Working with Email, for Leasey Basic and Advanced Users.

Microsoft Outlook Classic.

There are a number of useful utilities for those who are using both Leasey packages.

If you are inside an Email message, and you wish to copy the sender's Email address to the Windows Clipboard, press the Leasey Key then Control+Shift+E. The Email address will be spoken back to you for confirmation and it is now copied to the Clipboard ready for pasting elsewhere.

Another component of Microsoft Outlook email relates to sending a message from an alternative account. Use this method in order to verify which account you are sending from:

  1. Press ALT+M from within the body of the Email message in order to set focus to the list of accounts.
  2. Press Down Arrow to select the account in question.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Focus back on the body of the Email message.
  5. Press the Leasey Key then Control+Shift+A. You should hear the account details spoken to you.

Leasey has the ability to place all attachments into a vertical list for easy navigation and opening. This is especially helpful for two reasons. First, many people find it easier to work with vertical lists, so that the Up and Down Arrow keys can be used. However in addition, if people insert an attachment into the body of an Email message, this is often rendered as a graphic rather than appearing in the default Microsoft Outlook Attachments area. The Leasey Attachments List keystroke provides access to all attachments regardless of their type.

To view all attachments in a message, from within the message body press ALT+Windows+A. The list of attachments appears.

Use the Up or Down Arrow keys to move to the attachment you wish to open, then press Enter.

If you wish to copy an attachment to an alternative location, follow these steps:

  1. Locate the attachment from the aforementioned list but do not press Enter in order to open it.
  2. Press Shift+Tab to reach the "Copy" Button and press Enter or the Space Bar.
  3. Using File Explorer, browse to the folder in which you wish to place the attached file.
  4. Press Control+V to paste the attached file into the chosen location.

If you receive an Email containing an MP3 audio file as an attachment, be sure the message is open and press ALT+Windows+U. The file will play out using your default audio player.

When focused in an Email folder, it is easy to flag items for later review. This means you can create a copy of them to add to your "To-Do List", meaning that you can always get back to them to follow up later.

  1. Find a message you wish to flag.
  2. Press Control+Windows+F.
  3. The email is added to your "To-Do List".
  4. Repeat this process until all messages for follow-up have been flagged.
  5. When appropriate, press Control+4 to move to the "To-Do List".
  6. When inside this list, you can manage your email messages in whichever way you choose: Open them, reply to them, etc.
  7. To unflag a message, press Control+Windows+F once again. Note that whenever you press this keystroke, JAWS reports whether the message is flagged for review or not.
  8. To return to your mail folder at any time from your "To-Do List", press Control+1.

You can use the keystroke Control+Shift+Enter to set focus to the Results List when Outlook Search is used. Here is an example of how you might work with this process.

  1. From within a mail folder, press Control+E.
  2. Type a word or phrase you wish to find in the folder. After a short pause, the results view changes to display only messages matching your search criteria.
  3. Press Control+Shift+Enter. Leasey will set focus to the list of results. This saves a good deal of navigating around with either F6 or the Tab key. You can now go ahead and explore the results by using the Up or Down Arrow keys.

Automatic Speaking of the Outlook Reading Pane.

Through Leasey, JAWS has the ability to automatically speak the content of the Outlook reading pane as you move through messages in a mail folder. This means that if the reading pane is enabled, as you move to a new message JAWS will speak the usual details such as the presence of attachments, author and subject, followed by the content of the reading pane. In most cases, the reading pane displays the entire content of a message. This can be very helpful because you can read your Email messages without opening them. Listening to this information can help in making a decision as to whether you wish to open the message, move it elsewhere or delete it.

Setting It Up.

There are a number of steps in terms of customising whether the reading pane is displayed and whether it is announced by JAWS.

First, focus within the Outlook application and enable the automatic reading of the reading pane by pressing the Leasey key then Control+Shift+R. This is a toggle action and will enable and disable the feature. The setting is remembered even if you restart JAWS. In terms of the next two tasks, the procedures for working through these may vary between different versions of Microsoft Office. The reading pane is enabled by default, so it may be there is very little to do following enabling JAWS to read it automatically which we have already done. If you move through a mail folder and JAWS is speaking the contents of the reading pane, you can leave things as they are. If the reading pane is not enabled:

  1. Activate the "View" component of the ribbon with ALT+V.
  2. Press the Tab key repeatedly until you move into the "Layout" group. Eventually JAWS will announce "Reading Pane". Press Enter. Alternatively, press ALT+V then P then N.
  3. Press Down Arrow until JAWS announces "Bottom" or "Right". These terms indicate the position of the reading pane on the screen; either at the bottom or on the righthand side.
  4. Press Enter on any one of these two options. If JAWS is announcing that one of these is checked, such as "Bottom Checked", then it is already being displayed and you can press Escape to close the menu.

To aid productivity, there is a further adjustment you may like to make.

You will probably want to remove the columns in the mail folder view which display the date and size of the message. Not hearing this information will mean that your message details can be spoken without unwanted text, followed by the reading pane content.

  1. Activate the "View" component of the ribbon with ALT+V.
  2. Press the Tab key repeatedly until you move into the "Arrangement" group. Eventually JAWS will announce "Add Columns". Despite its name, this is where you want to be. Press Enter. Alternatively, press ALT+V then A then C. Think Vacation!
  3. This is a dialog box allowing you to modify which columns are displayed. Press the Tab key until JAWS announces "Show columns, show columns in this order". This is a list box. It is the control which immediately preceeds the "OK" button in the Tab order.
  4. Press Down Arrow until JAWS announces "Received" and then press ALT+R to remove it.
  5. Press Down Arrow until JAWS announces "Size" and then press ALT+R to remove it.
  6. Press Tab until you reach "OK" and press the Space Bar.

Mozilla Thunderbird.

A small number of enhancements have been provided for use within Mozilla Thunderbird. Microsoft Outlook Classic is still the recommended option for efficient Email management.

The following keys can be press from within an Email message.

Automatic Message Reading.

JAWS provides an option within Quick Settings so as to read Email messages automatically when they are opened by pressing Enter. Leasey will eliminate unimportant speech and skip the first line, which is always a repetition of the subject.

To enable automatic reading:

  1. With Thunderbird open, press JAWS Key+V.
  2. Into the Search Edit Field, type the phrase, "Auto Read".
  3. Arrow down and you will find the only result returned: Auto Read Message.
  4. If it is not checked, press Space Bar to check it.
  5. Press Enter twice to save.

Moving to Core Thunderbird Components.

Pressing Control+Comma will set focus to Thunderbird Preferences.

ALT+Windows+L will move to the next available list, such as a list of messages in a mail folder.

ALT+Windows+T will move to the next Tree View, such as a list of folders.

Setting the Default Inbox.

Thunderbird does not provide a mechanism to launch the Inbox for a specific mail account when the program starts. To achieve this, please work through the following process:

  1. Be sure that the focus is located on the Inbox name. You will find this in the list of folders, such as Inbox, Sent Items, etc.
  2. When focus is on the Inbox, press ALT+Windows+D.
  3. After a short pause, a shortcut should be placed on the Windows Desktop. The Shortcut is called, Leasey Thunderbird. You can always rename it if you like by pressing function key F2, however the shortcut itself must remain intact.

Spell Checking.

When spell checking an Email message, you can press ALT+Windows+I. This will speak and spell the incorrectly spelled word. Back to Help Index.