[gui-talk] Fwd: Guess What? Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 IE 9 and Windows Live

[Steve Pattison]

From:	jeremy at gwmicro.com
To:	gw-info at gwmicro.com

Guess What? – Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 – IE 9 and Windows Live

Disclaimer

The following message includes information regarding Window-Eyes 7.5
Beta 1. Please note that Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 HAS NOT been released
at this time. We are, however, providing you with some small glimpses
into the features that Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 will contain. We are
currently not answering any questions regarding the functionality of
the beta. The only things we are going to talk about will be what we
have included in our new Guess What series, which will continue daily
up to the beta release date. We will answer all questions at that time.
Please be patient; you will be rewarded.

If you are subscribed to the GW Micro or Guess What podcast feed, you
will automatically receive this Guess What in MP3 format.  Check out
www.gwmicro.com/podcast for more information.  For sighted users, go to
our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/gwmicro to see the video of the
Guess What.  If you want to download the MP3, read this article online,
or view more Guess What articles (when they are released), please visit
www.gwmicro.com/beta.

Enjoy!

--

Welcome to GW Micro's "Guess What?" series, an introductory look at the
highly anticipated release of Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1.  Window-Eyes 7.5
Beta 1 offers innovative support for Internet Explorer 9 – the next
generation of web browsers.  Internet Explorer 9 not only offers a new
streamlined design but also adds support for HTML 5, pinned sites that
lets you directly pin your favorite websites to your Taskbar for easy
access, as well as hardware acceleration that makes browsing the web
even faster.  For more information on all of the new features of
Internet Explorer 9, please visit www.microsoft.com.  

Let’s take a look at how Window-Eyes works with Internet Explorer 9. 
It should be noted that this Guess What is using a private build of
Internet Explorer 9, so the results with the current public beta of IE
9 will vary from this Guess What.  First, press Windows Key-R to open
the Run dialog.  Then, type “www.gwmicro.com” and press Enter.  The
webpage opens in IE 9.  Browse mode automatically turns on, and
browsing the web works just as it did before.  You can still use
Window-Eyes to easily navigate a web page  by line, character, word,
link, heading, as well as other HTML elements with the press of a
single key .  You should note that IE 9 uses a new technology called
User Interface Automation (UIA).  UIA and its other improvements and
implications for software will be discussed in greater details in
tomorrow’s Guess What.

Everyone’s favorite hotkey, Insert-Tab (which brings up the Page
Navigation dialog), still works just as it always has.  If you press
Insert-Tab, you will immediately get a list of links.  The dialog has
all of the capabilities that you have come to know and love, such as
the ability to list your place markers and controls.  Pressing Esc will
take you back to the webpage.

Open a new tab by pressing Control-T, and an interesting new feature
will display.  The assumption of opening a new tab is that you will
type a new web address, so let’s Tab until we get to the browser window.
Links to your most popular sites will appear.  The site that I happen
to visit the most is GW Micro, so it is the first in the list.  Move to
the next item in the list, and in this case, you will hear that my
second most visited site is Internet Explorer 9 Beta.  Any of these can
be hidden at any time, but a nice feature here is that you can press
your Context Menu key, Down Arrow to Pin to Start Menu, press Enter,
and you have just pinned that site to your Start menu.  Yet again,
Window-Eyes is there every step of the way.

What if you want to search for something in IE 9?  You could go to your
default search engine, but why not just search from your address bar?
Type in the search term and IE 9 will automatically list the search
results.  Let’s try searching for “Window-Eyes.”  First, press Alt-D to
access the Address bar.  Next, type “Window-Eyes” and press Enter.  Bing
happens to be the default search provider.  Press H until you hear “All
Results.”  Then, the next item you hear will be the first search result. 
Place focus on the link via your favorite method, press Enter, and you
are off to that webpage.

Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 is right there with you every single step of the
way as you browse the web with Internet Explorer 9.  When Internet
Explorer 9 ships to the public, you can rest assured that Window-Eyes
will be ready so make sure you are too by upgrading to Window-Eyes 7.5.

What about using other new software from Microsoft, such as Windows
Live Messenger?  Windows Live Messenger 2011 was pushed out as a
critical update for Windows, and it now uses a newer technology that
Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 supports.  We noted that many of you are using
Windows Live Messenger, and GW Micro wants to make sure that we are
keeping up with the latest technology, so Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 adds
full support for Windows Live Messenger 2011.  To take advantage of
Windows Live Messenger, you will need to download and install it, then
setup an account, and sign in.  These are steps that we will not cover
here.  I'’ll open Windows Live Messenger by opening the Start menu with
the Windows Key, then type “Windows Live Messenger,” and press Enter. 
My account information is already there, so I'’ll press Enter to sign in.

Once Windows Live Messenger opens, it automatically goes to the
Notification Area on my computer.  Press Windows Key-B to access the
Notification Area, Down Arrow to Windows Live Messenger, and press
Enter.  The main window of Windows Live Messenger appears and I can
start moving through the contacts, or I can search for a contact.  Down
Arrow until you get to a contact. In my case, I'’ll Down Arrow until I
get to my first contact, which is Aaron Smith.  Then, press Enter.  You
are automatically put into the edit box where you can type a message.  I
will type, “Hello, Aaron!  Welcome to the Guess What demo!”   After I
press Enter, the text goes into a pane above that shows the history of
our conversation.  When Aaron writes back, we will hear what he says. 
At any time, you can review the conversation history by pressing F6. 
Then, use the Arrow keys to navigate through the text.  When you are
finished reviewing the text, press Shift-F6, and you will be placed back
in the edit box where you can type another message.  Even with the
technology new to Messenger, you can hear that Window-Eyes has no
problem traversing Windows Live Messenger 2011.

Another great feature about the new version of Windows Live Messenger
is that tabbed messaging is now supported.  Suppose you want to talk to
more than one person.  You can press Alt-Tab until you get back to the
list of contacts, and press Enter on another contact to speak with.  As
soon as you press Enter on the contact, the message to the new contact,
and the message to Aaron are put inside one window with two tabs.  You
can press Control-Tab to switch between the tabs.  

Once again, Window-Eyes is keeping up with the rapid pace of technology
to enable you to be productive and efficient, whether you are in a
professional environment, an educational environment, or simply using
Window-Eyes at home.   Window-Eyes continues to forge ahead through its
innovative support of both Internet Explorer 9 and the newer technology
found in Windows Live Messenger 2011.

We still have a few more items that make Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1 an even
more well-rounded, well worth it upgrade, including some additional
features, and a solid collection of bug fixes. Stay tuned for
tomorrow's "Guess What?" to learn more about Window-Eyes 7.5 Beta 1, as
well as an exciting promotion to help you upgrade from 7.2 to 7.5.

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782