Author: Gerry Chevalier

Gerry Chevalier is a retired IT consultant and assistive technology Product Manager. He currently is the co-coordinator of GTT Edmonton, a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind. GTT (Get Together With Technology) Edmonton is a self-help peer mentoring group of blind and visually impaired people who meet monthly to share their experiences and learn how assistive technologies can help them lead more independent lives.

Windows Screen Reader Experience, An Overview, April 7, 2021

The recent CCB presentation on Windows Screen Reader Experience has been posted to the CCB podcast feed. Following are the show notes and a link to download the podcast recording.

Show Notes:

Date: April 7, 2021

Theme:

Windows Screen Reader Experience

Use the above link to download the podcast.

Presenter: Gerry Chevalier

In this 43 minute podcast, Gerry will demonstrate the experience of using Windows from the keyboard with a screen reader and no mouse. The presentation is not intended to teach screen readers but rather provide an experience of what it is like to use a screen reader when you cannot see the screen or use the mouse. It is intended for low vision people who are struggling to use Windows with a mouse as their vision loss progresses and they might wonder what the screen reader experience is like. For his presentation Gerry will use the Narrator screen reader since it is part of Windows 10. He will demonstrate:

  • Desktop navigation
  • Document’s folder navigation
  • Editing and saving a document in Notepad
  • Using Outlook email
  • Using a web browser

Excel from the Keyboard, An Introduction Using NVDA, December 16, 2020

The recent CCB presentation on Excel has been posted to the CCB podcast feed. Following are the show notes and download link.

Show Notes:

December 16, 2020

Theme: Excel from the Keyboard Intro

Use the above link to download the podcast audio file.

Presenter: Gerry Chevalier

GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com

 

In this 18 minute presentation, Gerry demonstrates the experience of using Excel from the keyboard . Gerry demonstrates building a simple grocery shopping list to show basic keyboard navigation and screen reader commands to operate Excel. It is not an instructional Excel podcast but just a demo of what it’s like to use Excel with a screen reader and no mouse.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Series has ended, December 16, 2020

Attention: This is the final reminder that the Windows from the Keyboard Tips blog series has ended. If you have an idea for a future GTT blog series, please email it to:

gtt@ccbnational.net

I hope you have enjoyed reading the tips as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing them.

Happy computing, Gerry Chevalier

Windows from The Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Excel Reviewing Formulas, December 9, 2020

Attention: This blog series ends today. This is the last post. If you have an idea for a future GTT blog series email it to:

GTT@ccbnational.net

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows 10 and Office 365.

The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is the last tip of this series.

Microsoft Excel – Reviewing Formulas

When arrowing up/down/left/right among the cells in a spreadsheet the screen reader will announce the value of the cell and if there is a formula attached to the cell, the screen reader will also tell you. You can edit the cell’s data/formula by pressing F2. To quickly review formulas in multiple cells without the need to press F2 on each cell, simply press Control+` and the display will revert to formulas instead of values. As you arrow around the cells, you will now hear the screen reader announce the cell formulas instead of cell values. Press Control+` to revert to displaying cell values.

That’s it for this blog series on Windows from the Keyboard Tips. Don’t forget to contact CCB if you have ideas for future blogs. I hope you have enjoyed reading the tips as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing them.

Here’s a bonus tip courtesy of Albert Ruel to round out the series. Many of the tips have focused on Microsoft Office. There is a user support email list for those who use the Office suite of programs with assistive technology such as screen readers and magnification software. To learn more, visit:

Office-Accessibility at Groups.IO

Or you can subscribe directly by sending an email to:

office-accessibility+subscribe@groups.io

Happy computing, Gerry Chevalier

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Excel with JAWS and NVDA – Speak Row and Column Headings, December 2, 2020

Attention: This blog series will end next Wednesday, December 9, 2020. If you have an idea for a future GTT blog series email it to:

GTT@ccbnational.net

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows 10 and Office 365.

The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Excel with JAWS and NVDA – Speak Row/Column Headers

Screen reader users can set Excel column and row headings to be announced automatically while navigating cells.

If you want JAWS and NVDA to speak the row and column headings of your sheet as you arrow around the cells, follow these steps.

  • Position the cursor at the intersection of the row and column headings. For example, if row 3 contains the column headers and column A contains the row headers you would place your cursor in cell A3.
  • Press the Applications key or Shift+F10. This brings up a context menu. Arrow down the menu and press Enter on the Define Name item.

· This opens the Define Name dialogue with your cursor in the name field. Type “Title1..Z99” without the quotes and press Enter. You will be placed back in your document. You have defined a special name for cell A3 that JAWS and NVDA will recognize. Now, when you arrow around the cells you will hear the column and row headings announced. Note there are two periods in that defined name and that Z99 is an arbitrary cell that marks the bottom right corner of the region for which your headings pertain. If Z99 is not the appropriate bottom right cell of your title region, then change it to the cell reference that works in your case.

· If you have multiple regions in your worksheet with differing titles, just repeat the process for each region and change the Define Name to be Title2 etc. For example let’s say you have 2 regions with different column headers. One set of column headers is row 1 and it pertains to the first 10 rows. The second set of column headers is row 12 and it pertains to the rest of the rows in the sheet. Position at cell a1 and then bring up the Define Names dialogue using the context menu and type your first define name as:

Title1..Z10

Then position at cell A12, again bring up the Define Names dialog and type your second title reference as:

Title2..Z99

You may later edit or remove name definitions by using the Manage Names dialogue which can be opened with Control+F3.

  • These Excel Defined Names remain with the spreadsheet even if it’s document file is renamed or moved.

Note that there are relevant screen reader settings for column and title heading announcements to work.

  • JAWS: With Excel running, press JAWS key + V to open the Quick Settings dialogue. Type, “title”, (without the quotes) in the search box, Tab to the search results, arrow down to the Define Names Column and ROW Override setting and be sure it is set to Off. Then Tab to the OK button and press Enter.
  • NVDA: Press NVDA key + N to open the NVDA menu, choose Preferences and then Settings. Then arrow down to the Document Formatting category. Then Tab to the Row/Column Headers setting and be sure it is checked. Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

That’s it for this tip. Only 1 tip remains! Don’t forget to contact CCB if you have ideas for future blogs.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Excel – Auto Adjust Column Width, November 25, 2020

Attention: This blog series will end December 9, 2020. If you have an idea for a future GTT blog series email it to:

gtt@ccbnational.net

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows 10 and Office 365.

The tips in this Windows from the Keyboard series do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Excel – Auto Adjust Column Width to Fit Contents

Excel sets a default width for each column. If you type more text than can fit in a column, or if a calculation yields a large number that is too wide for the column, then visually the extra characters are cut off. They are not visible. However, for screen reader users the complete cell contents are still spoken, so screen reader users won’t know if some of their cells have cut off text that cannot be seen. . Note: JAWS does have a setting to control notifying you of nonvisible text and NVDA notifies you automatically.

To ensure all the data in your columns is visible to sighted readers, you will want to automatically adjust the column width to fit the contents. To do this:

  • Press Control+Space to select the column.
  • Press Alt+H, O, I and press Enter. Excel will automatically adjust the column width to fit the widest cell.

That’s it for this tip. Only 2 tips remain! Don’t forget to contact CCB if you have ideas for future blogs.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Excel Useful Shortcuts Part 2, November 18, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions. The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Excel – Useful Shortcuts Part 2

  • Press Applications key to open a context menu of things you can do to a cell or selection of cells such as sorting cells, inserting a cell or copied cells, or inserting a link.
  • Press F2 to edit a cell. This is the typical way to edit a long formula. Press Enter or TAB to finish your editing. Press Escape to exit without changing the cell.
  • Press Control+1 to edit the formatting of a cell or selected cells. Note this opens a multi-tab formatting dialogue where you can move from tab to tab with Control+TAB.
  • Press Control+; (semicolon) to insert today’s date into the current cell.
  • Press Control+F to search the worksheet or selected cells.
  • Press Control+H to search and replace within the worksheet or selected cells.
  • Press Alt+I, R, Enter to insert a new row.
  • Press Alt+I, C, Enter to insert a new column.
  • Press Alt+E, D, R, Enter to delete the current row.
  • Press Alt+E, D, C, Enter to delete the current column.
  • Pres Alt+H, I, S to insert a new worksheet.
  • Press Alt+H, D, S to delete the current worksheet.
  • To rename a worksheet, press Alt+H, O, R and then type the new name.
  • Press Control+PageDown or Control+PageUp to switch to the next or previous worksheet within a workbook.
  • Press Control+Shift+S to bring up a list of all worksheets from which you can arrow to select the worksheet you want to switch to.
  • Press Control+F3 to open the Name Manager where you can define names for cells or ranges of cells. For JAWS and NVDA users, this is where you would define special names for row and column titles that will allow those screen readers to speak row and column titles as you arrow around in the spreadsheet.
  • Press Control+S to save an existing workbook or F12 to open the Save As dialogue to save a new workbook.
  • For more info here is the complete list of Excel shortcuts.
  • And here is more info on basic Excel tasks using a screen reader.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

GTT Edmonton Meeting Notes, Hearing Assistive Tech, November 9, 2020

Summary Notes

GTT Edmonton Meeting November 9,  2020

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Edmonton Chapter was held November 9 7pm as a Zoom virtual meeting.

18 people attended.

IMPORTANT: Read the Additional Resources section following the meeting notes to learn about one on one telephone support, the National blog, CCB Podcast, Zoom meetings, and the support email list.

Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading.

November Topic: Hearing Tech, CNIB Old Time Radio, Sharing Circle

Sound Booster Program for Windows

Bruce Toews (pronounced taves) from Winnipeg was our guest. Bruce is blind and has a severe hearing impairment. Bruce described a software product he purchased for Windows 10 which boosts the audio on his PC with a simple hotkey. The volume can be raised as much as 5 times the normal maximum Windows volume. The program is called Sound Booster and costs $20 per year. It will increase the volume of audio including your screen reader voice, audio files, YouTube, Zoom meetings – any kind of audio on the computer. The program is not available for MAC computers. If you discontinue the annual subscription fee, the program will continue to operate but you won’t receive further updates.

Bruce commented there appears to be a bug with audio output from the Google Chrome or Edge browsers. This would include anything you might listen to with your browser such as YouTube or web conferences. For audio from a browser to benefit from Sound Booster you must use the Firefox browser.

Personal Listening Systems

Bruce described the system he uses for conversation within his home and for listening in groups such as a church service or meeting. The system consists of a pair of FM transmitter and receiver units that clip to your belt or clothing and transmit a mono audio signal between each other using the 2.4GHz FM analog band. You connect headphones and a lavalier microphone to these units. When one person speaks into the microphone the other person can hear them in the headphones.

The range is very impressive. Bruce and his wife, Caroline, live in a high-rise condo building. Bruce was able to have a conversation with Caroline while he was down on the first floor of the building and she was on the 12th floor.

When Bruce attends a group presentation such as a conference or church service, he gives a transmitter and microphone to the presenter or pastor and can hear the presentation from anywhere in the room. You can learn more about this personal listening system from Harris Communications.

Old Time Radio

For those of you who are fans of old time radio shows from the 30’s through 50’s, Bruce is the program manager of Mushroom Escape which is a channel of the MushroomFM Internet radio station that features blind DJs playing music from the 50’s through 80’s. If you wish to contact Bruce about his hearing assistive technology or his Mushroom Escape radio program you can reach him at:

Bruce@mushroomfm.com

Caroline Toews and Sharing Circle Zoom Group

Caroline who is also blind and an expert with technology,  invited members of our meeting to join her in the CNIB Zoom meeting called the Sharing Circle. It is a community social peer mentoring group that meets the first Wednesday of the month to discuss a wide variety of topics. The upcoming meeting is December 2 from 10 to 12noon Central. It will be a discussion of cooking and recipes. Caroline is very excited to provide information about her favorite accessible website that she uses to find recipes, do meal planning, and even generate her grocery shopping list. The web site is called Plan to Eat. Learn all about it at the December 2 Sharing Circle. You can register directly for the session by contacting Joanne Fabian at CNIB

Joanne.fabian@cnib.ca

If you have questions for Caroline, you may reach her at:

Caroline.toews@shaw.ca

Next Meeting (Wednesday December 9at 6pm)

We will combine our December GTT Edmonton meeting with the CCB National Zoom call. Steve Barclay, owner of  Canadian Assistive Technology, will be the guest. Steve will present some of the latest tech his company offers. The meeting link will be included in the agenda which will be emailed in early December.

Additional Resources

Telephone Training and Support

Contact the CCB national office GTT coordinators to book one on one telephone training.

Kim: 877-304-0968 Ext. 513

Email: GTTProgram@Gmail.com

David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509

AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com

GTT Blog and Regular Zoom Meetings

CCB sponsors more than a dozen monthly Zoom meetings on technology, lifestyle, and open chat socialization.  You may wish to read the GTT blog to find email notices of the Zoom meetings and other information such as the weekly Windows from the Keyboard Tips. If you would prefer to receive the blog posts in your email inbox, then you may activate the Follow link at the bottom of the blog web page to enter your email. IF you have difficulty contact Kim or David for assistance.

CCB Podcast

CCB sponsors a podcast feed. Use your favorite pod catcher app or the Victor Reader Stream book playing device to subscribe to the feed. Search for “CCB” (Canadian Council of the Blind). You will find episodes on technology as well as general interest topics such as CELA Library, NNELS Library, WBU, and more.

GTT Email Support List

CCB sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians.  To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io

GTT Edmonton Overview

  • GTT Edmonton is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
  • GTT Edmonton promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
  • Each 2 hour meeting consists of a feature technology topic in the first hour and a general tech discussion in the second hour. If you know someone in the Edmonton area who would like to be a part of our group, simply ask them to email their full name and vision status (blind, low vision, sighted) to:

Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com

-End of document-

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Excel Useful Shortcuts Part 1, November 11, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions. The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Excel – Useful Shortcuts Part 1

Note that an Excel document contains a single workbook which in turn, may contain multiple worksheets (spreadsheets). Each worksheet contains rows and columns of data. The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. Rows are numbered 1, 2, 3 etc. and columns are labelled A, B, C etc. So, the cell in the third column and fifth row would be referenced as C5. The top left corner of the worksheet is cell A1.

  • To open a new workbook (Excel document) press Control+N.
  • To move around a worksheet, just use arrow keys. You can also use TAB and Shift+Tab to move to the next or previous cell within the row.
  • TO enter data into a cell, just type in the cell and press Enter to finish and move down to the next cell or, press TAB to finish your cell entry and move right to the next column.
  • To enter a formula into a cell, begin with an equal sign.
  • Press Delete to clear a cell’s contents.
  • To jump to a specific cell, press Control+G, then enter a cell reference such as H23, then press Enter.
  • To jump to a specific cell, and select all the intervening cells , press Control+G, then enter a cell reference, then press Shift+Enter.
  • To sum a row or column, position to the blank cell at the end of the row or bottom of the column. Then press ALT+H, U, S and then press Enter. This puts the Auto Sum formula into the cell to provide the total of the cells above or to the left.
  • Press Control+Space to select a column.
  • Press Shift+Space to select a row.
  • To select multiple columns or rows, select the first column or row, and then while holding down the Shift key, press the appropriate arrow key to select adjacent columns or rows.
  • To reach the last cell with data in any direction press Control+Arrow key or, End key, arrow key. For example, to jump to the last cell with data in the column, press Control+Down arrow or, End key, Down arrow. To reach the next nonblank cell in a row press Control+Right arrow or, End key, Right arrow. If you add the Shift key while performing these shortcuts, then the intervening cells will be selected.
  • If you are positioned on a blank cell, then the Control+Arrow keys will instead find the first nonblank cell in the given direction. This is a good way to find any cells in a column or row after what you think is the last cell. If there are no more cells in that direction, you will reach the bottom or right edge of the worksheet space. In that case, return to where you were by pressing Control + the reverse arrow. If there is an unexpected cell with data, you will be positioned on it.
  • For more shortcuts here is the complete list of Excel shortcuts.
  • And here is more info on basic Excel tasks using a screen reader.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word – Set Default Font, November 4, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – Set Default Font and Point Size

You may set the font and point size you wish to use as a default for all your Word documents.

  • Press Control+Shift+F to open the Word font dialogue. Focus is place on the Font drop down edit combo control
  • The current font is shown, and you can press Alt+Down Arrow to open the drop down list of other available fonts. You can arrow down the list or press the first letter or two of the font you wish to use, for example, type “CA” to jump to the popular Calibri font.
  • When you have found the font you wish to use, press TAB to move to the font style drop down. Regular is the best choice for a default font style, but there is a drop down list of other choices you may access with Alt+Down Arrow.
  • Then, TAB to the Point Size edit combo and either type the point size you wish, or press Alt+Down Arrow to open the list of point sizes and arrow down to the size you wish. 11 point is generally used for most documents but perhaps you want a larger point size such as 14 or 18 to write your documents in large print. As a guide, 72 point is 1 inch high letters, so 18 point would be letters that are one quarter inch high which is very large.
  • After you select the point size, TAB through the remaining controls which may be ignored because they provide other font attributes such as bolding, underlining, and superscripting which are not relevant for a default font
  • When you reach the “Set as Default” button, press spacebar to activate it.
  • TAB through this dialogue and you will encounter two radio buttons to choose whether you want your font changes to apply only to the current document or all documents based on Normal template. Arrow to the “All Documents” button and press Enter. You will be returned to your document. Now, your new font and point size will apply to all future documents that you create.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

Victor Reader Stream Podcast Part 2 of 2, Online Bookshelves, October 29, 2020

Podcast Show Notes:

October 29, 2020

Theme: Victor Reader Stream Bookshelves Part 2 of 2

Use the above link to download the recorded podcast MP3 file.

Presenter: Gerry Chevalier

GTT.Edmonton

In this 68 minute second of two presentations, Gerry demonstrates how to use the Victor Reader Stream online bookshelves to organize and play different types of Internet media. The Victor Stream is a popular digital talking book player for blind people manufactured by HumanWare. This second presentation focuses on managing online content including CELA Library Direct to Player books, Podcasts, Internet radio, and Wikipedia and Wiktionary articles.

You will learn how to:

  • Connect your Stream to a Wi-Fi network.
  • Configure your Stream to use the CELA Library Direct to Player service.
  • Perform Stream multi-tap text entry.
  • Download CELA Library Direct to Player Books comparing the Stream’s automatic or manual download modes.
  • Use your computer to search the CELA Library for Direct to Player books.
  • Navigate the Stream Direct to Player bookshelf.
  • Return a Direct to Player book to CELA.
  • Navigate the Stream’s Podcast bookshelf and play podcasts.
  • Download new podcast episodes and delete episodes.
  • Configure the Stream for manual or automatic episode download.
  • Move an episode to the SD card.
  • Add or remove podcast feeds.
  • Backup your list of feeds to the SD card.
  • Change the HumanWare suggested podcast feeds.
  • Use the Stream’s Internet radio bookshelf to listen to radio stations.

Add stations to your favorites and delete stations you no longer want.

  • Select different HumanWare suggested playlists.
  • Create your own playlists.
  • Backup your playlists to the SD card.
  • Use the Stream’s References bookshelf to find articles on Wikipedia and Wiktionary.
  • Save articles or move them to the SD card.

For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact:

Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968

Email: ccb

Web www.ccbnational.net

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word – Creating Repetitive Documents, October 28, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – Tips for Creating Repetitive Documents

Those of us who use Word at work, school, or for volunteer activities, often find the need to create a new document that is similar to an existing document. For example, for the GTT Edmonton Chapter I produce a monthly meeting agenda in Word. Each month’s agenda is like the previous month in layout, formatting, headings, fonts, contact info etc. so it is usually easier to modify the previous month’s agenda than start with a blank document. This ensures a consistent look to the document which is more professional than producing inconsistent looking documents. Here’s the basic steps I follow to produce my agenda document. These steps should work for most of your repetitive documents as well.

  • Find the previous document with Windows File Explorer.
  • Don’t open the previous document. Just Press Control+C to copy it to the clipboard.
  • Then immediately press Control+V. This will paste a second copy of the document into the same folder. Windows will name the copied document with the same filename plus “copy” at the end.
  • Press F2 on this copied document and retype the name of your new document and then press Enter. Now you have a new document with your new filename, and you can proceed to edit it.
  • Press Enter to open the new document in Word.
  • Press Control+H to replace all words in the document’s old contents that need to be changed for the new document. For example, in the case of my agenda document, I might want to replace all occurrences of January with February.
  • Now position the cursor at the start of any text that is not needed in the new document and navigate to the end of that unneeded text. This highlights or selects the text. Press Delete key to delete that highlighted text.
  • Type new text that you need for the new document.
  • For new sections or sub sections don’t forget to make level 1 or level 2 headings . Place the cursor at the beginning of the heading and press Alt+Control+1 for a level 1 heading or Alt+Control+2 for a level 2 heading. This shortcut only works for level 1, 2, or 3 headings.
  • If your new section needs specific formatting, such as headings, bullets or fonts, that are in an existing section, then you can copy the formatting. Place your cursor somewhere within the old section. Now press Control+Shift+C which copies the text formatting (not the text) to the clipboard. Then highlight (select) the new section you just typed and press Control+Shift+V to apply the formatting to that section.
  • Press F7 to spell check your new document contents.
  • When finished editing just press Control+S to save the document.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

Victor Reader Stream Podcast Part 1 of 2, SD Card Bookshelves, October 22, 2020

Podcast Show Notes:

October 22, 2020

Theme: Victor Reader Stream Bookshelves Part 1 of 2

Use the above link to download the recorded Podcast MP3 file.

Presenter: Gerry Chevalier

GTT.Edmonton

In this 67 minute first of two presentations, Gerry demonstrates how to use the Victor Reader Stream SD card bookshelves to organize and play different types of content. The Victor Stream is a popular digital talking book player for blind people manufactured by HumanWare.

The Stream uses a bookshelf paradigm to manage content. Gerry explains the SD card bookshelves and what kind of content to place on each bookshelf folder of the SD card including DAISY books, Audible books, MP3 books, Podcasts, text files, and voice notes recorded by the Stream. You will learn how to:

  • Use Windows File Explorer to create folders .
  • Rename folders and place files into them.
  • Extract book folders from Zip files that you download from CELA Library and other content providers.
  • Unprotect a file downloaded from the Internet.
  • Transfer DAISY books and other types of files from your computer to the Stream SD card bookshelf folders.
  • Transfer an Access Technology Institute text book to the Stream.
  • Organize songs by genre, artist, and album using subfolders on the Stream’s music bookshelf folder.
  • Archive Stream recorded notes by moving them to the Other Books and Podcasts bookshelves.
  • Navigate different book types on the Stream including Microsoft Word documents and DAISY Text books and use the Stream to search within these text books.
  • Search Wiktionary and Wikipedia using the Stream.
  • Safely remove SD card media from your computer.

For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact:

Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968

Email: ccb

Web www.ccbnational.net

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word – Determining Word or Character Counts, October 21, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions. The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.
Microsoft Word – Determining Word or Character Counts
While in a Word document, you can find out how many words or characters are in the entire document or a selected block of text. Select the block of text of interest or don’t select anything if you are interested in the counts for the entire document. Press F6 to jump to the Status tool bar at the bottom of the screen. Arrow right to the Word count button. Press spacebar on the word count button to find the number of characters, lines, and paragraphs. Press Escape to go back from the status tool bar to the body of your document.
Note: For users of the JAWS screen reader, you can press the JAWS+NumPad3 key to read the document status line which announces the number of pages and words.
That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

GTT Edmonton Meeting Notes, CELA Update, October 13, 2020

Summary Notes

GTT Edmonton Meeting October 13, 2020

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Edmonton Chapter was held October 13 7pm as a Zoom virtual meeting.

12 people attended.

Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading. Read the Additional Resources section following the meeting notes to learn about one on one telephone support, the National blog, CCB Podcast, Zoom meetings, and the support email list.

October Topic –CELA Library Update

CELA Update

Gerry led a discussion on changes and upgrades to the CELA Library service this year. These updates include:

  • Access to eleven newspapers has been restored
  • New search and delete options on Direct to Player Bookshelf
  • Search preferences are now available
  • Magazine subscriptions are now available
  • You can now filter search results by human-narrated audio or human-transcribed braille
  • More than 150 DAISY magazines are available

For a more complete description of recent CELA website updates including step by step instructions on their use, you may visit:

https://celalibrary.ca/website-updates

CCB Online Membership

CCB has opened an online form where you can register your 2021 membership and pay your $10 membership fee via credit card or PayPal. This is a secure form so it is safe to fill it out. CCB will not retain your credit card information. You may also indicate the local chapter you are supporting. In our case please indicate “GTT Edmonton” as the name of your chapter. Note that the birthdate field is optional. A link to the membership form is available on the home page or you can reach it from this direct link.

CCB 2021 Membership Form

Please consider supporting CCB programs and advocacy work by joining as a GTT Edmonton Chapter member.

 Vision Loss Rehab Alberta

We were joined by Stephannie Leach and Dave Winchester from Vision Loss Rehab Alberta. Dave helps clients obtain high tech devices such as CCTV readers, JAWS/Fusion/Zoomtext software, BrailleNote, Iris Vision and other technology. These devices are subsidized by the STEP program through Alberta Aids to Daily Living. Stephannie talked about low tech aids such as talking watches, talking book players, color detectors and other low tech devices that can also be purchased with support from the STEP program. You may contact either Stephanie or Dave for more information about acquiring technology through the STEP program at 780.488.4871.

Accessible Washer/Dryer

Russell let us know of a recent  new LG WM3500CW washer/dryer pair that he and Sarah just purchased. Russell states:

It has WI-FI capability and you can interface with the settings through the LG ThinQ app. In the app you can choose cycles, temperature, extra spin and so forth. The app will send you push notifications when the load is done washing. The dryer also has WI-FI, but I haven’t connected it to WI-FI yet.

The set was quite expensive, $945 for the washer and the same for the dryer. This model was highly rated in Consumer Reports. We bought our set at Coast Appliances, but it’s available at various outlets.

Next Meeting (Monday November 9at 7pm)

  • Topic TBA and will again be a virtual Zoom meeting. The meeting link will be included in the agenda which will be emailed in early November.
  • As always, for help with technology bring your devices and/or questions to the meeting.

Additional Resources

Telephone Training and Support

Contact the CCB national office GTT coordinators to book one on one telephone training.

Kim: 877-304-0968 Ext. 513

Email: GTTProgram@Gmail.com

David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509

AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com

GTT Blog and Regular Zoom Meetings

CCB sponsors about 14 monthly Zoom meetings on technology, lifestyle, and open chat socialization.  You may wish to read the GTT blog to find email notices of the Zoom meetings and other information such as the weekly Windows from the Keyboard Tips. If you would prefer to receive the blog posts in your email inbox, then you may activate the Follow link at the bottom of the blog web page to enter your email. IF you have difficulty contact Kim or David for assistance.

CCB Podcast

CCB sponsors a podcast feed. Use your favorite pod catcher app or the Victor Reader Stream book playing device to subscribe to the feed. Search for “CCB” (Canadian Council of the Blind). You will find episodes on technology as well as general interest topics such as CELA Library, NNELS Library, WBU, and more.

GTT Email Support List

CCB also sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians.  To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io

GTT Edmonton Overview

  • GTT Edmonton is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
  • GTT Edmonton promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
  • Each 2 hour meeting consists of a feature technology topic in the first hour and a general tech discussion in the second hour. If you know someone in the Edmonton area who would like to be a part of our group, simply ask them to email their full name and vision status (blind, low vision, sighted) to:

Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com

[End]

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word – How to Create a Table of Contents, October 14, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – How to Create a Table of Contents

If you have a long document, and have taken care to use Style headings for your sections and subsections, then you not only have a well organized document that can also be easily navigated with screen readers, u have also gained the advantage of being able to use those headings to create an automatic table of contents. Each heading will become an entry in the table of contents.

  • Position your cursor where you want to insert the table of contents.
  • Press Alt+S, T to open the Table of Contents submenu on the References Tab of the ribbon.
  • Press Enter to select the Automatic Table 1 or Automatic Table 2 style. The table of contents will be inserted at your cursor position. Note that each heading appears in the table of contents as a link so readers of your document can activate those links to jump directly to the corresponding section of your document.
  • If you change the document and need to update the table of contents, just position the cursor within the existing table of contents and press the Applications key. Then choose Update Field from the resulting context menu.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word – Easy Way to Add Headings, October 7, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – Easy Way to add Headings

It is very useful to use Microsoft Stylized headings in your document for organization. Headings make the document more visually appealing, allow for creation of a table of contents, and allow screen readers to navigate from heading to heading when in document scan mode. Full access to the heading styles of Microsoft Word can be found under Styles on the Home tab of the ribbon. However, there are easy keyboard shortcuts to also mark headings.

  • Type the text of your heading.
  • While positioned on the heading text, press Alt+Control+1 to make that text a level 1 heading.

Press Alt+Control+2 to make the text a level 2 subheading.

  • Press Alt+Control+3 to make the text a level 3 sub-subheading. Note that these shortcut keys only work for the first 3 levels of headings. If you need a level 4 or higher, you can press Control+Shift+S to open a drop down list of all the heading styles and select the one you want.
  • If you make a mistake such as marking text as a heading level 2 and you meant it to be at level 3 just reposition your cursor on the text and press Alt+Control+3 to change it to level 3.
  • If you mistakenly mark text as a heading and it should not be, then select the text and press Control+Shift+N to remove the heading and set the text to the normal document style.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word Shortcut for Bulleted or Numbered Lists, September 30, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – Shortcut for Creating a Bulleted or Numbered List

You may quickly create a bulleted list of items in your document as follows.

  • Press the asterisk (*) key plus a space at the start of your first item. Type the item text and press Enter.
  • The asterisk will be changed to a bullet and the next line will also start with a bullet so you can type the second item.
  • Continue typing the remaining items of your list and press Enter twice on the last item to turn off the auto-bullet marking.
  • You can also bullet text that is already typed by selecting the line or lines of text and pressing Control+Shift+L.

 

Similarly, you can type a numbered list.

  1. Press “1.” Without the quotes Followed by a space and the text of your first item and then press Enter.
  2. The next line will begin with “2.”. Continue typing the items in your list and press Enter after each item. Each new line will be numbered incrementally.
  3. Press Enter twice on the last item to turn off the auto numbering.

If you later delete one of the numbered items, or insert a new item, the remaining items are automatically renumbered.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

 

Windows from the Keyboard Tips, Microsoft Word Manual Spell Check, September 23, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions.  The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.

Microsoft Word – Manual Spell Check

The previous tip discussed the automatic spell check that Word can do as you type your document. However, you may manually want to spell check after you complete the document or perhaps spell check a document written by someone else.

With your Word document open, press F7 to start the spell checker. The spell check window will open, show the number of spell check issues, and place focus on the “Review all Results” button.

  • Press spacebar to activate this review button and you will be taken to the first issue. Word will show what it considers to be the issue, suggest a correction, and show the sentence containing the error. If you use JAWS, it will automatically speak that information for you. If you don’t use a screen reader there is also a button to have Word read the sentence containing the error to you.
  • If you agree with the suggested correction, just press Enter and Word will make the correction and move to the next issue.
  • Otherwise, you may TAB through the correction dialogue where you have multiple choices of actions you may take. There is a button to ignore the issue, ignore all occurrences of that issue in the document, or add the item to Word’s dictionary so it will not be flagged in the future. You may activate those buttons as needed and you will then be moved to the next issue in the document. You may also press Escape anytime to close the spell check window and return to your document.
  • Also, rather than pressing TAB to move through the dialogue controls, you may simply press a single shortcut letter. For example, press key I to ignore the issue, key G to ignore all issues, or key A to add the item to the dictionary. If you press I or G, the item is ignored, and you are moved to the next issue.
  • Thus, you can quickly move through all issues by simply pressing Enter to accept the correction, I to ignore it, or G to ignore all occurrences.
  • There is also a Settings button in the dialogue that you may activate to change how the spell checker behaves.

That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.

 

GTT Edmonton Meeting Notes, GTT History and Resources, September 14, 2020

Summary Notes

GTT Edmonton Meeting September 14, 2020

 

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Edmonton Chapter was held September14 at 7pm as a Zoom virtual meeting.

12 people attended.

Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading. Read the Additional Resources section following the meeting notes to learn about one on one telephone support, the National blog, CCB Podcast, Zoom meetings, and the support email list.

 

September Topic –GTT History

Our guest was Kim Kilpatrick from the Ottawa national office of Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB). Kim is the founder of the GTT initiative in CCB and she presented a short history of GTT.

Kim, blind from birth, and an avid braille user and technology user has always been keen to learn from other blind people. She especially wanted to share their experiences with technology. She organized a small group and they had their first meeting in the CCB Ottawa office in 2012. They were enthusiastic and wanted to continue to meet and ‘get together with their technology’. However, they did not want to take on the bother of making a legal organization and board of directors. So, they asked if CCB would sponsor their group.

That was the birth of the GTT program within CCB and Kim was hired in 2014 to lead the program.

GTT now has chapters in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, and Northern  Ontario. Training others to use technology became an important GTT initiative. David Green was hired to train over the telephone and via the Zoom meeting app. David now trains full time – for example he had 6 students on our meeting day, September 14. Kim also does one-on-one training especially for students who want help with braille technology. Their contact information follows these notes.

Kim also highlighted the increased use of Zoom to reach out to GTT members across Canada which has become a significant innovation that grew out of the Covid requirements for isolation.  Currently, there are Zoom meetings every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11am Edmonton time as well as a national zoom meeting on the second Wednesday of the month at 5pm Edmonton time. An Android user group meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month at 5pm. A youth group now meets every Wednesday afternoon. The meeting invitations are posted on the GGT blog (see below). If you have ideas for Zoom meeting topics Kim wants to hear from you. Her contact information is below.  Kim and David can also help you install the Zoom app on your phone or computer if you don’t have the app and want to participate in the GTT Zoom meetings. Thanks for a great presentation, Kim.

 

New Members

We welcomed to new attendees at the meeting Pamera and Katherine.

Additional Resources

Telephone Training and Support

Contact the CCB national office GTT coordinators to book one on one telephone training.

Kim: 877-304-0968 Ext. 513

Email: GTTProgram@Gmail.com

David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509

AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com

GTT Blog and Regular Zoom Meetings

CCB sponsors about 14 monthly Zoom meetings on technology, lifestyle, and open chat socialization.  You may wish to read the GTT blog to find email notices of the Zoom meetings and other information such as the weekly Windows from the Keyboard Tips. If you would prefer to receive the blog posts in your email inbox, then you may activate the Follow link at the bottom of the blog web page to enter your email. IF you have difficulty contact Kim or David for assistance.

CCB Podcast

CCB sponsors a podcast feed. Use your favorite pod catcher app or the Victor Reader Stream book playing device to subscribe to the feed. Search for “Canadian Council of the Blind”. You will find episodes on technology as well as general interest topics such as CELA Library, NNELS Library, WBU, and more.

GTT Email Support List

CCB also sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians.  To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io