JAWS Scripts

DBT comes with JAWS script files which support JAWS 4.51 or higher. (Please note that these are for English only.)

When you launch DBT, a special utility checks to see if your JAWS settings folders have up-to-date copies of the JAWS script files for DBT.  If not, it asks for permission to install the script files supplied with DBT.  If you answer yes, it installs them and also makes back-up copies of any files it is replacing.

Hot keys:

• Insert + h - Provides up to date help and information.
• Alt + 7 (on top number row) - reads the translated line, and puts it on your braille display if present.
• Alt + 8 - Reads the current style name, and puts it on your braille display if present.
• Alt + 9 - speaks the current location (page, line, and column), and puts it on your braille display if present.
• Alt + 0 - speaks the current document name and puts it on your braille display if present.
• Alt + slash - a toggle. The first press switches to the JAWS cursor, positioned at the start of the translated line; the next press switches back to PC cursor.
• Alt +  u - toggles setting that determines whether JAWS reads the translated line when moving up or down in a braille document.
• Alt + i - toggles setting that determines whether JAWS announces change of style.
• Alt + o - toggle setting that determines whether requested status information appears on braille display as well as being spoken.
• Alt + p - toggles setting that determines whether JAWS speaks braille cells for keyboard entry in a braille document.

Important tips:

1) If you get garbled speech when you select text with the shift key in DBT, go to DBT's Global: View Preferences... dialog, and set "SHOW CURSOR LOCATOR WHEN SHIFT IS PUSHED" to no.

2) To hear a more generic reading of braille cells, not based on English context, go to the Global menu, select Internationalization, and set Braille encoding for Input and Display to, "Prefer Unicode patterns for braille display." (This is a Radio Button)

Also in the Global menu, select Default views, and set Default font for braille documents (and Font for translated braille line) to Print.

Other features

• When you move over a skipped line other than a blank paragraph, with an arrow key command, the PC speaker beeps. (This beep no longer occurs when using the JAWS SayAll command)
• When you are editing a braille document, or have the JAWS cursor positioned on the translated line, and you move with the left or right arrow key, you hear the "braille cell" spoken, rather than hearing the ASCII character (for example in English, you might hear "e d sign" rather than "dollar sign").
• The above type of keyboard echo is also available for keyboard entry in a braille document, be it 6-key entry or not; you can choose this with a toggle.
• You can set JAWS so that when you are editing a braille document, and you read a line or move to a new line, JAWS speaks the back translation of the line; you can choose this with a toggle.
• When you use the Spell checker, you hear the misspelled word and then the word in context on its line.
• In coded view, when arrowing by character or by word, when you land on a code, you hear it spoken.
• When you use a movement command but the cursor does not move, JAWS tells you that you are in the same spot.  An example is landing on the same character when you use the left or right arrow key in formatted view, because there is an adjacent code (in coded view).
• If your version of JAWS supports speaking of non-Latin Unicode characters, such as Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, or Hebrew characters, JAWS will speak these characters properly in DBT, in either coded or formatted view.  If so, in DBT's Global: View preferences dialog, leave the default setting of No for USE VERBOSE LABELS FOR NON-ANSI CHARACTERS IN CODED VIEW.  However, if you are using an earlier version of JAWS, which does not support speaking of non-Latin characters, you will hear question mark for non-Latin characters in an ink print document.  To avoid this, in DBT's Global settings - View preferences, change USE VERBOSE LABELS FOR NON-ANSI CHARACTERS IN CODED VIEW to Yes. If so, a non-Ansi character in an ink print document appears as its label within braces; JAWS speaks the label when you land on one of these characters in coded view.  For some characters this label is a name, such as alpha; for others, it is a number called the DUSCI number used internally by DBT.