Using JAWS

Screen Reader with

PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne 8.10

Compiled and Tested by Wesley Majerus Revised 01/30/2007

This system has been extensively tested with JAWS for Windows version 6.0, 6.10, 6.20, and 7.0. For better menu handling results and overall greater accessibility, we recommend use of JAWS for Windows 6.2 and 7.0.

Minimal testing has been done with EnterpriseOne and Window-Eyes version 4.5 Service Pack 3. Window-Eyes is not recommended for working with EnterpriseOne. Though this combination of software does work in many areas, there are some issues and concerns which prevent a user from making effective use of EnterpriseOne using Window-Eyes. Please see the Using Window-Eyes with PeopleSoft OneWorld file for more details. Notes on use of Low-Interactivity Environment

For best results with screen access software, always use the Low-Interactivity environment. Select the JAS Low-Interactivity Environment when you log onto EnterpriseOne. The Low-Interactivity environment provides different levels of HTML accessibility and is better tailored for screen reader use. Changes to the EnterpriseOne System to make it accessible to screen readers are only available in the Low-Interactivity Environment.

Signs that Low-Interactivity was not selected at logon

If you are working in NIS and notice gibberish characters that look like computer code within your data, or if your tables don’t read as they used to, check to be sure you didn’t accidentally sign in under the “sign on to NIS” link. These problems result due to the differing ways that the normal versus the low-interactivity environments send data to your web browser. You will also know that low-interactivity was selected if you try to edit a field and then the page immediately refreshes as you tab out of the field.

JAWS current specifications

As of the above revision date, the recommended combination for using NIS with JAWS is JAWS 7 or 7.1 and Internet Explorer 6. If JAWS 7.1 is used,

the user will need to go into the configuration manager, set options menu, HTML options, choose the “misc” tab page, and make sure legacy HTML support is turned on.

NIS works poorly at this time without legacy support being on. Once you have checked the box to enable legacy support, you can tab to the ok button. Once back in the configuration manager, exit bby pressing alt+F4 or through the file menu. Answer “yes” to save changes to the configuration file. The Legacy Internet Explorer Support can be found on the Misc tab of HTML Options.

Shortcut Key List

Visual Assists are pop-ups that provide pick lists of valid entries for a field.

Open a Visual Assist from within an edit field F2 (note, the va.gif or “visual assist as form interconnect” message must be present for this keystroke to work)

Menu shortcut keys:

Tools Menu: CTRL+ALT+T

Form Menu: CTRL+ALT+F

Row Menu: CTRL+ALT+R.

Reports Menu: CTRL+ALT+P

The left CTRL and ALT keys must be used in all instances

General Shortcut keys – the following keys will work on most NIS query screens. You must use the left CTRL and ALT key, to the left of the spacebar, for these keys to work correctly.

CTRL+ALT+a – Click the add button.

CTRL+ALT+l – Click the cancel or close button.

CTRL+ALT+I – Click the find button.

CTRL+ALT+o Click the OK button.

CTRL+ALT+S – Click the Select button (where applicable) or click the “submit” button (where applicable).

JFW Table reading shortcut keys

Read left one cell: CTRL+ALT+Left Arrow

Read right one cell: CTRL+ALT+Right Arrow

Read up one cell: CTRL+ALT+Up Arrow

Read down one cell: CTRL+ALT+Down Arrow

Jump to the leftmost cell in a row CTRL+Alt+Shift+Left Arrow

Read down the column of separated tables (8.10 only) Windows+N

Read up a column of separated tables (8.10 only) Shift+Windows+N

Cycle through the available tables on a webpage: T.

Note that The control alt arrow, Windows+N, and Windows+Shift+N combinations will only work from within a table, and that they will move your virtual cursor in the indicated direction with each press. Pressing CTRL+Alt+Arrow commands at the left, right, top, or bottom edges of the table will have no effect. The Windows+N and Windows+Shift+N keystrokes will cycle through all the table rows in their direction of travel, and then rap back around to cycle through them again.

You can cycle through an HTML document by paragraph by repeatedly pressing the P key with the virtual cursor turned on. This may aid in navigating long pages or pages with a lot of text and fields.

Frame Navigation

List frames on a page – insert F9 (note that you can move to the start of this frame by pressing “enter” on its name.)

Move to next frame on page – M

Move to prior frame – Shift M

Hints

It has been discovered that doing a JAWS Find can expedite navigation through menus and sub menus on the PeopleSoft NIS main screen. Go to the top of the page, then press CTRL-F. Type in a string of characters that would appear in the menu choice you are searching for and press Enter. If the string is found, JAWS will put your virtual cursor at this location. Press INS-8 to ensure that the line you are on is where you want to press enter to click the menu choice.

Solutions Explorer

NIS and PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne employ an interface called “solutions explorer” on the main screen of EnterpriseOne. After you log in, you may use “F” or “select a form field dialog” to find the combo box filled with roles. Select the desired choice from the combo box and click “select a role”. This will cause the “State of Nebraska” menu to appear. Just click on its link and select menu choices. If your security only allows for you to access one role, the combo box will not appear. In its place, you will find plaintext stating the name of the role. Just navigate down to the “State of Nebraska, Collapsed” link to start working with the menus.

Notes on main menus in 8.10. A known issue exists wherein selecting a menu’s choice does not always bring up its subchoices in the JAWS virtual buffer. You may see the word”loading” if you arrow around to find out where new choices appear. If this occurs, refresh the JAWS virtual buffer with INS+Escape. This should cause menu choices to appear. Menu trees and subchoices are also now in the tab order with 8.10. Notice the “expanded” and “collapsed” labels on trees. Let this guide you as you make menu choices. Once an application has been opened, you can minimize the menu with “Alt+M” plus a refresh of the JAWS virtual buffer. Repeating this step again restores the menu. This is beneficial to hide the menu while dealing with an application screen.

Exit Menu Navigation

Exit menus are those consisting of “form”, “row”, “tools”, and “reports” that exist at the top of most NIS working screens. To use the hotkeys for these menus, presented at the top of this document, press the hotkey and then press either “CTRL+Up Arrow” Or “CTRL+Left Arrow”. The letter “s” can also be pressed for the same result. This will place you inside the cluster containing these menus. Arrow to the menu you want and press “space”. This opens the menu. Arrow to the choice you want and press “Enter”. To cancel a menu after opening it, press any non-arrow key and refresh the JAWS virtual buffer.

Hierarchical Menus

In certain areas of NIS, there are menus known as hierarchical menus, which are in some ways difficult for the blind user to manipulate. This is because clicking a hierarchical menu choice causes the new choices to appear at the bottom of the menu, not at the cursor location. This is known to occur in the “Manager’s Workbench”. This can be found by navigating to the Hr_PR #40 role, then choosing “Human Resources and Payroll – Agencies > Manager Self Service > Manager’s Workbench”. Once here, you can find the hierarchical menu choices in the “form” and “row” menus. You will know that you’ve entered a hierarchical menu if the following happens:

1. you click a menu choice and hear JAWS say “clickable, on mouse over”, but notice that after reading the current line, the choice under your cursor is the one you just clicked.

2. new menu options appear at the bottom of the menu after clicking a menu choice. Because these choices appear at the bottom of the menu, one could memorize the last choice in the menu, and use a JAWS find command to locate it for faster discovery of the new menu items.

The following are brief descriptions of hierarchical menus that might be helpful for getting acquainted with use of this type of menu.

1. “My Service Apps” from beneath the Form Menu. In the “Form” menu, you will notice that the last option before clicking anything else is “attachment”. When you click “my self service ap”, JAWS will say “clickable, on mouse over”. Arrow down and notice that after “attachment”, the first option is “name and address change”. This and all following options are those under the “My Self Service Ap” menu.

2. “Reports” menu under “Form”. As with the “My Self Service App” menu, clicking the “Reports” choice will cause JAWS to say “clickable, on mouse over”. Look for “Attachment” and note that the choices for the “Reports” menu will follow this option.

3. “Status Change Req” under “Row Menu”. The options for the “Status Change Req” menu will appear below the “attachment” option in the “Row” menu.

4. “Self Service Apps”, “Row” Menu. After clicking “Self Service Apps”, new options will appear below the “Attachment” option.

5. “Reports” under the “Row” menu. Options for the “Reports” menu appear under the “Attachments” choice.

Note that clicking any of these hierarchical menus a second time will toggle the menu closed and will make the respective menu look the same as it did before clicking a choice of a hierarchical menu.

Changing Your Password

I assume that you will be using the Low Interactivity Environment. Click “user options” link from any page. Tab until you hear “onclick 17” or “res/change password”. This link, when clicked, will bring up the change password dialog.

Time Entry:

Using the custom time entry, SS director, found under Employee Self-Service is fairly straightforward for both daily and summary time entry. However, once a time card has been saved, and is being proofread before submission, it becomes important to arrow through the time card rather than to tab. This is necessary because the variables containing time totals are populated into “disabled” edit fields that JFW does not see in its tab order. It is also possible to see these disabled fields from within the “select a form field” dialog, accessible by pressing Insert-F5.

If tabbing does not seem to make sense in a screen, try use of the arrow keys to see if you can decipher things more clearly.

Notes on Visual Assists: the first time you have to use a form, do a say all so that you can hear a bit about the form. Try to remember where you hear va.gif, which is the graphic signifying the visual assist. In a field with a Visual Assist, press “F2”. For best results, place your Virtual PC Cursor within the field you need assistance with, and then enter “forms moe” before pressing “F2”. The visual assist will open. If you are able to activate visual assist with “F2” the computer will make the navigation click sound and a new browser window will open. If the visual assist cannot be activated, “F2” will appear to do nothing and no sound will come from the computer.

Calculator Visual Assist:

NIS provides a Calculator Visual Assist in some fields. This will be signified by a “vaCalc.gif” icon, and on some forms, an added “Visual Assist as Calculator” prompt as you tab over the fields. To use the calculator, invoke the Visual Assist with F2 from within the field. Arrow to the bottom of the page. Press space on each of the buttons you wish to activate. When you’ve completed your calculation, press the VaOK.gif button. This removes the calculator and takes the amount from the display and inserts it into the form field. Though the calculator is usable, it is a bit cumbersome. A better alternative may be to use a stand-alone calculator and manually enter the amount into the field in question.

Calendar Visual Assist issues:

The calendar popup is inaccessible. Avoid entering the calendar by avoiding clicking VaCal.gif. Enter the date in mm/dd/yyyy format into any date fields.

Adding a Beneficiary

This dialog box comes up with two tabs. When you edit one tab, go to the other by clicking the link that says either personal information or name and address. If there are errors on this tab, there will be a graphic “x” that is above the link.

Tables

NIS makes extensive use of tables when doing search queries and when displaying some onscreen results. You can usually tell that you are in a table by the presence of a large collection of “clickable” links proceeding what appear to be headings. In some tables, JAWS can read the HTML markup and can assist you in reading the table efficiently. You will know if this is the case when JAWS says “table with x columns and y rows” where X and Y are the number of columns and rows respectively that exist in the current table. In these instances, arrow down past the descriptive message and use alt + control plus up, alt plus control plus down, alt plus control plus left, and alt plus control plus right arrows to move in the given direction, cell by cell. Note that when you reach the edge of a table when attempting to move in a given direction, the keystroke will have no affect and you will need to move in another direction.

NIS 8.10 Tables

NIS 8.10 has a new style of HTML table where each data record exists within its own row. To make it easier to utilize these tables, and to improve efficiency when utilizing search grids, a script has been developed. The script is packaged into a self-installing file. Obtain the file and follow the onscreen wizard to install the scripts into the appropriate JAWS directory and create a backup of the scripts files before they are changed. Scripts are usually packaged in c:\documents and settings\application data\freedom scientific\jaws\version\settings\enu. Note that version will be replaced with an actual version number. If ever you upgrade or repair JAWS, it is best to remove this script via add/remove programs and reinstall it under the new JAWS version after it is installed. As of this writing, you cannot install the script to work in multiple versions of JAWS simultaneously. Once the script is installed, move to a column in a search using table column left and table column right commands. Then, use Windows+N to move down that column and Windows+Shift+N to move up the column.

Item Help

At the top of most EnterpriseOne pages is a link entitled “Item help”. This, when clicked, traps all clicks on controls an pops open new browser windows which are supposed to provide helpful information on using the controls. As of this writing, these help texts have not been implemented, so what one gets are new browser windows that have no text. This can be confusing because if one is not careful, they have no indication that Item Help has been turned on. However, when Item Help is clicked for the first time, a message box pops up that says “Item help has now been enabled. Click any control to get help on that control. Click item help again to turn it off.” For this reason, it is very important that all message boxes, usually signified by a sound from your computer, be carefully read before clicking “OK”.

Employee Work Center

State of Nebraska, Human Resources and Payroll >

Agencies, Employee Maintenance >

Employee Work Center.

Notice that queue names can be ambiguous because of image labeling. More importantly, though after entering a queue and clicking on a request to Approve, Cancel, or Reject, go directly to the combo box at end of page, enter it, arrow down once to the personnel text option, press enter, then look for a personnel text link that will subsequently appear. Click this and you will be ready to work with the request. See also Media Object Viewer

Order issues

Editing of the order entry screens works satisfactorily. The order number will be in a field marked “Order Number, disabled, read-only, edit”. To Quickly find the order numbers, press “insert F5”, then in the first two screens press O until you hear “order number, disabled”, and then you will hear the order number spoken as text inside this field. After you have completed the task, after the final step of the entry, you will find the order number in a field entitled “previous order number.” This can also be found by pressing insert F5, then pressing P for previous order number.

When creating a receipt via a PO using

State of Nebraska >

Purchasing, Purchasing – Statewide >

Receiving >

Enter Receipts by PO,

note that after clicking “find”, you must find the checkbox to the left of the item you want to edit, check it, then click the ”next row” button to make the grid editable. On the quantity line, you can also find “clickable” and press “enter” or “space” on it to force page refresh and cause it to become editable.

New ESS Open Enrollment

In areas where you are selecting benefits, please use the JAWS table reading and navigation keys, control plus alt plus arrows, to facilitate easier reading. When you are ready to select a checkbox, control alt left arrow until you are in column 1, then just press space bar. Note: in areas where you are editing within a table, it might be necessary to down arrow one time after you arrive at the column to get JAWS inside the edit field.

Open Enrollment, Benefit selection screen

The Open Enrollment wizard in NIS is accessible with JAWS. However, note that on the first screen of benefit selection, be sure to use table reading commands to accurately match the checkboxes with their appropriate headings.

Two tasks in Open Enrollment using NIS 8.10 may seem awkward to the average JAWS user. Despite this awkwardness, there are some consistent work-arounds that will allow the tasks to be completed in a straightforward manner.

When completing the New hire and Open Enrollment process, you will be asked to add new beneficiaries and then to delegate certain portions of benefits to them. In NIS, there is an issue where only one of these beneficiaries is “active” at any one time, meaning that this active beneficiary’s primary and secondary percentage fields are able to be edited. The rest of the beneficiaries’ fields are not editable, they are marked by the words “clickable” when using JAWS. It is essential that, for best comprehension of the layout of these beneficiary screens, one uses their table reading commands.

After adding beneficiaries, one will be presented with a list of the added beneficiaries. In this list, the bottom-most beneficiary will be active. If there is only one beneficiary, it will be active by default. To work with multiple beneficiaries, the first thing that should be done is to temporarily disable JAWS’s “forms mode auto-off”. This is done through the verbosity settings “Insert+V”. This setting will change if the browser window is closed, or if one alt-tabs away from internet Explorer. After disabling “Forms Mode Auto-off” for the time being, use table reading commands to navigate to the bottom-most beneficiary. Once this has been determined, move either to the primary percent or secondary percent fields and enter forms mode. Make any desired changes and then use “up arrow” to move to the next beneficiary. To determine the next beneficiary on which you have arrived press “CTRL+Shift+Alt+Left Arrow”. This takes you to the leftmost column of the table, which contains the beneficiary’s name. The next column to the right contains the beneficiary’s relationship, and the next two columns to the right contain the primary and secondary percentage fields. Once all beneficiaries you wish to edit have been dealt with, leave forms mode by pressing numeric keypad plus key. You can re-enable forms mode auto-off through the verbosity settings dialog, or, after logging out of NIS, by closing the browser window. You can also alt-tab away from the browser, and then re-enter it to reset the default setting for this option.

Open Enrollment and new Hire also contain options for “flex spending accounts”. For each of these accounts, you have the option to wave the use of the particular account, or to accept it and add a dollar amount to be deducted from your paycheck for the particular pay period. In JAWS, the “Enter Amount or Rate” columns for these accounts is not editable by default. One must use table commands to find the word “clickable”. Press space on this to make it editable, and then enter forms mode to do the actual editing.

Pay Stub Review

The Pay Stub review program found under Employee Self Service is fairly straight forward. The first screen gives you the option to enter a date. This date is the date of the pay period you want to view. Searching on a date will show you all printed pay stubs between the current date and the date you entered. The search results will come up in a table, listing the date of the check, along with other descriptive information. Use JAWS table reading commands to navigate across the rows and down the columns of these search results. To view the payments an other details about the pay stub, use JAWS table reading commands to move to the radio button at the leftt of the row and check it. Now, click “select” by pressing CTRL+Alt+s. This brings up another table, containing information about the check. Disregard the radio buttons at the left of these rows as they do not do anything. You can print or view this pay stub in Excel by utilizing options in the form menu. See instructions for printing and viewing CSV files later in this document.

Leave Balance Inquiry

The Leave Balance inquiry option can be found under the ESS menu. It is fairly straight forward. A table appears containing information about vacation, sick, holiday, and other types of accruals. Use JFW table reading commands to read this information. Disregard the radio buttons at the beginning of these rows as they do not change anything for blind users.

Attachments and the Media ObjectViewer

The Media Object Viewer is in some ways cumbersome to use with JAWS for Windows. However, by following these instructions, one can make use of it to add attachments to their documents.

In most instances, you will know that you are about to add an attachment to your document because of the combo box followed by the link labeled “click to work with the detailed media object.” Usually the only option in the above combo box is “text”. Having this selected and then clicking the “detailed media object” link opens a new browser window entitled “Media Object Viewer”.

It is important, as you attempt to work with this window, that you attempt not to tab around the window. If for some reason you inadvertently do so, immediately enter the links list with Insert F7 and find the “back” link and then press enter. Follow the above steps to enter the window again.

To add an attachment to your document, once the media object viewer window is open, arrow down until you hear the words “clickable, text.” At this point, press enter. Now, arrow to the edit field that says edit, text”. This edit field should only be a few lines from your current location. Enter forms mode on this edit field. Delete the text that is currently within the field and then enter a meaningful title. Note that at this point, the Media Object Viewer works in an unconventional way, as far as JAWS is concerned. While still in forms mode, press tab. You will hear “edit”. Type the body of the document.

While you are still in the body, due to the idiosyncrasies of the Media Object Viewer, you will not be able to exit forms mode by pressing the PC Cursor key, numpad plus. However, other options can be invoked at this time. To go back to the page that you were on before entering an attachment, enter links list with insert F7 and press b for back, then press enter. To add another attachment, enter links list with insert F7 and then press t for text and press enter. Follow the above steps to edit this attachment. To explore the Media Object viewer’s page with your arrow keys, assuming you are in the body of an attachment, shift tab back to the title. From the title, you can now exit Forms Mode by pressing “numpad plus” as normal. All navigation keys will then work as normal.

Within the journal, JD Edwards Menus > Human Resources and Payroll > Employee Self Service > Daily Diary, then click Add, stay in forms mode the entire time of editing so that you can find the edit field or the actual entry at the bottom of the page. See also media object viewer above.

Enhancing the use of NIS with Place markers and custom field labels.

With the release of JAWS version 6.0, new features have been added that can be beneficial in expediting the use of NIS and other websites with JAWS.

The first of these features is the place markers feature, released in JAWS 6.0 and expanded in JAWS 6.10. If you have either of these versions of JAWS, you can read about the feature in the JAWS help system through Help, then JAWS help topics, then open the book “Using the Internet with JAWS”, then browse for the book “Navigating webpages”, then choose the topic “Place markers”. Be sure to press F6 to move into the topic’s text window. A training module has also been produced including actual examples. This is in the DAISY format, and can be read with the FSReader Demo program that installs with JAWS versions 6.0 and later. This DAISY file can be accessed at http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/training_audio_demos.asp. Look for the file for place markers and custom web summary. Unzip the contents of this file to the C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\JAWS\Version\TRAINING\enu directory. Note that the word version in the above directory path should be replaced with the exact version of JAWS that you are currently using. Once unzipped, this file can be accessed through the JAWS help menu by going to Help, then training or by opening it in FSReader.

Let’s illustrate the creation of a place marker for quick reference. Open a page that you wish to have a place marker for. Then, using the virtual cursor, navigate to the area of interest and press control+shift+K. This opens a list of place markers if any are present. To create a marker, press the “add” button. Type a meaningful name for the marker and press OK. Do this for all the important areas of the page. Once place markers are created, you can move through them quickly by pressing the letter “k” to move forward and “shift+k” to move backward. Also, control+shift+numbers will read place marker contents. Pressing control+shift+number twice quicly moves to that place marker.

There are some things to be aware of when using place markers. First, place markers are based solely on the line number of the content on the page. If the author redesigns the page, the place marker won’t point to your place of interest. also, place markers can be used for an entire group of websites on the same domain, like www.ne.gov, or they can point to a specific site, nis.ne.gov. Just be sure that your preference, domain orURL, is noted by the radio buttons in the place marker dialog. When using place markers with NIS, note that because of the way that JAWS retrieves place markers, there will sometimes be place markers that you have set up on other pages, but that come up even if the marker mode is set to URL. This is because NIS has extremely long web addresses and it is thought that JAWS may not be examining the entire web address. Therefore, do not use the “k” key to jump through place markers as you will get some confusing results. It is better to use control+shift+k, then move to the markers that are relevant to the page you are on. This makes it necessary to use descriptive names for each place marker you create.

Another useful feature is the custom label creator. This Is used to add a label to a web field that is not reading correctly with JAWS. To use it, go to the page of interest and sit on the field to be labeled. Press control+insert+tab. Type the new label for the field. There are also options for creating, deleting, or clearing all custom labels under the Run JAWS manager (insert+f2) menu. Note that some fields, due to the nature of the way they were created, cannot be labeled in this manner. JAWS is intelligent enough to detect these fields and will let you know by saying “a custom label cannot be created for this field.” If you create a label for a field, and then notice erroneous results or for some reason change your mind, just press “CTRL+Ins+Tab” a second time on the field and then either edit or delete the text. Deleting the text clears the label from the field. A DAISY book exists to explain this feature in detail. Go to http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/training_audio_demos.asp and look for the book entitled “custom labels for web pages and word forms”. Unzip the file to the C:\Program Files\Freedom Scientific\JAWS\Version\TRAINING\enu directory. Note that the word version in the path should be substituted with your current JAWS version. This book can then be accessed under the help, training option, or via FSReader’s open dialog.

Microsoft Excel shortcuts

Select entire column: Control-Space (this may be a JAWS-only keystroke)

Select entire row: Shift-Space (this may be a JAWS only keystroke)

Go to specific cell: Control-G, type in the cell location to move to.

Widen a column: select the column, then press Alt-O for format menu. Next, choose column width and adjust the number accordingly. Note: this might be helpful if a column is not wide enough to display an entire number. This will be denoted by a cell containing “###” to signify that it needs more space to display a number.

Define selected columns as containing row titles - select columns to be defined, then press Alt-Control-Shift-R.

Read the header of current row: Alt-shift-R

Define a row as that containing column headers – select the row or rows that contain headers, then press Alt-Control-Shift-C

Read the title of a current column – Alt-Shift-C

Reports

Generating and viewing reports is an involved process. Before generating your first report, it might be a good idea to create a folder on your machine’s hard disk to store the files that NIS generates. Also, in Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the edit menu and choose “preferences”, can also be done by pressing Control K from within Acrobat’s main window. Under “web preferences”, turn off the option entitled “display PDF files in browser”, if you are using Adobe Reader V6 or earlier. If using Adobe Reader 7, go to preferences and enable “show pdf’s in browser”. After completing these tasks, follow the below steps to generate and view a report in NIS.

1. Choose data selection and select data as normal.

2. After selecting data and arriving on the printer selection screen, click “document setup”

3. In addition to the default checked print types, choose CSV, comma separated values.

4. Click OK

5. Select the “View Job Status” link and click find.

6. Choose your working server, and click select

7. Click “find” to refresh your job listings.

8. When your jobs have finished processing, check the box next to the job you want to view and then select the “Row” Menu and view the specific file type you would like.

9. If you chose “view PDF” You will be immediately placed in Adobe’s main window. If this is the case, go immediately to step 15.

10. If you chose “View OSA” or “View CSV” You will be placed into the “file download” dialog. Choose “save this file to disk”.

11. When the “Save As” dialog appears, tab over to “save file as type”. Arrow down to all files. Now, shift tab back to the file name edit box. Press the “End” Key. Backspace over the file name. Type in a meaningful file name, perhaps including the type and number of the document you’re printing, followed by a period. Be sure that you either type in the path where you want the file to go preceding the file name in the edit box or use the “Save in” combo boxes to choose where you want the file to be saved.

12. Now, depending on which file you chose to view earlier, enter the new three letter file extention. If you chose to view CSV, then the letters csv should appear after the period at the end of the file name. If you chose to view OSA, then place the letters “PDF” after the period.

13. Click OK to start downloading the file.

14. When Windows says that download is complete, you can open the file. This should launch either Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Excel.

15. Note that currently you will not be able to read the contents of the Adobe Reader window, but just press “control P” to print the file. The printer dialog will open and will be similar to that for other Windows applications.

16. If you are using MS Excel to read the accessible version of this report, a wizard should open when you attempt to open the CSV file you just created. In this wizard, make sure that the ”delimited” button is checked on the first page. Note that in 8.10, you do not need to complete this wizard as the file is delivered in an organized form. If you hear “fixed width”, down arrow once, then tab to the “next” button and click it. Next, uncheck the box for “Tab” then tab to the combo box and check it. Click “Next” then "Finish”. Now the spreadsheet should be organized.

17. If for some reason the wizard does not automatically start when you open the CSV, attempt to enter it manually by doing the following:

18. Press CTRL+Home. Then select all of the cells in column A that contain values. If you are using JAWS for Windows, sitting inside column A and pressing control + space will instantly select the entire column. Go to the data menu by pressing alt+d, then choose “text to columns”.

19. This places you in a wizard. Ensure that the first set of radio buttons has “delimited” checked. If you hear some other option, most likely “fixed width” arrow until you hear delimited. Click “next” then ensure that the checkbox labeled “comma” is checked. Uncheck all other checkboxes in this screen and click “next”. Click “finish”. Now you are within the spreadsheet which has been reorganized according to the layout of the data in the report.

There is an alternative for saving the file. This alternative should replace steps 11-13 from above. All of the rest of the directions should be followed substituting Steps 11-13 with those that follow. Note: there is no right or wrong way to save these files, both alternatives are presented here to suit personal preference

11. in the folder where you wish to save NIS reports, create two blank files. One called ~.csv, the other ~.pdf. Note that the “tilde” key is the shift of the grave accent found to the left of number 1 on most keyboards.

12. Begin the download by pressing the “row” button and then selecting “view CSV”, or “view OSA”.

13. When the “save as” box appears, move to the file types list view and press down arrow until “all files” is spoken. Next, move to the file list view and move to the “~.csv” or “~.pdf” file. Tab to the “file name” box, erase the “~” character and then replace it with a meaningful filename, most likely including an order number or other identifying characteristic of the report.

Note: A known issue can occur if you are running Windows XP service Pack 2, in which you cannot download the CSV file as directed. To fix the issue, go to “Tools”, “Internet Options” from within Internet Explorer. Next, choose the “Security” tab. Next, find and click “custom Level”. Arrow through the list to the grouping for downloads. On “Automatically prompt for file downloads”, choose enable, and activate it with the space bar. Close out the Internet Options applet. Next time you attempt to download a CSV from within NIS, you will be prompted to save the file. Note that unlike other “file download” dialog boxes, there is no “run from current location” button. You must save the file. Follow the steps above to save the file.

A few notes on Purchase Order Spreadsheets

Main order headers are in either row 17 or 18

Ship from is in C7

Ship to is in G7

This section will continue to be updated as more spreadsheets are encountered and if future updates vary where things are placed. Also, a JAWS command that may be helpful is found within the verbosity menu (Insert-V). First, place your cursor in the Excel row where the column headers reside. Press Ins-V, then arrow down to “set column title row”. Press space. The same effect can be achieved by selecting the rows, then pressing Control-Alt-shift-C. The row number where you placed your cursor should be spoken. Notice that as you read across the rows, you will hear JAWS, perhaps in a different voice depending on your speech settings, announce each column’s title before it reads you the contents of the cell you landed on. Note: if your headings span multiple rows, you may select all rows containing headings, then complete the above steps from within the verbosity menu.

Strategies for reading Spreadsheet-based reports with JAWS for Windows

If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, spreadsheets, or reports in general, you probably feel that reading spreadsheet-based reports that NIS generates can be overwhelming. In the following paragraphs, strategies for configuring spreadsheet reading with JAWS will be outlined. You will also findout when to use each of the strategies. Specific reports are not covered; only theories that will handle a wide variety of reports are discussed.

To begin, follow the steps above that outline generating NIS reports and converting them into spreadsheets in Excel. Next, start from the top of the report and read across all rows of the spreadsheet with right arrow, and then down arrow and home to move to the next row’s beginning. In many cases in NIS, the first few rows of the report contain title information, date/time of production, the name of the report generator and application, etc. This data is usually confined to the first ten or fifteen columns of the spreadsheet.

As you arrow down past this preliminary data, you should notice what appear to be headings or portions of headings. You might hear something like “address number”, or, in the case of a partial heading, “adjusted”. If what you hear in a certain cell of a row doesn’t make sence, look at what you hear in the immediate vicinity in a prior or subsequent row and see if this makes sense when looked at together. Keep note of which rows contain headings or partial headings. You will need these row numbers a bit later. As you arrow down and scan across each row, listen for information that sounds like it might be part of the data this report is conveying, for example, a monetary cost, an employee’s name, etc. Remember the number of the row where you first encounter meaningful data as this will be the final row that will need to be configured by JAWS when heading reading is set.

Now that you know the row or rows where heading data exists, do the following. Sit in the first row where you believe that heading data is located. Because of the way Excel operates, this row is already highlighted on the screen. If you have headings that span multiple rows, Press Shift Down Arrow until you hear the number of the row that contains the last portions of heading data. After doing this, press control, alt, shift, c to tell JAWS that the rows you’ve just selected contain column headers. You should hear something like “setting row column headers to a-b”, where a is the first row number you selected and b is the second. If only one row was selected, you’ll hear “setting column titles row to x”, where x is a row number. If you hear different row numbers than you were expecting, just re-select the rows and use control, alt, shift, c again to reset the heading information. Now, as you scan across the data rows with right arro, JAWS will anounce the heading and the cell contents. At times, because of the way reports are generated, headings and data can be misaligned. You may need assistance in finding out how data and headings correlate in this instance. This information will help you in the future as each report generates consistently each time it is run. In some cases, especially in pay stubs or leave balances, there is data in the first rows about an employee, and then more lines of data that repeat to give information about an employee further to the right. Check to see whether this is the case if you see headings with blank columns beneath them.

There is another type of formatting that can occur in reports. In this format, headings are presented at the beginning of a row of data. There are also row headers to describe the columns. This occurs most of the time when you have a column of headings that describe a deduction for paychec, or give information about an employee or entity. Then to the right of these titles or names is information that describes them, with column headings above to categorize it. In these instances, you will want to select both columns and rows. Follow the steps for finding, selecting, and configuring row headings above. Then, find the column that includes the data that you will want read each time you move to a new row. If the data spans multiple columns, sit in the first column of data and press shift right arrow to select subsequent columns. If the data is only in one column, just press control, alt, shift r to select it.