ECDL Module 7: Information and Communication

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Jaws and Windows Keystrokes and Keyboard Shortcuts for ECDL Module 7: Information and Communication

The Information and Communication module covers all the skills and Windows keyboard shortcuts and Jaws keystrokes you will need to successfully complete the module.   When the tutorial was written my student was using Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft Internet Explorere 6.5, Microsoft Outlook and Jaws 7.0 using a laptop set to use Jaws laptop keystrokes.  The majority of the keyboard shortcuts are Microsoft Office shortcuts, so users of other screenreaders will not be disadvantaged.  To access this tutorial follow the numbered instructions below.

I particularly like Jaws because the help files for it are excellent, if you get stuck and cannot remember a keyboard shortcut to do a particular job, then hitting “Insert + H” will give you application specific keystrokes.

The tutorial is based upon the ECDL practice tasks from ZigZag education, so if your school or college is using these resources then following this tutorial will give you the necessary skills to pass the Internet an Email module. If you require more help then you can contact me directly by email "andy AT spong.uk.net" replacing the AT with the correct sign.

1. Open a web browser, and go to a web address by typing in a specific URL.

OK start by hitting the Windows key and hitting “P” for Programs and then hit “I” for Internet. A web browser will open. Now access the address bar by doing the shortcut “Alt + D” and type in the web address that has been given to you followed by “Enter”.

2. Locate and open a specified hyperlink. Complete an online form and activate a particular action button.

Find the hyperlinks on the page by doing the Jaws keystroke “Insert + F7”, then use the up and down arrows to select the required link followed by “Enter”. Alternatively, hit the “tab” key until you reach the required link followed by “Enter”. Start by reading the page by going to the heading hit “H” and keep hitting "H" until you get “Heading level 1”, then read the page a paragraph at a time by hitting “P”. Go to the first form field by doing “Ctrl + Insert + Home” and hit “Enter” so that Jaws echoes “Forms mode on” type in the required info and then hit the “tab” key to go to the next field.
 

3. Select a particular graphic on the page.

Navigate to the graphic by hitting the “G” key, if the web page has been well designed all the graphics will be labelled. However if this is not the case then you should be able to get a list of the graphics by doing “Ctrl + Insert + G” and then using the up and down arrow keys to select the graphic you require. Once the graphic is selected, switch from the Jaws cursor to the PC cursor by doing “Caps Lock + left square bracket” then simulate a right mouse button click by doing the Jaws keystroke “Caps Lock + 9” and use the up and down arrow keys to select “Save Image As”, followed by “Enter”. You will now be in the “Filename” part of the “Save As” dialogue box, start by giving the picture a name, and then check which directory you are in by doing “Alt + I” for “Look in”, use the up and down arrows to select the required directory and hit “Enter”. Finally “tab” round to the “Save As” button. If you need to swap back to the Jaws cursor at any time do “Caps Lock + Semicolon”.
 

4. Save a screen image to a wordprocessed file.

I am assuming you are already on the required web page, remember you can go forward and back through a web browser using the commands “Alt + Right arrow” to go forward and “Alt + Left Arrow” to go back. To capture a screen image do “Alt + Print Screen” button, the print screen button is generally on the top right of the keyboard. Open the wordprocessor by tapping the “Windows” key and then “P” for programs, followed by “M” for Microsoft if you are using Microsoft Word, keep tapping “M” until you get to Word and then hit the “Enter” key. You can now paste the screen shot into the wordprocessor using the command “Ctrl + V”.

5. Locate a search engine and do a search on a specified word.

Go to google by doing “Alt + d” to go to the address bar and type in “www.google.co.uk”, you will generally be taken straight to the search form field, before you can type anything you need to turn forms mode on by hitting “Enter”. If you need to locate the form field, do “Ctrl + Insert + Home” and then hit “Enter”. Type in the required search term and hit “Enter”.

6. Select a suitable web page from the generated list and save it as a text file in a specified directory.

Once you have done your search get Jaws to be quiet by hitting the “Ctrl” key. Now listen to the various search headings by tapping the “H” key until you come across a likely page. We now need to go to “File” by hitting the “Alt” key and then down arrow to “Save As” followed by “Enter”. The first thing is to give the file a name, then tab round to “Save as type” list box and hit the down arrow to go to “Text File” followed by “Enter”. To locate the correct directory do “Alt + I” for Look In and then use the up and down arrow keys to select the correct directory, followed by “Enter”. Finally tab round to the “OK” button and hit “Enter” again.

7. Do a specified text string search and print out one page from the selected site with a name in the header or footer.

Start by going to a search engine home page, this time we are going to search a string of words but to ensure we narrow the search down as much as possible we will enclose the text string in speech marks. Go to the form field, ensure that forms mode is on by doing “Ctrl + Insert + Home” followed by “Enter”.
Start the speech marks by doing “Shift + 2”, type in the search string and then do another set of speech marks followed by “Enter”. Once you have a list of possible sites review the headings by tapping “H”, when you find one which is suitable hit “Enter”. To add info in the header or footer, hit the “Alt” key to go to “File” and then down arrow to “Page Setup” followed by “Enter”, now tap the “tab” key until you get to the Header or Footer dialogue box and type in the required text followed by “Enter”. Print one page by doing “Ctrl + P” and tab round to “Page Range” and use the down arrow to select “Page number” and then tab again and type in “1” followed by “Enter”.
 

8. Open an email application and create a new email with high priority.

Hit the “Windows” key and tap “P” for programs followed by “M” for Microsoft until you get to “Microsoft Outlook”, followed by “Enter”. To create a new email do “Ctrl + N”, the cursor will land straight in the “To” form field, you need to “Ctrl + tab” to go to the “Send” button and then hit the “Right arrow” key to go the “High Priority” button followed by “Enter”. This will take you straight back to the “To” form field.

9. Enter an email address, and type text in the subject line and body of the message.

Make sure you are in the “To ...Edit” field, you can get there by doing tab or “shift + tab”, if by any chance you get stuck in the body of the message field then if you hit “shift + tab” VERY rapidly you should get back to the “To... Edit” field. Now you can type in your email address, if you are unsure where the @ sign is then generally it shares the same key as the apostrophe but can be accessed by doing “Shift + Apostrophe”.
Once you have typed an email address then hit the “tab” key until you get to the subject field and type in the subject, now “tab” again until you reach the body of the message and type in the required message. To leave the message at any time do the keystroke “Ctrl + Home” to go to the start of the message and then hold down “Shift” and tap “tab” twice quickly. You can then do “Shift + tab” at a normal speed to move back through the options.
 

10. Use the cc facility to send a message to another specified email address.

Hopefully you should easily reach the “cc ...Edit” field fairly easily, however do remember that once you are in the message box it can be tricky to get out again unless you hit the “shift + tab” key rapidly, and I do mean RAPIDLY!

11. Add an attachment to your email and send it.

You can reach the attachment button by doing “Shift + tab” until you get to the “To ...” button, then do “Ctrl + tab” to get to the “Send” button and tap the “Right arrow” key to reach the “File.. List Box” tap the down arrow to get to “File” and hit “Enter”. You are now at the “Insert File” dialogue box which is similar in make up to the “Save As” box you met earlier. We will start by locating the required directory by doing “Alt + I” for “Look In”. Tap the up and down arrows to locate the required directory and hit “Enter”, then tab round to “Folder view, List view”. If you know the first letter of the filename or subdirectory that contains the desired attachment, keep tapping that letter until you reach the required filename or directory followed by “Enter”. The file should then be attached onto your email, so all you have left to do is send the email; do this by hitting “Alt + S” for “Send”.
 

12. Locate and open a message from your inbox.

Depending on the version of “Outlook” you are using, you will either have to use the “F6” key to change panes to the folder pane and then use the down up and down arrows to locate the “Inbox” followed by “Enter”, or you will have to do “Alt + V” to go to “View” and then locate “Inbox” using the arrow keys. Once you have located the required message, hit “Enter” to read it or use “F6” to move through the panes until you reach the body of the message.

13. Locate and save an attachment and to a specified directory.

Once a message has been opened you should be able to open any attachments by doing the Jaws keystroke “Insert + A”, the list of attachments will open, move through them using the up and down arrow keys. You can then hit the “right mouse button” key to open a menu that will enable you to save the file to a specified directory.
 

14. Locate a message containing a particular text string.

Access the “Tools” menu with “Alt + T” and then down arrow to “Find” followed by “Enter”. Type in the text string required followed by “Enter”.
 

15. Print one copy of the message containing the text string.

  Hit “Ctrl + P” to access the “Print” dialogue box. Tab round to “Page Range” and use down arrow to select “Pages”, type in the page number required and then tab round to the “OK” button, followed by “Enter”.