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SECTION SEVEN
VOCAL-EYES' 10 STANDARD SCREEN WINDOWS

7.1:  INTRODUCTION

In previous sections of this manual we briefly touched on the concept of
screen windows.  We told you that Vocal-Eyes allowed for up to 10 windows to
be defined by you, the user, and we showed you how you could read any of
these windows by pressing and holding down the ALT key and then pressing one
of the window numbers 0-9.  Thus far, of course, all 10 of your windows have
been preset to read your entire 25-line screen display.  Well, having 10
screen windows that all work exactly the same way doesn't sound very useful,
does it?  But wait!  Vocal-Eyes allows you the option of redefining each of
these 10 windows to read any text block from a single character up to and
including your entire PC screen.

In this section of your Vocal-Eyes users' guide we will begin by showing you
how to select and define any of Vocal-Eyes' 10 user definable screen windows.
We'll introduce you to the concept of the "current screen window," and we'll
show you how to select and re-select windows in accordance with your ever
changing needs.  After that we'll discuss the four different types of
windows:  Speak windows, Silent windows, Float windows and Neutral windows.
We'll explain the differences between the various window types, and
demonstrate the unique usefulness of each as you continue to integrate
Vocal-Eyes into your voice computing environment.

7.2:  SELECTING AND DEFINING WINDOWS

Press and release the ALT key by itself to take you into Vocal-Eyes' Review
Mode.  Now, press the F8 key located either at the top or along the left edge
of your PC's keyboard.  Vocal-Eyes will announce your current window, which
for now is Window 0.  After that it reports the read type of the window.  The
current read type for Window 0 is "Speak," but more about that later.

Following the read type, Vocal-Eyes reports the read coordinates for Window
0.  Notice that Window 0 has been preset to read the entire screen:
everything from column 1 of screen line 1 to column 80 of screen line 25.
Another way of saying this is that Screen Window 0 is defined to read all 80
columns of all 25 lines of your screen.   Finally, Vocal-Eyes voiced the
status of hyperactive window A.  Section 13 will discuss hyperactive windows
in detail.

Now press ALT-F8 and listen while Vocal-Eyes reports the definitions for all
10 screen windows.  Notice except for the fact Window 0 has been set to
"Speak," and all others have been left Neutral, all 10 are exactly the same.
Each has been preset to read all 80 columns of the standard 25 line PC
display screen.  Consequently, pressing any window's command key from ALT-0
through ALT-9 should cause Vocal-Eyes to read the entire window, which is
exactly what happens.

Would you like to try your hand at changing one of your window definitions?
Let's say, for example, that you're using Word Perfect, a very popular word
processing program that always displays status information--document name,
page, line and column position--on the 25th screen line.  You'd like to be
able to read the entire text screen, which is to say everything on lines 1
through 24 but not line 25.  Let's define Window 1 to do precisely that.

Are you currently in Review Mode?  If not, press your Review Mode command key
to get you there now.  Press the F3 key.  Did you hear it say "Select Window
Number?"  Vocal-Eyes is asking which window you'd like to define.  Let's
define Window 1.  Press the 1 key on the top row of your PC's keyboard.
Vocal-Eyes will respond:  "Window 1."  Press the F8 key.  Remember before
when we pressed this key Vocal-Eyes responded by providing us with the read
type and coordinates of Window 0.  What happened this time?  That's right:
this time Vocal-Eyes provided us with similar information for Window 1, our
currently selected window.  Notice, it also gave us the status of hyperactive
window A as before.

Do this.  Press the F4 key.  Vocal-Eyes will respond:  "Window 1 -neutral -
Left column number : 1."  This number represents the column number of the
upper left hand corner of Window 1.  Our Word Perfect window should begin
reading at the first screen column, so we'll accept this value as is by
simply pressing ENTER.  Go ahead, press ENTER now.

As soon as you pressed ENTER Vocal-Eyes responded: "Top line number : 1."
This number represents the uppermost screen line in Window 1.  This is the
correct value for our Word Perfect window, so again we'll press ENTER.
Vocal-Eyes next announces the column number of the right edge of our screen
window as column 80.  We want our Word Perfect window to read all the way to
column 80, so once again we'll press ENTER.

Finally, Vocal-Eyes announces a bottom line number of 25.  But as we've
already mentioned, our Word Perfect status line is on line 25, and we don't
want that line to voice as part of Window 1.  The lowest screen line we want
to hear is line 24.  So, go ahead and type 24 now and then press ENTER.
There--you've just redefined Window 1.

Press the F8 key to hear your new window coordinates read back to you.  Press
the ALT-1 command key to hear the first 24 lines of your PC's screen read to
you.  Notice that Vocal-Eyes stops at line 24.  Line 25 isn't a part of
Screen Window 1.

(NOTE:  You may have used the Voice Control Panel's command key submenu to
reassign the command keys that read any or all of Vocal-Eyes' 10 user
definable windows.  In our discussions here, however, we shall continue to
use the default values, ALT-0 through ALT-9, for the sake of consistency.)

But wait a minute.  What if you want to read your Word Perfect status line?
Well, why not set a second window to read that line only?  Here's how.

Are you still in Review Mode?  Press F3 to select a new window.  We'll type
2 to select window 2.  Press F4 to begin the definition process.  Press ENTER
to accept the default value of column 1 for the left edge of your window.
Now, instead of pressing ENTER a second time to accept line 1 as the upper
edge of our window, first type in the number 25 and then press ENTER.  Press
ENTER twice more to accept column 80 and line 25 for the right and bottom
edges of our window.  Press F8 if you like to verify that the changes were
made.  Now, press your ALT-2 read Window 2 command key.

Now, when you're working in Word Perfect, you can press ALT-1 to read the
first 24 lines of text, or ALT-2 to read your Word Perfect status line.  Of
course you can still use your ALT-0 command key, or any of the other command
keys from ALT-3 through ALT-9 to read your entire screen, text, status line
and all.

Naturally, you are not limited to creating windows at the top and bottom of
your PC's screen display.  You can mark out any size rectangle from a single
character on up by simply noting the column and line coordinates of the upper
left and lower right edges of the rectangle and then entering the coordinates
as the four choices in the F4 Define Window key.

You could, for instance, define a window to read only the middle of your
screen by selecting a window via the F3 key and then entering values such as
20 for the left column, 5 for the top row, 60 for the right column and 20 for
the bottom row.

Go ahead and practice defining a few windows.  Leave Window 0 alone for the
moment, as we'll have a lot more to say about this window later in this
section.

7.3:  ANOTHER WAY TO DEFINE SCREEN WINDOWS

Suppose you want to define a window that will allow you to use your ALT-9
command key to read a menu that appears in the lower right-hand corner of
your screen.  The menu always appears in exactly the same screen location,
only you're not sure of the exact coordinates.  You could enter Review Mode
and navigate around with your cursor keys until you find the edges of your
desired window and then use your "current cursor location" command key to
ascertain the column and row numbers and then use these coordinates to fill
in the prompts at the F4 Define Window key.  There's an easier way to do
this, though.

Try this.  Enter Review Mode and use the F3 key to select a window to define.
For this example, lets use window 9.  (Remember, we're leaving Window 0
undisturbed for now.)  Now use your cursor keys, or any of your read command
keys, to move your cursor to where you want to place the upper left-hand
corner of your new window.  Press the F5 key.  Did you hear Vocal-Eyes say
"Upper left?"  There--in one fell keystroke you have defined the left column
and top row of your new window.

Use your cursor keys to move down and to the right until you reach the lower
right-hand corner of your desired window.  Now press the F6 key and listen as
Vocal-Eyes responds:  "Bottom right."  You're not going to believe it, but
you've just defined Window 9.  Press the F8 key if you'd like to verify what
you've done.  Press ALT-9 and listen as your program's menu is voiced.

Perhaps you made a mistake.  Perhaps you meant to include one additional
screen line at the bottom of your window.  Does this mean you have to
redefine the entire window?  Not at all.  You could press the F4 key and make
the correct changes.  But what if you wanted to move the review cursor to the
new bottom left and press F6?  Go ahead and try it.  What happened?  When you
try and move down past the last line of your current window, Vocal-Eyes
simply beeps at you.  Its saying, you can't go beyond your defined window.
There is a way around this however.  You can press F2 if you wish to
temporarily switch to the full screen.  This key will be discussed more in
detail later in this section.  For now, when you press F2, Vocal-Eyes will
say "Full Screen."  You are now free to cursor anywhere you want.  When you
get the cursor to the new bottom left, press F2 again.  This time, Vocal-Eyes
will say "Window 9."  It has switched back but your cursor is still where you
want it.  Now simply press F6 to set the new bottom left.

Now that you know a bit about what the F2 command key does, what would happen
if you tried to move the cursor above the current top left setting and press
F6 to set the bottom right?  Or the other way, what if you moved the cursor
below the current bottom right and pressed F5 to set the top left?  Well,
Vocal-Eyes will not let you do that.  It will simply say "Invalid Window
Setting" and ignore the command.

Also, if you press the F4 command key to type in the coordinates directly,
you must enter valid corners.  For example, you cannot have a left column
number of 10 and a right column number of 5.  Nor could you have a top line
of 15 and a bottom line of 3.  If you attempt to make an invalid setting,
Vocal-Eyes will beep and place you back at the Left column number prompt.
You must correct the problem before you can exit these settings.

7.4:  THE SELECTED "ACTIVE" WINDOW

Now that you've defined a window to read a small corner of your PC's display,
you've probably noticed that many of your read command keys are no longer
functioning like you think they should.  They may not voice the information
you expect, or perhaps they don't seem to be working at all.  Here's why.

Before, when you entered Review Mode and pressed F3 and selected Window 9,
you actually did two things.  First, you alerted Vocal-Eyes that you wanted
to redefine Window 9.  Second, you instructed Vocal-Eyes to make Window 9 the
"active" window.

With Window 9 the current active window, Vocal-Eyes now looks at the tiny
rectangle you defined as Window 9 as though it were your entire PC screen--at
least as far as your various read command keys are concerned.  If your
applications cursor happens to lie within this window, your read character,
word, line, sentence or paragraph command keys will work so long as there is
indeed a character, word, line, sentence or paragraph inside Window 9 to be
read.  If there isn't, or if your applications cursor lies somewhere outside
your currently active Window 9, then Vocal-Eyes may not have anything to read
and pressing one of your read command keys may produce unexpected results.

Of course all of your read window command keys will still function just as
you'd expect them to.  You're CTRL-L read line command key may only read left
to right from the side edges of your currently active window, but pressing
ALT-0, for instance, will still instruct Vocal-Eyes to voice your entire PC
screen display.

At first glance this may not seem entirely logical.  But consider the
following:

Certain applications programs tend to display their menus along the left-hand
edge of your PC's screen.  Naturally, when working with such a program, one
of the first things you'd want to do would be to define a screen window that
would contain the entire work area but not the part of the screen that
contains the menus.  This would be your active window, since most of the time
your cursor would reside somewhere within its boundaries.

Now, say you're editing a line of text or data.  You'd like to hear the line
read back to you, so you press your read line command key.  What would you
prefer happen at this point?  A:  Vocal-Eyes reads the entire screen line,
both the portion of the line that contains your work and also the part of the
line that cuts through your menu, or B:  Vocal-Eyes reads only the portion of
your current line which lies within your currently active window; i.e., your
text only.

Here's another example.  Let's say you're working with Word Perfect.  You've
defined a window to read the first 24 screen lines, and you've made this your
active window.  Now, you've got a full screen of text you're working with.
Your cursor is down near the bottom of your screen.  You'd like to hear your
current paragraph, so you press your read current paragraph command key.
Now, do you want Word Perfect's status line information, which is displayed
on screen line 25, to be voiced as part of your current paragraph?  Certainly
not.  And since you've chosen an active window that doesn't include line 25
it won't be.

So how do you make a window "active?"  Easy.  Just enter Review Mode, press
F3 and then press the number of the window from 0 through 9 that you want
made active.  Pressing F3 and then a number from 0 through 9 was also the
first step in redefining a window, you will recall.

If you want to switch the active window but you don't want to have to go into
review each time, you can use the "Select Window" hot key.  If you look at
option 51 in the Hot Keys submenu, you will notice this function has
defaulted to being undefined.  If you wish, assign this command a key.  Maybe
ALT-W?  Use whatever you wish so long as it does not conflict with one of the
other hot keys or with one of your applications hot keys.  Now whether you
are in review mode or not, pressing the key will instruct Vocal-Eyes to ask
you what window to switch to.  As we said before, this works exactly like the
F3 key in Review Mode.

What if you didn't want the window you created to read your program's menu to
be made active.  You just wanted it there handy whenever you wanted to hear
your menu voiced via the ALT-9 read window command key.  The window you
created to contain your work is actually Window 1.  That's the window you
want active.

So go ahead.  Make it active now by pressing F3 or pressing the Select Window
hot key if you assigned it a keystroke, and then press 1.  You can make any
window active anytime you like.  All you have to do is enter Review Mode,
press F3 and then press the number of the window you want made active.  Or as
we said before, whether you are in Review Mode or not simply press the Select
Window hot key followed by a number 0-9 indicating the desired window.  Do it
as often as you like.

Also, if you are in Review Mode when you select a different window,
Vocal-Eyes will move the Review cursor to the last location it was when the
window you selected was last used.  In other words, each time you switch to
a different window, Vocal-Eyes first saves the current Review cursor position
with your current window.  It then activates the selected window and gets the
new cursor position for that window.  This can be very handy if you are
switching back and forth between windows but you want your cursor to remain
where it was for each of the windows when you switch back to them.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind regarding the currently active
window.

First, if your currently active window contains less than the full screen,
any time you enter Review Mode you will still be confined to the same window.
For example, if your currently active window is limited to the first 24 lines
of your PC's screen and you enter Review Mode, striking CTRL-PgDn or
CTRL-DOWN ARROW will move you to the bottom left-hand corner of your
currently active window, which in this case would be column 1 of line 24.

If your currently active window begins column 25, then pressing 10CTRL-C
would move you to the tenth column on the screen, not the tenth column of the
window.  Each of the character, word, line, sentence and paragraph commands
are relative to the full screen regardless of the current active window
settings.

If you need to be able to access the entire screen display, you can do one of
two things:  You could select another window to be the currently active
window, one which contains the full 80 column 25 line display.  Or,
alternatively, as we mentioned briefly before, you could simply press the F2
key from within Vocal-Eyes' Review Mode.  Pressing this key causes Vocal-Eyes
to toggle back and forth between a full screen display and your current
window.  Thus if your currently active window is Window 1, pressing F2 once
will toggle you to a full screen display and then pressing it again will
reestablish Window 1 as your currently active window.  If you leave Review
Mode while still toggled to the full screen, Vocal-Eyes will automatically
switch back to the selected window.

By default, as we just mentioned, Vocal-Eyes will confine your movements to
the coordinates of the currently active window.  You can switch back and
forth between the currently active window and the full screen by pressing F2.

If you wish, you can tell Vocal-Eyes to do the exact opposite.  This would
mean whenever you enter Review mode, the full screen will be active instead
of the currently selected window.  You can still press F2 to toggle between
the two but the default is the full screen.  You can even tell Vocal-Eyes to
make either the full screen or the currently selected window active based on
what you last used when you exited Review mode.

Therefore, you have three choices as to what window should be active when you
enter Review mode -- Current Window, Full Screen, and Previous Setting.  The
setting is made in the General menu.  You can enter the menus by pressing
CTRL-\.  Now move to the General option and press ENTER.  Move down to option
8 - Review Window.  Pressing ENTER will toggle between the three options.
Lets examine each option individually.

Current Window:

When you enter review mode, the currently selected window will constrain your
movements and readings.

Full Screen:

This option will always give you the full screen when you enter review mode.
This would be like entering review mode and pressing F2 for the full screen.

Previous Setting:

When you exit review mode, Vocal-Eyes will remember if you had the full
screen or the selected window active.  Then, next time you entered review
mode, you will have the same setting.  The setting last used in review mode
is also saved with the .SET file.  So when you load a new .SET file and you
enter review mode with option 8 (Review Window) set to Previous Setting,
Vocal-Eyes will use the window you last entered review mode before the .SET
file was saved.  Use whichever of these three settings works best for your
environment.

Occasionally, an applications program will move your cursor physically off
the screen.  If this happens and you enter Vocal-Eyes' Review Mode, be
advised that your Review cursor will move to the upper left-hand corner of
your currently active window or the full screen depending on your setting for
the Review Window discussed above.  Vocal-Eyes will also voice "Cursor
Moved."

Also be advised if your applications program is outside your currently active
window and you enter Review Mode with the currently active window instead of
the full screen, you will be limited in your cursor movements.  For example,
lets say your currently active windows top left is set at line 1 column 1 and
the bottom right is set at line 10 column 80.  Now lets say your applications
cursor position is on line 23.  When you enter Review Mode, you will not be
able to press the down arrow since you are already below the bottom of the
current active window.  However, you will be able to press the up arrow.
Notice that once you move up, you still cannot move back down.  Once you get
the Review cursor inside the active window, you will be limited only by its
coordinates.  This all may sound more complicated then it is.  The more you
use Vocal-Eyes, the more you will understand all the intricacies.

Occasionally, in Review Mode, you may wish to read the currently active
window.  Only you've forgotten exactly which window that is.  You can do one
of two things here.  You can press F8, at which time Vocal-Eyes will announce
the currently active window and its various parameters.  Or, alternatively,
you could press the F9 key.  The F9 key is the "Read Current Window" key.  It
works anytime in Review Mode, no matter where on the screen your cursor is
located or whichever of the 10 windows are active.

When you save your .SET file either in the RAM locations or on disk,
Vocal-Eyes will save with it which window you had active when it was saved.
That way, when you load a .SET file back in, Vocal-Eyes will make the same
window active which was active when you saved the .SET file.  This will give
you even more control.  The more you use Vocal-Eyes, the more you will
appreciate this feature.

7.5:  THE "SPEAK" WINDOW

Before proceeding further, we need to go back for a second to discuss the way
DOS and various applications programs display their information on your PC's
screen.  You may recall from Section 3 of this manual that DOS and many other
programs use the DOS screen service to write, or display, their information
onto your screen.  We told you that this type of program would talk
interactively, which is to say anything that is sent to the screen would
automatically be sent to your speech synthesizer for voicing.  We gave you an
example of this type of "interactive" display with the DOS DIR "list
directory" command.

Are you currently working with a piece of applications software that speaks
interactively?  If not, why not return to DOS for the moment so you can
follow along.

Enter Vocal-Eyes' Review Mode and press ALT-F8.  Recall that this key calls
up a listing of all 10 of your Vocal-Eyes windows along with their screen
coordinates.  Notice also that 9 out of the 10 windows have a window type of
Neutral, whereas Window 0 has a window type of "Speak."

A "Speak" window is a window that captures and voices everything that is
written onto your PC's screen via the DOS screen service.  If your program
speaks interactively, it does so because one of your 10 screen windows is a
"Speak" Window.  Notice that Window 0 has been defaulted to include the
entire 80 column 25 line screen display.  Consequently, when DOS or another
program sends data to your screen through the DOS screen service Vocal-Eyes
voices everything sent to your screen immediately as it's sent there.  Notice
window 0 does not have to be the currently active window for it to speak
data.  More on this later.

Try this.  Enter Review Mode and use the F3 key to make Window 0 your active
window.  Now, press the F7 key.  Press it several times to rotor through the
various window types.  Select Silent or Neutral.

Exit Review Mode and return to DOS or to your interactively speaking
applications program.  Now, type DIR, or enter some command to your
applications program which before caused the program to start voicing data.
Notice that DOS or your interactively voicing program no longer speaks
interactively.  What happened?  Did Vocal-Eyes prevent DOS or your
applications program from working?  Not at all.  Use your ALT-0 read Window
0 command key to read your screen.  See?  Everything's there, just as you
would expect.

What happened when you changed the window type to something other than a
"Speak" window was that you instructed Vocal-Eyes to no longer look for data
being written to the screen via the DOS screen service.  Your interactively
speaking program no longer speaks interactively.

Of course this can be very easily fixed.  Simply enter Review Mode and press
the F7 key until it says "Speak."  Go ahead, Try it now.  Does DOS or your
applications program speak normally again?

There will be times when you may not want the entire 80 column, 25 line
display screen to speak interactively.  For example, you might want to hear
the file names when you type DIR from the DOS prompt but not the files size
or date of creation.  Here's one way you could accomplish this.

Enter Review Mode and use the F3 key to select Window 0 as your active
window.  Press F4 to redefine your window's coordinates.  Enter the
coordinates 1, 1, 14, 25.  Now, exit Review Mode and type the DOS 'DIR'
command.  What happened?

Vocal-Eyes has effectively narrowed the "interactive" display of DOS to
include only the left most 14 columns of your screen.  Use your ALT-0 read
window command key to reread the screen.  Notice that this command key also
now only reads the left half of your screen.  Now lets redefine window 0 back
to the full screen.  Do this by entering review and pressing F4.  Enter the
coordinates 1, 1, 80, 25.

Here's another example.  DBXL, the database management program, often
displays status information on the top line of your screen.  This information
has an annoying habit of continually re-voicing itself with each keystroke of
data you enter into the program.  Why not redefine your "Speak" window to
exclude this line?  DBXL will still speak interactively, it just won't
include screen line 1 as part of the fun.

One final example.  Suppose you're working with a program that displays
important information in the top and bottom thirds of your screen, but a lot
of unnecessary clutter in the middle third.  You could define two "Speak"
windows:  one with coordinates to read the top third of your screen and
another with coordinates to read the bottom third.  Vocal-Eyes will allow you
to define as many "Speak" windows as you like.  Keep in mind, however, that
should you define two "Speak" windows to read the top and bottom thirds of
your PC's screen but inadvertently leave a third "Speak" window defined to
read the entire screen, Vocal-Eyes will wind up voicing your entire screen
display.  Vocal-Eyes won't voice anything twice just because you've got two
"Speak" windows that overlap, but it will combine all of your "Speak" windows
and voice everything inside the largest possible boundaries.

7.6:  THE "SILENT" WINDOW

There's another way you could have instructed Vocal-Eyes to voice only the
top and bottom thirds of your interactively speaking program display.  You
could have done it by employing what's known as a "Silent" window.

A "Silent" window is pretty much what it sounds like.  Think of "Silent"
windows as pieces of dark paper you can cut to size and attach to the front
of your PC's screen in order to block out part of the display.

Say, for example, you're working with that program we mentioned in the last
topic that fills the middle third of your screen with a lot of unnecessary
punctuation and graphic characters.  As we mentioned before, you could create
two "Speak" windows, one to read the top third of the screen and a second to
read the bottom third.  But here's another way to accomplish the same thing.

Enter Review Mode and Select a window to make "Silent."  For our example
we'll use Window 1.  Now, press F7 until you've rotored to the "Silent"
option.  Press F4 to begin the window definition.  Enter 1 for the left
column number and 8 for the top line number.  Enter 80 for the right column
number and 16 for the bottom line number.  There--you've just defined a
"Silent" window to block out the middle third of your PC's screen.

Exit Review Mode and try using your program.  What happened?  Oops!
Something must have gone wrong, because our entire screen is still voicing
interactively.

Here's what happened.  If you recall, Window 0 is our "Speak" window, while
Window 1 is our "Silent" window.  Now, Vocal-Eyes always consults its windows
from lowest to highest:  i.e., from Window 0 through Window 9.  Window 0 was
the first window Vocal-Eyes consulted.  It said to read everything from top
to bottom.  Window 1 said not to read the middle third of the screen, but
since window 0 fit the criteria first, Vocal-Eyes did what it said and
stopped looking at the other windows.  In other words, you told Vocal-Eyes
not to speak lines 8-16 after the fact.

Here's what needs to be done to make our example work properly.  Our "Speak"
window needs to be moved to a window with a higher number than our "Silent"
window.  You can do this in two steps.  First, Press F3 and select Window 0.
Press F7 twice to turn this window into a "Neutral" window.  Now, press F3
again and select any window with a number higher than 1.  We'll choose Window
9, in case there turn out to be other portions of the screen we'd like to
"silent."  Press F7 enough times to turn Window 9 into a "Speak" window.
Press F8 to hear the window definition.  Is Window 9 a full screen window?
If it is, then you're done.  If it isn't, press F4 at this point and redefine
the window with the coordinates: 1, 1, 80, 25.

Exit Review Mode and try your program again.  Congratulations--this time it
worked perfectly!

You can block out, or make "silent" any portion of your screen that can be
defined with a "Silent" window.  You can create several such windows to
silence as many different portions of your screen as necessary.  Remember,
however, that "Silent" windows will only work if two things are happening:

1:  Your program is one that speaks interactively.

2:  Your "Silent" windows are placed ahead of your "Speak" full window.

"Silent" windows have no effect whatsoever on the ALT-0 through ALT-9 read
screen command keys.  Our example "Silent" window will block out the center
third of the screen when the program is displaying its information
interactively, but if you use the ALT-9 command key to reread the screen what
you'll hear will be the entire contents of window 9.  Likewise you could, if
you like, use your ALT-1 command key to read the portion of your screen you
made "silent."  The read screen command keys will always read the entire
defined window, and they will work no matter what window "type" you have
selected.

7.7:  THE "NEUTRAL" WINDOW

A "Neutral" window will not voice automatically like a "Speak" window will
when used with DOS or some other voice interactive program.  Nor will a
"Neutral" window block out a portion of the screen display, as will a
"Silent" window when it's placed numerically ahead of a "Speak" window.  A
"Neutral" window is, well, sort of neutral.

Set a window to "Neutral" when:

1.  You don't want to make the window speak interactively.  You would use a
"Speak" window to do that.

2.  You don't want your window to block a portion of the interactive "Speak"
window.  You would use a "Silent" window to do that.

Now, to sum up what we've learned thus far about window types:

1.  Use a "Speak" window for DOS or other programs that use DOS screen
service to display their information.  A "Speak" window will speak
interactively, but you can also use your read window command key to reread
the window.

2.  Use a "Silent" window to block out a portion of the "Speak" window.
Remember, though, that your "Silent" window must be in front of, which is to
say it must have a lower number than, your "Speak" window.

3.  A "Neutral" window has no effect on neither the "Silent" nor the "Speak"
window.  You must always use a command key, or the F9 key from within Review
Mode, to read a "Neutral" window.

4.  "Speak" and "Silent" windows only operate as described when you are
working in DOS or other applications software that uses DOS screen service
for video display.  In software that does not use DOS screen service, silent
and speak windows effectively become "Neutral" windows.  To make these
programs talk you must either a.) use your ALT-0 through ALT-9 read screen
command keys, or B.) make use of Vocal-Eyes' special "Hyperactive" windows.
Hyperactive windows will be discussed in section 13.

7.8:  ONE MORE LOOK AT WINDOW PRECEDENCE

As we talked about above, the order you define your windows is very
important.  The idea behind how to setup your windows can be a bit tricky.
After reading this section, we hope you will fully understand how to most
efficiently setup your windows.

Remember we are assuming you are using an applications program which sends it
output through the standard DOS services.  If you are using an applications
program which writes directly to the screen buffer, it really doesn't matter
how you setup your windows.  All speak and silent windows will work as if
they had been setup as neutral.

Lets look at what Vocal-Eyes does when it receives a character being
displayed on the screen through the standard DOS services.  Vocal-Eyes first
gets the cursor position of where the character was printed.  It then starts
looking at window 0.  If window 0 is set to neutral or float (we will talk
more about float windows later), it will not even be considered.  Vocal-Eyes
would immediately skip to window 1 and start the check over.  Assuming window
0 is set to either speak or silent, Vocal-Eyes will check if the cursor
position of where the character was printed on the screen falls inside the
coordinates specified for window 0.  If it does, Vocal-Eyes will then speak
the character if window 0 was set for speak or not speak the character if
window 0 was set for silent.  At this point, Vocal-Eyes is done.  It will not
look at the other windows.

However, if the cursor position did not fall inside window 0, the entire
process is then repeated with window 1.  This process will continue until a
match is found or there are no more windows.  If the cursor position does not
fall inside any of the 10 windows which are either set for speak or silent,
Vocal-Eyes will not speak the character.

Therefore, you can see how important it is to order your windows in the
proper sequence.  If you leave window 0 set for the full screen and also have
it setup to speak, it will not matter how the rest of the windows are setup
since every character on a standard 80 column by 25 line screen will fall
into window 0.  Thereby causing Vocal-Eyes to speak the character and stop
searching the other windows.

7.9:  A BRIEF LOOK AT FLOAT WINDOWS

Float windows will be discussed in detail in section 14: Advanced Options.
However, we will give you a brief overview of what they are designed for.

Float windows were designed for spreadsheet programs.  However, with a little
thought, they could be used in other applications as well.

If you are familiar with spreadsheets, normally you would place a title at
the top of each column.  As you move from column to column, you would
probably like the column title to be read.  The problem is the columns can
vary in width and are not always at the same position on the screen.  You
could not set a speak, silent or neutral window to the titles because they
are not consistently in the same position.

However, there are a few facts which we can use to our advantage.

1)  You always know what line or lines the column titles are on, you just
don't know the columns.

2)  The current cell contains a lightbar whose width is exactly the same as
the column title and is directly under the title.  (Lightbars will be
discussed in the next section).

So if you know the line(s) the titles are on and you know the lightbars width
is the same as the title and is directly under the columns you can setup a
float window which will be capable of reading the title.

When setting up a float window, you only setup the top and bottom line
coordinates.  The left and right settings are defined when you request the
window to be read.  When you request a float window to be read, Vocal-Eyes
will scan the currently selected window for a lightbar and get the beginning
column of the lightbar and the ending column of the lightbar.  The float
windows left and right coordinates will then be set to the same positions as
the lightbar.  The window is then read giving you exactly what you wanted,
the column title.

The reason the windows are called float is because the left and right
positions float depending on the length and position of the lightbar.

7.10:  READING A TEMPORARY WINDOW

Occasionally, you may wish to read or review a part of the screen without
having to go through all of the rigmarole of selecting and defining the
window before you can read it.  This is where Vocal-Eyes' ability to read a
"temporary" window comes in quite handy.  Here's how it works.

Accessing Vocal-Eyes' temporary window feature is as easy as entering Review
Mode and pressing the F10 key.  Go ahead and try it now.  Vocal-Eyes will
prompt you for the left column, top line, right column and bottom line
numbers in turn.  Type in the desired values, pressing ENTER after each.  Or
you can simply press ENTER to accept any or all of the current-window default
values.

After you've entered the bottom line setting and pressed ENTER, Vocal-Eyes
will automatically read your temporary window for you.  The default settings
are set to your current selected window coordinates.  If you used the F2 key
to toggle to the full screen first,  the default values will be the full
screen.  That's all there is to setting and reading temporary windows.

7.11:  A FEW MORE WINDOW COMMANDS

Here are a few more window commands you may find quite useful at times.  Like
all other window commands, they are accessed by pressing one of the function
keys.  Here's what they do.

1:  ALT-F3

Pressing this key is similar to pressing the F3 key by itself.  Both cause
Vocal-Eyes to prompt you for the number of the window you'd like to be made
active.  The difference is, when you press ALT-F3, Vocal-Eyes will also look
at the read status of all 10 windows and, except for your "Float" windows, it
will cause all 10 windows to revert to a "Neutral" setting.  Also, it will
set the status of the newly selected window to speak regardless of its
previous status.  Say, for instance, that you have Window 9 defined to read
the first 24 screen lines.  Additionally, you have Windows 1 and 2 defined as
"Silent" windows in order to block out a lot of unnecessary graphic
characters that appear on the left and right edge of your screen.

Suddenly, your program has flashed to a different screen that uses the entire
80-column display for important information.  You have Window 8 defined to
read the entire screen.  This window would be perfect for your new program
screen, but before you can use it you have to A.) select this window to be
your new currently active window, and B.) change the read status on Windows
1, 2 and 9 to "Neutral" so they won't interfere with your Window 8 full
screen voicing.

You could do this the long way, using the F3 key to select each window in
turn and then F7 to rotor the screen type to "Neutral."  Or, alternatively,
you could simply select your new screen window by using the ALT-F3 key.  This
key does three things when pressed:  First, it allows you to select a new
active window.  Second, it sets the status of the new window to "speak".
Third it rotors the read status of all other windows to "Neutral"--with the
exception of any "Float" windows you may have defined.

Remember the ALT-F3 key.  It may save you a lot of time and trouble.

2:  ALT-F7

When pressed, the ALT-F7 key will pop up a box which asks for more specific
information about the currently selected window.  Some of the options can be
defined other places and others can only be defined here.  The options are:

Status:
Window foreground:
Window background:
Window to chain read:
Speak and spell:
Light bar status:
Light bar foreground:
Light bar background:

The status option is the only one we have discussed so far.  Pressing F7 can
also be used to set the status of the currently selected window.  Section 14
will cover each of these option in detail.

7.12:  SUMMARY

This section talked entirely about what and how to use Vocal-Eyes' standard
windows.  You learned what it means when a window is the currently active
window.  Also, we talked about the possible window settings: Neutral, Silent,
Speak and Float.  We talked about how Vocal-Eyes decides what and how to
speak each character that is printed to the screen through the standard DOS
services.  You learned that the order of your windows is important as well.

We briefly talked about float windows and what they were designed for.

You learned how to read a temporary window.  This is a window which once it
has read the contents is forgotten.  Finally, you learned about a few other
Review Mode commands which make setting certain windows a bit faster.

When you are ready to learn still more of what Vocal-Eyes can do for you,
continue on to the next section.