[gui-talk] NVDA Version 0.6p3 is now Available

[Steve Pattison]

NVDA version 0.6p3 has just been released and it can be downloaded from www.nvda-project.org/wiki/Download.  Here are the changes in this version:

* new: As Microsoft Excel's formula bar is inaccessible to NVDA, provide an NVDA
specific dialog box for editing when the user presses f2 on a cell.
* change: If the audio output device is set to use the Windows default device (Microsoft
Sound Mapper), NVDA will now switch to the new default device for eSpeak and tones
when the default device changes. For example, NVDA will switch to a USB audio device
if it automatically becomes the default device when it is connected.
* fix: The last chunk of audio is no longer cut off when using NVDA with eSpeak on
a remote desktop server.
* change: Improve performance of eSpeak with some Windows Vista audio drivers.
* fix: Fix problems with saving speech dictionaries for certain voices.
* fix: Eliminate the lag when moving by units other than character (word, line, etc.)
towards the bottom of large plain text documents in Mozilla Gecko virtual buffers.
(#155)
* fix: If speak typed words is enabled, announce the word when enter is pressed.
* fix: Fix some character set issues in richedit documents.
*Change: reporting of links, headings, tables, lists and block quotes can now be
configured from the Document Formatting settings dialog. Previously to configure
these settings for virtual buffers, the virtual buffer settings dialog would have
been used. Now all documents share this configuration.
* new: Support for formatting in IAccessible2 text controls, including Mozilla applications.
* new: Spelling errors can now be reported where possible. This is configurable from
the Document Formatting preferences dialog.
* fix: The NVDA log viewer now uses richedit instead of just edit to display the
log. This improves reading by word with NVDA.
* new: NVDA can be configured to beep for either all or only visible progress bars.
Alternatively, it can be configured to speak progress bar values every 10%.
* fix: Fix some issues related to embedded objects in richedit controls.
* new: Links can now be identified in richedit controls.
* new: The mouse can now be moved to the character under the review cursor in most
editable text controls. Previously, the mouse could only be moved to the center of
the control.
* fix: NVDA now reads page numbers in Microsoft Word. (#120)
* fix: Fix the issue where tabbing to a checked checkbox in a Mozilla Gecko virtual
buffer and pressing space would not announce that the checkbox was being unchecked.
* fix: Correctly report partially checked checkboxes in Mozilla applications.
* change: Rate is now the default setting in the speech synthesizer settings ring.
* new: In virtual buffers, the review cursor now reviews the text of the buffer,
rather than just the internal text of the navigator object (which is often not useful
to the user). This means that you can navigate the virtual buffer hierarchically
using object navigation and the review cursor will move to that point in the buffer.
* fix: If the text selection expands or shrinks in both directions, read the selection
as one chunk instead of two.
* change: Improve the loading and unloading of appModules.
* fix: When reading with the mouse, text in Mozilla Gecko edit fields should now
be read.
* fix: Say all should no longer cause certain SAPI5 synthesizers to crash.
* fix: Fixed an issue which meant that text selection changes were not being read
in Windows standard edit controls before the first focus change after NVDA was started.
* fix: Fix mouse tracking in Java objects. (#185)
* new: Handle some additional states on Java controls.
* fix: NVDA no longer reports Java tree view items with no children as being collapsed.
* change: The title command (NVDA+t) now only reports the title instead of the entire
object. If the foreground object has no name, the application's process name is used.
* fix: Announce the object with focus when a Java window comes to the foreground.
Previously, only the top-level Java object was announced.
* new: If the title command (NVDA+t) is pressed twice, it spells the title. If pressed
thrice, it is copied to the clipboard.
* new: Keyboard help now reads the names of modifier keys when pressed alone.
* new: Key names announced by keyboard help are now translatable.
* new: Added support for the recognized text field in SiRecognizer. (#198)
* new: Support for braille displays!
* new: Added a command (NVDA+c) to report the text on the Windows clipboard. (#193)
* change: Instead of virtual buffer pass through on and off, NVDA now reports focus
mode (pass through on) and browse mode (pass through off).
* new: In virtualBuffers, if NVDA automatically switches to focus mode, you can use
the escape key to switch back to browse mode. NVDA+space can still also be used.
* new: In virtual buffers, when the focus changes or the caret is moved, NVDA can
automatically switch to focus mode or browse mode as appropriate for the control
under the caret. This is configured from the Virtual Buffers dialog. (#157)
* new: Rewritten SAPI4 synthesizer driver which replaces the sapi4serotek and sapi4activeVoice
drivers and should fix the problems encountered with these drivers.
* change: Voices are now stored in the configuration file by ID instead of by index.
This makes voice settings more reliable across systems and configuration changes.
The voice setting will not be preserved in old configurations and an error may be
logged the first time a synthesizer is used. (#19)
* fix: The eSpeak synthesizer driver no longer stops speaking completely after a
single error.
* fix: Fix the issue whereby updated voice parameters (rate, pitch, etc.) were not
saved when the voice was changed from the synthesizer settings ring.
* new: The NVDA application now includes a manifest, which means that it no longer
runs in compatibility mode in Windows Vista.
* new: The configuration file and speech dictionaries are now saved in the user's
application data directory if NVDA was installed using the installer. This is necessary
for Windows Vista and also allows multiple users to have individual NVDA configurations.
* new: Added support for position information for IAccessible2 controls.
* change: The level of a tree view item is now announced first if it has changed
from the previously focused item for all tree views. Previously, this was only occurring
for native Windows (SysTreeView32) tree views.
* fix: Improved the speaking of typed characters and words.
* fix: Some new text that was previously not spoken in text console applications
(such as some text adventure games) is now spoken.
* new: Added the ability to copy text to the clipboard using the review cursor. NVDA+f9
sets the start marker to the current position of the review cursor. NVDA+f10 retrieves
the text between the start marker and the current position of the review cursor and
copies it to the clipboard. (#240)
* new: Added support for some edit controls in pinacle tv software.
* fix: NVDA now ignores focus changes in background windows. Previously, a background
focus change could be treated as if the real focus changed.
* fix: Improved the detection of the focus when leaving context menus. Previously,
NVDA often didn't react at all when leaving a context menu.
* fix: NVDA now announces when the context menu is activated in the Start menu.
* fix: The classic Start menu is now announced as Start menu instead of Application
menu.
* new: When announcing selected text for long selections (512 characters or more),
NVDA now speaks the number of selected characters, rather than speaking the entire
selection. (#249)
* fix: Improved the reading of alerts such as those encountered in Mozilla Firefox.
The text should no longer be read multiple times and other extraneous information
will no longer be read. (#248)
* fix: The text of focusable, read-only edit fields will no longer be included when
retrieving the text of dialogs. This fixes, for example, the automatic reading of
the entire license agreement in installers.
*Fix: NVDA no longer announces the unselection of text when leaving some edit controls
(example: Internet Explorer address bar, Thunderbird 3 email address fields).
*Fix: When opening plain text emails in Outlook Express and Windows Mail, focus is
correctly placed in the message ready for the user to read it. Previously the user
had to press tab or click on the message in order to use cursor keys to read it.
* fix: Fixed several major issues with the "Speak command keys" functionality.
*Fix: NVDA can now read text past 65535 characters in standard edit controls (e.g.
a large file in Notepad).
*Fix: Improved line reading in MSHTML edit fields (Outlook Express editable messages
and Internet Explorer text input fields).
* fix: NVDA no longer sometimes freezes completely when editing text in OpenOffice.
(#148, #180)

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
Windows Live Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963