Screen Reader/Magnifier

Supernova

Screen Reader/Magnifier

Version 5.30

For the Microsoft Windows Operating System

Technology House
Blackpole Estate West
Worcester WR3 8TJ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1905 754577
Fax: +44 (0) 1905 754559

Manual version 044-5.30 27/10/2003

End User Licence Agreement ("EULA")

This EULA is a legal agreement between you, the end user ("You") and Dolphin Computer Access Ltd ("Dolphin").

Please read this EULA carefully. If you do not agree to these terms, you must return the full product with proof of purchase to your dealer within 30 days for a full refund.

Ownership. This Product includes computer software ("Software"), associated media, Braille, audio CD or audio cassette or print materials and any electronic documentation. The Product is licensed to you and not sold. The Product is protected by copyright laws, international copyright treaties and intellectual property laws.
Licence. This Product is licensed for a single user only. You may install and use it only on computers that you operate or own. If a network or multi-user site license has been purchased, the number of concurrent users is restricted to that purchased. Additional licences must be purchased for any additional users.
Restrictions. You may not copy the Software, except for one copy solely for backup or archival purposes providing you keep this copy in your possession. You may not modify, translate, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reverse engineer the Software. You may not loan, rent, lease or sub-licence the Software or any copy to others for any purpose.
Transfer. You may transfer the Product to another party on a permanent basis providing the recipient agrees to the terms of this EULA and you retain no copies of the Software.
Termination. You may terminate this EULA at any time. If this EULA is terminated you must destroy the Product together with all copies of the Software in any form.
General. If you break the terms of this agreement, Dolphin may terminate this EULA and reserves the right to take action to prevent or restrict your use of the Software.

Copyright Notice

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document or the supplied software may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express permission of Dolphin Computer Access Ltd or Dolphin Oceanic Ltd.

Hal, Supernova, Lunar, LunarPlus, SAM and Orpheus are all trademarks of Dolphin Oceanic Ltd. Windows, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Warranty and disclaimer

Dolphin warrants that the media on which the product is distributed are free from defects and will replace defective media at no charge. Dolphin gives no warranties with respect to any bugs or errors in the software or audio content, or to its fitness for a particular purpose. Any liability, consequential or otherwise, will be limited to the amount paid for the product. Please inform us of any bugs you may find and we will endeavour to rectify them.

N.B.

You should save your work and make regular backups, particularly before installing new software or hardware.
Due to the many possible hardware configurations and inherently complex nature of software, errors do occur.

Care of your compact disc

Do not put your disc in direct sunlight.
Avoid high heat and humidity.
Handle your disc carefully to avoid scratching it.
Never stick labels on your disc.
Never write on your disc.
Keep your disc in the supplied case when not in use.

Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 What's New?

1.2 Key Features

1.3 About this Manual

1.4 Registering your Dolphin Software

1.5 Getting help with your Dolphin Software

1.5.1 On-line manual

1.5.2 Context-sensitive help

1.5.3 Product Support

1.5.4 Your Serial Number

1.6 Minimum System Requirements

1.7 Supported Operating Systems

2. Installation

2.1 Components

2.1.1 Supernova

2.1.2 Microsoft Active Accessibility

2.1.3 Synthesiser Access Manager (SAM)

2.1.4 Orpheus Software Synthesis

2.1.5 Microsoft Text-to-Speech Engine

2.2 Upgrading from a previous version

2.3 Installing Your Software

2.3.1 Installing Under Windows ME

2.3.2 Installing Under Windows 2000

2.4 Uninstalling Your Software

2.4.1 Uninstalling Under Windows ME

2.4.2 Uninstalling Under Windows 2000

2.5 Network Installation

2.5.1 Administrator Instructions

2.6 Terminal Server Installation

2.6.1 Supported Server and Protocol Configurations

2.6.2 Installation Instructions

2.6.3 Operation Instructions

3. Getting Started

3.1 Starting Supernova

3.2 Hot keys

3.3 Using Speech

3.4 Using Magnification

3.5 Using a Braille display

3.6 Control Panel

3.6.1 Property Sheets

3.6.2 Getting Help on the Controls

3.6.3 Making Setting Changes

3.6.4 The Problem With Foreground Windows

3.6.5 Control Panel Menu

3.6.6 Access System Buttons

3.6.7 Help Button

3.6.8 Text Entry

3.7 Closing Down

4. Introducing Windows

4.1 Explaining Windows

4.1.1 What is a Window?

4.1.2 Parts of Windows

4.1.3 Types of Controls

4.1.4 Labels

4.1.5 Disabled Objects

4.1.6 What is the Desktop?

4.1.7 What is the Taskbar?

4.1.8 What is the Start Menu?

4.1.9 What is Windows Explorer?

4.1.10 Clipboard

4.1.11 Focus

4.1.12 Selection

4.1.13 Undo

4.2 Using Windows

4.2.1 Using the Windows Start menu

4.2.2 Options on the Start menu

4.2.3 Using an Application's menus

4.2.4 Closing an application

4.2.5 Reading the application window

4.2.6 Reading the application window

4.2.7 Finding out where you are

4.2.8 Using various elements of a Window

4.2.9 Manipulating a Window

4.2.10 Using the Taskbar

4.2.11 Using the Desktop

4.2.12 Moving around the icons on the desktop

4.2.13 Using the Clipboard

4.2.14 Recycle Bin

4.2.15 How to clear the Documents menu

4.2.16 The 'No Focus' Problem

4.2.17 Application Launch Shortcuts

4.2.18 How to find a file

4.2.19 Putting an application on the Start menu

4.2.20 Removing an application from the Start menu

4.3 Windows Hot Key Summary

5. Magnification

5.1 Magnification Toolbar

5.2 Using the Toolbar

5.3 Turning Magnification On and Off

5.4 Altering the magnification

5.5 Altering the aspect ratio of the magnified screen

5.6 Style

5.6.1 Full Screen

5.6.2 Full screen mode

5.6.3 Split screen mode

5.6.4 Window and Lens

5.6.5 Window mode

5.6.6 Lens mode

5.6.7 Auto Lens

5.6.8 Auto lens mode

5.7 Overview mode

5.8 Automatic Magnification

5.9 Manual Magnification

5.10 Image Smoothing

5.11 Magnification Dialog Box

5.11.1 Enable Magnification

5.11.2 Magnification Factor

5.11.3 Type

5.11.4 Margin Release

5.11.5 Display Hooked Areas

5.11.6 Image Smoothing

5.11.7 Border size

5.11.8 Border colour

5.12 Colour changer

5.13 Colour Changer Dialog Box

5.13.1 Enable Colour Changer

5.13.2 Schemes

5.13.3 Invert Brightness

5.13.4 Classic, tints and colour replacement

5.13.5 Set Defaults Button

5.13.6 Preview Settings

5.14 Line view mode

5.15 Line View Dialog Box

5.15.1 Size

5.15.2 Mode

5.15.3 Font

5.15.4 Colour

5.15.5 Line Break Markers

5.15.6 Paragraph Markers

5.15.7 Graphics Objects

5.15.8 Image Smoothing

5.16 Hooked areas

5.16.1 Creating a hooked area

5.16.2 Modifying a hooked area

5.16.3 Toggling hooked areas on and off

5.17 Magnification Modification Mode

5.18 Tracking

5.19 Tracking Dialog Box

5.19.1 Track Mouse

5.19.2 Mouse to Screen

5.19.3 Stay in Window

5.19.4 Track Caret

5.19.5 Track Menus

5.19.6 Track Controls

5.19.7 Track Windows

5.19.8 Centring

5.19.9 Mouse and Foci Frame Dialog Box

5.20 Magnification Preferences Dialog Box

5.20.1 Overview mode

5.20.2 Interactive Mode

5.20.3 Magnify whilst busy

5.20.4 Logon Screen Magnification

5.21 Dolphin mouse pointers

6. Speech

6.1 Basic Controls

6.2 Automatic Speech

6.2.1 Current Focus

6.2.2 Current Control

6.2.3 Object Hierarchy

6.2.4 Where am I?

6.2.5 Changing Control

6.2.6 Edit Areas

6.3 Manual Speech

6.3.1 Common Speak keys

6.3.2 Edit Area Speak Keys

6.3.3 Spelling, Verbose and Phonetic

6.3.4 Reading Character Attributes

6.3.5 Application Specific Keys

6.4 Virtual Focus

6.4.1 The concept of a Virtual Focus

6.4.2 Switching to and from the Virtual Focus

6.4.3 Moving Around the Window

6.4.4 Using Speak Keys

6.4.5 Moving to other Windows

6.4.6 Performing Mouse Operations

6.4.7 Activating Controls

6.4.8 Going Places.

6.4.9 Find utility

6.4.10 Interacting with controls

6.4.11 Moving around a changing screen.

6.4.12 Application Specific Virtual Focus Keys

6.4.13 Virtual Focus Dialog

6.5 Document Read

6.5.1 Document Read Dialog

6.6 Keyboard Echo

6.7 Keyboard Echo Dialog Box

6.7.1 Automatic Key Echo

6.7.2 Selected Key Echo

6.8 Speech Dialog Box

6.8.1 Speech Context

6.8.2 Punctuation Level

6.8.3 Number Announcement

6.8.4 Announce

6.8.5 Blank Lines

6.8.6 Capitals

6.8.7 Colour Change

6.8.8 Back Colour Change

6.8.9 Point Size Change

6.8.10 Style Change

6.8.11 Font Change

6.8.12 Selected

6.8.13 Announce Links

6.8.14 Bitmaps

6.8.15 Character Echo

6.8.16 New Lines

6.8.17 Column Detection

6.9 Speech Verbosity Dialog

6.10 Speech Output Settings Dialog Box

6.10.1 Volume

6.10.2 Speed

6.10.3 Capital Announcement

6.10.4 Default Verbosity

6.10.5 Configure Verbosity Schemes

6.10.6 Announce Braille Changes

6.10.7 Announce Magnification Changes

6.10.8 Monitor Markers

6.10.9 Voice and Language Selection Button

6.10.10 Voice and Language Configuration

7. Braille

7.1 Buttons

7.2 Moving Around

7.3 Cursor Routing

7.4 Attributes

7.4.1 Cycle Attributes

7.4.2 Toggle Describe Character

7.5 Status Cells

7.5.1 Features on Display

7.5.2 Cursor Position

7.5.3 Focus Type

7.6 Enhanced Display

7.7 Literary and Computer Braille

7.8 Braille Layout Modes

7.8.1 Logical Mode

7.8.2 Physical Mode

7.8.3 Tracking

7.8.4 Show Layout

7.9 Keyboard Input

7.9.1 Simulating Keyboard Keys

7.9.2 Braille Key Input

7.10 Braille Dialog Box

7.10.1 Status Cells Button

7.10.2 Speech Verbosity Dialog

7.10.3 Cursor style button

7.10.4 Characters button

7.10.5 Physical mode button

7.10.6 Input from Display button

7.10.7 Input from Display in VF button

7.10.8 Status Cells Dialog Box

7.10.9 Cursor Style Dialog Box

7.10.10 Characters Dialog Box

7.10.11 Physical Mode Dialog Box

7.10.12 Input from Display Dialog Box

7.10.13 Input from Display in VF dialog box

7.10.14 Braille Hooks

7.11 Braille Output Settings Dialog

7.11.1 Unicode to Braille Conversion

7.11.2 Unicode to Literary Braille Conversion

7.11.3 Delimiters

7.11.4 Default Verbosity

7.11.5 Configure Braille Verbosity Schemes

7.11.6 Braille Hooks

7.11.7 Scroll Margin

7.11.8 On Screen Braille Monitor

8. Dolphin List Utility

8.1 List of Items in the System Tray

8.2 Custom List

8.3 List

8.4 Sorting Method

8.5 Left Click

8.6 Right Click

8.7 Route VF to

9. Hot Key Reference

9.1 Key to Tables

9.2 General Commands

9.3 Speech Control

9.4 Lists

9.5 Speech (Speak Keys)

9.6 Document Read

9.7 Virtual Focus Control

9.8 Virtual Focus Movement

9.9 Magnification

9.10 Magnification Modification

9.11 Line View

9.12 Braille

9.13 Braille Displays: Hot Key Summary

9.13.1 Alva

9.13.2 Baum

9.13.3 Blazie Engineering

9.13.4 Braudi

9.13.5 Handy Tech

9.13.6 KTS

9.13.7 Papenmeier

9.13.8 Pegasus

9.13.9 Pulse Data

9.13.10 Technibraille

9.13.11 Sensotec

9.13.12 TeleSensory

9.13.13 Tieman

10. Optimising Windows

10.1 General Tips

10.2 Windows Settings Dialog

10.2.1 Windows Settings Category

10.2.2 Set Dolphin Recommended Settings

10.2.3 Restore settings on exit

10.3 Operating System Tips

10.3.1 Windows 98

10.3.2 Windows ME

10.3.3 Windows NT 4.0

10.3.4 Windows 2000

10.3.5 Windows XP

11. Applications

11.1 Application Notes

11.2 General Tips

11.3 Windows Explorer

11.3.1 Starting Windows Explorer

11.3.2 Configuration Tips

11.3.3 Exploring

11.3.4 Long filenames

11.4 Adobe Acrobat Reader

11.5 AVG Antivirus

11.6 Copernic 2001

11.7 HTML windows

11.8 Java Applications

11.9 Internet Explorer

11.10 Microsoft Office

11.11 Online Help

11.12 Outlook Express

11.13 Pegasus Mail

11.14 Spreadsheets

11.15 Winamp

11.16 Windows Media Player

12. Global Configuration Guide

12.1 Voice Setup Property Sheet

12.1.1 Voice Language

12.1.2 Voice

12.1.3 Add

12.1.4 Delete

12.1.5 Rename

12.1.6 Parameters

12.1.7 Pitch List Box

12.1.8 Intonation List box

12.1.9 Parameter List box

12.1.10 Value list box

12.1.11 Test Text

12.1.12 Load Defaults

12.2 Access System Settings

12.2.1 Choose Settings File

12.3 Configure Access System Keys

12.3.1 Command Set

12.3.2 Command

12.3.3 Assigned Keys

12.3.4 Add Key

12.3.5 Replace Key

12.3.6 Add Braille Key

12.3.7 Remove key

12.3.8 Load Access System Defaults Button

12.3.9 Braille Key Defaults

12.3.10 Define Key press

12.3.11 Define Braille button press

12.3.12 Key Clashes

12.3.13 Load Access System Default Keys

12.3.14 Dolphin Custom Modifier Key

12.4 Detection Settings

12.4.1 Choosing a Map file

12.4.2 Choosing the right Map file

12.4.3 Obtaining the latest Map files

12.4.4 Graphics Object Database Button

12.4.5 Graphics Database Dialog

12.4.6 Choose a Map File Dialog

12.5 Restore Defaults Button

12.6 Settings File Management

12.6.1 Types of settings file

12.6.2 Settings file list box

12.6.3 Properties button

12.6.4 General Settings

12.6.5 Delete this settings file

12.6.6 Export

12.6.7 Update From Internet

12.6.8 Import

12.6.9 Restore all maps from Dolphin Defaults

12.6.10 Settings file Properties

12.6.11 Situation Management Button

12.6.12 Situation Management

12.7 System Setup

12.7.1 System Setup Buttons

12.7.2 Access System Language

12.7.3 Magnification Controls

12.7.4 Kill Tooltips

12.7.5 Enable helpful warnings

12.7.6 Num Lock

12.7.7 Output Devices Dialog Box

12.7.8 Detection Settings

12.7.9 Magnification Engine

12.7.10 Windows Settings

12.8 Application Settings

12.8.1 General Settings Button

12.8.2 General Settings

12.8.3 Situation Settings Button

12.8.4 Situation Settings

12.8.5 Create or Choose settings file

12.8.6 Restore Dolphin Defaults

12.9 Braille Output Settings Dialog

12.9.1 Unicode to Braille Conversion

12.9.2 Unicode to Literary Braille Conversion

12.9.3 Delimiters

12.9.4 Scroll Margin

12.9.5 On Screen Braille Monitor

12.9.6 On Screen Braille Monitor Position

12.9.7 On Screen Braille Monitor Size

12.10 Synthesiser Access Manager

12.10.1 Configuring SAM

12.10.2 Configuring a SAM Driver

12.10.3 Detect All Devices Now

13. Frequently Asked Questions

13.1 All About Dolphin

13.2 Miscellaneous

14. Troubleshooting

14.1 Installation And Setup Problems

14.2 Magnification Problems

14.3 Speech Output Problems

14.4 Braille Output Problems

14.5 Application Problems

15. Tutorials

15.1 How to create application specific settings

15.2 How to create and modify a verbosity scheme

15.3 How to navigate HTML content

15.4 How to use the colour changer

16. Index

Introduction1

Chapter 1

1Introduction

Dolphin Computer Access has a simple goal: to create software products that allow visually impaired people to use mainstream information technology in its original form.

Using the same products as sighted people means individuals can retain their independence in education, industry and leisure. At the same time it allows prudent businesses, schools, colleges and universities to benefit from the knowledge, ideas and expertise of people who might otherwise be excluded.

Supernova Reader Magnifier is unique in the access aid market because it combines magnification, speech and Braille output in a single program. This benefits both individuals and establishments alike, meeting a range of user requirements.

1.1 What's New?

Windows Terminal Server support

Supernova now allows user access to Windows Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame sessions. Using either a thick client or remote thin client terminal, Supernova provides a combination of Magnification, Speech and Braille accessibility to existing applications.

Java focus tracking

Magnification users can now enjoy full accessibility of Java applications that support the JavaAccessBridge: The magnification window will now follow the beam cursor or the Java focus.

Magnification at the Windows Logon Screen

Supernova now offers magnification at the logon screen of Windows NT/2000/XP.

1.2 Key Features

Magnification

Text and images are smooth and clear up to 32 times enlargement.
Control of colour, contrast and brightness.
Choice of high visibility mouse pointers.
Smooth scrolling for browsing long documents.
Synchronised Document Read highlights each word as spoken.
Choice of screen magnification styles: whole screen; split screen; window; lens; auto lens and hooked areas.
Set up the screen exactly according to your requirements or swap easily between screen views.

Speech

Easy browsing of Internet web pages and other applications with the Dolphin Virtual Focus even where there is little or no keyboard access.
Navigate internet tables by row or column and also detect multiple or nested tables.
Comprehensive online and context sensitive help.
Reads or spells out any text on screen: documents, menus, web pages, emails.
Reads icons and Internet graphics labels and announces font and style information.
Talks as you type, by character, by word or both.
Works with any font, including accented characters and symbols.
Choice of two software speech synthesisers: Dolphin Orpheus Speech System and Microsoft’s MSAPI Speech Synthesiser.
Orpheus’ intelligent pronunciation recognises similar words by context.
Choice of nine Orpheus voices or create your own.
Choice of 13 Orpheus languages including: English (UK and USA), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish (Latin and Castilian) and Swedish. New languages are being added all the time.
Automatically recognises many other hardware and software synthesisers.
Speech verbosity controls allow you to choose how much speech feedback you want to hear by selecting minimum, low, medium or high verbosity.
Dolphin List Utility allows you to bring up a list of hyperlinks, frames or html headings with a hot key, then jump to the item you want.

Braille

Fast and responsive Braille output.
Text and graphical information at your fingertips.
Choose computer or literary Braille (Grade 1 or Grade 2).
Works automatically with a wide range of Braille displays and note takers.
Accurate information on formatting, style and physical layout.
Intelligently reads ahead so dialog information is conveyed in context.
Programmable Braille hot keys, speed up and facilitate operation.
Dolphin software also now supports more Braille devices than anyone else.
Braille verbosity controls allow you to choose how much information you want and how it is displayed.

1.3 About this Manual

This manual contains a number of chapters including a tutorial guide for the beginner and a full users guide for the advanced user.

Introduction

The introduction lists some of the features of your Dolphin software. It also details different ways to get help with your software and how to contact Dolphin product support.

Installation

This chapter contains information about installation, de-installation and upgrading.

Getting Started

This chapter contains information for getting started with your Dolphin software, including a brief description of some of the basic functions.

Introducing Windows

This is a beginners overview of the Windows Graphical User interface and introduces much of the terminology used throughout this manual.

In addition, this section goes through the basics of using Windows with speech and introduces some of the features of your access software.

Magnification

This chapter describes the magnification system and provides a complete description of all the available magnification functions.