Window-Eyes 4.0 Revision History

Document Layout

This document is laid out as follows:

• Each heading level 1 represents one major version of Window-Eyes.
• Each heading level 2 represents one minor version of Window-Eyes
• Each heading level 3 represents a category of new features under each version of Window-Eyes.

4.5 SP4

Released: 8/10/2004

• Microsoft recently announced the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (available soon at http://www.windowsupdate.com) for all owners of Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. Among many enhancements in Windows XP SP2, a security change was implemented requiring an adjustment to be made in Window-Eyes. Therefore, Window-Eyes 4.5 SP4 now has full support for Windows XP SP2.
• We took the opportunity of another service pack release to resolve one of the most common bugs reported to us since the release of Window-Eyes 4.5 SP3. This bug deals with the constant reloading of many web pages, regardless of what the suspend verbosity settings are set to. This problem should now be resolved.

4.5 SP3

Released: 5/3/2004

• Fixed a problem where enhanced characters used in international languages were getting separated in words causing those words to be spoken incorrectly.
• Fixed the Braille display output from doubling the text on a line while typing an email message in Outlook Express.
• Fixed the MSAA new page information verbosity so it is always used when loading in a new page.
• If you entered a character dictionary entry for an ANSI character above 127 the include font checkbox would not function correctly. This has been resolved.
• Updated the master graphic.gra file to include the 32-bit check box graphics in the Windows XP Add/Remove control panel.
• Resolved minor incompatibilities with Windows 2003 SP1.
• Fixed the tone settings for SAPI synthesizers.
• We fixed a couple of errors, thanks once again to the Window-Eyes Error Reporting feature. Thanks to everyone who continues to help us increase the stability and performance of Window-Eyes by submitting error reports when they become available.

4.5 SP2

Released: 4/26/2004

• Added support for Windows XP SP2.
• Added native support for many Delphi window classes.
• Added native support for many VB.NET controls.
• Added support for many Visual DialogScript controls.
• Added support for the isContentEditable attribute in IE. This will help online mail sites read better when composing messages.
• Improved support for AOL Communicator.
• Added support for more types of tooltips.
• We now allow uppercase letters as separate key label entries. Previously we wouldn’t distinguish between uppercase or lowercase letters.
• The find dialog selection is now on the first entry in the combo box if there is one.
• Fixed the DoubleTalk PC driver. Previously if you selected the DoubleTalk PC with the auto setting, the system would hang. Now it just gives up and goes on with no speech.
• Fixed many IE hangs and blowups including, but not limited to:
  • The most notable loss of speech problem that many people reported.
  • Several GPFs with certain IE tables.
  • Logging off and shutting down when msaa mode is on.
  • Disabled buttons in IE now indicate they are disabled both in speech and Braille.
  • When you drop out of msaa mode on a form, you can now alt-tab away and when you alt-tab back msaa mode will still be off.
  • Fixed a problem that caused Macromedia buttons to turn off MSAA mode instead of reloading the page.
  • Flash, Adobe and mozilla would say “not a valid keypress” when you hit space on a radio button or checkbox. It should have just toggled the control and updated the buffer. Now it does that correctly.
  • Fixed a problem on some web pages not redirecting correctly if Window-Eyes was running.
• Corrected an SP1 regression with Outlook Express. If you did a mouse search it would cause the page to reload and the search would always fail.
• Window-Eyes will not always display the full list of hotkeys for both the execute hotkey dialog and the Braille hotkeys.
• If you had grade 2 enabled, spacing would always be collapsed. Now the Braille verbosity for collapsed spacing is honored.
• Fixed a problem where MSN Messenger was inconsistent about reporting the text in Braille.
• Fixed a problem where Braille was not indicating checked, disabled, or pulldown states in menus
• We have added support for the Focus and PACmate braille displays. Default keys are assigned.
• We have added support for the Inka Braille display
• We resolved problems with ATI Mobility video cards in Windows XP notepad where selected text was not being read properly.
• We resolved a GPF relating to highlighted text.
• We resolved a GPF relating to Visual Basic 6.
• We have corrected problems with the cursor in visual studio .NET edit windows.
• We have corrected a problem that prevented users from correctly launching Window-Eyes when they were on a network with a domain server with Startup Type set to load before startup.
• We have corrected a Start Type (load before startup) bug that was caused by crashes in Window-Eyes while the user was logging off. Window-Eyes was prevented from exiting cleanly and then the user would need to manually stop the process with the “End Task” dialog. After that, load before startup wouldn’t read the friendly logon screen.
• We fixed a GPF involving McAffee Virus Scan.
• When setting focus to the page tab in the AOL new contact dialog and then pressing Control+Tab, Window-Eyes would lose speech until it was relaunched. This has been resolved.
• We fixed a problem with certain video cards causing us to not see some graphics like minimize, maximize buttons and the highlighted graphics in the inbox of Outlook.
• We created a work around for a MathPlayer bug.
• We fixed a major OSM problem on certain video cards. This could affect graphics as well as background color of text.
• We resolved a problem with Outlook Express where word mode would cause the speech to become choppy.
• We resolved a problem with getting text on graphical buttons that was supplied via MSAA.
• We have included several speed and memory improvements.
• We have fixed many miscellaneous GPF’s thanks to the new Error Reporting feature. Thanks to everyone who took the time to send us your reports. Thanks to you and the powerful stability, performance, and reliability of Window-Eyes, users can spend more time getting things done, rather than rebooting.
• The set file format has changed from Window-Eyes 4.5. The SP2 install will automatically update existing sets to the new format. If you load old set files you will need to update them using the “Convert Sets To Current Format” option in the Window-Eyes File menu. We also added and updated the following factory set files. In order to use the new sets you will need to load them by using the “Select Set File…” option in the Window-Eyes file menu:
  • Added Office 2003 sets to the factory sets
  • Added Windows Sound Recorder Sets
  • Updated IE sets - context sensitive help now reflects new IE commands with 4.5
  • Updated WP 10 sets - updated graphics, font information window, and context sensitive help.
  • Updated Outlook Express sets - added 32-bit graphics for message rules: checked, unchecked, and incomplete.
  • Updated Eudora sets - added 32-bit graphics for messages status, attachments, queued, etc.
  • Updated Solitaire sets - added 32-bit graphics for all the cards and graphics
  • Updated Window-Eyes sets - conform to the updated global settings

4.5 SP1

Released: 10/24/2003

• We fixed the Startup Type (Load Before Startup) problem under Windows 2000, XP and 2003. At this time, we feel all startup issues with Window-Eyes have been resolved.
• When you press the spacebar on a checkbox while in MSAA mode the entire web page would always reload. Now MSAA will only reload if the page changes when the spacebar is pressed.
• We increased performance which is most noticeable in the Windows XP All Files and Folders Search edit box.
• We resolved an error that occurred when changing synthesizers.
• We resolved issues with installing the Citrix Virtual Channel synthesizer.
• We resolved an issue that occurred when launching Window-Eyes under Windows Server 2003.
• Several error reports relating to MSAA mode were sent to us, allowing our developers to resolve all of the issues reported.
• Several error reports relating to general usage were sent to us, allowing our developers to resolve all of the issues reported.

4.5

Released: 9/16/2003

Cost: $100

Welcome to Window-Eyes 4.5

Congratulations! You are about to experience the cutting edge leader in screen access technology: Window-Eyes 4.5.

Window-Eyes 4.5 introduces access never before possible through remote solutions with Citrix MetaFrame XP, Microsoft Terminal Services, and Microsoft Windows XP/2003 Professional Remote Desktop. Now you can get your work done anywhere, anytime. Need access to a Client’s machine from your office? Not a problem. Need access to your customer database while on the road? Done. Window-Eyes 4.5 provides you with the flexibility and stability that you expect from your screen reader.

To demonstrate our commitment to performance and reliability, Window-Eyes 4.5 boasts the inclusion of an Error Reporting feature. Do not be surprised if you rarely see this utility; Window-Eyes stability is unprecedented, even on today’s advanced machines (even those using dual processors, or Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology). There may be a time, however, when you need to submit important error details directly to our development team. With an Internet connection, and a few seconds of your time, Window-Eyes 4.5 Error Reporting gives you the means to do just that.

Speaking of Internet connections, prepare to be dazzled by the web browsing features available in Window-Eyes 4.5. Quick navigation keys to move through various elements like headings, lists, paragraphs, tables, and forms allow you to move around a web page more efficiently than before. Smart paragraph and smart table mode let Window-Eyes determine what information is most important on a page. Tools to access the beginning and end of elements, route the mouse pointer to specific elements, and get detailed information about any element make Window-Eyes Internet support unique and powerful.

Even configuring Window-Eyes is quick and easy. Many of the Window-Eyes configuration dialogs (such as the Hot Key and MSAA verbosity dialogs) reflect a user friendly approach by grouping common options together. Window-Eyes provides you with access to the details of your operating system. The time/date hot key, for example, honors both regional language settings and 24 hour time format so that you can hear the date and time exactly like you want.

Another powerful, feature of Window-Eyes 4.5 is the ability to read secure PDF documents with Acrobat Reader 6.0. In previous versions of the Acrobat Reader, PDF files that were secured by the author to prevent manipulation or extraction of text were not accessible. Now they are. Window-Eyes 4.5 not only provides the ability to read secure PDFs, but also maintains the document’s security by prohibiting copying of secure text. Bookmarks are also supported in Acrobat Reader 6.0.

The inclusion of the DECtalk Access 32 and ScanSoft RealSpeak software synthesizers FREE of charge (ScanSoft RealSpeak only available in Windows 2000/XP/2003), along with all of the new enhancements, fixes, and features, make Window-Eyes 4.5 the most powerful screen reader available today. You’ve got work to do. Let Window-Eyes increase your productivity.

New Features

Window-Eyes 4.5 is the first screen reader to offer remote access solutions for Citrix MetaFrame XP, Microsoft Terminal Services, and Microsoft Remote Desktop. Detailed information regarding the configuration of Window-Eyes in Citrix MetaFrame XP, Microsoft Terminal Services, and Microsoft Remote Desktop environments is available in the Window-Eyes 4.5 Manual. For more information on Citrix MetaFrame XP, please visit: www.citrix.com. For more information on Microsoft Terminal Services, please visit: www.microsoft.com/terminalservices.

Along with the Microsoft Speech Engine, and ETI Eloquence, Window-Eyes 4.5 now boasts the addition of the DECtalk Access32 software synthesizer completely free of charge. This free version of the DECtalk Access 32 will be tied directly to Window-Eyes. The full version, however, is still available for the low price of $75 (plus shipping). You can use the DECtalk Access 32 software synthesizer by selecting the “DECtalk Access 32 (Window-Eyes)” option in the Select Synthesizer dialog under the File menu of the Window-Eyes control panel.

UNDER 2000/XP/2003 ONLY Window-Eyes 4.5 also boasts the inclusion of the ScanSoft� RealSpeak� Synthesizer. ScanSoft�s RealSpeak, a widely used text-to-speech solution, uses a very human-sounding voice with high intelligibility, enhancing the user experience. Window-Eyes 4.5 includes the following RealSpeak languages: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

We at GW Micro have always been under the assumption that having to reboot your computer because of an error is far more than just an annoyance; it�s unacceptable. Whether you are analyzing data for your employer, organizing recipes, sending e-mail to your family, or having fun with AllinPlay Poker, you rely on your computer to be as stable as possible. Window-Eyes 4.5 takes stability one step further by offering error reporting: the ability for Window-Eyes to report when it has encountered a problem. You can access the error report feature by either launching Window-Eyes after an error has occurred, or by accessing the Error Reporting dialog under the Help menu of the Window-Eyes control panel. Error reports are sent through the Internet directly to the GW Micro development team, so you will need to make sure that you are connected to the Internet before attempting to send an error report. You can disable the automatic notification of error reporting, but we strongly encourage you to use it if you have an error to report. Otherwise your error may go unresolved. This feature, which has already proved highly effective, allows our developers to solve problems quickly. No private information is sent along with the error report, although you do have the option of including any comments (such as your computer specifications, steps to duplicate the problem, etc.) that you feel may help our developers in resolving the problem. Note that this feature is only available under Windows 2000, XP, or 2003.

Another powerful, new feature of Window-Eyes 4.5 is the ability to read secure PDF documents with Acrobat Reader 6.0. In previous versions of the Acrobat Reader, PDF files that were secured by the author to prevent manipulation or extraction of text were not accessible. Now they are. Window-Eyes not only provides the ability to read secure PDFs, but also maintains the document�s security by prohibiting copying of secure text. Bookmarks are also supported in Acrobat Reader 6.0.

Internet Enhancements

• The any line hotkey will now remember the last line used and display it as the default for next time.
• Web page access has been greatly improved with an impressive array of support for items like: access Keys, acronyms/abbreviations, flash, forms, headings, languages, links, lists, long descriptions, new popup windows (with user definable sounds), objects, paragraphs, smart paragraphs, quotes/blockquotes, table headers, table header attributes, table summary, table row grouping, tables with merged cells, graphics with no ALT tags, ability to suspend page refreshes, automatically identify new page information, fully customizable navigation hot keys (use P/SHIFT-P to move through paragraphs, L/SHIFT-L to move through lists, or create your own), the ability to move to beginning or end of an element with a simple key press, the ability to fill out forms while in MSAA mode, automatic speaking of multiple languages when using multiple Eloquence languages, ability to use drag and drop to select text, ability to route mouse to the current element, heading movement keys, a new way to surf with sighted friends, and more. For detailed information on each of the above features, review Appendix E of the Window-Eyes 4.5 Manual.

Application Specific Enhancements

• Support for Outlook 2003 has been added.
• We have resolved an issue with Office 97 combo boxes not speaking correctly.
• We have resolved all Visual Studio .NET issues which have been reported.
• The Visual Studio .NET properties dialog is now fully supported.
• The Visual Studio .NET toolbox is now fully supported. You can move focus to the toolbox by pressing CTRL-ALT-X. Up and Down arrows will move you through the toolbox options, and CTRL-Up and CTRL-Down will move you through different toolbox group options. Currently all items will say “disabled.” This is a Microsoft bug, and they are aware of it. Also when you press CTRL-ALT-X we just say “toolbox” because that is the only name they supply. Again, this is a Microsoft bug and they are aware of it. Until they provide a solution, you will need to arrow around after pressing CTRL-ALT-X to see where you really are in the toolbox.
• We have resolved many Notes 6 issues.
• We have added full support for the buddy list in AOL Instant Messenger.
• Window-Eyes now provides indexes for Delphi radio buttons.
• We have worked with AI Squared to be more compatible with the latest ZoomText 8 release.
• We have resolved some format alert issues for Outlook Express.
• Window-Eyes now reads correctly in the WordPerfect 10 look in combo box in the open/save dialog box.
• With Messenger 6 in Windows 98, if you typed something and pressed the backspace, Window-Eyes would read one character and then cause the cursor to go away. This has been resolved.
• In MSN Messenger 6, Window-Eyes will automatically read incoming messages, regardless of whether or not you are in the message window.
• Buttons are now supported in Microsoft Access database environments.
• In Excel’s font dialog, the name, style, and size edit boxes now read correctly.

Operating System Enhancements

• The time would not read right in Scheduled Tasks in Windows XP. This has been resolved.
• We have resolved some issues in the Windows XP Users dialog.

Misc. Enhancements

• You can now read and control the reading of list view headers. For example, with list view headers enabled, and you open a folder in Windows Explorer in details view, you will hear the names of the columns, such as Name, Size, Type, and Date Modified. This feature can be controlled by Misc. verbosity options.
• Hotkey fields now speak whenever the content changes as new key combinations are set.
• Speak summary would double read if Misc. verbosity shortcuts was set to none for items that actually had shortcuts. This has been resolved.
• We have resolved some incompatibility issues with nVidia video cards.
• We have improved the field name support for general field names and group boxes.
• We have added support for the Braillino Braille display from HandyTech.
• The Miscellaneous shortcut verbosity is now a radio button (off, before and after), just like the menu shortcut verbosity option.
• The verbosity option dialog for menu shortcuts has been updated from on/off to off/before option/after option. Off simply turns menu shortcuts off. Before option will read the menu shortcut before the menu option (for example, P Print). After option will read the menu shortcut after the menu option (for example, Print P). Also note that the equals sign has been removed for menu options as well as controls (i.e. “F equals File,” now says, “F File”).
• The Time/Date hot key now honors the regional languages of your operating system. For example, if your date format is set to month/day/year, Window-Eyes might say, “February 6 2003.” If your date format is set to be day/month/year, Window-Eyes might say, “6 February 2003.” Window-Eyes also honors the 24 hour time format.
• Window-Eyes 4.5 supports both dual processor systems, and systems that utilize Intel�s Hyper-Threading technology.
• The Load Before Startup option has been changed to Startup Type, and now has four options: Off, Before Startup, After Startup (Current User), and After Startup (All Users). Off means Window-Eyes will not start automatically. Before Startup is like the old Load Before Startup, meaning that Window-Eyes will launch early enough to read any log in prompts. The After Startup (Current User) option is similar to placing a shortcut to Window-Eyes in the startup group for only the user that you have logged in as. The After Startup (All Users) option is similar to placing a shortcut to Window-Eyes in the startup group for every user on the machine. Note that the After Startup (All Users) option is only available in Windows 2000 or greater. Also under Windows 2000 or greater, if you are not logged in as Administrator, or you are not logged in as a user with administrator privileges, you will only be able to choose between two options: After Start (Current User), and Off. Administrators, and users with administrative privileges, will be able to choose between all four options.
• The hot key dialog has evolved from one large list into five individual menu options: Cursor (hot keys that manipulate the cursor), Mouse (hot keys that manipulate the mouse pointer), MSAA (hot keys used for navigating web pages), Miscellaneous (hot keys that perform miscellaneous tasks), and User Windows (hot keys that manipulate user definable windows). Each hot key dialog also has the ability to move between the other groups of hot key options through the use of radio buttons. This enables you to quickly move between the groups of hot keys without having to leave the hot key dialog.
• Several hot key names have been shortened to making accessing them inside the hot key dialogs even easier. For example, in the miscellaneous hot key dialog, the word “Read” has been removed from all options (except for “Read To End”). The words “Caret” and “Mouse” have also been removed from many of the items, and the words “prior” and “next” now follow the hot key names. This renaming scheme allows you to search more quickly through the hot key dialogs due to each name being more unique.
• All occurrences of light bar have been changed to Highlight in both the Window-Eyes control panel, and the Window-Eyes documentation.
• All occurrences of caret have been changed to cursor in both the Window-Eyes control panel, and the Window-Eyes documentation.
• All occurrences of marked text have been changed to highlighted text in both the Window-Eyes control panel, and the Window-Eyes documentation.
• Window-Eyes now stores the screen, keyboard, and mouse speech rates as percentages from 1 to 100 (rather than from 1 to 10) depending upon the synthesizer. For example, if your synthesizer is limited to 10 rates (like the Speak-Out or Sounding Board) then you will continue to have only 10 rates. If you are using a SAPI 4 Engine or DECtalk Access32, however, you will have 100 rates to choose from. SAPI 5 engines support only 21 rates. The Echo PC (yes, we still support it!) only has 2 rates to choose from.
• Window-Eyes Multi-User support has been enhanced to reflect the new Startup Type feature. In the past, if Window-Eyes had been configured to use Load Before Startup, all users would have to contend with Window-Eyes running once they logged in. Now, when using the Before Startup option, you have the choice to control how Window-Eyes will reload for specific users. For example, to enable Window-Eyes to automatically load for user Joe, you would follow these steps:
  1. Press CTRL- to bring up the Window-Eyes control panel
  2. Press ALT-F for the File Menu, followed by M for Multi-User Information
  3. TAB to the Current Window-Eyes User Names list box
  4. Arrow down to select the user Joe
  5. TAB to the Enable LBS After Logon button, and press ENTER
  6. TAB to OK and press ENTER
• To disable Window-Eyes from automatically loading for user Lisa, follow these steps:
  1. Press CTRL- to bring up the Window-Eyes control panel
  2. Press ALT-F for the File Menu, followed by M for Multi-User Information
  3. TAB to the Current Window-Eyes User Names list box
  4. Arrow down to select the user Lisa
  5. TAB to the Disable LBS After Logon button, and press ENTER
  6. TAB to OK and press ENTER
  • These settings are saved automatically.
• The Window-Eyes program group in the Start menu now has the following options:
  1. Advanced Options
  2. Readme
  3. Window-Eyes
  4. Window-Eyes Manual
• Under Window-Eyes Professional, the Advanced Options pull down contains two additional utilities:
  1. Video Support Maintenance: This option allows users to enable and disable video support for Window-Eyes under various scenarios.
  2. Virtual Channel Maintenance: This option allows users to enable and disable virtual channel support for remote access solutions such as Citrix and Microsoft Terminal Services.
• Window-Eyes Standard only contains the Virtual Channel Maintenance option.
• The speak line hot key will now execute the speak summary command if there is no cursor detected. This is a great single key press way to obtain information about where focus is at any time. This also means that something will always be spoken, no matter what. Now you can depend on Window-Eyes even more to always provide you with some sort of feedback regardless of your position on the screen. The only time you may hear nothing when you press the speak line hot key would be if you are on a blank line, and you have the “say blank” option turned off.
• Window-Eyes support for selecting text has been completely revamped. Selecting text should now be as accurate as possible in all applications.
• We fixed a problem that caused double speaking when reading lines that contained either labeled or non-labeled graphics.
• Window-Eyes is now smarter when distinguishing between message boxes and dialog boxes in applications like Microsoft Word. Message boxes usually contain only a small amount of text, and at least one control. This feature eliminates the need for specific set files to read or not read specific windows, making Window-Eyes even more compatible with applications out of the box.
• Tri-State check boxes (check boxes that contain three states: checked, unchecked, and partially checked) are now fully supported. Braille will indicate these check boxes with [p].
• List boxes that contain graphics (such as the MSCONFIG startup list) are now supported internally, meaning that you no longer need to label the check box graphics in an attempt to read the state of the check box.
• The INS-ARROW keys now default to all voices instead of just the screen voice.
• We fixed a problem where switching languages using the switch language hotkey and then refreshing the screen with INS�BACKSLASH, would cause the language to default back to the original startup language.
• Instead of attempting to process numbers when switching to a different language, Window-Eyes will simply pass the numbers on to the synthesizer. This prohibits sending English text to a foreign synthesizer.
• Thanks to our new error reporting feature, we have been able to solve many memory leaks, stability issues, and general errors that have been occurring. We have also been able to drastically increase the responsiveness of Window-Eyes.
• You can now set Braille displays and serial synthesizers to use serial ports up to COM8. This enhancement is useful for virtual serial ports.

Set File Changes

The following set files have been updated for Window-Eyes 4.5:

• Internet Explorer
  • Set Auto Speak Tooltips to Auto
  • Added SHIFT-RIGHT/SHIFT-LEFT/CTRL-SHIFT-RIGHT/CTRL-SHIFT-LEFT to read highlighted text
  • Updated Status Line hot key to use ALT-S
• Office XP
  • Updated Context Sensitive Help
  • Added reclass MSOUNISTAT=static box
  • Changed all references from DLG.001 to DLG.000
  • Removed *DLG.001 files
  • Checked “Auto Determine Highlight Color” in INS-F7 for Window 0
  • Changed Highlighted Text to Auto and checked Auto Determine Highlight Color in Window
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
  • Checked “Window if Message Box” in WRDXPDLG.000/MSOXPDLG.000
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
  • Added “Spelling and Grammar: English (=WRDXPSPL.000” for Spell Check
  • Changed “One Row” to “Two Rows” in documentation
• Office 2000
  • Added reclass MSOUNISTAT=static box
  • Changed all references from DLG.001 to DLG.000
  • Removed *DLG.001 files.
  • Changed all MSO9DLG references to WORD9DLG
  • Removed comment about pressing INSERT-R twice from spell check sets
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
  • Added “Spelling and Grammar: English (=WORD9SPL.000” for Spell Check
• Office 97
  • Added reclass MSOUNISTAT=static box
  • Changed all references from DLG.001 to DLG.000
  • Removed *DLG.001 files
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
• Microsoft Outlook Express
  • Appropriate cursoring keys set to read Highlighted text rather than execute hot key
  • Changed “Red” graphic to “Replied To”
  • Updated “Replied To” and “Forwarded” graphics for Windows XP
• Outlook 2000
  • Appropriate cursoring keys set to read Highlighted text
• AOL
  • Removed specific version number reference, as the sets are generic for all versions
• Eudora
  • Changed CTRL-LEFT and CTRL-RIGHT from Word to Word Enhanced
  • Updated graphics for version 6.0
• Outlook XP
  • Changed Highlighted Text to Auto and checked Auto Determine Highlight Color in Window
  • Added CTRL-SHIFT-1=In Box and CTRL-SHIFT-O=Out Box
• Adobe Acrobat
  • Updated version number
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• Window-Eyes Defaults
  • Removed checked graphic from MSCONFIG under Windows XP
  • Removed checked graphic from MSCONFIG under Windows 9X
  • Unchecked global verbosity option of “Read Entire Window if Dialog” for WINEYES.000
  • Added shift cursoring keys to read selected text in context sensitive help
  • Added UMSHTA.000/MSHTA.000/MSHTA.WE to support Error Reporting and Windows XP Users Control Panel dialogs
  • Changed default speech rate from 40 to 30
  • Added CTRL-SHIFT-A as MSAA mode hot key
  • Removed WEREG.00X associations from WINEYES.WE
  • Added support for Microsoft Management Console
  • Removed Services control panel from MSHTA.WE, and added to MMC.WE
  • Added WEDIALOG.000
  • Added Checked/Unchecked graphic labels for Disk Cleanup under Windows 9X
  • Added reclass to make buttons and check boxes read correctly in Windows XP find
• WordPerfect 8
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
• WordPerfect 9
  • Updated graphics for Windows 2000/XP
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
• WordPerfect 10
  • Updated read status to ALT-S, rather than CTRL-INS-S
• Office 2000
• PMMail
  • Changed highlight status to auto, and checked auto determine highlight color
• Winamp
  • Added Shuffle On/Off, Repeat On/Off graphics for Windows 98, and Windows XP
• MSN Messenger 6
  • Added ALT-S to read user status
  • Added Hyperactive Windows for user status messages
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
  • Changed left and right cursoring keys from Word to Word Enhanced
• Juno
  • Set all active windows to 0 in JMAIL.000, JUNOREAD.000, and JUNOSPEL.000
• Window Explorer
  • Changed Windows 0 from 1,1,1,25, to 0,0,0,0 in EXPLORER.000
• Duxbury
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• MSN
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• Real Player
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• Volume Control
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• Windows Me Help/System
  • Updated Mouse Boundary Windows from Focused Windows to Active Window
• Lotus Notes
  • Updated graphics
• EarthTuner
  • Set files have been removed
• ZoneAlarm
  • Set files have been removed

4.211

Released: 1/28/2003

No information was given on the release of Window-Eyes 4.211.

4.21

Released: 1/10/2003

Congratulations! You are about to experience the latest in cutting edge screen reading technology: Window-Eyes 4.21. Boasting over 100 enhancements and new features from the previous version, Window-Eyes 4.21 continues to lead the way, providing you with the most “Rock Solid” experience of any screen reader. Whether you are new to the power of Window-Eyes, or a seasoned Window-Eyes veteran, you will soon be experiencing the performance, reliability, and stability that Window-Eyes 4.21 has to offer.

New Window-Eyes 4.21 Features

• Window-Eyes 4.21 is proud to introduce Display chain management (DCM). DCM, fully supported by Window-Eyes, is a standard created by GW Micro, Microsoft and other AT vendors. DCM is designed to allow applications which need to insert a display driver into the system (such as screen readers and screen magnifiers) to co-exist peacefully. With all applications utilizing DCM, there will no longer be issues with installing and uninstalling applications, or having to remember the installation order. It is important to note, however, that even if a single application (which uses its own display driver) doesn’t support DCM, there may still be co-existence problems. In order to be DCM compliant the Window-Eyes driver is now totally pass-through both when active and inactive. This allows the most compatibility possible. If you have questions about DCM, please contact our technical support department at 260/489-3671, or via e-mail at wesupport@aisquared.com.
• Load Before Startup has been greatly enhanced for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
• If you lock your computer in XP (which requires Fast User Switching to be disabled) Window-Eyes will remain intact.
• We have improved MSAA performance especially in XP. This is not MSAA mode in IE but tabbing to MSAA controls such as in Microsoft Word dialogs.
• We have enhanced support for the User Accounts dialog in Windows XP.
• Window-Eyes Pro now disables the “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” feature automatically for XP and 2K. This information is documented in section 2.9 of the manual.
• Full support for Visual Studio .NET (Both the IDE and applications created with .NET).
• Full support for Lotus Notes 6.
• We have included the ability to route the mouse to links in Internet explorer outside of MSAA mode.
• Many fonts are now supported including the SYMBOL font.
• Full support for RealOne Version 2.0. You can download the latest RealOne Player from www.realone.com.
• We have added support for more delphi controls out of the box.
• Flash events now default to off. Note that the MSAA progress indicator (ie. Loading page, load done) will still announce the presence of any Flash animations on the page. If you wish to turn on Flash events, simply press ALT-SHIFT-M.
• Both text2set and set2text have been updated.
• The Window-Eyes dialogs and text will now use whatever the system colors are. Previously it was hard coded for a grey background with black text. This will make the installation of Window-Eyes easier for people with low vision who have their displays set in a specific way.
• SAPI 5 speech engines are now supported. The list of SAPI engines in the Select Synthesizer dialog now indicates if the engine is SAPI 4 or SAPI 5. Both are now fully supported.
• We have added seven new Braille hotkey options. You now have sticky shift, sticky control, sticky alt, sticky windows, sticky menu, sticky insert, and clear sticky keys. For those that like to type from the Braille display, this gives you the full power of the keyboard without having to define all possible combinations. The sticky option will stay active until a key is produced from another Braille key press. The sticky keys are cumulative so you can do any combination. They are cleared individually by simply hitting the sticky key again or you can clear all sticky keys at once by issuing the clear sticky keys option. For example, let’s say you have a Braille keypad on your display. If you define dot 1 as a lower case “a” but want ctrl-shift-a you can press the Braille hotkey defined to sticky control and the Braille hotkey defined to sticky shift and then press dot 1 for the a. This will issue a ctrl-shift-a. Remember, only the very first character generated by a Braille keystroke will be modified. So if instead of dot 1 just sending the letter “a” lets say it sent “abc”. Using the example above with ctrl-shift you would get ctrl-shift-a followed by the letter b followed by the letter c. 
• We have also added two new Braille hotkey options: “Name Toggle” and “Type Toggle.” These will simply toggle the checkbox in the control information dialog box.
• Added support for the Zephyr Braille display from Technibraille.
• We have added support for the Focus Braille display using serial ONLY.

New Window-Eyes 4.21 Enhancements

• Load Before Startup now works under Windows 2000 when you have a dialog pop up asking for the password of a shared drive after logging on.
• In Windows XP, have the start menu be set for the XP style. Highlight any option and press shift-f10. In many/most cases Window-Eyes wouldn’t say “context menu.” This has been resolved.
• While in Windows XP, launch Clipmate and note the minute it takes to load while Window-Eyes is running. This has been resolved.
• In Windows XP, open my computer. Navigate to your CD-ROM drive, and press SHIFT-F10. Choose properties from the context menu and press enter. Navigate to the Autoplay tab. Hit tab to the first combo box. If you arrow down through this combo box, the first item is repeated and not the actual item that has focus, although the index is incremented properly. Using shift CTRL-S also gives the incorrect information. This problem has been resolved.
• Fixed problem with dial-up networking in Window-Eyes Professional.
• In many cases as you arrowed through text you may have had to wait 10 or 15 seconds before the character was voiced. This was especially true with Windows 2K and XP, and has been resolved.
• Fixed a problem where Window-Eyes could get confused with certain property sheets under Windows 2K and XP.
• Fixed stability problems in the Event Viewer of Windows XP.
• Under XP and 2K, when you changed the video resolution, Windows would display a dialog asking if you want to keep the new setting. You had so many seconds to say yes or no, and this dialog wasn’t spoken automatically. This problem has been resolved.
• If an application is running as system user then Window-Eyes could go silent while that application had activation. This problem has been resolved.
• If you run an application produced by Visual Studio .Net or just use Visual Studio .Net development environment, the text generated would be scrambled. This problem has been resolved.
• On certain systems, when you alt-tabbed in Window-Eyes Professional, you would only get part of the text spoken from the alt-tab dialog. This has been resolved.
• Whenever you ran the MS Script Editor from MS Word XP, you would always get a crash. This has been resolved.
• Go to a web page with radio buttons or checkboxes. While in MSAA mode, TAB to one of these controls and press enter. In MOST cases the status of the control will be read in the opposite state it really is in. This has been resolved.
• If you have Load Before Startup on and you shut down the system, Window-Eyes would launch another copy of itself after exiting the currently running version. This would slow down the shut down and give extra speech. This has been resolved.
• Problems with a 10-15 second hang in various applications (Clipmate, CPU Cool, and many other places - basically any time a field name was being read) has been resolved.
• The search results treeview of Kazaa was not reading correctly, and re-classing it did not work. This has been resolved.
• Tool tips in Cool Edit Pro version 2 were not speaking. This has been resolved.
• In Windows 98, we solved an “out of range” error problem with the Speaking Clock Deluxe application (and other applications).
• We have fixed a major OSM regression. This was ONLY a problem for Windows 9X/ME users where a redraw was required to pull text out. A simple example was in Windows 98 with Outlook 2000. Most messages brought up from the inbox would require a redraw to get the text in the OSM. Again, this has been resolved.
• We fixed a problem where Window-Eyes thought it was still in a menu. Some people couldn’t even get the synthesizer list to read because of this problem.
• Many times, when you first launched the spell checker in Word, the hyperactive windows to read the misspelled word did not trigger. This has been resolved.
• With Window-Eyes running, go to the Window-Eyes help menu and select the Window-Eyes manual. While in the help dialog, click on the INDEX tab control. Now TAB to the listbox and notice that you can’t arrow up or down. This problem has been resolved.
• We fixed some listviews where Window-Eyes would read certain columns over and over and not read other columns. This has been resolved. Window-Eyes now handles listviews where columns are missing.
• Fixed a stability issue especially on startup.
• Fixed a hang with eFax Messenger Plus where selecting the Fax Cover Note option from the context menu in the system tray would freeze the system.
• Window-Eyes now identifies that you are on the desktop when you use Windows Key-D. Previously it would not say desktop and CTRL-SHIFT-T would say, “No active application.”
• We have fixed a Read to End problem when either shift and/or control were used as part of the hotkey.
• In some dialogs of Window-Eyes, when you entered on the OK button of the dialog, the Window-Eyes voice control panel would close and you would be put back in the application instead of back in the Window-Eyes voice control panel.
• Fixed several stability problems in both Window-Eyes Standard and Window-Eyes Professional.
• Fixed several focus and activation problems.
• Enhanced stability with MSAA applications.
• Greatly improved the stability of launching and shutting down Window-Eyes.
• Flash on background web pages won’t affect the foreground flash window.
• Fixed problems with the system hanging when either Internet Explorer or any MSAA application was shut down.
• Fixed a problem where speak all would not always work.
• If attribute changes were turned on, as you backspaced or deleted characters, Window-Eyes wouldn’t realize the attributes are the same. This has been resolved.
• We have enhanced the reliability of reading graphics in the Outlook Express inbox.
• We have enhanced reliability when reading menu items.
• Fixed all known compatibility issues with Norton SystemWorks 2002.
• We now recognize rich edit password controls so your password won’t be spoken aloud.
• Fixed some issues of set files not being updated when you switch Window-Eyes users.
• On some systems changing the video resolutions while Window-Eyes was running would cause stability problems. This has been resolved.
• Enhanced support for context menus.
• Enhanced support for tooltips.
• Enhanced support for MSN Explorer.
• Fixed a problem with the switch language hotkey. It wouldn’t always recognize all the installed Eloquence languages under Windows 9X/Me.
• From time to time, the synthesizer would get stuck in a wrong rate or pitch. This is especially true if you don’t have all three voices setup to use the same parameters. Even if you did have them the same the pitch or rate, the voice could get messed up because of the raised pitch functions and the automatic slow down of certain functions. This problem has been resolved.
• If you used the switch language hotkey it would revert back to the default language in several areas (ie. when you ended a read-to-end). This has been resolved.
• Fixed a problem in the Accent synthesizer where the colon and semi-colon would be double voiced if the punctuation was enabled.
• If you have “Window Type” disabled in the focus dialog, Window-Eyes wouldn’t read the status of checkboxes in web pages. This has been resolved.
• If you used multiple identities in outlook express, Window-Eyes had problems opening messages. This has been resolved.
• We now recognize the dialogs in Install Shield that use the Microsoft Installer.
• Fixed problem with certain applications and the Window-Eyes bypass command.
• Fixed stability problems of launching a link from an Outlook Express message if Internet Explorer was not already running.
• Fixed the speaking rate for ViaVoice 6. The switch language now supports version 6 as well.
• Previously both Microsoft’s visual studio and Borland’s Delphi’s developer environment would cause major stability problems with Window-Eyes. This has been resolved.
• You couldn’t always disable the auto detection of lightbars. This problem has been resolved.
• Fixed problems where the background color was not always being determined correctly.
• Enhanced our ability to detect certain graphics being drawn on the screen.
• In some cases, as you tab between edit boxes, if the edit box had data the field name wouldn’t be spoken. This problem has been resolved.
• If a hyperactive window loaded a new disk set, all the commands of the hyper window would get executed twice. This problem has been resolved.
• Backspacing through text in Eudora 5.x (especially in Windows 9X) can be extremely slow.
• Fixed problems in the Windows 98 Password dialog.
• If you set the update timeout value in the Braille options dialog greater than 999 and you and bring up the options dialog again the system would become unstable. This has been resolved.
• Fixed several memory leaks.
• In the Standard User Window Definition dialog box (insert-f7), the field name for Light bar status wasn’t read. This has been resolved.
• Increased reliability of communicating with SAPI and DECtalk Access32 synthesizers on startup.
• Better support for non-US keyboards.
• Fixed field labels not being displayed in Braille with edit boxes.
• Braille now works in MDI (Multi-Document Interface) windows.
• If you setup a Braille keystroke to execute the bypass hotkey, it would cause instability problems when you pressed that Braille keystroke. This has been resolved.
• If you unchecked field name in Braille, on the Braille display Window-Eyes would not recognize the start menu correctly. This has been resolved.

Specific Set File Information

The following changes have been made to some Window-Eye set files. Please note that the new sets files are only updated in the default set file location (by default, c:wineyessets); they are not installed automatically. To use the new set files, you will need to re-install the sets using the “Select Set File” dialog in the file menu of the Window-Eyes voice control panel.

• Added WordPerfect 10, and Norton Systemworks 2002 set files.
• Added Lotus Notes 6 sets
• Changed ALT-T to ALT-N in Office 97, Office 2K, and Office XP
• Updated add/remove checkbox graphics for Windows 2K, 16bit
• Updated MSOE graphics for Windows 2K, 16bit
• Updated MSO2K graphics for Windows XP, 16 bit
• Updated MSOE graphics for Windows XP, 16bit
• Modified all graphic dictionary sets to be dictionary only
• Modified F6 to read attachments in MSO2K and MSOXP
• Added checked/unchecked for msconfig and tweakUI for Windows XP, 16bit
• Added WordPerfect 10 Sets
• Enhanced verbosity options in Office 2K and Office XP
• Updated Space Threshold from 4 to 5 in CPROMPT.000
• Added sets for Norton Systemworks 2002
• Updated global settings in all Access sets to Voice and Verbosity
• Associated NOTEPAD.GRA and NOTEPAD.KEY with NOTEPAD.000
• Updated Office XP sets, specifically Excel XP. Editing cells should now be more robust.
• Added graphic labels for checked/unchecked in Add/Remove Programs control panel under Windows Components.
• Re-classed checkboxes for search under XP to make them work faster.
• Updated Office XP sets, specifically Word XP. Spell check should now be more robust.
• Updated Office 2K sets, specifically Word 2K. Dialogs that were once silent should now read.
• Updated Office XP sets, specifically Outlook XP. Message status graphics should now read in 16 and 32 bit for both the default and classic views.

4.2

Released: 3/12/2002

Welcome to Window-Eyes 4.2, the latest version of the most “Rock Solid” screen reader available. We have come a long way since Window-Eyes 4.11, and appreciate everyone who assisted us with feedback and suggestions.

The following is a list of some of the major enhancements between Window-Eyes 4.11 and Window-Eyes 4.2.

NEW: - Introducing the highly anticipated Window-Eyes Professional! Now offering:

• Support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP
• Support for XP Welcome Screen/Friendly Logon
• Support for Fast User Switching (FUS)

NOTE: One piece of information that didn’t quite make it into the updated manual has to do with turning off the auto hide unused system tray icons in Windows XP. To disable this feature, do the following:

1. Press CTRL-ESC to bring up the Start Menu
2. Press ESC to focus the start button
3. Press SHIFT-F10 to enable the context menu
4. Type ‘R’ for properties
5. Press SHIFT-TAB to focus the tab control
6. Arrow RIGHT or LEFT until you hear Taskbar
7. TAB until you hear the “Hide inactive icons” check box
8. Press SPACE to uncheck this check box
9. TAB to OK and press ENTER

Enhancements between 4.1 and 4.2

• Window-Eyes now offers support for multiple users. Multi-user information allows Window-Eyes to be customized for multiple users, either on a stand alone machine, or across a network. Each user created with the multi-user feature manages their own Window-Eyes environment (sets, synthesizers, Braille displays, and all local and global settings) apart from other Window-Eyes users. For more information, refer to Section 7.11 in the Window-Eyes User’s Guide.
• Fully integrated, single, talking install for all operating systems. The install will detect what version of Windows you are running, and install the appropriate version of Window-Eyes.
• Optional client install for network server environments. The client install can be run with or without speech.
• Along with Internet Explorer 6, the Window-Eyes CD also includes Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.05 for easy installation
• Window-Eyes is currently the only screen reader available that supports Macromedia Flash animation. For more information on how Flash works, refer to Appendix F.7 of the Window-Eyes User’s Guide
• Mexican Spanish and Canadian French version of Eloquence have been added
• We have added Braille display support for the Braille Lite M20 and M40, Handy Tech Bookworm, Handy Tech Braille Star 40 and 80 and Braillex EL Braille Assistant (Elba).
• We now support the updated Alva drivers, which allow access to parallel and USB connections in Windows XP (these drivers also solve some problems that existed in Windows 98). Window-Eyes continues to support the most Braille displays and synthesizers of any screen reader available.
• We have updated the German Braille tables for 6 and 8 dot Braille.
• We have updated the grade 2 translator to better handle symbols for UK English.
• Window-Eyes now contains better support for the new euro and sterling pound currency through speech
• We have enhanced our OSM (Off Screen Model) with better field name support with the new MSAA label implementation
• Enhanced support for several applications including: Microsoft Word 2000, Victor Reader, Cool Edit Pro, and AOL 7.
• Indexing support has been added to combo edit boxes
• Window-Eyes now disables the abbreviation dictionary for Eloquence, allowing for clearer Eloquence speech.
• We have enhanced MSAA stability in IE, Outlook, and Outlook Express.
• We have enhanced our OSM (Off Screen Model) to be more robust and accurate.
• We have added more memory enhancements to make Window-Eyes even more stable.
• The Window-Eyes User’s Guide has been updated need a blank line above this line
• We have fixed many miscellaneous bugs

4.11

Released: 9/4/2001

Welcome to Window-Eyes 4.11, the latest version of the most “Rock Solid” screen reader available. We have come a long way since Window-Eyes 4.1, and appreciate everyone who assisted us with feedback and suggestions.

The following is a list of some of the major enhancements and fixes between Window-Eyes 4.1 and Window-Eyes 4.11.

Important Installation Information

The Window-Eyes install has changed. Please read through the following information to familiarize yourself with these new changes:

When you place the Window-Eyes CD in your CD-ROM, you will be presented with a dialog consisting of several installation options. They are as follows:

• S = Install With Speech - This option will launch a temporary copy of Window-Eyes to speak the install.
• W = Install Without Speech - This option will cause the install to run silent.
• T = Play Tutorial - This option will play the MP3 Tutorial
• M = Play Manual - This option will play the MP3 Manual (NOTE: You must have a screen reader running to listen to the manual).
• R = Replay Verbal Message - This option will replay the message that plays when this dialog is initially opened.
• A = Advanced Options - This option provides advanced installation options detailed below (NOTE: You must have a screen reader running to use the Advanced Options.
• X = Exit - This option will exit this dialog.

Advanced Options: NOTE: You will need a screen reader installed to access these options. This is NOT a self voicing dialog like the previous one.

This dialog allows you to install a number of multi-lingual versions of Eloquence (US English, UK English, Castilian Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese), install the Microsoft Speech Engine, un-install all Eloquence synthesizers, install Internet Explore 5.5 SP2, or install Internet Explorer 6.

• If you install a new Eloquence language, you will need to restart Window-Eyes in order to see the new synthesizer in the Synthesizer Selection dialog in the Window-Eyes control panel.
• If you un-install all Eloquence synthesizers, you will need to reboot your machine when the un-install is complete.
• If you are running Windows 95, you will not be able to install Internet Explorer 6. You will instead need to install Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2.
• If you choose the quick or custom install with speech, the Eloquence US English language will be installed. If you choose the quick install without speech, the Eloquence US English language will still be installed. If you choose the custom install without speech, and do not check any of the Eloquence languages, then no Eloquence languages will be installed. In other words, the only way to install Window-Eyes without installing Eloquence is to do a custom install without speech, without checking any of the Eloquence languages. Note that SAPI 4.0a (the technology used to run all SAPI software speech) will always be installed.
• If you are running the DEMO version of the Window-Eyes 4.11, the only advanced option you will have access to will be to un-install all Eloquence languages.

Internet/IE/MSAA Enhancements

• Window-Eyes no longer supports Internet Explorer versions less than 5.5. Many times throughout this readme file, we refer to Internet Explorer 6. For more information on the latest available version, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie. Note that both IE 5.5 SP2 and IE 6 are included on your Window-Eyes CD.
• We have made many enhancements to MSAA mode in Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Help. All duplicatable instability problems and inconstant behaviors have been fixed.
• We solved problems where Window-Eyes would ignore items inside the HTML LABEL tag in IE 6.
• Window-Eyes will now indicate when a control is disabled on a web page and we don’t allow you to press enter on disabled controls. Note that we are currently not able to do this for buttons and picture links. This is a Microsoft problem, and we have notified them appropriately.
• We now allow MSAA mode in the Surfer Player. Note that this program still needs to add keyboard access (if you are interested in this program, we recommend contacting the developers and requesting keyboard access), but at least MSAA mode now works where it is supposed to within the program.
• We fixed a problem where, if you were in table mode arrowing down in a cell, you could land on something that appeared to be a blank line if smart table mode removed a table within the current table. This has been corrected.
• Copying to the clipboard didn’t work in table mode. Now you can copy any part of the current cell to the clipboard while in table mode.
• Window-Eyes now attempts to scroll the line you are on in the MSAA buffer in to view. This appears to work well accept for pages using frames. We are still working with Microsoft to improve this support.
• We fixed problems with alt-insert-down arrow landing on parts of tables that were not in the buffer which would cause this key to get stuck. This was noticed at http://www.microsoft.com/enable.
• We now take advantage of the support for merging text inside of HTML LABEL tags such as click here where the c is highlighted in IE 6. We will also merge this type of text in earlier versions of IE and in IE 6 outside of label tags as long as the text touches horizontally and one rect is fully contained by the other.
• Window-Eyes does a better job of ignoring hidden items on a web page, especially in IE 6.
• The Window-Eyes update option from the Window-Eyes help menu will now display the number of SMA counts available for your current copy of Window-Eyes.
• The problem of MSAA mode not turning on correctly when closing a window (which caused activation to land on an application where MSAA mode was available, such as closing an IE window and going to another IE window or closing Media Player and going to an IE window) has been fixed.
• There were cases in OE where WE would not say the progress messages such as “loading page”. This has been fixed.
• Window-Eyes no longer reports if it thinks frames are disabled in Internet Explorer.
• In Internet Explorer, Window-Eyes now says “link” before links if window type first is checked and visited link is unchecked in MSAA verbosity when reading the first 24 lines or reading to end on a web page.
• The problem of Window-Eyes not automatically reading when pressing F6 to get to the content window in IE help (Such as the Window-Eyes manual) has been fixed.
• There were cases when Window-Eyes would indicate visited links when this verbosity setting was unchecked. This has been fixed.
• The problem of combo boxes not getting focus when pressing enter on them in MSAA mode (as well as alt-down arrowing not speaking the selected item) has been fixed.
• The problem of Window-Eyes not going to the correct place on a page when pressing enter on a link that points to an in-page anchor has been fixed.
• Since there is no such thing as a disabled link we removed both the speech and braille options for this.

General Fixes/Enhancements

• You can now access this readme file from the Help menu in the Window-Eyes control panel.
• If you are using the 4.11 upgrade install instead of the full 4.11 install, some of the Window-Eyes set files have been updated from the versions that shipped with Window-Eyes 4.1. These updated set files will NOT be installed automatically with Window-Eyes 4.11 upgrade. If you want to use these updated set files, you will need to select them from the Select Set File dialog under the File menu of Window-Eyes. The updated set files are as follows:
  • AOL
  • Easy CD Creator 5
  • Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum
  • Sound Forge 5
  • Sound Forge 5 XP
  • Access 97
  • Access 2000
  • Window-Eyes Default Sets
• It should be noted, however, that the Internet Explorer and Outlook Express set files WILL be overwritten.
• Again, if you are using the full 4.11 install, this is not an issue.
• We have also concatenated the Word 95 and Excel 95 sets into an Office 95 set directory, the Word 97 and Excel 97 sets into an Office 97 set directory, the Word 2000, Excel 2000, and Outlook 2000 sets into an Office 2000 directory, and the Word XP, Excel XP, and Outlook XP sets into an Office XP directory.
• We have added support for Office XP and updated set files have been supplied.
• All known systray issues have been resolved.
• Speak summary now always reads shortcuts and accelerators (regardless of the verbosity settings).
• Window-Eyes will no longer say “desktop wants attention.”
• We now read owner drawn listviews such as the one in the list of programs in Zone Alarm (and Black Ice) rather than saying “unknown” for the items.
• We have greatly improved the reliability of the auto label graphics function.
• Previously, key labels would be ignored for Window-Eyes hotkeys. This is still true except for the 20 user window hotkeys. These 20 keys will read a key label if present.
• We fixed a problem where the OSM would get corrupted with a bold italic caret in Wordpad.
• We now do a better job of tracking system carets.
• We have reduced the hang that happens with load before startup in some situations.
• The route mouse to window function now computes the position of a float window if you are routing to a float window before doing the routing.
• We fixed several UI problems in the various dictionary dialogs.
• We fixed a problem that prevented printing with the WinWriter 150C printer.
• If you are on a network that requires a log in, and you are not logged in, the Window-Eyes update option will be disabled.
• We solved problems reading by character with the mouse in the properties dialog in Windows Explorer for a file. This was introduced in 4.1.
• We fixed a problem that prevented you from doing a bottom right and then prior character with the mouse.
• We now treat Via Voice Outloud 5.0 like Eloquence 5.0.
• We now disable the abbreviation dictionary with Eloquence.
• We no longer allow you to type spaces in the original field in the exception dictionary dialog
• We found cases where windows were being created as checkboxes and then switched to radio buttons. Window-Eyes will now account for this. Note that this could in theory happen with buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, and group boxes and we take all cases in to consideration.
• We removed the exclude from lines Braille option from the edit graphic label dialog so now there is only one option to exclude from lines for both speech and Braille.
• We now support the current index feature for tab controls and the items on the task bar.
• Window-Eyes would say “menu activated” multiple times when opening the start menu or context menus assuming that you had menu opened turned on in verbosity. It would also say “menu activated” if you opened and then closed a context menu without highlighting a menu item upon closing the context menu. This has been corrected.
• We introduced a problem in to 4.1 that would cause windows-tab to read double. This has been corrected.
• We have improved dialog reading. Now Window-Eyes should always read the entire dialog if you have it set to do so. This fix is for dialogs that first display the dialog and then fill in the text. Window-Eyes will wait for all the information to be displayed before starting to read.
• Window-Eyes now says “dot” rather than “point” for the period symbol unless it is followed by a number.
• We fixed problems with the compare feature of set2text not working with differences in hyperactive coordinates.
• Set2text would print values for the actions of a cursoring key when the key itself was undefined and the output confused text2set so like Window-Eyes set2text now only prints the actions that might be in the set if the key itself is defined.
• Set2text and Text2set can now handle upper ANSI characters for hot and cursoring keys.
• We have made a change that should improve the accuracy of hyperactive windows and also performance.
• Sometimes the Vario 40 braille display was mistaken for the Vario 80. This has been resolved.
• Some applications like Office didn’t work with the autolabel graphic feature. This has been resolved.
• We fixed the problem of Eloquence chopping off the beginning of menu items as you arrowed through a menu.
• The problem of not being able to track the caret in the Word 2000 spell checker has been fixed.
• We have added more Visual Basic 6 classes so you won’t need to reclass as much in Visual Basic applications.
• Unchecking the window type first option now works in treeviews, tab controls, and combo boxes.
• Speak summary always speaks menu shortcuts, accelerators, and descriptions as well as miscellaneous shortcuts regardless of the verbosity settings.
• Window-Eyes now recognizes the color buttons in control panel display appearance.
• We solved the problem of Window-Eyes incorrectly believing that the message rich edit in MSN Messenger had focus when you alt tabbed away from Messenger.
• We fixed a problem in Outlook XP where Window-Eyes would announce shortcuts for items in the Tools, Customize listbox when shortcuts were not available.
• We made some general stability improvements.
• We solved more memory leaks.

4.1

Released: 4/27/2001

Cost: $50

Welcome to Window-Eyes 4.1, the latest version of the most “Rock Solid” screen reader available. We have come a long way since Window-Eyes 4.0, and appreciate everyone who assisted us during the public beta process.

The following is a list of some of the major enhancements and fixes between Window-Eyes 4.0 and Window-Eyes 4.1.

Internet Explorer Enhancements

• We have added table support to MSAA mode. Window-Eyes now will say, “load done x frames y tables” when the page is done loading in to the MSAA buffer. When you navigate to a table in MSAA, Window-Eyes will say table x start x rows x columns. You can then press CTRL-PLUS to turn on table mode. Window-Eyes will then speak “table on x r x c x where x indicated the table number, row number, or column number respectively. CTRL-MINUS turns off table mode for the current table and CTRL-SHIFT-MINUS turns table mode off completely. You may also use CTRL-NUMPAD-MINUS and CTRL-NUMPAD-PLUS to turn table mode off and on. This provides access for non U.S. keyboards. Note that you have to turn table mode on for each table. If tables are nested, Window-Eyes will indicate this by saying table x.y. CTRL-ALT-TAB will take you to the next table and CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-TAB to take you to the previous table. You use the INS-ARROW keys to go from cell to cell in the table. The CTRL-INS-ARROW keys will take you to the beginning or end of a row with left and right, or column with up and down. If you are in table mode, speak summary will say line x of y, either no frames or frame x of y, and finally in cell table x r x c x. Once you are in table mode, all MSAA commands are relative to the current cell. When you use the INS-ARROW keys, Window-Eyes will say r x c x followed by the cell data. Window-Eyes will either read the first 24 lines or the entire cell depending upon the MSAA verbosity option read entire page. The INS-RIGHT ARROW and INS-LEFT ARROW restrict you to a row while the INS-UP ARROW and INS-DOWN ARROW restrict you to a column. You can use CTRL-SHIFT-H to rotor between reading the following:
  1. No title - This would simply read “r x, c y” every time the user moves to a different cell.
  2. Column only - This would read the first cell’s contents whenever the user changes to a different column. If they arrow up and down a column it would not read a header.
  3. Row only - This would read the first cell of the current row contents whenever the user changes to a different row. If they arrow left and right through a row it would not read a header.
  4. Column or Row - This would only read one or the other. If the user goes to a different row then the row header will be read. If they go to a different column than the column header will be read.
  5. Column and Row - This would always read both the column and row.
• If you are changing rows than the row header will be read first followed by the column header. If you are changing columns then the column header will be read first followed by the row header. If you have this set for anything but option 1 and you are in row 1 or column 1 then we won’t read the cell as a header. Rather we will say r 1 c 1 to indicate where you are on the table. This option defaults to option 1 simply because we can’t assume the table has row or column headers. The field name hotkey reads the row and/or column title when you are in table mode depending upon the setting for the CTRL-SHIFT-H table header key. Finally all of the table commands refer to the regular keyboard not the NUMPAD keys.
• We have added the MSAA verbosity option smart table mode. This option defaults to checked and using it will allow Window-Eyes to eliminate tables that are simply used for layout. Un-checking this option will give you all tables on a page.
• We will also give the title of a table if one is provided.
• We now recognize alt tags as labels in image maps as well as title tags. If both are present we will use the title tag.
• We have added radio buttons to the INS-TAB links list box in MSAA mode to allow you to see a list of links, frames, or tables. Note that you can only see frames and tables in web page order and you can only focus them not activate them.
• We now put untitled frames in the frames list in insert-tab in MSAA mode.
• Window-Eyes now recognizes title tags for controls in MSAA mode and uses them for the field name. A good example of how this feature can assist in form reading can be found on the Window-Eyes demo page: http://www.gwmicro.com/demo.

Synthesizer Enhancements

• All SAPI synthesizers will now default the Window-Eyes pitch 3 setting to the internal default pitch of the synthesizer. Previously Eloquence was using a much higher pitch than it’s normal voice. All SAPI synthesizers will be affected by this change.
• The top speech rate for Eloquence has been increased.
• We have added the use specified speech parameters check box to the select synthesizer dialog. You can check this box for as many synthesizers as you wish. If it is checked, Window-Eyes will use the specified speech parameters that are currently being used for the global speech parameters when you use this particular synthesizer. This allows you to have multiple settings specified for multiple synthesizers. For example, if you prefer using SAPI on rate 9, and the DECtalk Express on rate 5, you can specify these settings per the instructions above. When you switch synthesizers, the settings you specified will be used.
• We have added the apply button to the select synthesizer dialog that does everything that the ok button does accept for activate the synthesizer.
• We have added the set speech parameters to current, which immediately takes the global speech parameters and saves them for the currently selected synthesizer. Note that this button is the only way to save speech parameters for a specific synthesizer. We didn’t want to automatically do this for the apply and ok buttons because it would make it far too easy to save the wrong parameters.
• We have added the use as backup synthesizer checkbox to the select synthesizer dialog. You can only have one synthesizer checked at a time. Window-Eyes saves this setting with the apply and ok buttons. By default we set SAPI as the backup synthesizer. You can activate this synthesizer by holding down either shift key while Window-Eyes is launching.
• Window-Eyes now has a read-only edit box that will give you the command-line parameter to start with a specific synthesizer or Braille display in the dialogs for selecting synthesizers or Braille displays. These command line parameters are fully functional, and are to be used when starting Window-Eyes itself from a command prompt, or from the Windows run dialog.

Misc. Enhancements

• Window-Eyes will now indicate when an application is flashing its title bar or task bar icon indicating that it wants your attention. Note that we will ignore this if the application is the current active application. This announcement is part of the auto speak tooltips setting. Both the auto and on settings behave the same with this feature. Usually applications flash multiple times, but Window-Eyes only reads the first flash. If an application stops flashing and then starts flashing again we will read the new flash. Window-Eyes says the title bar of the application followed by “wants attention” to indicate that the application wants your attention. MSN Messenger is an example of an application with this feature.
• We have added a hotkey to read any applications that have flashed the taskbar that you have not responded to and also to read the last spoken tooltip from auto speak tooltips feature. If no applications have flashed it will say “no applications flashing” and if there is no last tooltip it will say “no tooltips”. This key defaults to CTRL-INS-T.
• We have added the Read Progress or Scroll bar hotkey. This key defaults to CTRL-INS-B. This key will first look in the active window for progress bars and if it finds them it will read them from top to bottom along with their field names. If it doesn’t find any progress bars it will search the focus window for scroll bars and read them first vertical and then horizontal. If it doesn’t find either progress or scroll bars it will say “no progress or scroll bars found.” Scroll bars are relative to the edge of a window so a vertical scroll bar that has a range of 0 to 100 means that when you are on index 0 that index 0 is at the top or bottom of the focus window depending upon the direction of the scroll bar. Note that most scroll bars are left to right for horizontal and top to bottom for vertical. Although this doesn’t have to be the case, we have never seen it not be the case. Therefore, we haven’t addressed the case of a scroll bar being right to left or bottom to top. In our example if you are at index 0 that means that index 0 is at the top of the window so you will have to scroll through the contents of the window and actually get the contents to scroll to change the index. Once you get to the bottom of the data in the window the scroll bar might be at 80 of 100 meaning that the top of the window is at index 80 so you will never get to 100 of 100, but the bottom of the window is actually at 100 of 100. This is explained in Section 8.22 of the Window-Eyes 4.1 manual.
• We have added the auto option to auto speak tooltips. This is now the default. Off and on behave the same as they always have. The new auto option will not auto speak a tooltip if the graphic under the mouse is labeled.
• We have added the silence password Edit Boxes miscellaneous verbosity option. This defaults to checked, and when checked Window-Eyes will say, “star” when you type in an edit box with the password style. This is useful for keeping network password information from being recognized from eavesdropping ears.
• When pressing the reclass hotkey, we now check to see if the window under the mouse is different from the focus window. If it is, we pop up a dialog asking if you want to reclass the mouse or focus window. The default for this dialog is the focus window. We also indicate which window (either mouse or focus) is being reclassed in the title bar of the reclass dialog.
• We added the Enable Both Inserts As Modifier option to the keyboard special keys menu. This option defaults to off, but if you turn it on Window-Eyes will capture both inserts and only allow them to go through on the up of the key press to prevent insert mode from toggling when you use the insert with a hot key. This is an option because you can’t turn it on in Word and still have insert functionality.
• Word mode is now disabled unless you are in an edit box, rich edit box, or custom control.
• You can now use the right arrow to jump forward a line and the left arrow to jump backward a line while in read-to-end.
• Window-Eyes now reads correctly when you arrow across the task bar. In addition, we also read the entire name of the application not just what is visible.
• Many enhancements have been made for AOL 6.X.
• We added support for Borland Delphi tab controls and treeviews.
• We added support for Corel Draw 10 tooltips.
• We improved performance with the line filter on.
• Window-Eyes now says “quick launch” along with the focused item when you tab to the quick launch bar all of the time.
• Window-Eyes now says “sys tray” along with the focused item in Windows Millennium when you tab to the sys tray all of the time.
• We got rid of the single double radio buttons for the sys tray dialog and now have 4 buttons for single and double left and right clicking.

Internet Explorer Fixes

• Auto load toggle is now INS-A instead of just A while in MSAA mode.
• We have solved blow-ups when shutting down Internet Explorer.
• We fixed a crash when tabbing to combo boxes out of MSAA mode in IE. This should also improve stability across the board.
• We fixed a problem that looked like a loss of speech problem with DEC and SAPI synthesizers in MSAA mode.
• We fixed cases where Window-Eyes would not always give the name when one was given for graphical links rather it would give the URL instead.
• We put the final touches on the improved field name support for forms in IE.
• We solved a problem of not allowing you to use MSAA mode in the help accessed from the Adaptec Easy CD Creator dialogs.
• We fixed the CTRL-SHIFT-TAB previous frame command in MSAA mode.
• We fixed problems returning to the last position or to the visible location in MSAA mode.
• We eliminated much excessive “looking for visible line visible line found” verbiage on pages with a table or an untitled frame as the first line of the MSAA buffer.
• We have solved more MSAA mode problems and can no longer duplicate loss of speech, crashes, or the mode not turning on or off correctly.
• The read paragraph style feature now works for page up and page down in MSAA mode in auto mode and also for the initial reading of the first 24 lines on a page in MSAA mode.
• Window-Eyes is now less aggressive when merging links in MSAA mode to avoid merging JavaScript links that might actually point to different targets.
• We fixed a problem where we were not always freeing a pointer internal to any application using MSAA mode while loading a page in to our MSAA buffer. This could have caused all kinds of strange things to happen.
• Window-Eyes now recognizes buttons that don’t have either a title or button text as buttons rather than custom controls when tabbing outside of MSAA mode in IE.
• Line filter now works in MSAA mode.
• We furthered a work around for a bug in IE 5.5 that would cause a crash when loading pages with strange frame sets in to the MSAA buffer.
• Window-Eyes now fills the INS-TAB links box in MSAA mode much faster.

Misc. fixes

• We fixed cases where Window-Eyes would store graphics that didn’t exist in the OSM if you were in 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit colors. One specific example is the read graphic in Eudora. Because of this change, the read graphic no longer exists in the Window-Eyes OSM, and therefore, will not be read, technically because it does not exist.
• We fixed a bug that prevented ALT-NUMPAD number combinations from going through at all when Window-Eyes was running.
• We have improved the reading of dialogs that are still updating the screen after they get activation. Window-Eyes should now wait for the screen to settle before attempting to read the dialog.
• The use specified speech parameters feature now works for the backup synthesizer and also when you start WE with a command-line parameter.
• Choppy speech with Eloquence in MSAA mode is now gone.
• The contains and does not contain focus hyperactive triggers did not work for true non-MSAA custom controls. This has been corrected.
• We fixed a bug introduced in 4.0 that prevented Window-Eyes from reading the edit boxes in network and dialup networking for IP addresses.
• We fixed a case that could happen where Window-Eyes would attempt to load settings for a window and get in to an infinite loop causing a crash.
• We fixed problems introduced in 4.0 with not being able to determine the state of some reclassed check boxes such as the ones in the WP 9 font dialog.
• Window-Eyes now says, “Pointer routed to task bar” all of the time when you are on the task bar. Previously it would say, “Pointer routed to tab control” or, “Pointer routed to custom control.”
• We solved more problems with the Office 2000 open and save as dialogs. Note that we strongly recommend that people have SP2 installed to eliminate some bugs in Office itself. You can find more information at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com.
• We fixed a case that could cause read-to-end to stop one line below the last line read.
• We fixed a problem in reading the Calypso 3.2 message list view.
• We fixed the reading of old speech that was most noticed with Eloquence.
• Window-Eyes now looks for Braille graphic labels if it can’t find speech labels when searching the screen with the mouse search command. It also does this when looking for strings in float and hyperactive windows. Finally, we do this for the auto setting for auto speak tooltips.
• We have silenced the speech for hotkeys being executed by cursoring keys and hyperactive windows. The list of keys includes the following:
  • set bar color
  • bar rotor
  • bypass
  • attribute changes toggle
  • mouse boundary rotor
  • toggle mouse buttons
  • mouse horizontal lock
  • mouse vertical lock
  • we/mouse toggle
  • mouse top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right
  • mouse up down speak
  • mouse to caret
  • caret to mouse
  • sync we and mouse
  • speak all toggle
  • toggle all voices
  • voice down
  • voice up
  • voice selection rotor
  • voice parameter rotor
  • numbers toggle
  • signal caret position toggle
  • word mode rotor
  • line filter status rotor
  • capitalization alert rotor
  • format alert toggle
  • set format alert offset
  • set user window color
  • hyperactive windows rotor
  • user and hyper window top left and bottom right
  • switch language
  • redraw
  • save set
  • dump osm
• We solved problems with the synthesizer selection dialog that prevented it from displaying the correct settings for baud rate, parity, data bits, stop bits, and flow control for serial synthesizers.
• We fixed problems where hyperactive windows wouldn’t always correctly load sets.
• We fixed problems where Eloquence would drop letters especially when spelling words.
• We fixed problems that would cause DEC and SAPI synthesizers to be choppy when spelling words.
• We fixed a problem where read-to-end would abort in WordPerfect if you had a hard return followed by a page break.
• We fixed a problem in the files of type combo box in the save as dialog in Outlook 2000 where Window-Eyes would say “list box” before each entry and then read the entry twice as you arrowed through the combo box.
• We solved problems reading lines. If you had a line followed by a blank line followed by a line with a large font Window-Eyes would read the third line when the caret was actually on the second (blank) line.
• You can now correctly route the mouse in the Windows Millennium sys tray.
• We fixed problems reading the top line of the Visual Basic 6 code window with the caret.
• We fixed more memory leaks.
• Wefixset no longer crashes if set files are read-only. It will now print a message stating that it couldn’t convert the file because it was read-only.
• We fixed a bug introduced in 4.0 where the display of the associated set file would be incorrect if you opened the WE control panel, opened a set, returned to your application, and then reopened the WE control panel.
• We fixed a problem that caused the screen capitalization alert setting to identify capitalization of the names for the key enhancements under the keyboard special keys menu.
• We fixed a problem that would cause read-to-end to select the first line in Word, skip the second line, and then start reading normally with read-to-end.
• We further tweaked a fix introduced in WE 4.0 that tries to continue reading in read-to-end through screens of blank lines. We now will allow reading to continue if the vertical scroll bar changes. We used to allow reading to continue if anything was drawn to the focus window, but this was too broad so now we only allow it if any text clips are drawn to the focus window.
• We fixed problems reading in the address book in Team Office introduced in 4.0.
• We fixed a long-standing problem that would cause Window-Eyes to not track the window under the mouse if it changed, but the position of the mouse didn’t.

New Braille changes between Window-Eyes 4.0 and Window-Eyes 4.1

• We have added the grade 2 check box to the Braille options dialog. This defaults to unchecked. You can turn this on under the Braille options dialog in the Braille pulldown.
• We have included both a US grade 2 translator and a UK grade 2 translator. In order to use the US translator, you will need to select the US translation table. To use the UK translator, you will need to select the English translation table. All other tables will use the US grade 2 translator.
• We have added the following Braille hotkeys:
  • Toggle Grade 2 Braille - Toggles translation of Grade 2 Braille on and off.
  • Toggle Auto Untranslate At Caret - Toggles automatic untranslation of a word while using Grade 2 Braille.
  • Untranslate Word At Caret - Untranslates Grade 2 Braille in a word located at the caret.
  • Untranslate Word At Mouse - Untranslates Grade 2 Braille in a word located under the mouse.
  • Expand Symbols Toggle - Toggles whether the following symbols are shown or spelled out: +, /, <, =, >, @, , ^, [, |, ~, ] - Note: Only these symbols are effected.
• We have added the following three options to the Braille options dialog:
  • Grade 2 Enabled The Enabled check box allows you to select grade 2 Braille display support. This option defaults to unchecked. Note that Window-Eyes will force 6 dot Braille for grade 2, and that display attributes for grade 2 are not displayed. With this feature implemented, the caret will stay locked under the first character of a grade 2 word since there is no one to one correspondence between characters in grade two Braille. Because of this feature, Braille routing keys will only route to the first character of a grade 2 word. After editing, if you find that your display contains multiple instances of translated and untranslated text, simply toggle grade 2 Braille off and on to refresh the display area.
  • Auto Untranslate At Caret: Auto Untranslate is useful while editing in grade 2 Braille. While this option is enabled, every time a caret appears in a word that word will be automatically untranslated out of grade two Braille. Note that this feature will only work if a caret is present.
  • A number of symbols exist that are not represented in grade 2 Braille (+, /, <, =, >, @, , ^, [, |, ~, ] - Note: Only these symbols are effected.). The Expand Symbols option allows you to specify whether these symbols should be spelled out, or left as symbols. For example, with this option checked, the symbol > would be spelled out as greater than.
• We now support the Handy tech Braille Wave and Book Worm Braille displays.
• We added support for the Baum DM80 Braille display.
• We added support for the Baum Vario 80 Braille display.

4.0

Released: 10/16/2000

Cost: $100

• Window-Eyes is now much, much faster in MSAA mode. On a Pentium II 333Mhz, 128MB RAM, a web page that once took seven minutes to load, now takes 12 seconds. It is important to note that this is the MSAA load time, not the download time. If your connection to the Internet is slow, then you will experience a longer delay before MSAA begins loading than someone with a faster connection. The MSAA load time, however, will be noticeably faster. NOTE: Due to a Microsoft bug (that they are aware of and are working with us to solve), this speedup will only be noticed in Internet Explorer 5.5. You will also notice the speed improvement if you are using Internet Explorer 5.0 or 5.01 in anything but 256 colors. We strongly suggest you upgrade your version of Internet Explorer to version 5.5 if at all possible. To download the latest Internet Explorer 5.5, follow these steps:
  1. Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/ie/
  2. Click on the link titled “Download Internet Explorer 5.5.”
  3. Click on the button labeled “Download Now.”
  4. In the download dialog, select the radio button titled “Save the program to disk.”
  5. Press enter.
  6. Choose a location to save the file, and press enter.
  7. Once the file has downloaded, find it in the folder that you specified in the save file location, highlight it, and press enter.
  8. Follow the prompts to download and install Internet Explorer 5.5.
• The system tray hotkey is much faster. Pressing the INSERT-S hot key will now provide you instantly with a list of all of the icons presently in the system tray. In fact, because Window-Eyes’ system tray access is so fast, we were able to remove the recalculate button in the system tray dialog. If Window-Eyes can’t find the systray or items in it the systray, it will always speak “system tray unavailable” rather than either beep or do nothing.
• The auto label graphics function is much faster in standard tool bars. In many applications you will find similar toolbars that contain graphics like new, open, save, print, etc. Because these graphics are so widely used, Window-Eyes can now label them much faster than previous versions.
• We officially no longer support Windows 3.1. With the advancements of the Microsoft Windows operating system, we are no longer able to provide many of the features used in Window-Eyes in the older Windows 3.1 OS. For example, the Window-Eyes install won’t function under Windows 3.1, and MSAA is not available under Windows 3.1. As you can imagine, these are very important features of Window-Eyes, and strong enough reasons to no longer support Windows 3.1. We have, however, included support for Windows Millennium.
• Combo boxes are now more accurate and faster, and will also provide you with the index of the currently selected item.
• We have added the Read Paragraph Style option to the screen menu. This setting defaults to auto, which will eliminate line pauses for the 12 prior, current, and next mouse and caret sentence and paragraph keys and the read-to-end key. Turning this setting off will restore all line pausing and turning the setting on will eliminate all line pausing all of the time. This only applies to DEC Access32, DEC PC, DEC Express, and SAPI.
• Reading lines, words, or characters is now twice as fast.
• Speak summary now always gives the current and total index for list boxes, list views, tree views, and radio buttons regardless of the verbosity setting in miscellaneous for current index.
• The spell alphanumeric option was added to the screen menu. When this option is on Window-Eyes will spell items such as ham sign calls that contain both letters and numbers.
• The split mixed case words option was added to the screen menu. When this option is on Window-Eyes will say the word “FileOpen” as “File Open” which should help when reading programming code. When this option is on with acronyms, words such as IBM will be spelled out like I B M.
• Window-Eyes will now speak words that are split in to different clips due to changes in font, font size, font style, or color correctly when reading by word, line, sentence, paragraph, or window.
• Window-Eyes now says, “dialog” for buttons that end with dot dot dot to indicate that pressing them opens a dialog.
• The Read-to-End feature has been enhanced. Window-Eyes will now go back to the last line that was read when you cancel the Read-to-End by hitting ESCAPE.
• You can now type letters in succession to get to a synthesizer in the synthesizer selection list box.
• We have implemented the notify on clip, window, and line change options in the mouse verbosity dialog. Please refer to Section 5.5 in the Window-Eyes manual for more information.
• The mouse attribute/ASCII hotkey will now say “not on a clip” when you are not on a clip or not on a text clip when you press it the first time and the second time it will say “pixel rx gx bx” (where x equals a number) to announce the color under the pixel.
• The mouse position hotkey will now give the coordinates relative to the mouse boundary setting (full screen, active window, user window, or focused window).
• We no longer lock SAPI engine files if SAPI isn’t being used as the synthesizer. This will allow you to update SAPI files without having to reboot and will also use less memory.
• We added support for the TripleTalk PCI synthesizer. Our TripleTalk driver is now a 32-bit driver so it works in Windows ME and no longer requires the TripleTalk ttalkdos.com TSR. This change will, however, prevent the TripleTalk from reading the control-alt-delete dialogs and GPF dialogs.
• Our DEC Access32 driver now uses the maximum volume for volume 9. Note that if you lower your Window-Eyes volume that the wav volume of your sound card will also get lowered.
• We have converted WEFixSet to a Windows application, instead of a DOS application. You can run WEFixSet from the Window-Eyes File, Convert Set Files to Current Format menu option. Any time you copy in set files older than Window-Eyes 4.0, you will need to use the WEFixSet utility to convert your old sets to the new set format.
• You can now install and uninstall set files from the set file selection dialog. Also, a read-only edit box will show the readme.txt file for the group of sets that are selected or if there is no readme.txt file it will say, “no information is available.”
• We have added the Window-Eyes Update option that currently takes you to our Window-Eyes update page where you can register and upgrade your copy of Window-Eyes online.
• We have added the copy settings from window button to the select user window, select hyperactive window, user window definition, and hyperactive window definition dialogs. In the select user window and select hyperactive window dialogs you can enter a window number from 0 to 49 or a to z and the coordinates from this window will be copied to the current window. If only one of the windows is float then only the coordinates will be copied, but if both windows are float then all values relating to float windows will be copied. With the user window definition and hyperactive window definition dialogs you can enter window numbers 0 to 49 for the user window definition and a to z for the hyperactive window definition and all definition settings excluding coordinate settings will be copied to the current window.
• The Mouse pointer identification options in the mouse menu have been
• Edit dictionaries dialog’s has been fixed up so that streamlines UI.
• We have changed the alt-home and alt-end top and bottom of frame MSAA mode keys to insert-home and insert-end to avoid a conflict with alt-home, which IE uses to take you to your home page.
• We have added an MSAA verbosity dialog to the verbosity and global verbosity menus. This dialog includes the following options:
  • Identify MSAA controls defaults to unchecked. If this option is on Window-Eyes will say “m” before a MSAA control. For example “m check box.”
  • The auto load check box defaults to checked. You can also toggle this feature with the ‘a’ key while in MSAA mode. If auto load is on Window-Eyes will turn MSAA mode on when a new page loads (NOTE: this will not work in versions of Internet Explorer earlier than 5.5). When auto load is off, Window-Eyes will not automatically load a new page.
  • Announce progress messages while loading page defaults to checked. If this option is on Window-Eyes will say the “downloading page” “loading page” “load done” “looking for visible line” “visible line found” and “previous position found” messages and if the option is off none of these messages will be spoken.
  • Identify visited links defaults to checked. If this option is on Window Eyes will identify visited links.
  • Identify links during read-to-end defaults to checked. If this option is on Window-Eyes will identify links during read-to-end and if it is off Window-Eyes will not identify links during read-to-end.
  • Read entire page when load complete defaults to unchecked. If this option is on Window-Eyes will do a read-to-end when the page finishes loading and if it is off Window-Eyes will read the first 24 lines in the MSAA buffer.
  • The next text minimum line length edit box defaults to 1 meaning that the alt-insert-up and alt-insert-down arrows will go to the next line of text. You can set this from 1 to 255 meaning that the line will have to be x characters or longer for Window-Eyes to go to it.
  • The next text consecutive lines edit box to the MSAA verbosity dialog.
  • This defaults to 1 and ranges from 1 to 255. The alt-insert-up and alt-insert-down arrow commands will look for the number of text lines that you set in this dialog to appear in a row and once they find this number or more they will go to the first line if you are going down or the last line if you are going up in the group of text lines.
• Window-Eyes will now say “MSAA mode not available” if you try to use MSAA mode in a place where it isn’t applicable.
• We now read the tooltips in MSN Messenger. When you have the messenger window closed, and someone sends you a message, Window-Eyes will speak the message. The same will be true is someone in your contact list logs on; Window-Eyes will speak their name and tell you that they have signed in.
• You can no longer position the MSAA cursor on the names of controls, the top and bottom lines, or any other special text such as “frame” that we insert in to the MSAA buffer. This text is also no longer copied to the clipboard when selecting text.
• The Window-Eyes 4.0 User’s Guide (or manual) is now in 32 bit help format instead of the older 16 bit format. Simply arrow down through the topics, press ENTER on the one you want to read, and press F6, which will load MSAA, allowing you to read the manual just like a web page. Pressing F6 again will toggle you back to the list of topics.
  • Many of the Window-Eyes set files now have graphics labeled in 256, 16 bit, high contrast black 256, and high contrast black 16 bit colors for both Windows 98 and Windows Millennium.
• Window-Eyes now offers more enhanced support for the following applications:
  • AOL 6
  • Access 2000
  • Access 97
  • Adobe 5
  • Cakewalk 9.01
  • EZ CD Creator
  • Eudora
  • Excel 2000
  • Excel 97
  • Firetalk
  • Forte Agent
  • Fox Pro
  • Internet Explorer 5.5
  • Juno 4
  • Juno 5
  • Lotus Notes 5
  • MSN Messenger
  • Media Player 6.4
  • Media Player 7.0
  • Music Match Jukebox
  • MS Config
  • Norton SystemWorks
  • NoteTab
  • Outlook 2000
  • Outlook Express
  • PMMail
  • Sound Forge
  • WinAMP
  • Windows phone dialer
  • Word 2000
  • Word 97
  • WordPad
  • WordPerfect 8
  • WordPerfect 9
  • Zone Alarm
  • applications created by Borland Delphi, Visual Basic 5 and Visual Basic 6.

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