Ever close a webpage, then wish you hadn’t? In Firefox there’s a shortcut that undoes a tab close: “Shift Control t”.
Ever close several webpages in a row and wish you hadn’t? You can use the same shortcut to get back the last few pages you closed at once, e.g. “Shift Control t Times 3″. Here are some related commands: use “Document Close Times 3″ to close tabs and “Control t Times 3″ to open blank tabs.
We’re continuing to find new uses for Utter Command’s naming-a-mouse-touch ability.
Here are some new ones:
- “Folders Touch” to click the folder tree button in Windows Explorer. This lets you toggle the folder tree pane on or off – thanks to Bill Z the trainer
- “Web Touch” to click on the top left corner of a Web page, away from any links. This lets you return focus to the page – thanks to Jill
- In general, iTunes buttons – thanks to Jill
- “Snapshot Touch” to click the snapshot button on the history window in Photoshop – thanks to Eric
- “Highlight Touch” to click the highlighter button in Word – thanks to Jeff
And here’s a new one I’ve been using: “Right Touch” and “Left Touch” to click the right and left side of a horizontal scroll bar in Excel. This lets you scroll left and right by page.
We’re also finding some new uses for naming two mouse clicks in a row.
- “Balloon Middle Touch” to dismiss the Dragon NaturallySpeaking balloon that comes up in NaturallySpeaking 10 Service Pack 1. The command clicks the balloon to make it go away, then clicks the middle of the screen to put the focus back on your application – thanks to Bill Z the trainer
- “Capture Settings Touch” in FastStone Capture. The command clicks the tiny main menu icon on the software toolbar menu, then clicks settings. This makes it easy to switch among full-screen, active area and window capture – thanks to Eric
And here’s one from Daniel:
- “I use a Microsoft address book that always opens in the wrong folder (“shared contacts” instead of “main identity contacts”). The window is also divided so I can’t switch folders with the cursor without moving the mouse or tabbing a lot. So I named a Local Touch to click “main identity contacts” and another one to click inside the portion of the window that lists the names and addresses. What it comes down to is that the brief command “Local Contacts Names Touch” puts me where I want to be after the window opens. This is extremely convenient!”
Thanks, and keep them coming – reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.
4/30/09 Note: see the naming a mouse touch video.
Check out our new videos — UC Whirlwind Tour part 1 and UC Whirlwind Tour part 2.
The Whirlwind Tour gives you a taste of what you can do with Utter Command in some key areas:
There’s a printed copy of this tour, including cross references, in Getting Started. UC also includes an on-screen guide for this tour (say “UC Whirlwind” and the Whirlwind Tour commands will appear in a narrow on-screen guide window on the right side of your screen — other programs will size around).
Watch the tour, then use the on-screen guide or a printout of Getting Started to take it yourself.
What’s your favorite UC command? What would you like to see a tour on? Reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.
We have a couple of new demo videos up.
Utter Command: Commandline by Speech shows how you can use the UC List Enter facility to speed up the commandline interface.
Utter Command: Writing a Perl Script by Speech shows how you can use UC’s combined keyboard commands to speed up writing code. Note that for this demo we don’t use any custom coding commands, just standard commands that work the same in any program.
You may recognize this Perl script from a YouTube video of a Microsoft speech demonstration. The big difference between the videos is with UC I had fewer commands to say and therefore fewer potential points of failure. There were a couple of other differences as well. I’m using the ideal speech set up: the NaturallySpeaking Pro speech engine running on XP with a Sennheiser ME3 Microphone and a buddy USB pod. I also wasn’t in front of an audience. I suspect the computer hardware is similar. My laptop is a two-year old Intel Core duo 2.16 with 2GB of memory.
The UC Exchange Wiki is up! Check it out (say “UC Exchange”). Over the coming months you’ll see pages on specific applications with advice on how to apply UC to those programs, including step-by-step tours.Â
We're getting some good feedback from people who are speeding themselves up in all kinds of situations using UC's naming a mouse click ability. We didn't anticipate some of the ways people are using this ability. I'll detail these in a future post.
Here's how to name a mouse click:
1. Position the mouse using the mouse rulers commands on something you regularly click and can't get to any other way, for instance the Indent button in Google documents, e.g. "50 By 10"
2. When you've got the mouse exactly where you want it, say "Add Touch" to call up the UC list dialog box with the coordinates entered
3. Add a name for the coordinates, e.g. "Indent"
4. say "Enter" to put the new command on the Touch list (at this point you can repeat steps 1-4 to add more commands).
5. say "Window Close · Yes" to close the UC List dialog box, and restart NatSpeak
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Now you can say "Indent Touch" to click the Google Documents Indent button.
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Things really heat up when you use the naming a mouse click ability to click twice using a single speech command.
Let me know how you're using the mouse click ability by commenting here, on the Web site comment form (say "UC Make"), or sending e-mail to info@ this website address.
Tip: make sure to export your lists to back them up (say "UC List Export").
Note: some early prerelease copies of Utter Command don't contain the naming the mouse click utility. It'll be available in the general release, and all prerelease customers will get a copy of the general release when it comes out. If you're a prerelease customer and would like an upgrade before the general release, please contact us.
The Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) 2009 Orlando show starts this week. We’ll be doing a poster session at the show (come see us Thursday, 3:30 to 5:30 in the Front Hall).
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As part of ATIA we’re offering free Utter Command training sessions to the first 50 people who buy Utter Command during the show, which ends Saturday. UC training includes an assessment, custom lesson plan and remote training session. We use GoToMeeting for the remote training session. GoToMeeting lets you share what’s on your computer screen over the Internet, so we can see your screen and you can see ours.
Say you’re in Windows Explorer or an Open dialog box where the files you want to add to a future e-mail message reside. You could open up your e-mail program and use the attach utility to attach files, or, since you’re already right there with the files, you could speed things up this way:
To attach files to a new e-mail message starting from Windows Explorer or an open dialog box:
And there you have it, a new e-mail message with files attached.
I’ve been asking people two questions lately:
1. What tasks do you do the most on your computer?
2. What tasks are frustrating to do by speech?
Cutting and pasting from the Web comes up frequently in both categories, and the frustration lies in selecting text from the Web.
When it comes to selecting text from the Web there’s good news and not so good news. The good news is that it’s easy to select in Firefox. The not so good news is selecting is not as easy as it should be in Internet Explorer.
Selecting text in Firefox
In Firefox you can use the same selection commands you’d use in any program. There’s a trick, however.
The Caret Browsing hotkey — “Function 7″ — toggles text navigation commands like “3 Down” and “Go Home” from acting on the text to acting on the scroll bar. If you’re clicked into a text field, you’ll see the cursor appear and disappear when you say “Function 7″. When you can see the cursor, caret browsing is on and you should be able to move the cursor in text.
To see this say
“New York Times Site” to bring up your default browser (should be Firefox) to the New York Times site
“10 By 30″ to click somewhere in a text field — adjust the numbers of necessary
“2 Down” to move the scroll bar up and down (by default)
“Function 7″ to toggle Caret Browsing hotkey
“2 Down” to move the insertion point in text
Once you have the insertion point where you want it, you can use regular selection commands like “1-100 Lefts/Rights/Befores/Afters/Ups/Downs/Lines/Line Ups…” commands to select precisely.
So if you wanted to move the insertion point to the beginning of a line a couple of lines down, then select the next three lines plus the first two words on a fourth line, you’d say, “2 Down Home”, “3 Lines · 2 Afters”.
Selecting text in Internet Explorer
In Internet Explorer, you can select text using the Shift mouse method (you can use this in Firefox too, but the above method is generally easier).
Say, for instance, “10 By 40″ to click at the beginning of the selection, then, for instance, “40 By 60 Shift Touch” to select from the beginning coordinates to the new coordinates. If you want to adjust the selection, say the second command again with different numbers.
Copying and pasting
Once you have something selected in either program you can copy and paste by saying a copy command like “Copy to Word” or “Copy to Window 1″.
Your tasks
I’d like to know what tasks you do the most on your computer and what tasks are frustrating using speech — let me know and chances are I’ll find a way to speed you up.
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Computer commands of all kinds — speech, keyboard and mouse — are much easier to use when they’re consistent across programs.
At the base level, it’s important that common elements like drop-down menus act the same. You control drop-down menus without thinking — click on an element or use the Left, Right, Up, Down and Enter keys.
Consistent commands are the real-world equivalent of having the same gravity in every room, or keys turning the same way to unlock.
Web applications are looking more and more like standard computer programs, but sometimes the elements that look familiar don’t act the way we’re used to. Drop-down menus usually respond in a familiar way to the mouse, but often don’t respond to the Up, Down and Enter keys.
But perhaps things are getting better.
The first drop-down menus to show up on Google Docs didn’t respond to Left, Right, Up, Down and Enter. Then most of the folder-view drop-down menus were arrow key/Enter enabled, but not document menus. A few months ago document menus changed from looking tab-like to looking more menu like, but still didn’t respond to arrow keys and Enter. Then, sometime in the last few weeks, the Doc menus were arrow key/Enter enabled (the change didn’t show up on the update notice).
The keyboard shortcuts enable better speech navigation as well. I can say, for instance, “3 Down Enter” to choose an item in an open menu, “3 Down 2 Right Enter” to choose a color on the open color menu, or “7 Right Wait 3″ to take a three-second peak at each of the seven successive menus starting with the file menu open.
This is a great trend.
Now all we need is keyboard shortcuts to open the menus in the first place. We also need the same kind of control in all Web applications, including Google spreadsheets.