JAWS Scripts For Rig Manager
Doug Lee
Last Revised October, 2021

This document describes the JAWS scripts for Rig Manager and provides tips for using this application with JAWS. This document can be opened from within the application via a double press of JAWSKey+F1 (or Insert+F1) when the scripts are running.

Table of Contents

• System Requirements For JAWS Users
• Script Installation Instructions
• Script Features In Brief
• Tips For Using Rig Manager
• Known Issues
• Revision History

System Requirements For JAWS Users

There are no known system requirements for these scripts beyond those for Rig Manager itself. The minimum JAWS version supported is 16.0. JAWS versions older than 2018 have not been carefully tested with these scripts.

Script Installation Instructions

To install these scripts on a new system:

1. Load JAWS if this has not already been done. This will require administrative privileges on the computer.
2. Run JAWS as the user for whom the scripts are to be installed. This and the following steps must be performed for each user of the computer who will be using JAWS with these scripts.
3. Download and run, or run directly, the installer for these scripts; and follow the on-screen directions. Be sure to install the scripts in the currently running JAWS version if a JAWS version list is presented.
4. To verify successful installation, type Insert+Q from within the application. Part of the JAWS spoken response should be a revision number. If you do not hear a revision number, the scripts are not correctly loaded. In some cases, restarting JAWS may fix this issue.

Script Features In Brief

The scripts provide the following keystrokes and features in addition to those provided by Rig Manager:

• Ctrl+Shift+T moves focus to the TreeView control on screen when possible. This command may prove useful if focus gets stuck in a control from which Tab and Shift+Tab are not able to escape.
• The four arrow keys can be used to navigate among cells in any of several grids in the application.
• Esc will exit edit mode on an editable grid cell and return focus to the cell itself. This is sometimes required before using the arrows as just described to move among cells.
• The JAWS LeftMouseButton and RightMouseButton commands, when issued with the PC cursor active while focus is in a grid, will left-click and right-click the current grid cell, respectively. Right-clicking a cell brings up a context menu for the cell when available. If a double left-click is ever required, issue the LeftMouseButton command twice in quick succession.
• Alt+Left clicks the header for the current cell. This sorts the grid based on the current column. Repeating this action toggles the sort between ascending and descending. Alt+Right will right-click the column header for the current cell. This brings up a context menu that allows grid column selection and other functions.
• Cells in a grid speak in a more standard way during navigation among them.
• JAWS properly handles grid cells that are checkboxes and dropdown (combo box) controls.
• Ctrl with up and down arrows can be used to move through available values of a dropdown control in a grid. The standard Alt+Down command also works to open the dropdown box for review and value selection.
• Some control types in grids include custom tutor text to explain to the user how to use them.
• JAWS announces rating stars by count, e.g., "three stars" when encountering them in a grid dropdown control. This does not apply if the control's dropdown box is opened, however.
• The Search box on the main screen is named.
• JAWSKey+Q, along with announcing the active configuration name, will announce the revision number of these scripts.
• Typing Insert+F1 twice quickly brings up the script documentation.

Tips For Using Rig Manager

When moving up and down through grid rows with arrow keys, avoid arrowing much faster than JAWS can speak. Due to application behavior in some grids and despite script efforts to prevent this, doing so can sometimes cause focus to move into another column and/or begin altering the contents of a cell unexpectedly.

Known Issues

Issues shown in this section may be fixed in future script and/or application revisions but are not addressed as of this writing.

Immediately after using Esc to exit a combo box and return to its grid cell, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down will move among cells instead of changing the current cell value. This is because at that moment, the application does not allow arrow keys to edit the cell. A workaround is to move off of and back onto the cell before altering its value with the scripted Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down commands.

Some grid cells are bitmap images and say things like "system.drawing.bitmap" instead of saying something useful.

Navigating up or down too quickly can suddenly move focus into and/or start altering an editable cell in another column in some grids. This is because the application natively forces focus into editable cells when up and down arrows are pressed in some grids, and rapid navigation can cause arrow keys to reach the application before focus has settled from a previous navigation.

When an edit box or other editing control is focused for a grid cell, JAWS may say a row number that is one less than the actual row number. This is because the application names grid rows starting at 0 instead of 1. The scripts correct this during grid navigation but may miss a few cases.

Revision History

This section consists of the revision history of these scripts, most recent revision first.

Revision 44, released November 2, 2021, tested against application version 3.2.57.17257

• Ctrl+Shift+T moves focus to the TreeView control on screen when possible. This command may prove useful if focus gets stuck in a control from which Tab and Shift+Tab are not able to escape.
• JAWS no longer says "column 65535" and "row 65535" during navigation through a grid.
• Fields in the Preferences screen are better named.

Revision 40, released October 29, 2021, tested against application version 2.1.41.13351

• The installer contains version and product information visible from the Details tab in Windows Explorer, to better identify its contents.
• A "directives" text file is included that provides information on how to install this set of scripts manually. See "Handling Directives Files" in the "Common Script Elements" document for further information.
• The messages for these scripts are now distributed in XML rather than jsm files so that translators can create translations with no need for script source recompilation. See the Script Translation Procedure document for details on how to translate these scripts, including how to update the XML message file.
• The multi-key command sequence code and documentation is removed because multi-key sequences are not used in these scripts.
• Keystroke names in this document are more consistent, and there are other minor documentation improvements.
• Some old code for JAWS 13 and older is removed, and there are minor updates to improve support for JAWS 2021.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some localized strings not to be spoken where expected.

Revision 32, February 11, 2020

• Numerous behind-the-scenes code updates to bring the code up to modern standards.
• Users guide reorganization, and better documentation of how to use and manage the Command key, by default the left bracket [.
• Source code to the scripts is no longer included. See my Script Distribution Policy document for details. As one side effect, this will cause installation to run much faster.

Revision 25, September 9, 2018, tested against application version 2.1.41.13351

Updated release with Alt+Left/Right commands for left-clicking and right-clicking grid column headers.

Revision 17, September 2, 2018

Second test release with updated grid navigation support.

Revision 16, September 1, 2018

First test release.