Introduction

Below you will learn the keystrokes required to change typing mode, the keystrokes to enable you to navigate through a document, and the keystrokes required to select text in your document.

You will also learn some useful SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Speak Keys to help you complete these tasks.

Reading time: 10 minutes approx.

Video

Typing in a document

There are four typing modes in SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader. The typing mode you choose should reflect your typing skills or your ability to view what you are typing on the screen.

You can set speech to announce:

• Characters.
• Words.
• Characters and words.
• Nothing.

You make your selection in the SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Control Panel’s "Character echo" dialog box (alt + s, c).

The "Character echo" dialog box also enables you to state whether speech announces when the focus moves onto a new line, and whether the space character is spoken when typed.

Tip: The space character announcement only applies to the character echo typing modes. You may want to turn off the announcement of the space character if you find it intrusive as you type.

You can also use a hotkey to change typing modes. This can be helpful if you need to temporarily switch to another mode, for example, you may want to change to character echo to enter information that requires character-by-character accuracy such as a code.

Moving around a document

Word includes many ways to move the focus around a document.

These include:

• To move a character at a time, press LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW.
• To move a word at a time, press CONTROL + LEFT ARROW or CONTROL + RIGHT ARROW.
• To move a line at a time, press UP ARROW or DOWN ARROW. 
• To move to the start of the line, press HOME.
• To move to the end of the line, press END. Speech will either announce "end of line" to indicate a hard-line break has occurred or, if the line has wrapped onto a new line, speech will say the first character of the new line.
• To move a paragraph at a time, press LEFT CONTROL + UP ARROW or LEFT CONTROL + DOWN ARROW.
• To move to the start of a document, press CONTROL + HOME.
• To move to the end of a document, press CONTROL + END.
• To scroll a document to show the next visible region, press PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN.

As you navigate, your screen reader will intelligently track the focus and speak and braille the information you require.

For example, SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader will:

• Speak the current character as you move a character at a time.
• Speak the current word as you move a word at a time.
• Announce the current focus position and speak the current character when you move to the start or end of a line.
• Speak the current paragraph when you move a paragraph at a time.
• Announce the current focus position and speak the current paragraph when moving to the top or bottom of a document.
• Speak the current paragraph when you navigate to view the previous or next visible region of your document.

You can also use SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Speak Keys to read the focus and provide additional information about the current text.

Below is a list of popular Speak Keys you may wish to use when working in a document.

Tip: Many of these keyboard commands are multikey commands. This means multiple presses of the hotkey will elicit further information, for example, additional presses of the Speak word command will cause the word to be spelt, and then read phonetically.

If you are using SuperNova Magnifier & Screen Reader or Dolphin ScreenReader, you can include the character’s phonetic description when navigating with the LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW keys.

To do this:

1. Open the SuperNova or Dolphin ScreenReader Control Panel.
2. From the "Speech" menu, select "General Announcements" (ALT + S, G).
3. Select the "Announce phonetic description when navigating by character" checkbox.

The phonetic description is output after a short delay, relative to your reading speed, and can help you recognise characters that may otherwise be difficult to identify with your TTS Voice.

Selecting text in a document

Word offers many ways to select text. Some ways only use the keyboard, some only use the mouse, and some use a combination of both.

Select text using the keyboard

• To select an entire document, press CONTROL + A.
• To select a character to the right, position your cursor to the left of the character and press SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW. To continue selecting characters to the right, keep SHIFT pressed down and press RIGHT ARROW again.
• To select a word, position your cursor at the start of the word and press CONTROL + SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW. To continue selecting words to the right, keep CONTROL + SHIFT pressed down and press RIGHT ARROW again.
• To select a line, position your cursor on the line, press HOME and then press SHIFT + END.
• To select multiple lines, position your cursor on the line below, press HOME and then press SHIFT + UP ARROW to select the line above. To continue selecting lines above, keep SHIFT pressed down and press UP ARROW again.
• To select a paragraph, position your cursor at the start of the paragraph and press LEFT CONTROL + SHIFT + DOWN ARROW. To continue selecting paragraphs, keep LEFT CONTROL + SHIFT pressed down and press DOWN ARROW again.

When you select your first piece of text, speech will say "Selected, " followed by the item being selected, such as a character, word, or line. As you extend your selection to include further items, only the selected item is announced. This ensures you are aware that you have begun selecting and avoids the issue of an overly verbose screen reader as you work.

Select text using Word Selection Mode

You can avoid the need to use the SHIFT key to make a selection by using Word’s Selection Mode. You can press F8 and then use the Arrow Keys to extend the selection from the cursor position.

Alternatively:

• To select the current word using Selection Mode, press F8 twice.
• To select the current sentence using Selection Mode, press F8 three times.
• To select the current paragraph using Selection Mode, press F8 four times.
• To select a document using Selection Mode, press F8 until document selected.

Note that Selection Mode will stay on until you perform an action, for example, make the text bold or until you press ESCAPE to cancel Selection Mode. SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader will announce when Selection Mode is enabled and disabled and speak the text you are selecting up to paragraph level.

Select text using the mouse pointer

Although this course is devoted to providing keyboard solutions to popular tasks, here are just some of the ways you can select text using the mouse pointer:

• To select an entire document, move the mouse pointer to the left of any text until it turns into a right pointing arrow and then triple click.
• To select text, click where you want the selection to begin and keeping the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON pressed down, move the pointer over the text you want to select.
• To select a word, double click anywhere inside the word.
• To select a line, move the mouse pointer to the left of the line until it turns into a right pointing arrow and then click.
• To select a sentence, hold down CONTROL and then click anywhere inside the sentence.
• To select a paragraph, triple click anywhere inside the paragraph.
• To select a block of text, click where you want the selection to start and then hold down SHIFT and then click where you want the selection to end.
• To select text in various places, make your first selection and then hold down CONTROL while you make your additional selections.

Tip: SuperNova can support your use of the mouse by speaking the text under the mouse pointer, To do this, select "Announce text under the mouse" from the "Speech General Preferences" dialog box in the SuperNova Control Panel (ALT + S, G). You can set the text range to be either characters, lines, or paragraphs.

Speak selected text

Irrespective of the method you use to select text, you can use a SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Speak Key to read the text that is selected. You may find this useful if you wish to confirm what text is selected.

You can also navigate within the selected range by using a special SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Dolphin Cursor mode. This enables you to review the characters and words you have selected at your leisure.

To do this:

1. Select your text.
2. Turn on the Dolphin Cursor by pressing NUMPAD STAR or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + MINUS.
3. Turn on Restrict Dolphin Cursor to selection by pressing LEFT CONTROL + LEFT SHIFT + NUMPAD MINUS or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press LEFT CONTROL + LEFT SHIFT + CAPS LOCK + Z.
4. Explore your selection.
5. When done, press NUMPAD MINUS twice or, if you are using the Laptop Universal Hotkey Set, press CAPS LOCK + Z twice.

Summary

In this section you learnt about the basic ways you can navigate a document and the useful Speak Keys that enable you to read your text. You also learnt the ways you can select text and the Speak key you can use to read the selection.

Quiz

1. SuperNova speaks the current word that has focus when you press CONTROL + RIGHT ARROW. Is this statement true?
2. SuperNova speaks the current line when you press the HOME key to move focus to the start of the line. Is this statement true?
3. You can speak the currently selected text by pressing F8. Is this statement true?

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