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- SECTION ONE
- INTRODUCING VOCAL-EYES!
-
- 1.1: WELCOME TO VOCAL-EYES!
-
- Congratulations on your purchase of Vocal-Eyes! We think you will agree that
- it is without doubt an extremely powerful and versatile screen reading
- program!
-
- Vocal-Eyes contains a veritable treasure house of advanced voice features,
- perhaps the most powerful being the ability it gives you, the user, to
- customize the program to fit your individual needs and requirements. Far
- beyond the basic ability to set up custom applications environments,
- Vocal-Eyes can be given a "personality" that incorporates the entirety of its
- command structure. Every one of its wide ranging tally of speech commands
- can be assigned to your choice of keystrokes! Every cursor tracking feature
- is definable by you! You will without doubt discover Vocal-Eyes to be the
- most flexible tool yet for fitting in to the way you like to work.
-
- In this, your Vocal-Eyes users' guide, we will cover the many features of
- Vocal-Eyes. To whet your appetite, we'll summarize just a few of the more
- significant features here:
-
- - No macros required!
- - Separate screen and keyboard voices
- - Over 60 assignable hot key speech features
- - 46 definable cursor tracking features
- - Advanced light-bar tracking with an intelligent automatic mode
- - 10 simultaneous standard windows
- - 5 independent "Hyperactive" monitoring windows
- - Autoloading of voice environments, character dictionary and
- key label dictionaries
- - Automatic pop-up box reading
- - Review mode
- - Interactive review cursor (VE cursor)
- - User exception dictionary
- - Easy-to-use pull-down menu system for setup and control!
- - Up to 9 different voice environments available at a single keystroke!
- - Cursor routing
- - The ability to take advantage of extended or expanded memory
- - Compatibility with all commercially available macro processors!
- - A bonus screen cut and paste facility
- - Works with many voice synthesizers including full support of the
- Sounding Board hot keys
- - It not only works well with speech, but is also visually appealing
- and easy to use for sighted users
-
- As you can see, there's a lot to Vocal-Eyes! So, without further delay,
- let's get started!
-
- 1.2: WHAT'S IN YOUR VOCAL-EYES PACKAGE
-
- Undoubtedly you're anxious to begin learning all about Vocal-Eyes' many
- useful and powerful screen reading features. Before we get started, however,
- let's take a few moments to inventory the contents of your Vocal-Eyes
- package. Here's what should be there:
-
- 1. An album containing this manual (a cassette copy, large-type inkprint
- copy and ASCII format on your master diskette.)
-
- 2. Your Vocal-Eyes master diskettes--three 5 1/4" and two 3 1/2". The 3
- 1/2" diskettes contain the same information as all three of the 5 1/4". Use
- whichever format matches your hardware configuration.
-
- 3. Your user registration card. Please take time, now, to complete and
- return this pre-addressed registration card. This is the only way you can be
- guaranteed technical support should you ever need it. Also, the information
- on the card will give us a way to keep you informed about product upgrades
- and new products. Each version of Vocal-Eyes contains a unique serial number
- registered to the purchaser. This number has been assigned to you before
- shipping from the factory. Your registration card is required to verify this
- information. This is essential for future upgrades and support. Thank you
- for taking the time to register your purchase.
-
- 1.3: THIS MANUAL
-
- Everything you'll need to know in order to add powerful and easy to use voice
- features to your PC is contained within this Vocal-Eyes users' guide. It is
- divided into 16 sections, with each section focusing on a different area of
- the complete Vocal-Eyes software package. We have also provided you with a
- number of appendices and quick reference guides for your convenience.
-
- Additionally, in the root or main directory of your master diskette, you may
- find a file named README.DOC. This file, if it is present, is an addendum to
- this manual and will contain any additional information you will need to know
- about Vocal-Eyes that didn't make it into this manual. We suggest that you
- read this file as soon as possible. If you own NOTEWORTHY you can use it.
- If not, use either the DOS TYPE README.DOC or TYPE README.DOC|MORE command to
- read this important file. If you are not familiar with these commands, see
- your DOS manual for an explanation.
-
- The instructions provided in this manual are tutorially oriented. We will
- teach you by showing you how and asking you to work along with us. We'll be
- giving you lots of examples of how best to incorporate Vocal-Eyes into your
- PC work, using some very popular software packages such as Word Perfect and
- DBXL. We're going to be relaxed and casual, and take you step by step
- through the lessons. So sit back, relax, and read on!
-
- 1.4: FIRST THINGS FIRST
-
- Before you begin your exploration of Vocal-Eyes' multitudinous voice
- features, the first thing you'll want to do is make a backup copy of your
- master diskette. To do this, place your Vocal-Eyes master diskette in Drive
- A:, and a blank, diskette in Drive B:. Feel free to use either the 5 1/4" or
- 3 1/2" diskette. Or if you wish, you can backup both types assuming your
- machine can read both formats. Note that if you are backing up the 5 1/4"
- diskettes, you will have to repeat this process for all three diskettes. If
- you are backing up the 3 1/2" diskettes, you will have to repeat this process
- for both diskettes.
-
- From the DOS A: prompt, type the following:
-
- DISKCOPY A: B:
-
- Users of PC's equipped with only a single drive or have two drives but
- neither is of the same format, simply type the following:
-
- DISKCOPY A: A:
-
- or
-
- DISKCOPY B: B:
-
- Your computer will prompt you when to insert your source (your Vocal-Eyes
- master diskette) and your target (your blank) diskette.
-
- Now that you've made a backup copy of your Vocal-Eyes master diskette, place
- the originals in a safe place that is dry, not too hot or cold, and as far as
- possible from electromagnetic sources such as phones, monitors, etc. This
- way, should something ever happen to the copy of your master diskette you
- just made, you'll still have the original to work with.
-
- 1.5: AN OPEN LETTER TO MACRO USERS
-
- Those of you who have had previous experience with screen reading software
- are probably aware, occasionally painfully so, that most of these programs
- rely on macros and macro processors to produce many of their advanced speech
- functions. The program offers a basic set of commands, and then forces you,
- the user, to combine and string these basic commands into advanced speech
- functions pretty much the same way that you would connect a collection of
- Tinker toys together to construct a windmill or some other multi-piece
- structure. Well, with Vocal-Eyes you don't need macros!
-
- Ninety to ninety-five percent of your work with Vocal-Eyes can be
- accomplished with single keystrokes. The voice functions are numerous,
- advanced, and oh so simple to operate.
-
- Of course Vocal-Eyes will operate just fine with any commercially available
- macro processor. You will find, however, that with Vocal-Eyes your macros
- will tend to be work oriented--which is to say they will help you work more
- effectively with DOS or your favorite piece of applications software.
- Vocal-Eyes can handle the voice features all by itself, thank you very much.
-
- In SECTION 16 of this manual we will discuss how to use macro processors with
- Vocal-Eyes. Until then we strongly encourage you to uninstall your macro
- software from your PC and give Vocal-Eyes a chance to shine all by itself.
-
- And if you don't know what macros are yet, don't worry--you won't need them
- with Vocal-Eyes! You will be able to operate Vocal-Eyes just as effectively
- as any user with years of macro experience.
-
- 1.6: SUMMARY
-
- In this first section of your Vocal-Eyes users' guide, we began by describing
- just a few of your new screen reader's advanced and powerful features. Next,
- we took a moment to inventory the contents of your Vocal-Eyes package. After
- that we had a few words to say about this manual, and after that we took you
- through the very simple process of making a backup copy of your Vocal-Eyes
- master diskette. We concluded this section with an open letter to macro
- users, wherein we strongly encouraged them to uninstall their macro
- processors for the time being.
-
- Are you ready to get started using your new and advanced screen reading
- software? If so, read on!
-