New Features in JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion

The information below has been taken directly from Freedom Scientific. Check out my comments below in the JAWS Wrap up, after the new features are listed. ZoomText and Fusion updates are listed after JAWS. You can use heading navigation to jump to them quickly.

The following is a list of improvements made between the March 2020 release and the April 2020 update. To download the latest release, visit the Downloads web page. You must be logged on as an administrator to install this software.

Announce Group Changes in Outlook 365 Message Lists

JAWS can now indicate group changes, such as dates or conversations, as you navigate through message lists. For example, if your Outlook view settings are set to show messages by date and you are navigating a folder containing messages covering multiple days, when you move to the first message in the new date group, you will hear announcements such as “today,” “yesterday,” “last week,” or “two weeks ago.” To turn on this feature, open Quick Settings (INSERT+V) while in Outlook and select the Announce Group Change in Lists check box.

New Focus Braille Display Commands for Adjusting Speech Rate

You can now use the following controls on the Focus braille display to adjust the speech rate.

• Temporarily increase speech rate: LEFT or RIGHT SHIFT+RIGHT SELECT CHORD
• Temporarily decrease speech rate: LEFT or RIGHT SHIFT+LEFT SELECT CHORD
• Permanently increase speech rate: RIGHT SELECT CHORD
• Permanently decrease speech rate: LEFT SELECT CHORD

New Dialog Box for Troubleshooting Remote Access

JAWS and Fusion now includes a new Remote Desktop dialog box to help troubleshoot remote access connection issues. It can be accessed from the Options menu in JAWS or the Support submenu in the Fusion main menu. From this dialog box, you can:

• See whether your Freedom Scientific software is authorized for remote access.
• Check the status for each supported remote channel (Remote Desktop, Citrix, or VMWare Horizon).
• Repair any channel that is reported to not be working.
• Test the connection between the client and server/remote computers.

Other Changes

• If Mouse Echo is enabled and you move over text with the mouse, JAWS or Fusion now only reads the current line as expected instead of reading everything on the screen.
• Book nine of the JAWS Basic Training, Surf’s Up, Surfing the Internet with JAWS, an Introduction, has been updated to include links to go directly to the Surf’s Up web pages. To get the latest book, select Training from the JAWS Help menu to open the Training Table of Contents in FSReader, select the link to open book nine, and then press ENTER when prompted to install the updated book.
• Added a new Quick Settings (INSERT+V) option called List Nesting Level Announcement which is off by default and available in Chrome and Edge Chromium. Use this option to enable the announcement of nesting levels for list items in edit fields on web pages like Google Docs.
• Resolved an issue where JAWS would sometimes exit Forms Mode when pressing ENTER in some multiline edit fields.
• In response to customer feedback, disabled the announcement of inserted and deleted text on web pages.
• In Microsoft Teams, when you press CTRL+PERIOD to display Teams hot keys, the Virtual Cursor is now active so you can review the keystrokes as if you were on a web page.
• Addressed a reported issue in the retail version of Excel 2016 where JAWS would become sluggish after using Paste Special.
• Added updated braille drivers from Humanware containing performance improvements when using their line of displays with JAWS and Fusion.

All Wrapped Up

That’s it for JAWS this time around.

What I like in this release is the group settings in outlook. This could allow you to rapidly move between groups of emails if you have the appropriate settings enabled in outlook. I also really like the list nesting level setting. This will cut out a lot of chatter when navigating among lists on webpages.

If your version of JAWS hasn’t offered the update to you yet, go to the JAWS help menu, then arrow to Check for updates.

New Features in ZoomText and Fusion

The information below has been taken directly from Freedom Scientific. Check out my comments below in the Wrap up, after the new features are listed.

The following changes are in the latest ZoomText 2020 and Fusion 2020 April releases. To download, select ZoomText 2020 or Fusion 2020. You must be logged on as an administrator to install this software.

• Resolved issues reported by the IRS related to an internal application running with ZoomText on Windows 10.
• Fixed font smoothing corruption that could happen when scrolling through Office 365 apps.
• Resolved an issue where dialog boxes were not being read correctly in Word 2016. (ZoomText only)
• Resolved an issue where the AppView and TextView features were not working in Word 2010. (ZoomText only)
• Resolved an issue where AppReader and Finder were not working with some apps on Windows 7 computers. (ZoomText only)
• Resolved an issue where Focus Enhancements, Cursor Enhancements, and mouse echo were not working with some apps on Windows 7 computers.
• Resolved an issue with ZoomText where mouse echo would return to and start reading from the top of a Word document while you are navigating by line through the document.
• Resolved an issue where ZoomText or Fusion would unexpectedly close. The problem appeared after installing recent Windows 10 updates.
• Resolved an issue where ZoomText would close after switching among apps (using ALT+TAB) and then changing magnification levels.
• Improved stability when running ZoomText with PowerPoint Office 365.
• Improved stability when running ZoomText with KDiff3 software.
• Addressed minor formatting issues in localized versions of the ZoomText 2020 user interface.

All Wrapped Up

That’s it for ZoomText and Fusion this time around.

What I like in this release is the fix for the mouse echo in Word, and the dialog box fix for Word 2016.

If your ZoomText/Fusion hasn’t offered the update to you yet, go to the ZoomText/Fusion menu, navigate to Manage Licenses, then Check for Updates.

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