CD ROM Paradise Collection 4/CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso/music/video096.zip/TUTOR.DOC

Text File | 1986-12-09 | 37KB | 737 lines

{ filename : TUTOR.DOC }
{ 22 Aug 86 }
{ Video-Voice version 0.8 }

Note:  There are some conflicts between this tutorial and the
version of APPEND.B that came with your disk.  The APPEND.B file
is the more current, and rely on it instead of the tutorial.


                            Tutorial
                Getting Started With Video-Voice

What's in the Tutorial?

     This Tutorial introduces you to Video-Voice.  It takes you
for a guided tour of the features of Video-Voice, step by step.
Stay tuned and we'll teach you how to get started.

How To Use This Tutorial

     You should read this chapter all the way through.  You don't
have to be near your computer.  If you are listening to a tape
(or a synthesized speaking of the disk file) of this chapter,
make yourself comfortable for a good long listen.  Don't try
taking notes or memorizing.  Just relax and absorb the general
points.

     Then read it again at your computer.  Load the practice file
by typing "type practice"  followed by the ENTER key from the DOS
prompt. As you read, try out the examples on the computer.  Don't
be afraid to experiment.

How Video-Voice Works

     Video-Voice is a screen reading program.  It sends
information which would normally appear only on the computer's
screen out to your voice synthesizer.  Video-Voice lets you
choose what parts of the screen you want to review.  You can
speak a specific line, part of a sentence, a column of words, or
even a particular phrase on the screen.  To command Video-Voice
to do all these things, you press specific keys on your keyboard.

     Video-Voice has been designed to run with an applications
program. If you had a stereo amplifier with a dynamic turntable
and fantastic speakers but no records, the stereo amplifier
wouldn't give you much pleasure.  Similarly, if Video-Voice were
the only program in your computer's memory, it wouldn't do you
much good either.

     Video-Voice's purpose in life is to speak what is written on
the screen, so you need other programs to put interesting things
on the screen for Video-Voice to read to you.  With Video-Voice
you use applications programs intended for sighted people.  These
programs do things like word processing, file management,
accounting, or whatever.  They display their output on the screen
and Video-Voice will read the text and send it to your speech
synthesizer, which speaks it to you.

     Unlike sighted people, you don't have to stare at that silly
boob-tube all day.  So long as you have a detachable keyboard,
with a long enough cable, you can use your computer wherever you
like -- sitting on the sofa, out on the patio, or even in bed.

     Like the proverbial mother-in-law who never shuts up, the
computer display screen can tell you a lot more than you really
want to hear.  You don't want to hear the WHOLE screen spoken
every time you want a little bit of information, do you?  Video-
Voice gives you ACCESS to all parts of the screen. You get to
select which parts of the display you want to read at any given
time.

     This is why Video-Voice has over one hundred commands.  If
that sounds just a wee bit intimidating, remember that you won't
have to use all of them all the time.  Debee, who wrote Video-
Voice, doesn't remember every command. Often even she has to look
one up in Appendix B.

     People only need to memorize the commands they will use
frequently in real life.  If you need to type accurately, you
will quickly memorize the "spell current word" command. If you
need to check a status line at the top of your screen frequently,
you will soon learn the "speak top row" key sequence.  The
important thing is to become proficient with the commands you use
often.  You can look up the rest of them when you need them.


Video-Voice keys

     Since Video-Voice runs simultaneously alongside other
software, it needs to use keys that your applications program
DOESN'T use.

     Video-Voice allows you to use all the keys on your keyboard
and all their combinations, even if your applications program
uses the same keys and combinations.  How does Video-Voice
perform THAT little bit of magic?  Video-Voice uses a PREFIX key
in front of the real-time Video-Voice commands, in order to avoid
conflicts with keys and combinations used by your applications
program.

     The PREFIX key prefixes, or comes before, every Video-Voice
real-time command.  For example, in Video-Voice, you tap the
PREFIX key then tap the "j" key to speak the current word.  It is
even necessary to prefix the real-time commands while in Video-
Voice's screen review mode.

     By using the PREFIX key, you tell Video-Voice to watch for
the next key and to interpret it as a Video-Voice command.  If we
did not have a PREFIX key, then the repetoire of Video-Voice
commands would have to be very limited.  Applications programs
for the IBM Pc use most of the keyboard. What's even worse is
that different programs don't even use the same keys to mean the
same thing!  The way that other talking screen-reading program
get around this keyboard conflict is to rely on a special review
mode, but people get confused about which mode they are in.
Because of their heavy reliance on a review mode, these other
talking screen-reading programs are far more cumbersome to use
than Video-Voice.

     Video-Voice uses the Function 9 key as its PREFIX key.  On
genuine IBM PC keyboards, the Function 9 key is at the far bottom
left-hand corner or the keyboard.  On keyboards for many of the
IBM compatible computers, it is located directly above the number
9 key which you would reach with the ring finger of your right
hand.  When you tap the Function 9 key, Video-Voice instructs
your speech synthesizer to say "Prefix."

     From now on we will simply refer to the Function 9 key, when
it is used by Video-Voice, as the PREFIX key.  If you want to
send the Function 9 keystroke through to the applications
program, just tap the Function 9 key twice.

The Video-Voice keyboard layout:

     Since Video-Voice commands are all PREFIXed, the whole
keyboard is available for them.  The commands are categorized
into logical groups and each group occupies a particular set of
keys on the keyboard.

     The screen review functions are done with the right hand on
home row keys or keys directly above or below the home row.
Commands that give you information are on the top-row number keys
of the typewriter keyboard.

     Commands that change the quantity or quality of what is
spoken are on the top-row number keys with the shift or alt key
depressed at the same time.  An exception to this last category
is that the most important commands that control your speech
synthesizer are located on the backslash key or a combination of
the backslash with the shift key, the alt key, or the control
key.

     The commands used most often are those that speak specific
parts of the screen.  You can speak a small unit or you can speak
a large unit.  The smallest unit is the character.  Next comes
word, then sentence, then paragraph, then row.  The largest unit
is the screen.

     The keys which control the speaking of a current unit are on
the home row, easily accessible to the fingers of your right
hand.  Smaller units are located to the left of larger units.

     The commands which speak the previous unit, of the same
size, are on the row above home row.  Keys which speak the
following unit are on the row below home row.

     Of course, a screen-reading program such as Video-Voice can
only speak the current screen display, so commands to speak a
previous or following screen don't make any sense.  Therefore
there are no commands to speak previous or following screen.

     Does this sound confusing?  Let's talk in concrete examples.

     If you are at your computer put your right hand on home row
in its proper position.  You don't even need to have your
computer turned on.  If you don't have a computer handy, imagine
a typewriter keyboard beneath your right-hand fingers.

     The "h" key is the farthest key left which you can strike
with the index finger of your right hand.  Therefore PREFIX "h"
speaks the current character.  Next comes the "j", so PREFIX "j"
speaks the current word, the next larger unit of text. After the
"j" comes the "k" key, so PREFIX "k" speaks the current sentence.
Farther right comes the "l" key, so PREFIX "l" speaks the current
paragraph.

     Next comes the semicolon key.  PREFIX semicolon doesn't do
anything yet, but that's because we've got a secret plan for it,
and it will show up in subsequent versions of Video-Voice.

     Stretch your little finger out to the right a bit, and you
will reach the apostrophe key.  PREFIX apostrophe speaks the
current row.  Beyond the apostrophe (on genuine IBM PC keyboards)
is the back-accent key (often called the accent-grave key.)
PREFIX back-accent speaks the current screen.

     Notice how there are really two sets of units separated by
the unused semicolon.  Character, word, sentence, and paragraph
are LITERARY units.  When you speak and write, you are using
these literary units to express your thoughts.  Row and screen
are DISPLAY units.  When the computer displays your thoughts, it
uses these display units.  (There is another unit, the screen
column, which we will get to later.)  People use literary units
and computers use display units.  In both cases the pattern is
smaller unit to the left of the larger unit.

     Now think about where your hands are as you type.  If you
want to read something you typed previously, isn't it natural to
move your hand up to get to it?  Since PREFIX "h" speaks the
current character, and the "y" key is right above the "h" key, it
is natural to use PREFIX "y" to speak the previous character.

     PREFIX "j" speaks the current word and the key above the
"j", the "u", speaks the previous word.  PREFIX "k" speaks the
current sentence.  Above the "k" we find the "i" key.  PREFIX "i"
speaks the previous sentence.  PREFIX "l" speaks the current
paragraph to you, so PREFIX "o" speaks the previous paragraph.

     Now, if you wish to read the following unit you naturally
move your hand downward.  So, since the "n" key is below the "h"
key, PREFIX "n" speaks the following character.  PREFIX "j"
speaks the current word, so PREFIX "m" speaks the Next word.
Similarly, PREFIX "k" speaks the current sentence, so PREFIX
comma speaks the following sentence. In the same pattern, PREFIX
"l" speaks the current paragraph and PREFIX period speaks the
following paragraph.

     For reading rows, we had to get a little bit creative.
PREFIX apostrophe speaks the current row.  Stretch out that right
little finger a bit.  Above the aphostrophe is the left bracket,
so PREFIX left-bracket speaks the previous row.  Oops, there's
nothing on the keyboard directly below the apostrophe.  But, most
people naturally want to tap the ENTER key (also called return
key) to move to the next row, so PREFIX ENTER speaks the
following row.

     Notice that we use the word "row" to refer to a line of text
on the screen.  Future versions of Video-Voice will make a
destinction between a line of text in a document and a row of
text on the screen display.

     Video-Voice's reading ability doesn't end here.  At this
point, you're only in first grade!  You can also read parts of
units.  If you hold down the shift key while you tap the key that
represents one of the units, you can read the first part of that
unit.  For example, PREFIX "k" speaks the current sentence.
Therefore, PREFIX followed by the shifted "k" key speaks the
first part of the sentence and stops where your cursor is located
within the sentence.  PREFIX "l" speaks the current paragraph, so
PREFIX shifted "l" speaks the first part of the paragraph, up to
the end of the row your cursor is currently on.  PREFIX
apostrophe speaks the current row.  PREFIX shifted apostrophe
speaks from the left-hand side of the screen to where the cursor
is located -- the first part of the row.  PREFIX back-accent
speaks the whole screen, so PREFIX shifted back-accent speaks the
first part of the screen, including the whole screen row your
cursor is on.

     You might have wondered, while you were reading the
preceding paragraph, "Now how on earth do you determine where the
first part of a character ends, and what good would it be if you
could?"  Or maybe you were wondering, "What good is speaking the
first part of a word?  I'd rather have Video-Voice spell the
first part, and anyway it would probably be mispronounced."
Well, you're right.  The PREFIX shifted "h" and PREFIX shifted
"j" commands do something else.  We'll get to them in a few
moments.

     To read the last part of a unit you hold down the alternate
key while tapping the unit key.  PREFIX "k" speaks the current
sentence, so PREFIX Alt "k" speaks the last part of the sentence.
The PREFIX L speaks the current paragraph, so PREFIX Alt "l"
speaks the last part of the paragraph, that is, the row you are
on all the way through the end of the paragraph.

     Of course, we will follow this pattern with the secret unit
on the semicolon as well. PREFIX shifted semicolon will speak the
first part of the secret unit, and PREFIX Alt semicolon will
speak the last part.

     PREFIX Apostrophe speaks the current row.  PREFIX
shifted apostrophe speaks the beginning of the row and PREFIX
alt apostrophe speaks the last part of the row.  As you might
expect, PREFIX alt back-accent speaks the last part of the
screen.

     We got a bit creative with the shifted versions of character
and word.  We use these unit commands to do what we call a "quick
column" read.

     PREFIX "h" speaks current character.  PREFIX shifted "h"
speaks the column of current characters, starting at the top of
the screen and ending at your current position on the screen.
PREFIX alt "h" speaks the current column of characters, starting
at your screen position and continuing downwards until the bottom
of the screen is reached.  If you want to read an entire column
of characters, from the top of the screen to the bottom, tap the
PREFIX key, hold down both the alt key and the shift key, then
tap the "h" key.

     PREFIX "j" speaks the current word.  PREFIX shifted "j"
speaks the column of words starting at the top of the screen and
stopping at the word the cursor is located on.  PREFIX alt "j"
speaks the column of words from the cursor location down to the
bottom of the screen.   PREFIX alt shift "j" will speaks the
whole column of words

     Pronouncing part of a word doesn't make much sense.
Spelling all or part of a word sure does, though.  PREFIX
spacebar spells the whole current word. PREFIX shift spacebar
spells from where the word begins to where your cursor is located
within the word.  PREFIX alt spacebar spells from where the
cursor is located to the end of the current word.

     This may seem like a lot of key combinations to memorize.
You don't have to learn them all at once.  Practice the ones that
you will be using a lot.  The rest of them will fall into place
when you need them.  After you have used them for a little while,
you will notice that your fingers remember the keystrokes much
better than your mind does. Let your fingers do the typing while
your brain does the thinking!


The left-hand home row keys:

     Now we will discuss the left-hand home row keys.  We only
use two keys in this group.  They are the "f" key and the "s"
key.

     The "f" stands for FIND, and when you want to find something
on the screen you use a PREFIX "f" command followed by keystrokes
to tell Video-Voice what it is you want to find.

     The "s" stands for SET and you use PREFIX "s" commands to
"set up" certain advanced screen-reading options.  There is only
one "s" for SET command in this version of Video-Voice, and its
use is rather specialized, so we will skip over it for now.

     With the "f" for find commands, you can find any text, a
change of attribute, a marker you have previously set, or a pop-
up window.  You can also find a specific row or column.  Once
Video-Voice finds what you are looking for, it tells you about
it.  Again, we illustrate with a few examples.

     To find the word "Hello" on your screen, you tap the PREFIX
key, followed by the "f" for find key, followed by "t" for text
key, followed by the word "Hello", followed by the ENTER key. If
the word "Hello" appears somewhere on the screen, Video-Voice
finds it and speaks the entire row on which "Hello" is located.
Video-Voice also beeps with a special pitch to tell you which row
was spoken.

     Or, suppose you are using a trivia game program that puts
the questions on your screen in brilliant (if somewhat garish)
purple letters.  You can tell Video-Voice to speak only the parts
of your screen that have purple letters. Tap the PREFIX key,
followed by the "f" for FIND key, followed by "f" for FOREGROUND
key, followed by "ma" for MAGENTA, followed by the ENTER key.
Video-Voice disregards any text that is not in purple letters,
and speaks the text that is.  By the way, computer manuals always
seem to call purple magenta, so don't let that throw you.

     Suppose you are using a mailing list program and you want it
to print labels for all five thousand people on your list.  It's
getting to be lunch time and you want know how much longer you
will have to wait for the program to finish.  The particular
mailing list program you are using puts its status messages on
row 6 of the screen.  This is a another good time to use a PREFIX
"f" command.  You tap the PREFIX key, followed by the "f" for
FIND key, followed by "r" for ROW key, followed by the number
"6", followed by the ENTER key.  Video-Voice speaks the contents
of screen row 6 and announces "3000 labels printed".  Your
stomach growls its disappointment.

     These are only a couple of quick examples to demonstrate the
power of the "f" for FIND commands.  For the full story, see the
reference appendices.


Commands that report the system or Video-Voice status:

     The real-time commands that use the top row of the
typewriter portion of your keyboard tell you where you are and
what you are doing.  They even tell you when you are doing it.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the number "1" key, tells you
what time the computer thinks it is.  Hopefully you have a
battery operated real-time clock inside your computer, or you
have correctly set the time and date when you booted up.
Otherwise the computer will tell you the wrong time.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the number "6" key, tells you
whether caps lock, scroll lock, and num lock are ON or OFF.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the number "7" key, tells you
where your system cursor is located on the screen.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the number "0" key, tells you
where your review mode cursor is located on the screen.  Of
course, if you are not in review mode it isn't too useful.


Commands that control the quality and quantity of speech:

     The keys located on the top row of the typewriter portion of
your keyboard have other uses, too, when used with the shift or
alternate key.

     These are the "toggle" or "selection" commands. Tap the
PREFIX key, then hold down the shift or alternate key and tap the
number key that corresponds to the toggle you want to change.
Your speech synthesizer will announce the name of the command and
its current status.

     Toggle commands have only two choices: ON or OFF.  All
Video-Voice toggles work the same way.  Since the only possible
change is to the opposite status, tapping any cursor key will
make the change.  If you want to return to the original status,
you can tap the ESCAPE key at any time.  As you tap the cursor
keys, the new status will be announced.  When you decide which
status you want, just tap the ENTER key.

     Selection commands work similarly, but offer more choices.
Depending on the command, you can select from between as many as
nine different choices.  You use the cursor keys to move forwards
and back in a list of options.  The up and left cursor keys move
you back in the list, while the down and right cursor keys move
you forward in the list.  You can tap the ESCAPE key at any time
to return to your original status.  When you decide on the value
you want, just tap the ENTER key.

     Here are a few samples of how you can change Video-Voice to
serve you better:

     Tap the PREFIX key,  followed by the shifted number sign
(also known as the pound sign). Your speech synthesizer announces
that "current row numbers are off." This means that whenever you
move from one row to another in review mode, the number of the
row that you have moved to will be spoken.  In real-time, the row
numbers will only be spoken when you use the cursor keys to move
from row to row in your applications program.

     A command that you will use frequently is the "enunciator"
command.  We like to think of it as the "military spelling"
command, because it uses the alpha, bravo, charley sequence to
represent the letters it is spelling.  When you have a difficult
time telling one letter from another, toggle ON the "enunciator"
and it will be much easier.

     Video-Voice has many commands that allow you to "customize"
it the way you want it.

Meet the backslash family:

     A special group of commands are based on the backslash key.
These are the major voice synthesizer controls and they will be
especially fun to experiment with.  With the exception of the
synthesizer reset command, they are all "selection" commands.

     PREFIX backslash controls the speech source.  You can choose
where you want your speech to come from -- the screen only, the
keyboard only, or one of the combinations.  There is even a no-
speech option.  You can have all your keystrokes echoed, (called
Keyboard Echo) or only the screen output echoed also called
screen echo.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the shifted backslash key
controls the rate at which your synthesizer speaks.  Each brand
and model of synthesizer has its own predefined speech rates
options.  Video-Voice keeps track of which synthesizer you are
using, so the number of options and the rates available will vary
depending on the synthesizer you use.

     The PREFIX key, followed by the control backslash
combination controls the style of your synthesizer's voice.  Each
synthesizer has its own way of providing variety in how it
pronounces a particular word.  The DECtalk is the most
experessive, and it has 8 different voices, each with its own
sex, age, and personality.  The Votrax and Echo synthesizers are
more limited, having pitch options only.
     There is one more backslash command.  This is the
synthesizer reset command.  The PREFIX alt backslash combination
reinitializes the synthesizer and the serial port.  You might say
that the synthesizer reset command electronically tells the
synthesizer to wake up all over again, fresh and ready-to-go.
Use this command if your synthesizer has mysteriously stopped
speaking or if you have accidentally unplugged one of its
connecting cables.  Remember to turn the syntheiser's power off
first, then to turn it back on, then to use the synthesizer reset
command.

     Some synthesizers will suddenly go bonkers for no apparent
reason so don't panic. The Echo synthesizers have a hardware bug
which makes it go out into the fourth dimension at the most on
rare occasions. The Votrax will occationally say "Bong Bong Error
Two" because it received some data it tried to interpret as a
command.  Just turn it off, turn it back on and reinitialize the
synthesizer with the PREFIX alt backslash command.  Everything
will work again.  We're a bit conceited about the synthesizer
reset command in Video-Voice.  When your synthesizer goes bonkers
with most other talking software, you have to turn off the whole
computer.  With Video-Voice you don't lose your unsaved data.

     The last category of real-time commands are the sub-screen
controls. A sub-screen is a part of a screen, and for review
purposes, Video-Voice treats a sub-screen just like a whole
screen.  The sub-screen controls are located on the shifted
function Keys 2 through 6 and real-time commands, so they need to
be preceded by the PREFIX key.

Subscreens are a somewhat advanced subject.  You will use them
when you are working with tabular or columnar material.  They are
also handy when you only want access to certain parts of the
screen, but since when you use them, other parts of the screen
become inaccessible, we suggest you don't try them out until you
are more familiar with Video-Voice.

Don't bother with review mode unless you really have to.

     All of the commands we have told you about are meant to be
used in real-time.  You don't have to stop what you're doing, and
go into review mode, and wander all over the screen trying to
track down whatever it is that you want to read, and verify that,
sure enough, that's the hunk of text that you wanted to do
whatever it is that you wanted to do it to, and get its review
mode location, then exit review mode, and get the real-time
cursor location, and compute how to get from the real-time cursor
location to the review mode cursor location, and move there with
your applications program's cursor, and go back into review mode
to verify that you really reached where you wanted to go, and,
finally do what you wanted to do -- but, by now, of course, you
have to sit back and try to remember whatever on earth it was
that you wanted to do way back when before you entered review
mode in the first place, then go into review mode and do it all
over again, hopefully right this time.  Whew, just thinking about
all the work that the other screen reading programs make you do
makes me forget what I was telling you about.  I'm sure glad
Video-Voice works in real-time.

     So why did we include a review mode in Video-Voice?  By
using review mode you can "freeze" the applications program and
do some in-depth exploring of the computer screen.  You don't
have to worry about accidentally entering a typographical error
in your application program.  Once you are in review mode none of
your keystrokes will be seen by the applications software.
That's the only time review mode is more appropriate than real-
time PREFIX commands.

     To enter review mode, tap the Function 10 key. You don't
have to tap the PREFIX key for this one.  Function 10 on IBM PC
keyboards is the key to the right of the PREFIX key.  Your speech
synthesizer will say "entering review mode."

     Now your applications program and the screen are "frozen".
You can move all over the screen with the cursor arrow keys.  For
most movement in review mode, use the cursor keys. They do what
you would expect -- move the review mode cursor up, down, right,
or left.

     There are also a few special cursor key combinations.
Holding down the control key and tapping the left cursor key
moves the review mode cursor left a word.  The control right
cursor combination works similarly.

     The control up arrow combination moves the review cursor up
to the left-most column in the previous row.  The control right
cursor combination moves the review cursor down to the left-most
column of the following row.  Tapping the ENTER key also moves
down one row.

     The appropriate unit of text is always spoken.  If you moved
up a row, the new row is spoken. If you moved right a word, the
new word is spoken.  If you moved down a character, the new
character is spoken.

     Of course all the PREFIX commands are also available to you
in review mode, so you can read sentences or spell the current
word.

     Don't rely on review mode unless you have to. You can
usually work more rapidly and efficiently with the computer by
using the real-time commands.  We only included it for the few
times when you really HAVE to freeze your applications program
and explore an unfamiliar screen.  Thankfully, that isn't very
often.

More magic with Video-Voice:

     In some software you will be able to automatically hear the
entire screen voiced.  With these programs, Video-Voice is
capable of capturing the data headed for the screen.  When you
have turned "screen echo" ON, and Video-Voice intercepts the
applications software's screen output, you hear all the program's
messages.  This is true with DOS (the Disk operating system),
which is loaded into your computer when it boots.  Video-Voice
starts with "screen echo" ON so you can hear all the DOS output
as it goes to the screen.  Some file management programs also
send data to the screen in a way in which Video-Voice can
intercept all of it, and so you will automatically hear all of
their output.  But this doesn't mean it will make much sense the
first time you hear it.

     For Example, suppose you have a mailing list entry form
screen which looks like this:

*****************************************************************
Record No. 65
                                           |---------------------
Last Name    : Williams                    | official use only
First Name   : Gladys                      | SRux rating: _______
Title        : Head of Research            | Sec5A value: _______
Department   : Matter TransFormation Dept  | GPA        : _______
Company      : Alchemists Associated       | R-value    : _______
Address      : 1234 Wizard Lane            | Nerp level : _______
City         : Berkeley                    | Polarity   : _______
State        : CA                          | Dependents : _______
Zip          : 94704                       | Deponants  : _______
Work Phone   : [phone] x 4300       |---------------------
                                           | Cust. class: _______
Home Address : 987 Eureka Lane             |
Home City    : Berkeley                    |
Home State   : CA                          |---------------------
Home Zip     : 94710
Home Phone   : [phone]

----------------------------------------------------------------
D to Delete                      |  PgUp for Previous Record
M to Mark                        |  PgDn for Next Record
C to Change                      |  ENTER to confirm
S to Save                        |  ESC to quit
*****************************************************************

     Since the data is arranged in several columns it is going to
sound pretty funny.

     The important thing to remember is that each time the
applications program paints new text on the screen, Video-Voice
will speak it.  But, screen rows are not always painted in the
order in which they are intended to be read.  It takes only a
fraction of a second for the computer to paint a row on the
screen. Visually, the effect is nearly instantaneous.  But the
programmer may paint row twenty, then row one, then row thirteen,
and then he may jump up to row one to add another message.
Video-Voice intercepts each row as it is painted on the screen.
It speaks the text to you in the order it was painted, not in the
order it is finally in on the screen when all the action ceases.
As you fill in the form, the screen may be repainted to reflect
your changes and, of course, Video-Voice will speak these
messages, out of order again.

     Out of order screen repainting, is bad enough, but what do
you do when you know there is text on your screen and your
synthesizer remains silent?  Many people have gotten a new
screen-reading program, booted WordStar and discovered that
nothing on the screen is automatically spoken to them.  Yet when
they are in DOS everything is spoken automatically.  This happens
because WordStar, like most modern software for the IBM PC,
writes directly to screen memory, instead of using more generic
methods of putting messages on the screen.  Video-Voice is unable
to intercept any program's screen messages when they are written
directly to screen memory.

     Actually, "The Sound of Silence" is what makes it possible
for blind people to use programs like WordStar.  Each time a
keystroke is pressed, WordStar (and many other programs, too)
repaint most of the screen.  You do not want to hear the whole
screen respoken to you each time you type a character.  This is
what used to happen in an old version of WordStar on the IBM.
Too much silence turns out to be better than too much speaking.

     So, when your applications program goes silent, turn on
"keyboard echo" with the PREFIX backslash command.  That way you
can hear everything that you type.  Of course, this can be
distracting for fast typists.  No matter what kind of "echo" you
have chosen, all the PREFIX commands still speak properly.

     If you get really lost in a new program you can go into
review mode and explore the screen.  After a while you will learn
which important messages appear on which screen rows.  Then you
can use the real-time commands to easily retreive the information
you need to hear.

     There is another, even more confusing, situation that
sometimes occurs.  A few programs, like dBASE III, mix their
methods of writing to the screen.   When this happens, Video-
Voice echos some parts of the screen display but not other parts.
In this situation, it is best to turn "screen echo" OFF, so you
won't be distracted, and pretend that the program writes to
screen memory all the time.  Use the PREFIX commands to review as
you need information.

Video-Voice can only speak what is on the screen:

     First-time users of talking software are often confused by
screen-reading programs.  A screen-reading program can only speak
the text that is currently displayed on the screen.

     Suppose you are writing a letter with your word processing
program.  The letter is several print pages long and you want to
go back and reread it.  When you tell your word processing
program to jump to the top of the letter, it can only put the
very first part of the letter on the screen.

     A print page usually contains about about sixty lines of
text.  A computer display screen has only twenty-five rows. The
word processing program will reserve some of these screen rows
for its own purposes, such as a status row, a ruler row to
display tab stops, and maybe a row that shows what the function
keys do.  So you will usually have less than twenty-five rows of
text displayed on your screen.

     If you use the PREFIX back-accent combination to speak the
screen, the screen contents will be spoken -- not the whole
letter.  A sighted person has the same problem.  Both the sighted
user and you must tell the word processing program to "scroll" to
the appropriate screen.

     So remember -- just because it isn't on the screen doesn't
mean that the computer has gobbled up your data.  Use your word
processor or file manager to page around from one screen to
another.

Final Comments

     It takes some time to learn to use any program proficiently.
Your learning is complicated by the fact that you must learn to
use Video-Voice in addition to the applications software you
intend to run.  If, as you work through these chapters, you
become frustrated -- remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.  Take
a break whenever you begin to feel impatient.  Our teaching
experiences at Grassroots Computing have shown us that people
should not work for more than two hours without taking a break.
When there is much information to absorb, it is best done in
small doses.


Have fun experimenting with Video-Voice.