Set JAWS Speach and Sounds manager to announce text attributes , colours and more.


You might already be aware of the JAWS feature that will announce and describe text attributes and colours. This JAWS feature is known as the Speech and Sounds Manager. In this tutorial, we will learn how to set the JAWS Speach and Sounds Manager, and then customize these settings. We'll also cover the handy keystroke to activate the JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager on the fly.
text attributes are things such as bold text, underlined text, and italicized text.
Follow the 6 steps below to have JAWS announce particular font changes for you.

In some work or school situations, text attributes and colours have specific meaning. for example, a professor might mark an essay with notes in red text for your review.
Various colours are often used to indicate types of errors in some applications, and sometimes attributes have their own significant meanings.

How does it work?
Well, basically, when JAWS encounters a different attribute, the reading voice will change to indicate the different attribute, and in the case of colour changes, JAWS will speak the colour name.

Dont worry, we'll also go over how to turn this feature off.

How to change the various Speach and sounds Manager settings.

We can have JAWS indicate either colours, font attributes, quotes,, or font information. We can set the JAWS Speach and Sounds manager to use one of these, a combination of these, or for full on descriptions we can set JAWS to read all of these.

Changing the JAWS Speech Scheme on the Fly.

We can temporarily activate the JAWS Speech and Sounds setting by using the
Alt, Insert S keystroek.
While holding the Alt and Insert keys down, tap the S key.
This keystroke opens the list of possible Speech and Sound schemes. Arrow down this list and press Enter on the scheme that best suits your needs.
Note: If you use this method, the default JAWS Speech and Sounds scheme will be restored after you close the application. This temporary method is also a good way to test drive the possible JAWS speech and sounds manager schemes.

How is it done?

The JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager is located in the JAWS Configuration Manager.
Every computer based application used in conjunction with JAWS has an associated JAWS Configuration File (.jcf). This file runs in the background, and it's settings control the details of what JAWS speaks.

We can set the JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager for each individual application.

Follow these steps to have JAWS automatically read font attribute and colour changes:

    With the desired application/program open-
  1. Press Insert 6, to Open the JAWS configuration Manager.
  2. JAWS will announce the title of the configuration file. Press Alt S, to access the"Set Options" menu.
  3. Arrow down to the menu item titled "Speech and sounds Manager", and press Enter.
  4. A list of possible preset schemes will appear. Arrow down to the one that best suits your needs and then TAB to the OK button, and press Spacebar.
  5. close the JAWS Configuration Manager with Alt F4.
  6. A dialog box will appear asking you whether or not you want to save the changes you have made to the JAWS configuration manager. The focus will be on the "yes" button, so simply press Enter, to save the changes.

To turn the JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager off.

the default setting for the JAWS Configuration manager is referred to as the "classic scheme".
Follow the steps above and select the "classic" scheme to reset the Speech and Sounds Manager to the default setting. This will stop JAWS from announcing attribute and colour changes.

More about what each JAWS voice represents.

The idea of the JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager is to describe in some way, what is being visually represented on the screen, without being too distracting from the actual content.
for example, when JAWS encounters bolded text, the deep JAWS Rocko voice will be used. A higher pitched message voice is used to indicate underlined text and so on.

Manually checking font information.

To manually have JAWS describe font colour, move to the desired character and press Insert 5. JAWS will announce the text foreground and background colour.

To have JAWS describe detailed informaition about font type, size and position, move to the desired character and press Insert F.

Note: It is possible to assign a different voice to each specific attribute from within the drop down menus in the JAWS Speech and Sounds Manager. You can then give your new customized scheme a name and save it. This new scheme will then be added to the list of JAWS Speach and Sounds schemes.