Today I have a guest who will be writing an article for you about a feature in Jaws called text Analyzer.

Before we dive into Brad Dunsé’s article, I’d like to showcase just a bit about Brad who prides himself as, “The Only Direct Response Copywriter in the Disability Industry… AWAI Verified”. Here’s what he can do to help your website or business should you find yourself in need of his services. Below is a short list.

• 35-point diagnostic site review
• SEO direct response copywriting
• E-mail campaigns
• Sales letters
• Case studies
• Social media
• Newsletters and content
• Special reports
• Web copy, home pages, about pages, landing pages…

Here’s a bit mor about Brad and what you can expect from him.

• Peace of mind you’re working with a highly trained copywriter. Verified through American Writers and Artists, a globally recognized leader in copywriting.
• Lifetime of business expertise at your disposal. Decades of family- and self-employment experience at work for you.
• Conversational messaging in your voice. I’ll write in your voice. Casual, edgy, business… I’m extremely versatile, but always conversational.
• No need to worry about deadlines. I’m deadline driven and ruthlessly protect them. Since I get them from you, you’re covered.
• Keeping you updated. I’m a fan of communication. You’ll be updated as frequently as you need throughout the project.
• Easy team player. I’m extremely easy to work with. I’m secure in who I am as a writer… no over-sensitivity to deal with. No ego to worry about. Your project’s success is my foremost goal.

You deserve my best, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can find out more about Brad at the end of his article. And now… On to Brad’s article!

By Brad Dunsé

As a direct response web copywriter, I write a lot of copy. With that comes plenty of opportunity to make typing mistakes.

Thankfully, I have an arsenal of tools at the ready to help catch them, or to gain general formatting information while writing.

Tools ranging from Jaws itself set to give real-time font attribute feedback, spell checkers for grammar and spelling errors, Flesch-Kincaid scores for better readability, and so on.

Plus, any writer does well to use the services of a copy proofer before submitting work.

There’s one tool I make a point to use on my copy, even before my copy proofer gets it.

It’s called, Text Analyzer.

A handy proofing tool built right into the Jaws screen reader.

Text Analyzer catches a range of items.

You can set the inconsistencies Text Analyzer finds. Things like…

• Mismatched symbols such as parenthesis, braces, brackets, angle brackets, and quotes.
• Mismatched, inverted, and non-inverted question marks as well as inverted and non-inverted exclamation marks in Spanish text.
• Inconsistencies with stray punctuation, extra spaces, missing capital letters, or inverted lowercase and uppercase text.
• Incorrect font changes in the current text including name, size, attributes, and colors.

Above bullet points courtesy of Jaws documentation.

A note when using Text Analyzer with quotes.

If you have more than one paragraph within a longer quoted statement, there are grammar rules to accommodate this.

You open the first block of text with a quotation mark, but do not close it.

Then open the next paragraph statement with an opening quotation mark and do not close it.

Do this as long as needed.

Finally, close the entire statement on the last paragraph with a closing quotation mark.

Here’s an example:

“I never let one piece of copy escape my laptop without checking it with Text Analyzer.

“It found things even my proof reader missed, so I use it before sending to my proof reader.

”It’s one of my most valued assets in my arsenal of writing tools.”

–Brad Dunsé, Wed Copywriter for the Disability Industry

In the above example, Text Analyzer flags all but the last paragraph as “unclosed quotes.”

These are false positives. There is nothing wrong with how this is written.

Text Analyzer simply isn’t able to apply this grammar rule here without letting actual unclosed quotes sneak by.

Also, since I used the word “it’s” within a quote it sees as a violation, it also sees the apostrophe as a quote.  It then flags the closing quotation mark as unopened.

So, use care when it comes to quotation marks with Text Analyzer.

There are a couple different ways you can use Text Analyzer.

You can set it to continually monitor your copy as you arrow through your document or continuously read.

Or, you can use it as a standalone operation by pressing a shortcut key combination. Each time you press the key it will go to the next inconsistency it finds.

Personally, I prefer the shortcut key method. I use it as one of my final editing checks.

Plus, I have control of when I want feedback, without interrupting my writing flow.

Today, I’ll show you both ways. You can choose which method serves you best.

Continually monitor your document with Text Analyzer.

You can set Text Analyzer to monitor your copy continually in two different ways. In either method, anytime the cursor encounters a line of text with a problem, it will point it out.

Monitoring just one document session.

One way to monitor your document by scrolling through, or continuously reading, is using a temporary setting.

Do this using the shortcut key INSERT+SPACEBAR+A.

Text Analyzer continues to monitor your document as long as focus remains on that document.

If you press ALT+TAB repeatedly to toggle through applications or otherwise change the focus of Jaws, Text Analyzer stops monitoring.

It will stop even if you switch from one document to another within the same application, such as two documents within Microsoft Word.

This is not a bug. It does this by design.

In this mode, by default, Jaws will describe and say the location of all inconsistencies. Simply use the arrow keys to scroll through your document, or continuously read it and you’ll hear the information before the line with inconsistencies is spoken.

The other way to turn on continual monitoring is more permanent.

Go to Settings Center, find Text Analyzer, and turn it on or off.

If you turn it on and save your settings, it will provide continuous feedback.

Any application which Text Analyzer is supported will give continual feedback as you cursor through or continuously read the document.

Unlike the temporary setting, we have some choices how we get feedback.

You can choose from three feedback options.

• Indicate with sound. Each time it encounters a problem it will play a sound before reading the line.
• Speak count. This will give you the number of inconsistencies in that line before beginning to read it.
• Describe inconsistencies. This is the most helpful and descriptive of the settings. It will tell you what the problem is and where it is in the line. After describing them, it will continue reading the line.

Once you set this option, there is little you ever need to do unless you want to change how you get feedback.

This is a great way to ensure you won’t let a document go out the door without being checked by Text Analyzer.

Using Text Analyzer with the shortcut method.

As I mentioned, Text Analyzer can be used with a built-in Jaws shortcut key WINDOWS key+ALT+I.

Each time you press this key combination, Jaws will take you to the inconsistency and describe the problem. It will place your cursor to the left of the inconsistency.

Using this method, Jaws will always describe the inconsistency and tell you where it is by default.

The best way to use this is to start at the top of your document and work down. Pressing WINDOWS key+ALT+I each time.

When you are finished Jaws will say, “no more inconsistencies.”

I noticed a difference in this method when using various versions of Windows and Word.

Using more current versions of Word, it gives the character location in relationship to the beginning of the entire document.

In older versions such as Windows 7 with Word 2010, it gives information relative to the beginning of the line.

For instance, in Windows 10 with current versions of Word, you might hear Jaws say…

Space run at 3462.

Even though you have no reference to the inconsistencies location relative to the beginning of the line, you do have an idea how far down the document you are, if you know the character count.

You can set which inconsistencies Text Analyzer will find.

In the Text Analyzer area of the Settings Center, you can select and deselect which inconsistencies you want it to check.

To do this…

1. Press INSERT+F2 to open Jaws Manager.
2. Press the letter ‘S’ until you hear, Settings Center.
3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D if you want your setting to be applied to all applications.
4. Tab to the tree menu of settings.
5. Arrow to Text Analyzer, or press “T” until you hear Text Analyzer.
6. Use the RIGHT ARROW key to open the tree menu.
7. Press DOWN ARROW once.

Here you press SPACEBAR to turn Text Analyzer on permanently. Then, continue tapping the SPACEBAR to scroll through the options available.

Further in the settings, there is even an option to accommodate programmers using unbalanced punctuation as part of coding.

Jaws will report the inconsistencies in either of the continual monitoring modes when reading line-by-line, or by continuous reading with the JAWS key+DOWN ARROW on the number pad.

Now, you can catch those little artifacts hiding out in your writing, and trust me, you’ll find some.

I tend to leave double spaces between words when editing. Or wind up with an extra apostrophe after contracted words when typing too fast. Such as in this sentence…

“I didn’t’ catch that one.”

Text Analyzer is a great tool to check your documents before pressing <Send> or submitting copy to a proofer.

It’s also the only one of its kind that does what it does which makes it a lesser known, but valuable tool.

Try it out on your next project. Or, pull up an old document and see if Text Analyzer finds any inconsistencies.

You might be surprised what it finds.

Brad Dunsé is a verified direct response copywriter through American Writers and artists. Having written for various project types, he currently focuses on projects within the disability and music industries.

If you are interested in knowing more about Brad’s services or working with him on your next project, simply e-mail Brad or visit his website at AbilityCopywriter.com.