio Style Sheet - CfgFile
The CfgFile parameter points to the file which contains the
Audio Style Sheet to be used for voicing the web pages. The
default style sheet provided with pwWebSpeak is stored in the
webspeak.tld file. This file is completely customizable and the
way to customize the audio style sheet is described in the
section Customizing the Audio Style Sheet.
Several default style sheets are provided with the installation
and these are described elswhere in this documentation. All
style sheets provided with the installation have a file
extension of TLD.
Starting Page - HomePage and LoadPage
This section of the INI file also allows you to set a default
Page that will always be displayed upon entry to pwWebSpeak. The
two parameters that control this are the HomePage and LoadPage
parameters, shown below:
HomePage="http://www.prodworks.com/"
LoadPage=1
Enter the URL of the Page you wish to have displayed on entry to
pwWebSpeak in the HomePage parameter, and then set the value of
the LoadPage parameter to be 1. On execution pwWebSpeak then
looks at these parameters and if LoadPage is set to 1 will
retrieve the page specified in the HomePage parameter. If
LoadPage is set to 0, then the specified Page will not be
retrieved, but it will become the first Page in your History
list. The HomePage may be specified as either a Page on the Web
or a Page stored locally.
An example of a local page setting is:
HomePage="file://C:/program files/webspeak32/pwstart.htm"
LoadPage=1
NOTE: If you set a different starting Page to the installation
default, it is a good idea to add the default starting Page to
your favorites list as this provides links to the local
documentation Pages, and the simplified Web search Pages.
3.2.4 The [Settings] section - Default Search
The Search the Web option, F7, within pwWebSpeak provides a
simplified way to use one of the search engines to carry out
searches on the Web. In the webspeak.ini file are setting for
four different search engines - Alta Vista, Yahoo, Lycos, and
InfoSeek. By default the Alta Vista search is the one activated,
but you may select any of the search options by removing the
semi-colon in front of the desired option and placing a
semi-colon in front of the option not to be used anymore.
NOTE: There is also a local search page available which will let
you select dynamically which search engine you wish to use. This
is called: pwsearch.htm
3.2.5 The [Settings] section - Proxy Servers
A Proxy Server is a function that allows you to access Internet
from behind a "firewall". If you are not on a LAN, or not
operating behind a firewall, then there is no need to provide
anything in this setting.
A single Proxy Server may be specified for pwWebSpeak and all
requests out to the Internet will be sent to this Proxy Server
first for verification and response.
Examples of Proxy Server settings are:
ProxyServer=http://url_address:port_number
The Proxy Server address may be specified as either a normal
alphanumeric URL, or as a purely numeric IP address. Examples of
both are:
ProxyServer=http://some.proxy.com:8080
ProxyServer=101.104.106:8080
NOTE: if you are not using a Proxy Server, you must leave the
ProxyServer entry in the webspeak.ini file commented out. The
first character of the line must be ";" (semi-colon).
3.2.6 The [Settings] Section - Other Options
3.2.6.1 Setting Display Font and Font Size
This is done using the two parameters as shown in the example
below:
Font=Ariel
FontSize=20
The selection of Fonts depends on each individual machine. The
FontSize setting is updated automatically if you change the font
size from within pwWebSpeak using the appropriate command or the
Command Menu.
3.2.6.2 Setting Display Colors
This is done using the two parameters as shown in the example
below:
Foreground=14
Background=0
The allowable colors are:
Number and Color
0 Black
1 Blue
2 Green
3 Cyan
4 Red
5 Magenta
6 Yellow
7 White
8 Gray
9 Bright Blue
10 Bright Green
11 Bright Cyan
12 Bright Red
14 Bright Yellow
15 Bright White
You may cycle through the different color combinations
dynamically when pwWebSpeak is running by using the Control-F12
key for Background colors and the Shift-F12 key for foreground
colors. In this way you can simply select the best foreground
and background color for your display. Once a color is set, it
is stored automatically in the webspeak.ini file and will hold
its value across executions of pwWebSpeak.
3.2.6.3 LetterMode and FormWarning
The LetterMode parameter, when set to 1, indicates that
pwWebSpeak will have the typing entry echo turned on
automatically when pwWebSpeak is executed. Setting this
parameter to 0 turns this option off. LetterMode may be turned
on and off dynamically by the user pressing the F12 key.
FormWarning is set so that when you send information over the
Internet using a Form it will warn you that are not sending a
secure transaction. This may be turned off by setting
FormWarning to 1.
3.2.6.4 Text Length Parameter for the Nexttext and Prevtext
Commands
The Textlen parameter is set to the number of characters that
must be located on the Page to satisfy the Nexttext and Prevtext
search commands. These commands allow you to quickly skip a set
of links and advertizing on a Page and move to textual
information which is either a description for an image or
straight text.
The default value set for Textlen is 20 characters:
3.2.7 The [Mail] section
When filled out, this section allows you to send e-mail directly
from web pages that use the MailTo function on their page. Two
parameters must be filled out in order to do this. An example is:
[Mail]
EMailServer=mailreader.xxx.net
EMailID=Your Name <"[log in to unmask]">
The EMailServer parameter specifies the address of your e-mail,
or SMTP, server. This is part of the information from your
Internet Service Provider or may be found in one of the Settings
parameters of your current e-mail program. The EMailID parameter
specifies your e-mail ID and also you name if you wish. This
will act as the return address given on the e-mail when it is
sent.
----------
4. Command Line Parameters
When you execute pwWebSpeak there are certain command line
parameters that may be specified. These parameters allow you to:
* Specify the working directory for pwWebSpeak
* Specify an initial file or Web page to be loaded
* Specify that the program should run in Kiosk Mode
Command line parameters may placed in the target field of a
Shortcut or used in the Run command from the Start menu. The
layout and method of usage is noted in detail in the sections
below, but a general usage example is:
"c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\webspk32.exe"
"c:\mywebspk\myhomepage.htm" /wd="c:\mywebspk" /kiosk.
This example shows where pwWebSpeak is executed from; the
initial starting page to be displayed; the working directory
which will be used for downloads, caching, and the working files
used by pwWebSpeak; and the fact that pwWebSpeak is to be run in
Kiosk mode.
4.1 Working Directory
You may specify that pwWebSpeak will operate from a working
directory that is other than the installation directory. This
allows for LAN installation and usage of the product, and well
as different application or personal uses on a specific machine.
The specified working directory must always be writable by
pwWebSpeak.
The working directory is specified as part of a command line
switch, the /wd switch. An example of a simple specification
using this as it would be specified in the Target field of the
Shortcut:
"c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\webspk32.exe"
/wd="c:\mydirectory"
An example where pwWebSpeak is installed on a LAN machine and
the working directory is on the local PC, would be:
"\\thelanmachine\ws\webspk32.exe" /wd="c:\mydirectory"
pwWebSpeak employs a number of working files and directories
which need to be accessible and writable during the execution of
pwWebSpeak. These are defined in the following section.
4.1.1 Files and Directories Used by pwWebSpeak
pwWebSpeak uses a set of files that define the set of keyboard
commands that are active, the Command Menu that is active, the
help file text that is used, and the audio style sheet that is
applied to provide contextual announcements as Pages are being
browsed. Two sub-directories are also used during execution, one
being used for temporary caching and the other for downloaded
files.
4.1.1.1 Directories Used
Two sub-directories are used by pwWebSpeak during execution and
these will be created automatically as sub-directories of the
specified working directory. Both sub-directories should be
accessible for both reading and writing by pwWebSpeak. It is
required that at least the cache sub-directory be writable,
otherwise pwWebSpeak cannot be executed and you will received an
error message to that effect.
The two subdirectories are:
cache - which is used for temporary storage space by
pwWebSpeak while interpreting downloaded pages.
download - which is used to hold the files that are
downloaded by the user
4.1.1.2 Files Used as Read Only
Some working files are used by pwWebSpeak in a read-only manner.
If these files are not found in the specified working directory,
then pwWebSpeak will access the default versions from the
pwWebSpeak execution directory. If the files are present in the
specified working directory, then they will be used by
pwWebSpeak. The name of the file and a description of their
function within pwWebSpeak is given below.
webspeak.key
This is the file that is used to re-define the default
keyboard commands. It is a read-only file to pwWebSpeak,
but may be modified by the user to provide individual or
application specific interface styles. See the section
on Re-Mapping the Keyboard for details of how this is
done.
In the case where a single copy of pwWebSpeak is
installed on a LAN and different user styes are
required, then the working directory specified should
contain the webspeak.key file that is specific for the
interface style required.
webspeak.tld
This is default file name of the Audio Style Sheet
definition used by pwWebSpeak to announce contextual
information as it reads and interacts with the pages
being browsed. The actual Audio Style sheet file used by
pwWebSpeak is defined in the webspeak.ini file that is
in effect when pwWebSpeak is run. It is defined in the
cfgfile parameter in the webspeak.ini file. If the file
pointed to in the webspeak.ini file cfgfile parameter is
not found in the specified working directory, then it
will be searched for in the directory from which
pwWebSpeak is being executed.
The Audio Style Sheet definition is customizable by the
user for personal preferences or to represent an
application style. See the section on Customizing the
Audio Style Sheet for details of how to do this.
webspeak.pwh.tpl
This is the template help file. It is used when
pwWebSpeak is run to dynamically generate the actual
help file that is referenced by the user. As pwWebSpeak
supports customization of the keyboard commands, the
help file must itself automatically adjust to the new
definitions. This is done by matching the command
entries in the keyboard definition file with those in
the help file so that an accurate help file is always
generated.
The name of the generated help file is webspeak.pwh, and
this will always be generated into the working directory
if one is specified.
The help template file may be customized so that
additional or different help information may be
provided. This is also useful for providing help in
different languages. The process of customization is
described in the section on Customizing the Help File.
The Starting HTML Files
There are a series of HTML files, Pages, which are
installed automatically with pwWebSpeak. These files are
not modified by pwWebSpeak, and are referenced from the
default starting Page that is brought up when pwWebSpeak
is run. These files provide simple access to pwWebSpeak
documentation and Web Search engines. The files are:
pwstart.htm
pwsearch.htm
pwsa.htm
pwse.htm
pwsi.htm
pwsl.htm
pwsy.htm
There are also some documentation files which are
present, and these are generally identified by the
release number, for example for Release 2 of pwWebSpeak
the files are:
pwwr2.htm
pwwr2a.htm
pwwr2b.htm
The default starting Page for an pwWebSpeak session is
defined within the webspeak.ini file and the Setup
Dialog within pwWebSpeak itself. See the section on The
Setup Dialog and the pwWebSpeak INI file details of
this.
NOTE: These files do contain links to each other, so in
general it is best to simply leave the files in the
installation directory, or to move them all to the
working directory you wish to use.
4.1.1.3 Files That are Updated During Execution
There are two types of files in this category. The first being
files that are generated by pwWebSpeak when it is run, but are
not updated again during the session, and the second being files
which are possibly updated by user actions within the session.
All files that may be updated by pwWebSpeak are listed and
described below.
webspeak.pwh
This is the help file for the user and it is generated
dynamically when pwWebSpeak is run. It is created at the
start of the session and not updated again during the
session. The file is created dynamically so that any
user changes to the keyboard commands are accurately
reflected in the help file. This file will be generated
into the specified working directory and referenced from
there. See the sections on Customizing the Help File and
Customizing the Keyboard Commands for details of how to
carry out customizations on these files.
wscurrent.key
This file contains a full list of the keyboard commands
that are active for this session. This file is generated
automatically when pwWebSpeak is run and it is not
updated again during the session. This is an
informational file only, and is not actually referenced
by pwWebSpeak but is created to aid you in customizing
the keyboard interface if you desire to do so. See the
section on Customizing the Keyboard Commands for details
on how to customize the keyboard interface.
In the situation where there is no customization of the
keyboard interface through the use of the webspeak.key
file and the webspeak.key file is not present in either
the specified working directory or the directory from
which pwWebSpeak is being run, then this file will not
be created.
webspeak.ini
The webspeak.ini file may be present in the working
directory or the directory from which pwWebSpeak is
being run. The working directory is searched first. The
webspeak.ini file contains information about the
configuration of pwWebSpeak and some of the attributes
may be changed dynamically by the user. These changes
are written back to the webspeak.ini file when the user
exits pwWebSpeak at the end of a session.
In the situation where the webspeak.ini file only exists
on a read-only directory, then when you exit pwWebSpeak
after making changes to some of the setup parameters,
you will be returned an error message indicating that
the pwWebSpeak initialization file is read-only and that
changes will not be saved for the next session.
See the section on the pwWebSpeak INI File for details
of this files contents.
webspeak.his
This file contains the history of the pages you have
browsed. This file remains accessible across usage
sessions so that you can go back to a Page you
referenced yesterday, for example. pwWebSpeak must be
able to write to this file in order to store the history
across sessions. If the file is not writable, then the
Pages referenced will not be added to the history list.
This file always resides, or is created in, the
specified working directory.
The format of the history list file has six elements,
the first three are the URL of the Page that was
referenced, the title of the Page, and a blank entry. An
example is:
"http://www.prodworks.com/","The Productivity Works Home
Page","",nnn,"",""
The last three entries are the Tag number which was last
being browsed on the Page, the request data if any was
present for a data entry Form or URL, and whether of not
the entry is visual and should be displayed. This allows
you to return to the position in the page that you were
browsing, not just to the top of the page that you were
browsing.
webspeak.fav
The format of the webspeak.fav file is new and not compatible
with the format of favorites files from prior releases. The new
favorites file is stored with a new file name to avoid any
confusion with prior releases files. A utility is provided to
transfer favorites to the new format.
The format of the Favorites File is the same as that used for
the History List. This enables any entries from the History List
to be added immediately to your favorites. There are six
elements in the file as follows:
* the URL of the Page that was referenced
* the title of the Page
* the user supplied description when the favorite was added
* the Tag number
* the Request field (used internally in the History List only)
* the Entry Type (visual or non-visual, used internally only)
The fourth and fifth entries are the Tag number which was last
being browsed on the Page, and the request data if any was
present for a data entry Form or URL. This allows you to return
to the position in the page that you were browsing, not just to
the top of the page that you were browsing.
Examples of entries in the favorites file are:
"http://www.prodworks.com/","The Productivity Works Home
Page","The Home Page of pwWebSpeak",1,"",""
"http://cnn.com/","CNN Interactive","CNN
Interactive",1,"",""
"file://d:/Ch01_01.htm","","file://d:/
Ch01_01.htm",1,"",""
Please note that any type of link may be stored as a favorite.
This includes FTP Pages and Real Audio or Real Video links as
well as standard Pages. This provides you with the most
flexibility possible in creating your favorites list.
scrap.txt
This file is created when you request copying an element
of a Page being browser to the scrap file. The default
keyboard command to do this is Ctrl-F9. The scrap file
always needs to be in a writable directory if you wish
to allow the user this capability. The scrap file is
also always written to, or created in, the specified
working directory.
4.2 Initial Page to be Loaded
It is posible to specify that on execution pwWebSpeak should
retrieve a specific Page. This Page may be either on the Web,
local to the PC, or on an Intranet or LAN. Examples of using
this command line option to load a local Page or load a Web
Page, are shown below:
Example Loading a local page:
"c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\webspk32.exe"
"c:\ws\download\my saved web page.htm"
Example Loading an Internet page:
"c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\webspk32.exe"
"http://www.prodworks.com"
4.3 Kiosk Mode
The Kiosk mode of operation simply makes the page display fill
the available window. No location field is presented and no
command buttons are presented. The kiosk mode is entered using a
simple command switch as shown in the example below. The Kiosk
switch may be used in conjunction with any other command line
switches.
"c:\program files\pwwebspeak32\webspk32.exe" /kiosk
----------
5. The Command Menu
You enter the Command Menu by pressing Shift-F1 (the Shift and
F1 keys together). You move through the menu using the Cursor
Down and Up keys, and the Space Bar or Enter will select an item
on the menu.
The Command Menu provides a simple menu for you to move through
which lets you execute specific commands or examine the help
text for those commands. You can customize the Command Menu so
what is described here are the default entries as supplied with
pwWebSpeak. The functioning of the Command Menu, however, is
always the same so the general rules noted here are always
applicable.
The Command Menu is broken down into two levels. The first is a
heading level and the second an action level. When you select a
heading level you will be taken to the corresponding entries
that are the action items for that heading. For instance,
selecting the Help heading will give you a menu of options such
as: Where Am I?, Review Keyboard Commands, and What Version Am I
Using?
The default Command Menu consists of 9 main entries and
sub-entries for each of these. Moving through the Command Menu
takes you through the main entries and it is not until you
select a main entry that you will be taken to the detailed, or
action, entries within that topic.
The Command Menu may be customized, and the section on
Customizing the Command Menu gives you the details on how to do
this.
----------
6. Command and Function Details
This section provides a detailed description of each of the
functions and commands that you can use within pwWebSpeak. A
Default Command Summary is followed by a functional breakdown of
the keyboard commands and their actions. The keyboard commands
shown are those set by default when pwWebSpeak is installed. You
may customize the keyboard interface to better reflect your own
preferences, or for specific application or usage styles.
Details on customizing the keyboard interface are noted in the
section on Customizing the Keyboard Commands. In the following
sections both the default keyboard command and the corresponding
internal command name are given.
6.1 Command Summary
The following is a list of all internal commands within
pwWebSpeak, their default keyboard assignment, and a brief
description of each command. The commands are noted in the form
they are required to be used if you customize the keyboard
commands or the Command Menu facility. See the sections on
Customizing the Keyboard Commands and Customizing the Command
Menu for details of how the commands are used in this manner.
ADDFAVORITELINK, Control-A - Adds the currently pointed to Link
on the Page to the Favorites list or adds the current entry in
the Open Page dialog to the Favorites list
ADDFAVORITES, Alt-A - Add the current Page to the favorites list
BACKCOLOR, Control-F12 - Steps through the available background
colors for the display
BACKPAGE, Alt-B - Steps back to the immediately preceding Page
that was being browsed. This will position in the preceding Page
at the location that you left it.
DECRFONTSIZE, Control-F11 - Decrease the size of the font on the
pwWebSpeak display
DECRRATE, Alt-L - Decrease the synthesizers reading rate
DECRVOLUME, - (numeric minus sign) - Decrease of the synthesizer
volume if supported by the synthesizer
EXIT, Alt-X - Exit from pwWebSpeak with a prompt to verify that
you really wish to exit
FAVORITES, Shift-F2 - Opens the favorites list so that you can
select and retrieve a favorite Page
FINDELEMENT - This allows you to specify the characters of an
HTML tag that you wish to position to on the Page. The search is
always from current position towards the end of the Page. The
syntax is:
findelement:XXX
where XXX represents the desired characters of the HTML tag to
be matched, e.g. findelement:h2 to match an H2 tag or
findelement:/form to find the end of a Data Entry form.
FINDPREVELEMENT - This allows you to specify the characters of
an HTML tag that you wish to position to on the Page. The search
is always from current position towards the beginning of the
Page. The syntax is:
findprevelement:XXX
where XXX represents the desired characters of the HTML tag to
be matched, e.g. findprevelement:h2 to match an H2 tag or
findprevelement:table to move to the beginning of a Table.
FIRSTITEM, Home - Takes you to the first element on a Page or a
list, or the beginning of a data entry field
FORECOLOR, Shift-F12 - Step through the available colors for the
displayed text
HELP, F1 - This takes you to the help file and allows you to
read the help file. When in the Command Menu, this reads the
Help file entry for the specific command.
IDENTIFY, F9 - This announces where you are on the Page and in
pwWebSpeak and when issued again identifies the URL associated
with the current Page element if one exists, and when issued a
third time will spell the associated URL
INCRFONTSIZE, Shift-F11 - Increase the size of the font on the
pwWebSpeak display
INCRRATE, Alt-F - increase the synthesizers reading rate
INCRVOLUME, + (numeric plus sign) - Increase the synthesizer
volume if supported by the synthesizer
LANG0, Alt-1 - The first language installed for the synthesizer,
this is the default
LANG1, Alt-2 - The second language installed for the synthesizer
LANG2, Alt-3 - The third language installed for the synthesizer
LANG3, Alt-4 - The fourth language installed for the synthesizer
LANG4, Alt-5 - The fifth language installed for the synthesizer
LANG5, Alt-6 - The sixth language installed for the synthesizer
LASTITEM, End - Takes you to the last element on a Page or List
or the end of a data entry field
LETTERMODE, F12 - This toggles on and off the echoing back of
keystrokes in entry fields, for instance, in the Open New Page
dialog
LINKSONPAGE, F5 - Takes you to a list of just the links on the
Page to let you quickly move through them
LINKTO - This allows the specification of a specific Page to be
linked to, either local or Web-based. The syntax is as follows:
linkto:URL
where URL represents the Page to be linked to when this option
is selected. For a local page an example is:
linkto:c:\pwwebspeak32\pwwr2.htm
For a Web-based page an example is:
linkto:http://www.prodworks.com
LONGDESC, Alt-I - When a page element, like an Image, includes
the Longdesc attribute, this command will follow the link
specified in the attribute and load the associated Page or media
file.
MEDIADECRVOLUME, unassigned - reserved for future development
MEDIAINCRVOLUME, unassigned - reserved for future development
MEDIANEXT, unassigned - reserved for future development
MEDIAPAUSE, Shift-F4 - Pauses a media player like the Real Audio
player. Pressed again, it restarts the plaback
MEDIAPLAY, unassigned - reserved for future development
MEDIAPREV, unassigned - reserved for future development
MENU, Shift-F1 - Brings up the Command Menu dialog if one is
defined
NEXTITEM, Down - Move to the next item on the Page or list
NEXTTEXT, Alt-N - Moves to the next element on the Page where
there are N characters of text that are not part of a link. The
N is specified by default from the Textlen parameter in the
webspeak.ini file. This command may also be specified with an
explicit number of characters to look for that will override the
default. In this case the syntax is:
Nexttext:NN
where NN is the number of characters to be searched for that are
not part of a link.
NOACTION - This is applicable only to the re-mapping of the
keyboard and provides a method of explicitly turning off a
keyboard command
OPENLOCALPAGE - Takes you straight to the Open Local Page
dialog. This can also be reached by entering the OpenPage
command, F2, twice
OPENPAGE, F2 - Takes you to the Open Page dialog to allow you to
enter the URL or name of the file to be opened and browsed next
PAGEELEMENTS, F6 - Takes you back to normal browsing of the Page
so that the text content of the Page can be read
PAGESEARCH, F8 - Provides a dialog to enter text and search for
that text on the current Page
PAGESEARCHAGAIN, Shift-F8 - Repeats the last entered PAGESEARCH
request
PAGESUMMARY, F10 - This announces a summary of the Page contents
giving the number of headings, links, data entry forms, and a
total number of Page elements, or tags, that are on the Page
PAUSE, F4 - Toggles Pause and re-start for reading
PREVITEM, Up - Moves to the previous item on the Page or in a
list
PREVTEXT, Alt-P - Moves to the previous element on the Page
where there are N characters of text that are not part of a
link. The N is specified by default from the Textlen parameter
in the webspeak.ini file. This command may also be specified
with an explicit number of characters to look for that will
override the default. In this case the syntax is:
Nexttext:NN
where NN is the number of characters to be searched for that are
not part of a link.
READPAGE, F3 - Starts reading of the Page from the current
position
RELOAD, Control-R - This causes the current Page to be reloaded
SAVEAS, Control-S - This allows the current Page to be saved in
either HTML or text format in the Download sub-directory of the
current working directory
SAVESCRAP, Control-F9 - This adds the current Page element to
the scrap file, scrap.txt, in the current working directory
SAYCURRENTURL, Alt-F10 - This announces the URL of the current
Page being browsed
SELECTITEM, Enter or Space Bar - Selects the current item, for
example selects a link to be followed
SETUP, Alt-U - Takes you to the Setup Dialog where some of the
initialization parameters may be dynamically changed and put
into effect.
STOP, Escape or Q - Stops reading, retrieving, downloading or
leaves the current activity or dialog
VERSION, Control-F1 - Announces the version of pwWebSpeak being
used and associated copyright information
WEBSEARCH, F7 - Provides a simplified dialog for searching the
Web using the search engine specified in the webspeak.ini file
WORDLIST, F11 - This allows you to review the current element of
the Page a word at a time. When issued again, it will spell the
current word in the list
6.2 Opening a Page
Opening a Page can be accomplished via a Command Menu option or
the default keystroke commands as noted below:
F2 | openpage | Open a new Page
Shift-F2 | favorites | Go to a Favorite Page previously saved
F2, F2 | openlocalpage | Open a locally stored Page. This
provides a dialog to select the local file to be opened
F2, Down Arrow | | Takes you to the History list of Pages you
have visited in this session
Enter | selectitem | Pressed when on a link on the current
Page or on a History or Favorites list entry
A Page may be opened at any time by pressing F2 to take you into
the Open Page dialog or by following a link on another Page.
When you press F2, you are then requested to enter the address
of the desired Page (please note that the HTTP:// prefix is not
required but the WWW portion, when applicable, is required).
Once the address is entered, the Page is retrieved when you
press the Enter key. You will be given progress messages to let
you know what is happening with the retrieval of the Page.
If you are already on a Page and you are not simply reading the
entire Page, pressing Enter when a link is announced causes the
referenced Page to be retrieved and opened for you. If the link
is to a media source, such as an audio source, then the media
source will be accessed and played.
The F12 key acts as a toggle which turns on and off character by
character reading as you enter the Page address. The F9 key
announces where you are and reads the current value. Pressing F9
again will spell the entry for you.
If you wish to leave the Open Page dialog without fetching a
Page, press Esc or Tab to the CANCEL button and press the Enter
key.
6.2.1 Opening Local Pages
To open a local Page you can either enter the name directly into
the Open Page dialog, or you can select the Page to be opened
from the Open Local Page dialog. You get to the Open Local Page
dialog either via the Command Menu or by pressing F2 twice. An
example of entering the address of a local file into the Open
Page dialog is:
file://c:/webspeak/pwstart.htm
The Select a Local File dialog allows you to review files and
directories and select the file you wish to load. Pressing
Escape will exit you from this dialog back to the Page you were
browsing. In this dialog, the Tab key moves you between the
Drive, Directory and File selection lists. Pressing Enter will
select a file and return you to the Open Page dialog with the
selected file already entered. Pressing Enter again will load
the Page from the selected file.
Drive Selection List - On tabbing into this list, the list name
is appropriately announced and you control movement through the
list using the cursor keys. Press the Space Bar to select the
drive.
Directory Selection List - The cursor keys are used to move to a
directory to be selected, and you use the Space Bar to actually
select a directory. Once a directory is selected, its next level
directories are made available in the Directory List, and any
files in the directory are made available in the File List. You
may move up directory levels simply by selecting a higher level
directory from the list. Each time you move using the cursor
keys, the fully qualified name of the current directory is
announced.
File Selection List - When a directory has been selected all
files in that directory are made available in the File Selection
List. You use the cursor keys to move through the files, with
each file being announced as you move to it. Pressing Enter
selects the file and moves you back to the Open Page dialog with
the selected Page entered. Pressing Enter again will then
retrieve the selected local Page.
NOTE: The F9 key may be used in the Directory and File Selection
Lists to re-read the directory or file name. Pressing F9 a
second time will spell the directory or file name for you.
6.3 Saving a Page
Once a Page has been opened and retrieved it may be saved
locally using the Command Menu or directly using the Control-S
keys. Pages may be saved as pure text, with no HTML tags, or as
an HTML Page. Pages saved in HTML format may then be reviewed
later by pwWebSpeak. The default directory for saved pages is
the "download" sub-directory under the currently specified
working directory. If no working directory is explicitly
specified, then the download sub-directory where pwWebSpeak is
installed is used.
When you enter Control-S to save a Page, you are placed into a
dialog which allows you to select its saved name. Enter only the
file name with no extension. The extension is determined
automatically by your selection of the type of file to be saved.
Once you have entered the file name simply press Tab and move to
each of the function buttons on the dialog to save in HTML or
text format.. In order to change the directory into which the
file will be saved, simply press Tab to move to the drive and
directory lists. Pressing the Space Bar will select the current
drive or directory.
As you move through the dialog elements using the Tab key, each
element is clearly announced and you are provided simple
instructions for interaction with the dialog.
NOTE: When you save a Page as Text, no automatic word wrap is
done on the text, this is left for whatever editor you wish to
use with the file.
Pressing the Esc key will exit you from this dialog without
saving anything and let you continue browsing the current Page.
6.4 Saving a Page Element to the Scrap Book File
When viewing a Page by stepping through the Page Elements, the
current element may be saved and added into the scrap book file
using the Command Menu or by pressing Control-F9. Elements are
appended to the scrap book file allowing multiple selections to
be made from one or more Pages and all selected elements to be
kept. Remember that is your responsibility to remove entries
from the file or to delete the file.
The scrap book file is stored in file scrap.txt which is located
in the working directory, if one is specified, or the pwWebSpeak
installation directory if no working directory is specified.
6.5 Maintaining and Using the Favorites List
The Favorites list provides a way to store the address of a Page
in a local list within the browser so that you may directly call
up the Page at any time in the future. This facility allows
adding Pages to the list, deleting Pages from the list and
browsing and selecting from the list. You can enter the
favorites list via the Command Menu or by using the Shift-F2
command. The full list of functions associated with the
favorites list are shown in the table below.
Shift-F2 | favorites | Opens the list of favorites
Alt-A | addfavorites | Adds the current Page to the favorites
list
Control-A | addfavoritelink | Adds the currently pointed to
link on the Page to the Favorites List, or adds the current
value from the Open Page dialog or History List to the Favorites
List
Cursor Down | nextitem | Moves down through the list of
favorites when they have been opened
Cursor Up | previtem | Moves up through the list of favorites
when they have been opened
Delete | no command | Deletes the currently pointed to
favorites entry. This is a Windows function so there is no
specific command associated with this keystroke.
Enter | selectitem | Opens the currently pointed to favorites
Page
To add a Page to the favorites list, first open the Page and
then either select the appropriate option from the Command Menu
or use the default keystroke command, Alt-A. This will bring up
the favorites dialog and will allow you to enter a textual
description of the Page. When you review the favorites list,
this description is what will be read to you. If you do not
enter a description, then the title of the Page will be used if
present, otherwise the URL of the Page will be used.
To reference your favorites list, use the Command Menu or press
Shift-F2 at any time. You can then scroll through the Pages you
have stored using the Cursor Up and Down keys. If you wish to
delete an entry, simply cursor to that entry and press the
Delete key.
To select a Page, just press Enter.. If you wish to review the
actual URL of a Page in the favorites list, move to that entry
in the list and press F9 twice. The first press of F9 will tell
you where you are and which entry you are on in the list, and
the second press will read the entry to you.
Pressing Esc will exit you from this dialog back to the current
Web Page being browsed.
NOTE: There is no way to directly update the descriptive text of
a favorites list entry. The simplest approach to do this is to
open the favorite Page and then use Alt-A to add a new favorite
with the desired text. You can then go back into the favorites
list and delete the old entry.
6.5.1 The Favorites File - webspeak.fav
The webspeak.fav file contains the favorites list that is
accessible to the user. This is normally created by the user,
but may have been pre-created as part of an application for a
Kiosk or Publicly accessible PC. In order for you to be able to
add or delete from the favorites list, the favorites file must
be in a writable directory. This file always resides, or is
created in, the specified working directory.
NOTE: The format of the webspeak.fav file is new and not
compatible with the format of favorites files from prior
releases. The new favorites file is stored with a new file name
to avoid any confusion with prior releases files.
The format of the Favorites File is the same as that used for
the History List. This enables any entries from the History List
to be added immediately to your favorites. There are six
elements in the file as follows:
* the URL of the Page that was referenced
* the title of the Page
* the user supplied description when the favorite was added
* the Tag number
* the Request field (used internally in the History List only)
* the Entry Type (visual or non-visual, used internally only)
The fourth and fifth entries are the Tag number which was last
being browsed on the Page, and the request data if any was
present for a data entry Form or URL. This allows you to return
to the position in the page that you were browsing, not just to
the top of the page that you were browsing. The sixth entry is
an internal use only and indicates whether the page is a visual
page or not.
When you request to add a Page to the Favorites List, you will
be asked to provide a description. The default description is
always the Page title, but if no title exists then the URL is
used if you do not provide an explicit description. Examples of
entries in the favorites file are:
"http://www.prodworks.com/","The Productivity Works Home
Page","The Home Page of pwWebSpeak",1,"",""
"http://cnn.com/","CNN Interactive","CNN
Interactive",1,"",""
"file://d:/Ch01_01.htm","","file://d:/
Ch01_01.htm",1,"",""
Please note that any type of link may be stored as a favorite.
This includes FTP Pages and Real Audio or Real Video links as
well as standard Pages. This provides you with the most
flexibility possible in creating your favorites list.
6.6 The History List - Going Back to Prior Pages
As you browse Pages, each and every Page you access and each
link you follow within a single session are stored as part of
the history of your session. This includes FTP links, Real Audio
or Real Video links, and links directly to other types of media
files. This History List may be browsed and any Page or Link
from the list may be accessed again.
The History List is created very simply. Each page or link you
reference is added to the list. When you reference a prior entry
from the History List, it is simply added as a new reference.
This gives you an accurate and complete trace of all references
you have made and the exact order in which you made them. No
entries are deleted from the History List.
To review the History List, simply press F2 to bring up the Open
Page dialog and then use the cursor keys to scroll through the
History List. The address of the Page will be read to you as you
move to it. You can go directly to any Page by simply pressing
Enter. You may step backwards through the display pages of the
History List using the Alt-B command. Access to the previous
Page and the full History List are both also available through
the Command Menu.
NOTE: In the situation where you wish to erase or remove your
History List, simply delete the webspeak.his file from your
working directory.
6.6.1 The History List File - webspeak.his
This file contains the history of the pages you have browsed.
This file remains accessible across usage sessions so that you
can go back to a Page you referenced yesterday, for example.
pwWebSpeak must be able to write to this file in order to store
the history across sessions. If the file is not writable, then
the pages referenced will not be added to the History List. This
file always resides, or is created in, the specified working
directory.
The format of the History List File is the same as that used for
the Favorites List. This enables any entries from the History
List to be added immediately to your favorites. There are six
elements in the file as follows:
* the URL of the Page that was referenced
* the title of the Page
* the user supplied description when the favorite was added
(used by the Favorites List only)
* the Tag number of last browsed element
* The Request field
* Entry Type (visual or non-visual)
An example of a History File entry is:
"http://www.prodworks.com/","The Productivity Works Home
Page","",1,"",""
The Tag number which was last being browsed on the Page, and the
request data if any was present for a data entry Form or URL,
allow you to return to the position in the page that you were
browsing, not just to the top of the page that you were
browsing. The Entry Type is used for processing the Back
Command, Alt-B, and determines which entries on the History List
are display pages versus download or media links. In this way
the display pages only are referenced through the Back, Alt-B,
command. All visited sites and files are referencable through
the History List itself.
6.7 Ways to View a Page
When a Page has been retrieved there are multiple ways to browse
the information on the Page. The commands shown below are the
commands you use to traverse through the pages and have them
read to you under your control. Many of these commands are also
directly accessible through the Command Menu.
F10 | pagesummary | Reads a summary of the Page giving the
numbers of headings, links, data entry forms, and a total number
of tags, or elements, on the Page. This provides you an initial
view of the Page and an idea about the pages size and contents.
F5 | linksonpage | Takes you to the list of links on the Page.
You can then use the Cursor Down and Up keys to move through the
links and the Enter or Space Bar to follow a link.
F6 | pageelements | Returns you to the Page browsing mode so
that you step through the Page element by element using the
cursor keys, or you can read the entire Page
F3 | readpage | Reads the entire Page from your current
position
F4 | pause | Pauses or re-starts reading
Q | stop | Stops reading at the current Page element
F8 | pagesearch | Displays the search dialog so that you can
enter a text string to be search for on the Page
Shift-F8 | pagesearchagain | Repeats the previous search you
carried out
A | no command | Looks for the next link on the Page. You need
to use the list of links, F5, to move up and down through the
links themselves. This will just take you to the next sequential
link on the Page. No pwWebSpeak command must be assigned to this
keystroke
H | no command | Looks for the next Heading or section
separator on the Page. No pwWebSpeak command must be assigned to
this keystroke.
P | no command | Looks for the next Paragraph on the Page. No
pwWebSpeak command must be assigned to this keystroke.
Enter | selectitem | Follows the currently pointed to link on
the Page or in the list of links, or opens the currently pointed
to Image Map Menu (see Client-Side Image Maps for details)
Space Bar | selectitem | Follows the currently pointed to link
on the Page or in the list of links, or opens the currently
pointed to Image Map Menu (see Client-Side Image Maps for
details)
Alt-F | incrrate | Increase the reading rate of the speech
synthesizer. This temporarily changes the reading rate and the
changes will be lost at the end of the session. Use the Setup
Dialog, Alt-U, to change the rate permanently.
Alt-L | decrrate | Decrease the reading rate of the speech
synthesizer. This temporarily changes the reading rate and the
changes will be lost at the end of the session. Use the Setup
Dialog, Alt-U, to change the rate permanently.
6.7.1 Recognizing and Reviewing Images
pwWebSpeak does not download or display images, but it does
announce the presence of an image and provide you with
information about the image. If the image on the Page is
specified with a descriptive text, an ALT attribute, then the
descriptive text is read after the presence of the image is
announced. In the situation where no descriptive text is
associated with the image, then the filename of the image file
being referenced is read.
Some Images include links to a long description of the image.
This is specified with the LONGDESC attribute. If an image on
the page contains such a link, it will be announced and you can
go to the Page containing the long description by pressing
Alt-I. When you have reviewed the long description, simply
return to the page you were browsing by using the Command Menu
to go back or the Alt-B command.
NOTE: The presence of the LONGDESC attribute in the Image tag is
by default explicitly voiced through the Audio Style sheet.
6.7.2 Client-Side Image Maps
Client-side Image Maps, or Image Map Menus, provide a way for
the visual user to navigate a set of Pages by using the mouse to
click on areas of the Image. These areas are referred to as hot
zones and they are associated with links to other Pages.
pwWebSpeak supports Image Map Menus by voicing them to you and
allowing you to open the Image Map Menu and select from the
links defined within the menu. You open the Image Map Menu
simply by pressing the Enter key or the Space Bar. You may then
step through the menu items using the up and down cursor keys.
When you wish to follow a link, press the Enter key or the Space
Bar as you would do normally to follow a link.
When an Image Map Menu is defined with Alt tags, these tags are
announced to you to help understand the links. If no descriptive
Alt tags exist, then the actual address, the URL, of the link is
announced.
You leave an Image Map Menu and return to browsing a Page,
simply by pressing the Escape key or the Page Elements key, F6.
6.7.3 Reading Tables within a Page
When the special Page construct called a Table is recognized, it
is read to you from left to right and from top to bottom. Tables
are used by Page authors for both formatting and the
presentation of tabular information.. There are different audio
style sheets available with pwWebSpeak which will either not
announce information about the Table and its structure, or it
will announce such information.
The verbose style sheets will announce the beginning of a Table,
beginning of a row, beginning of a column or cell. In all cases
any titles specified for any area of the Table will also be
announced in context.
There are some special navigation capabilities specifically for
Tables, and these are defined below.
Control-S | findelement:td | Goes to the next cell, or column,
of the table.
Control-A | findprevelement:td | Goes back to the start of the
current cell, or column, on the current row of the table. Using
this command twice, takes you to the start of the previous cell.
Control-W | findelement:tr | This goes to the next row in the
table.
Control-Z | findprevelement:tr | This goes back to the start
of the current row of the table. Using this command twice takes
you to the start of the previous row in the Table.
Control-Q | findelement:table | Go to the next Table on the
Page.
Control-E | findprevelement:table | Go back to the start of
the Table. Using this command twice takes you to the start of
the previous Table on the page.
Cursor Down | nextitem | Moves from Page Element to Page
Element within a Table Cell, and then moves to the next cell.
Cursor Up | previtem | Moves to previous Page Element within
the Cell or within the previous Cell.
6.7.4 Recognizing and Using Pages with Display Frames
Pages that employ Frames are easily recognized as they are
normally very small in size and the Page Summary command, F10,
will announce the number of Frames on the Page.
A Page which contains Frames is simply a Page of links. Each
Frame definition is simply a link to the actual information that
is associated with that Frame.
A Frame is identified both visually and aurally as a "Link to a
Frame" and acts as a link to that Frame. Pressing the Enter key
will then follow the link to the Frame and allow you to review
the contents of the Frame. Going Back (Alt-b) to the parent
Frame allows simple switching between Frames.
When in a Frame, this level of support treats the Frame as a
separate Web Page and a potential path through a set of Web
pages. You can move between Frames only by following the
specific Frame Link to that Frame, by going back using Alt-b or
by following the link from the History List.
6.7.5 Media Support - Audio, Music and Video
Basic support is provided for both Audio and Video file types
with the ability to play most standard types directly from
pwWebSpeak. File types not recognized may be downloaded to a
local file for separate processing. The types of audio and video
files supported are:
* Real Audio and Real Video (audio portion only). File types
of RA, RM, and RAM are supported
* WAV files and AU files
* MIDI files, which are normally music files
* Audio portion of AVI Video files
Media files may be be accessed by directly entering their
address, or URL, whether it is a local or Web address, or by
following a link to the media file from a Page.
The commands which are used to control the audio and media
streams are noted below.
Alt-F | incrrate | Increase the reading speed of the
synthesizer. This setting is lost when you exit pwWebSpeak
unless changed and stored using the Modify Setup dialog (Alt-U).
Alt-L | decrrate | Decrease the reading speed of the
synthesizer. This setting is lost when you exit pwWebSpeak
unless changed and stored using the Modify Setup dialog (Alt-u).
+ | add | (plus on the numeric keypad) - Increase volume on
the synthesizer or the currently active media stream. NOTE: Not
all synthesizers support volume control.
- | subtract | (minus on the numeric keypad) - decrease volume
of the synthesizer or the currently active media stream. NOTE:
Not all synthesizers support volume control.
Shift-F4 | pause | Pause and Re-start playing of a media
stream, e.g.. Real Audio
Page Down | medianext | Skip forward in the media being
played. The type of skip forward is dependent on the player
being used. When a Real Audio or Real Video stream is being
played, the skip is in terms of time. When a Daisy Audio stream
is being played through a supported player, then the skip will
be a phrase.
Page Up | mediaprev | Skip back in the media being played. The
type of skip back is dependent on the player being used. When a
Real Audio or Real Video stream is being played, the skip is in
terms of time. When a Daisy Audio stream is being played through
a supported player, then the skip will be a phrase.
Control-A | addfavoritelink | Add the currently pointed to
link in the Page to your favorites list. This allows you to
store in your favorites direct links to audio or other media
sources.
6.7.6 Downloading Files and FTP Support
FTP is supported within pwWebSpeak and you may use FTP to
download a specific file, an FTP directory, or by following an
FTP link on a Page. When you wish to download a specific file or
directory, simply enter the FTP address in the Open Page dialog.
You do this by selecting the Open New Page entry from the
Command Menu or by pressing F2. An example of an FTP address to
download a file is:
ftp://ftp.jvnc.net/pub/client/prodworks/eval/setupev.exe
When you use FTP the file will be placed in the Download
sub-directory of the current working directory used by
pwWebSpeak. You will be prompted to enter a name for the file to
be downloaded, but the name will already be set by default to
the name of the file in the request.
pwWebSpeak can also be used to download files which are of types
that it cannot display or play through a media player. An
example is an executable file such as setupev.exe which could be
stored as a standard link or at a standard address that is not
an FTP address. The following describes the file types that are
displayed or played by pwWebSpeak, and all other files will be
downloaded to the download sub-directory.
HTM, HTML, ASP, TXT, PL and files with a Content Type specified
of HTML or TEXT | Pages to be displayed and browsed
RA, RM, RAM | Real Media files, audio and video, that are
played
WAV, AU, MID | Audio files that are first downloaded to a
temporary directory and then played
AVI | Video file that is first downloaded to a temporary
directory and then the audio portion is played
6.7.7 Sending E-Mail to Links on the Page
There are two basic types of links that may be defined by Page
authors. The first is a link to another Page, and the second is
a link to an e-mail address. When the link is to an e-mail
address, pwWebSpeak lets you enter e-mail text and send it to
the specified address.
A link to an e-mail address can be recognized by pressing the F9
key twice, to identify where you are and to read the current
URL. The URL is always prefixed with the word MAILTO followed by
an e-mail address. For example:
mailto:[log in to unmask]
When you access such a link you will be placed in the e-mail
dialog to enter a subject for the e-mail and then the actual
message you wish to send. When you have entered your message,
press the Tab key to the Send E-Mail control, which will be
announced to you, and then press the Space Bar or press Enter.
To exit the e-mail dialog either Tab to the Cancel control and
press Enter or the Space Bar, or just press Escape.
When you are entering either the subject or the message text,
you can read back what you have entered by pressing F9. You can
review word by word by pressing F11, and you can review
character by character using the cursor left and right keys.
NOTE: In order for you to successfully send e-mail, you need to
have the e-mail parameters set correctly in pwWebSpeak's setup
dialog. See the section on Setting Up Your E-Mail Response
Capability for details of how to do this.
6.8 Filling in Forms
The presence of a data entry Form on a Page may be confirmed by
using the Page Summary function, F10, which provides you a
summary of the Page and includes the number of data entry forms
present. A Data Entry Form will also be announced as you are
browsing through the Page. You can move directly to a Data Entry
Form on a Page using the Command Menu option of Searching for
the Form, or you can simply press the Tab key until the Data
Entry Form is announced. The Tab key will move between different
views of the Page, the Data Entry Forms being the third of the
views.
Usually you will simply come across the Data Entry form as the
Page is being read to you. When you are at the Data Entry Form
you can fill in the form as described below.
6.8.1 Completing A Form
Using the Tab key to move between data entry fields:
When you reach a Data Entry Form, pressing Enter will
take you into the fields of the Form. The Tab key will
then move you forward and backwards from one field to
another in the form. The text associated with the field
will be announced as part of the fields description and
depending upon the type of field, you either type in
your entry or use the arrow keys to select from a set of
choices such as a list of items or radio buttons.
At any point you may examine the text on the form before
the field or after the field by using the Alt-P,
previous text, and Alt-N, Next text commands.
When the field contains your desired entry or selection,
use the tab key to go to the next field and follow the
same procedure until you hear the announcement of the
Form's submit button. Form buttons are activated by
pressing Enter or the Space Bar.
Prior to submitting the form you may cycle through your
entries by using the tab or shift-tab keys. As you enter
each field, the current value or setting of the field
will be announced.
Using Page Elements and the arrow keys:
When pwWebSpeak encounters a data form by using the
arrow keys, it will announce the presence of the Data
Entry Form. Reviewing the Form as a set of Page Elements
allows you to examine all aspects of the Form and the
text specified with the fields. When you hear a field
announced, pressing Enter or the Space Bar takes you
into that field. When you are anywhere within the Form,
pressing Enter or the Space Bar takes you to the nearest
Form field.
To exit a field and return to browsing the Form as Page
Elements, press the Escape key.
The Page Elements approach is used most frequently when
you are using a Data Entry Form for the first time. It
allows a very detailed analysis of the Form, the text
included within the Form and the fields it contains.
Getting a Summary of the Form and the Field Values on the Form
When you are positioned within any of the fields of a
Form, pressing the Summarize command, F10, will give you
an analysis of the number and type of fields present on
the Form itself. When you have entered data or
selections for fields, pressing Summariz, F10, a second
time, will give you a review of the fields and their
values. These are presented as a list which you can move
through using the Curror Down and Up keys. This is a
review only facility, and it does not allow you to make
any modifications to the field values. To return to the
Date Entry Form, press Escape.
6.8.2 Types of Form Fields Supported
There are a few basic constructs used when building Forms, and
the ones supported are discussed below. Depending on the design
of the form, it may be more efficient to use the Page Element
technique discussed above, or to simply use the Tab key to move
through the form. It is assumed here that you are already in the
field, ready to fill it in.
Single Line Text Entry Fields: Type in the desired data
followed by Tab or Escape.
Multi-Line Text Entry Fields: These are usually used for
address or general feedback type of information. To
enter a new line of input, you must use the
Control-Enter rather than just the Enter key. If you use
the Enter key, you will simply submit the Form for
processing.
Radio Buttons: You must make a single selection from
among several choices. They are announced as "Select
from Radio Button List" followed by the associated text.
You may move among the available options with the cursor
keys and press Tab or Enter at your desired selection.
Checkbox: Checkboxes are announced as "Checkbox" and the
associated text is read. Pressing the Space Bar selects
or deselects the checkbox item. Pressing Tab takes you
to the next field, or pressing Escape takes you back to
Page Elements. Each Checkbox on the Form is dealt with
as a separate field.
List Box: List Boxes are announced as "Select Value from
List" and its default choice is also announced. Cursor
keys move through the list. Pressing a letter key moves
to the first item in the list beginning with that
letter. Pressing the Tab key selects your choice and
moves to the next field, or pressing Enter selects the
choice and takes you back to Page Elements.
Form Action Buttons: Form Buttons are announced as the
text displayed on the button itself followed by the
buttons function, e.g. Submit Form. Pressing the Space
Bar submits the form.
6.9 Searching the Web
Any search engines may be used to search the Web using the forms
processing functions within pwWebSpeak simply by going to their
Web pages and entering the search information via their forms.
Pressing F7, however, provides a simple version of a standard
front-end to a specified search engine.
You are taken directly to a form to fill in which is then
submitted to the search engine. The results from the search are
the standard response pages produced by search engines and are
browsed in the same way as any other Web pages.
The default search engine supported by this function is Alta
Vista, but you may change the webspeak.ini file as noted in
section on the pwWebSpeak INI File.
Simplified search pages are also provided locally that allow you
to select which search engine you wish to use. This search Page
is in the pwWebSpeak installation directory and is pwsearch.htm
6.10 Control of Visual Presentation
The physical view of the large character display incorporates
the ability to change character size as well as foreground and
background colors.
Control of font, font size, foreground and background colors,
are all provided through the webspeak.ini file as described in
The [Settings] Section - Other Options. Several of these
settings may also be changed dynamically when you are using
pwWebSpeak with the commands noted below.
Shift-F11 | incrfontsize | Incrementally increases the font
size of the display
Control-F11 | decrfontsize | Incrementally decreases the font
size of the display
Shift-F12 | forecolor | Cycles through pre-set foreground
colors. Please note that these may be set as INI parameters. See
the section on the pwWebSpeak Initialization File for details
Control-F12 | backcolor | Cycles through pre-set background
colors. Please note that these may be set as INI parameters. See
the section on the pwWebSpeak Initialization File for details
6.11 Terminating a pwWebSpeak Session
Pressing the Alt-F4 or Alt-X keys provides a dialog through
which you may terminate a pwWebSpeak session and be returned to
Windows.
Alt-F4 will always exit from pwWebSpeak while Alt-X provides you
an option to cancel the exit process and stay in pwWebSpeak.
----------
7. Customizing the Keyboard Commands
Navigation and control of pwWebSpeak is done using a series of
commands for the various functions that are available within the
system, and the mapping of these commands to specific keystrokes
is modifiable. The file which modifies the command mapping must
be stored in the active directory as specified to pwWebSpeak at
execution time. If no file is found which explicitly modifies
the keyboard mapping, then the default mapping is used.
Each keyboard accessible command within the system is identified
by a specific command name. In order to map the commands to
specific key strokes you define the keystroke and the command in
a table called:
webspeak.key
The re-mappings you provide will then override the normal system
defaults for that specific key stroke. All other defaults will
remain in effect.
The currently active key stroke and command combinations are
generated for review purposes each time the system is executed.
This enables you to review exactly the settings for the last
execution of the system. The current settings are generated into
a file called:
wscurrent.key
and this file is placed in the currently active directory as
specified to pwWebSpeak at execution time.
The commands which may be mapped to the keyboard are each
identified by a specific command name. Each of the commands are
specified in the Command Summary section along their default
keyboard mapping and description.
7.1 Syntax of the webspeak.key File
This is the file in which you specify keyboard mappings which
are to override the defaults.
The general syntax is:
[key modifier]
key = command
key = command
[key modifier]
key = command
key = command
[key modifier]
There are four valid key modifiers, as follows:
[SHIFT] This specifies that the Shift key must be held
down when the keystroke is made
[CONTROL] This specifies that the Control key must be
held down when the keystroke is made
[ALT] This specifies that the Alt key must be held
down when the keystroke is made
[NORMAL] This indicates that the keystroke on its own
with no other key modifier will cause the specified
commands to be executed
key
This specifies the key that must be pressed for the command to
be executed. This must be pressed in conjunction with the
appropriate key modifier.
command
This specifies the command that is to be associated with the key
and the key modifier. A special command, called NOACTION is also
provided so that specific key combinations may be explicitly
turned off. The set of commands are specified in the section
Command Summary.
There are certain commands which may be specified with an
additional element which qualifies the command. These commands
are as follows:
findelement:tag - where tag is the HTML tag you wish to
find. An example would be findelement:table to find the
next Table tag on the Page or findelement:/form to skip
to the end of a data entry form on the Page.
findprevelement:tag - the same as above except a reverse
search on the Page, for example to skip back to the
start of a Table you would specify findprevelement:table
linkto:URL - where URL is the fully qualified URL, or
address, of the Page you wish to open. An example would
be for opening the CNN home page where this is specified
as linkto:http://cnn.com. The URL specified may be
either a local file, a LAN-based file, or a Web-based
file.
7.2 Example webspeak.key File
The example shown below assigns a few commands to new key
strokes and turns off access to some commands.
;
; Example webspeak.key file
;
[SHIFT]
F11=NOACTION
[CONTROL]
F11=NOACTION
[ALT]
I=incrfontsize
D=decrfontsize
Please note that multiple keystrokes may be assigned to the same
command, and that keystrokes and commands assigned in the user
mapping file, webspeak.key, will override the default
assignments if the same keystroke is assigned. When pwWebSpeak
is executed, the current keyboard mapping is generated into a
file for review purposes. This generation is done at each
execution of pwWebSpeak with wscurrent.key being the file that
is generated. The format of wscurrent.key is the same as that
for webspeak.key which is defined above.
----------
8. Customizing the Help File
The Help file used by pwWebSpeak is actually generated
dynamically from a Help File Template and any Keyboard
Customization that you may have done. In this way the Help file
accurately reflects the keyboard commands that you have
specified.
The Help File Template is a standard file that is created at
installation time and is called:
webspeak.pwh.tpl
This file provides the means through which you can customize, or
translate, the help text that is presented to the user. The file
is broken into two sections, a section of headings and the
section that provides help for each of the pwWebSpeak commands.
The Help text is specified for the command so that it is
independent of the keystroke that you assign to the command, and
also independent of how the command is used in the Command Menu.
The headings section is the first section of the template file
and consists of any number of individually numbered lines. Each
of the heading entries becomes a separate entry in the help file
with the user moving between them by pressing the down or up
cursor key. A special entry is required to terminate the heading
entries as shown in the example below:
1$To listen to help text, press the cursor key to move
through help topics. To end help, press Enter. Last
updated, July 5, 1998.
2$To use p w WebSpeak, you use a combination of function
keys, cursor keys, and the Enter key.
3$When p w WebSpeak loads a Page, it creates a series of
lists that you can use to listen to the Page.
4$The basic lists are: Jumps and Links, Page Elements,
and Word List. Function keys, Lists, and other controls
are defined below.
5$Function Keys are numbered F1 through F12 and are
located at the top of your keyboard.
6$endintro
In the heading entries, and in the entries for each command, the
end of the entry is determined by a carriage return and line
feed. This is simply specified by pressing Enter when you have
completed an entry using any standard text editor. The generic
layout for each command help text is as follows:
command name$, Help text for the command
An example of providing the help text template for specific
commands is:
help$, Help
openpage$, Open a Web Page. You will be prompted to
enter a Web Page address. You do not have to type h t t
p. Use cursor down and up keys to move through the
history list and the Enter key to select a Web Page from
the History list.
favorites$, Open the favorites list. Use the cursor down
and up arrow keys to move through the list and the Enter
key to select a favorite.
addfavorites$, Add the currently open Page to your
favorites list.
pagesummary$, Provides a brief summary of what the
current Web Page consists of.
readpage$, Read the current Page from current position
to finish.
pause$, Pause and Resume reading a Page (if supported by
synthesizer)
NOTE: A full list of pwWebSpeak commands is given in the section
Command Summary.
When pwWebSpeak is executed, the actual help file to be used is
generated dynamically from a combination of the Help Template
file and the Keyboard customizations specified in the
webspeak.key file (see the section on Customizing the Keyboard
Commands for details of how keyboard commands may be customized).
NOTE: The actual help file is then generated into the file
webspeak.pwh and will be generated in the order of the template
file and with the contents of only those commands specified in
the template file.
In the case of the Command Menu, when help is requested on a
command that does not have help text specified in the template
file, then a simple message indicating that No Help Text Is
Available is announced.
A partial extract from the actual help file, the webspeak.pwh
file, is:
To listen to the help text press the cursor key to move
down and up. To end help, press Enter. Last updated,
June 30, 1998.
Escape, stops speaking or audio playback as well as a
web page retrieval or download transfer in progress.
this will also exit a special dialog like the open web
page dialog.
F1, displays this help text.
F2, open a web page. you will be prompted to enter a web
page address. you do not have to type h t t p. use
cursor down and up keys to move through the history list
and the enter key to select a web page from the history
list.
F3, reads the current page from current position to
finish.
F4, pause and resume reading a page (if supported by
synthesizer).
F5, select the jumps and links list, which contains just
all links on the web page. use the cursor keys to move
through the list, and the enter key to select a link.
Q, stops speaking or audio playback as well as a web
page retrieval or download transfer in progress. this
will also exit a special dialog like the open web page
dialog.
Up, moves to the previous item on the page or on a list.
Down, moves to the next element on the page or on a list.
Home, move to the top of the page or list.
End, moves to the last item on the page or on a list.
shift+F2, open the favorites list. use the cursor down
and up arrow keys to move through the list and the enter
key to select a favorite.
----------
9. Customizing the Audio Style Sheet
The Audio Style Sheet is the way in which pwWebSpeak determines
which items on a Page will be identified as individual Page
Elements for browsing purposes, and how different items should
be announced to provide information about the context of the
Page.
Items on a Page are defined by the HTML tags which are used to
define the presentation of the Page itself. Instead of a visual
presentation, the Page is additionally processed through the
Audio Style Sheet to provide an auditory presentation for the
Page. The manner in which the auditory presentation is created
may be customized to suite a user's style or the requirements of
a particular application or type of usage. In order to customize
the Audio Style Sheet at least a basic knowledge of HTML is
required.
There are six style sheets that are provided when pwWebSpeak is
installed. These represent different usage styles for the degree
and type of contextual announcements that are made. These
different audio style sheets provide excellent examples of
different customizations that can be achieved with this very
flexible function.
The available style sheets are:
webspeak_brief.tld - This is the standard brief audio
style sheet and provides short, concise, announcements
of the contextual elements of the page.
webspeak_sounds.tld - This is an equivalent to the
standard brief style sheet but with musical sounds used
to identify links on the page. Links are identified with
a guitar chord being played. These sounds are played as
MIDI files and will be heard in the background as the
text is being read from the Page.
webspeak_table.tld - This is equivalent to the standard
brief style sheet with additional contextual
announcements specifically for browsing tabular
information. This style sheet announces the start of
tables, start of rows, as well as each column element,
or cell, within the table. It may be useful to switch to
this style sheet specifically for reviewing tabular
information.
webspeak_table_sounds.tld - This combines the tabular
announcements with the musical sounds to identify the
link within the page.
webspeak_verbose.tld - This is an audio style sheet
which provides a more verbose set of announcements
regarding the contextual information on a Page. This
includes the tabular announcements as well as
announcements of lists and the type of of lists being
reviewed. This style sheet is useful to review more
details of a Page and more of the context in which
information is presented.
webspeak_verbose_sounds.tld - This audio style sheet
combines the verbose with the musical sound previously
described.
The general layout of the audio style sheet files is as follows:
tag.parameter > pwtab=n fold=n pwspch="contextual
announcement" vistag="text to be displayed" sound="sound
file to be played"
tag.parameter >
This identifies the HTML tag or attribute you wish to recognize,
ignore, or have announced in some way. Some examples are:
a.href > for the anchor tag that specifies a link to
another place
img > for an image tag
img.longdesc > for an image tag which contains a
LONGDESC attribute and an associated description file
h1 > for a heading level 1
form > for the form tag which indicates the start of a
data entry form
input.text > a text input field on a data entry form
input.checkbox > a checkbox input field on a data entry
form
Tags and Attributes of Tags
In order to process some types of Tags meaningfully into Page
Elements for browsing, it is necessary to identify not just a
Tag but also a parameter of the Tag. This is the case with the
Anchor Tag, the Input Tag for data entry fields on a Form, and
an image's Long Description parameter. Examples of these are
shown below:
A.HREF > pwtab=1 pwspch="" vistag=" -Link- "
sound="link_hi.mid"
IMG.LONGDESC > pwtab=1 pwspch="Image with Associated
Description File." vistag=" - Image with description
File - "
INPUT.PASSWORD > pwtab=3 pwspch="Password" vistag="
-Password Field- \n"
INPUT.TEXT > pwtab=3 pwspch="entry field" vistag=" -Text
Field- \n"
INPUT.HIDDEN > pwtab=3 pwspch="hidden" vistag=" -Hidden
Field- \n"
INPUT.CHECKBOX > pwtab=3 pwspch="checkbox" vistag="
-CheckBox- \n"
INPUT.RADIO > pwtab=3 pwspch="radio button" vistag="
-Radio button- \n"
INPUT.SUBMIT >pwtab=3 pwspch="submit button" vistag="
-Submit- \n"
INPUT.RESET >pwtab=3 pwspch="reset button" vistag="
-Reset button- \n"
NOTE: Specification Tags within the Style Sheet, and recognition
of Tags within a Page, is not case sensitive.
pwtab=n
The pwtab parameter is a critical one in defining the style
sheet. This determines whether the Tag being defined will become
a separate Page Element for browsing purposes, and how it will
be treated in relation to the preceding and following items on
the Page being presented. Values of 0, 1, 2, or 3 are permitted,
with each value having the meaning described below:
pwtab=0 - Do not create this as a separate Page Element,
simply fold this into the previous Page Element if it
permits folding. Any contextual announcement, as defined
in the pwspch parameter, and any text to read from the
Page that follows this Tag, will be read as part of the
previous Page Element.
The exception is if there is not a previous Page Element
or if the previous Page Element does not permit the
folding in of following Tags, as defined by the fold
parameter described below. In these cases a new Page
Element is always created.
pwtab=1 - Create a new Page Element if the previous Page
Element had text on the Page to be read. If the previous
Page Element resulted in only a contextual announcement
from the pwspch parameter, then that announcement is
folded into this Page Element. The exception is if the
previous Page Element does not permit folding.
pwtab=2 - Always create a new Page Element. The Page
Element will consist of the contextual announcement
specified in the pwspch parameter, the text from the
Page that is associated with the Tag, and then the
following Tag if folding is permitted. An example is:
FRAME > pwtab=2 fold=0 pwspch="Frame Link" vistag="\n -
Frame -\n"
This would have the effect of creating a new element.
You would see the visual text, defined by the vistag
parameter, highlighted and any text following the FRAME
Tag. You would then hear the contextual announcement
from the pwspch parameter, and any text following. The
next Tag on the Page would cause a new element to be
created because fold was set to 0, which means do not
fold this Tag into any following Tag.
pwtab=3 - Create a new Page Element using ONLY the
contextual announcement defined in the pwspch parameter.
Any text associated with this Tag will become a separate
Page Element. This should be used for all Form fields as
this has the effect of providing the best browsing
control when moving through Forms on a Page. This way
the actual field is identified as a separate Page
Element for browsing and interaction purposes. This will
highlight the visual display Tag, vistag, and read the
contextual announcement, but will not include the actual
Form field. It is recommended to always specify a vistag
with this option so that the incremental Page Element
highlighting will retain its actual position on the
page. Examples are:
SELECT > pwtab=3 pwspch="Selection List Box." vistag="
-List Box- \n"
TEXTAREA > pwtab=3 pwspch="A Memo Field." vistag=" -memo
field- \n "
fold=n
The fold parameter is used to determine if following Tags may be
folded into this one for contextual announcement and reading
purposes. The parameter is either set to 0, indicating that
folding is not permitted, or to 1, indicating that folding is
permitted. The default if no fold parameter is specified is to
allow folding.
fold=0 - folding of this Tag into the previous Page
Element is not permitted. This means that this Tag will
result in a new Page Element being created. This would
typically be used for ending Tags such as </Table> or
</BLOCKQUOTE>. An example is:
/BLOCKQUOTE > fold=0 pwtab=0 pwspch=" End Quote. "
fold=1 - This is default if no fold parameter is
specified, and indicates that this Tag, both the
contextual announcement and the text from the Page, may
be folded into the previous Page Element.
pwspch="contextual announcement"
This defines an announcement that will be read when the Tag is
recognized. Usually the announcement helps define the context of
the Tag, for example:
TABLE > pwtab=2 pwspch=" Start of Tabular Information. "
vistag=" - Start of Table - \n"
/TABLE > pwtab=2 fold=0 pwspch=" End of Table." vistag="
- End of Table - /n"
vistag="text to be displayed"
This defines the visual text that will be displayed by
pwWebSpeak to identify the presence of this Tag. There is an
additional element which may be included in the vistag parameter
which explicitly instructs pwWebSpeak to create a new line. This
is done by specifying \n within the text where the new line
should occur. An example is:
TABLE > pwtab=2 pwspch=" Start of Tabular Information. "
vistag=" - Start of Table - \n"
NOTE: If you have a Tag which is defined as being, or possibly
being, a Page Element on its own, and which will have no text
associated with it , then you should specify a vistag as a place
holder for the highlighting process. If you do not, there will
be no explicit location for the Page Element to be highlighted
and so the position will be established at the top of the Page
until the next Page Element with associated text or a vistag.
sound="sound file to be played"
It is possible for any Tag to play a sound instead of, or as
well as, reading a contextual announcement. If a speech
synthesizer is being used which is a software-only speech
synthesizer, like SoftVoice or the DECtalk Software synthesizer,
then you should only use sounds that are MIDI files so that they
do not conflict with the speech synthesizer itself. This will
ensure that the specified sound will be played while the
associated text is actually being read.
In the example below, a Heading level 2 Tag, H2, is defined with
a pwspch parameter indicating that this is a sub-heading, as
well as a sound parameter. The pwspch announcement will be read,
and the specified sound file will be played, at the same time.
H2 > pwtab=1 pwspch="A Sub-Heading." vistag="\n"
sound="h2.mid"
In general, either the pwspch parameter or the sound parameter
are used to indicate contextual information, although both can
be used together if desired.
----------
10. Customizing the Command Menu
The Command Menu is loaded dynamically from the webspeak.mnu
file each time pwWebSpeak is executed. The webspeak.mnu file
contains the definition for the Command Menu and if this does
not exist, then no Command Menu will be available to the user.
The Command Menu is an extremely useful and simple facility to
customize. It can be customized simply for user preference, or
for specific application or user interface styles.
In order to customize the menu, simply edit the webspeak.mnu
file. This is specified in a simple format with headings
specified in square brackets and detailed menu items being
assigned to the desired pwWebSpeak command. A simple example
with three headings - Open Page, On the Current Page, and Search
Functions - and a few menu items for each heading, is shown
below:
[Open Page]
Open New Web Page (keyboard equivalent is F2)=openpage
Back to Prior Page (keyboard equivalent is
Alt-B)=backpage
Reload Current Page (keyboard equivalent is
Control-R)=reload
[On the Current Page]
Page Summary or Form Summary (keyboard equivalent is
F10)=pagesummary
Read the Page (keyboard equivalent is F3)=readpage
[Search Functions]
Search the Web (keyboard equivalent is F7)=websearch
Look for specified text on Current Page (keyboard
equivalent is F8)=pagesearch
Go to End of Table=findelement:/table
Skip to the end of the Data Entry Form=findelement:/form
The general layout for the Command Menu definition is as follows:
[main menu heading text]
menu item text=command
Any number of menu headings may be specified and any number of
menu items may be specified for each heading. When the menu is
used, the user is first presented with the menu headings. The
scroll through these using the cursor down and up keys. You move
to the detailed menu items by pressing the Space Bar or the
Enter key when positioned on the desired heading. The detailed
menu items are then presented. The user then selects an action
and presses Enter or the Space Bar to cause the action to occur.
A full list of available commands is given in the Command
Summary section.
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End of Document
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