Today Friday 28th October, JAWS 18 has been released .Below are some of the features and improvements in JAWS version 18.
For a full list with more details, please click here
What’s New in JAWS 18
Improved Performance when Using JAWS and ZoomText Together
JAWS 18 introduces greatly improved interoperability with the soon to be released ZoomText 11. Users of both these industry leading products will experience more seemless operation when running JAWS 18 and ZoomText 11 together regardless of the order in which they are installed as well as which product is started first.
New Speech Option as You Move the Physical Mouse Around the Screen The new mouse echo feature enables JAWS to speak text under the mouse pointer as you move around the screen using a physical mouse or as you move your finger on a trackpad. If you use a refreshable braille display, text under the mouse is also shown in braille as a flash message.
Migrate Settings from Prior Versions of JAWS The ability for users to merge all user customized settings from the prior version of JAWS into the latest version has been reintroduced. This includes any application and default settings, scripts, dictionary entries, graphics labels, PlaceMarkers, flexible web rules, personalized web settings including custom labels, speech and sounds schemes, and voice profiles.
Restrict Virtual Cursor in Web-Based dialog boxes If a dialog box appears on a web page as a result of an action such as activating a specific control, which can occur especially on pages that are part of a web-based application, JAWS now restricts Virtual Cursor navigation to the dialog box. Sometimes, depending on how the web application is implemented, when focus moves into these dialog boxes, the content of the surrounding page is hidden until focus moves out of the dialog box. However, in many instances, the dialog content merges with the surrounding page which can be confusing especially when you only want to focus on the content in the web dialog box.
Lower the Audio from Other Programs While JAWS is Speaking. In Windows 8 and later, you can now specify that the volume of audio from other programs be lowered while JAWS is speaking using the Eloquence or Vocalizer Expressive synthesizers as well as any SAPI5 synthesizer. This is commonly known as audio ducking. For example, if you are listening to music or playing a video and JAWS begins talking, the volume of the music or video will be slightly lowered so you can comfortably hear JAWS and then raised back to its current level when JAWS stops talking.
For JAWS users with a braille display, you can also choose to mute JAWS speech (INSERT+SPACEBAR, S) while listening to audio from other programs and still use JAWS with braille output only, without the audio from the other programs being reduced.
Support for Vocalizer Expressive 2.2 Voices
Improved Google Docs Support
Anyone who has a current Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA) for JAWS or who has purchased a full version of JAWS since 1 September will receive a DVD with this version. If we have your e-mail address you should have received an email about this.
It can also be downloaded at www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/jaws
If you don’t have version 18 but wish to upgrade then please contact us for pricing and have your serial number ready