Accessibility Tips
Updated: November 7,
2002
The following information will help you get the most out of the Accessibility
features of Microsoft Reader. To enable Microsoft Reader to take advantage
of existing speech technologies, you must install the new Microsoft
Reader Text-to-Speech (TTS) Package 1.0, which enables voiced reading and
navigation features for Microsoft Reader for Windows-based PCs and laptops.
Note: Several Microsoft products have voice/SAPI engines and TTS components.
Third-party applications may support these technologies as well. Even if you
have not downloaded the TTS Package, the Verbosity feature in Microsoft Reader will launch automatically if you have one of these installed, including:
- Microsoft Encarta® Reference Suite 2001
- Microsoft Encarta 2002
- Microsoft Office XP
- Microsoft Game Voice
- Windows XP
Installation and Settings
- There are two places to change Microsoft Reader TTS settings. In the control
panel, you can change the voice and the voice speed. In Microsoft Reader's
setting page you can turn verbosity on and off.
- After you install Microsoft Reader's TTS Package, if you install Microsoft
Excel TTS capabilities, you will need to reinstall the Microsoft Reader TTS
package before either will work.
- To hear keystrokes in Microsoft Reader, it will be necessary to have a screen
reader active along with the Microsoft Reader TTS engine. However, using the
two together may result in collisions while voicing. Although any screen reader
should work in most edit boxes, Microsoft Narrator is the only screen reader
that will voice keystrokes within the text note box.
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Navigation
- If you get lost in Microsoft Reader, press Tab, then F5. If
you are still lost, press ESC, then F5.
- When a menu is opened, it gives no indication how many options are available
in that menu. Press the Down Arrow key to go to additional menu options.
- To find the number of pages in an eBook, go to the eBook position slider
on the Riffle Control, press End (which will give you the total number
of pages in an eBook), then press Alt-R to return to the page you were
on.
- When in the Search Edit Box, the Where Am I? function says "Press
escape" to leave the edit box. ESC will not work: you must press
Tab to leave the edit box.
- If you are in "About this Title," you must press ESC
to return to the eBook.
- If you move off the selection in a dialog box, the selection is no longer
highlighted. To determine whether you are deleting material in the dialog,
keep a screen reader active while using Microsoft Reader.
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Playback
- While in TTS mode, if the cursor is over the navigation controls in the
Riffle Control, the highlight does not follow the text. Move the cursor off
the Riffle Control and highlighting of text should resume.
- Ctrl-P does not pause TTS playback. You must press Ctrl-S
to stop playback.
- If you need a dictionary that will voice, please download the Encarta
Pocket Dictionary.
- When changing speed, there is no immediate indication that a change has
been made. To set the voicing speed, open Microsoft Reader Help, begin voicing
(Ctrl-P), and use Ctrl-F9/10 to change the speed. You will hear
the changes on each new link. Note: You can return to the Library and
open any eBook with the speed already set. However, on closing Microsoft Reader
you will lose these speed settings.
- There is no indication when you have come to the end of an eBook. If play
has stopped unexpectedly, tab to the back button on the Riffle Control and
then tab once more. If the forward button is not voiced after the back button
then you have come to the end of the eBook
- If you stop voicing on the last word on a page playback will begin with
the first word on the page. If you notice text repeating, press Page Down
to turn the page.
- When you leave and then return to an eBook, focus is always reset to the
Title bar. Press Ctrl-P if you wish to continue playing. If Ctrl-P
does not begin playback, tab to the play button on the Riffle Control.
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Library
- There is no indication if you search the Library and nothing is returned.
To determine if you are in this state, tab until you hear "return,"
tab again if you hear nothing, tab again and you should hear "sort."
If this happens, nothing was found by your search — you should change
your search criteria.
- If you sort by size, there is no indication what unit is being sorted. Microsoft
Reader sorts by Kilobytes.
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Annotations and Drawings
- After deleting an annotation, Microsoft Reader voices the type of annotation
but not that it was deleted.
- When tabbing to a text note icon that contains more then one text note there
is no indication given. Press Enter. If voicing starts with "Open"
then there is more then one text note. Press the down arrow to give focus
to a specific text note in the list.
- Ctrl-P does not begin playing while in a text note. To listen to
a text note again press ESC, press Enter, and move to the text
note you want to hear.
- Use the Annotations Index if you are looking for a specific annotation.
- If your drawing disappears while in TTS mode, stop playback and click on
the drawing icon. Your drawing should reappear.
- The drawing annotation can only be used with mouse functionality.
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For More Information You can use keyboard shortcuts
to quickly perform a variety of tasks.
Read more about the Text-to-Speech Package.
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