Sound Forge 6.0 Scripts for JAWS For Windows

Introduction

Sound Forge gives you access to a wide variety of tools with which you can shape your audio project to your exacting requirements. As such, the user interface is replete with controls which are rendered accessible by these scripts. Many of these controls are sliders which allow you to use the arrow keys, or page up and down keys to change the value of a given parameter. Without the aid of scripts, the value of these sliders can not be read. These scripts cause the value of the slider to speak as you change it, and allow you to read the present value with the SayWord command.

But, beyond just making the intended user interface accessible, these scripts ad extra features that go beyond what is available to the sighted user. This includes such things as the

Getting Started

Because we have not established a suitable automatic install process, The installation of these scripts does contain a couple of manual steps. Appologies.

Two files are required to install these scripts. The name of the first file depends on which version of Jaws you are running.

For Jaws 4.x, Download File jfw4_forge60_626.zip.

For JAWS 5 and 6, Download File jfw5_forge60_v634.zip.

These files contain the scripts required for your version of jaws. Place the contents of the appropriate Zip archive, into the settings\enu folder under your jaws main folder.

Authorization files

Next, if you do not already have one, you will need an authorization file. This file is called snow_forge60.jsb, and authorizes both Sound forge 6 and 7. When you purchase a copy of the scripts, you will be sent a version of this file is encoded with your serial number, which will enable permanent use of the scripts. This file must also be placed in the settings\enu folder under your main jaws folder.

If you have not yet purchased a copy, but want to take the scripts for a test drive, you can download a demo authorization file here.

temporary Authorization File for JAWS 4.x temporary Authorization File for JAWS 5.x Unzip the snow_forge60.jsb file from this archive, and Place it in your settings\enu folder.

To make sure the scripts are installed correctly and are operating, while in sound forge 6.0, Press insert+q. Jaws should report Scripts version 6.32, for Sound forge 6.

Also, check out the hot key help using insert+h. Use your up and down arrow keys to browse the list of hot keys. Press escape to close the list and return to Sound forge.

If you are running the demo version of these scripts, you will have approximately ten minutes to play with the scripts before the scripts will cease to function. You can get another ten minutes by closing and restarting jaws. To obtain an authorized copy, write to Snowman@SnowManRadio.com.

Graphics Files

To interact properly with sound Forge, the scripts need to locate and click various graphical buttons on the sound Forge Screen. With the multitude of operating system and video card combinations in use, we are finding that graphical images labeled on one computer, will generally not work properly on another machine. This is why there is an extensive discussion of graphics relabeling under the trouble shooting section. Expect to have to relabel your graphics with the AutoGraphics labeler as described there.

Skimming Through The Audio

In this discussion, the arrow keys referred to are the NumPad arrows, not the inverted t mid section arrows. The scripts are shipped with Jaws being configured to differentiate between the NumPad and extended arrow keys. If you want to use the extended arrow keys, with focus on the Sound Forge application, activate the Jaws configuration manager, locate keyboard options, and uncheck the box that says Differentiate between NumPad and Extended keys.

In addition to allowing access to all the controls and sliders in the Sound Forge user interface, these scripts allow you to use your arrow keys to skim through the audio, much like you do when skimming with your CD player. So, locating specific sound passages strictly by listening to the audio is a snap. This means that, when you operate the NumPad arrow keys, the sound file should start playing from the cursor. Specifically, when you press a right arrow, for example, the sound cursor will move forward in the file, by an amount controlled by the zoom ratio, and playback will begin from that point. Likewise, when you press a left arrow, the cursor will move backward in the file, and playback will start from the new position.

The Zoom Ratio is controlled by the up and down arrows. Higher zoom ratios mean that the sound cursor will move further in response to an arrow key. Typical use is to use higher zoom ratios to move quickly through the file to find a general location, then to decrease to zoom ratio to make finer and finer adjustments to the cursor position.

You can also use page up and page down or control+pageUp and control+pageDown to make larger jumps through the file. The control modifier makes larger jumps. You can use control with the left and right arrow keys, but this has special meaning in certain situations. If there are no markers, and no cut points, this makes jumps which are larger than regular arrow keys, but less than the page up and page down. However, if there is a marker in the direction you are moving with the control arrow key, Sound forge will jump all the way to the marker. This is handy, but the qualifications on behavior are something to be aware of.

Scanning Modes

To select audio, while playing, you can press left and right brackets at points representing the start and end of the selection. Or, you can use the standard windows keys, using shift in combination with the arrow keys, including the page up and down. We'll discuss selection in more detail later. But, for now, let's discuss the scanning feature assuming that no data is selected.

There are a few modes which you can set which control exactly how this scanning feature operates. Each mode has it's intended purpose, as we shall see below. Use the alt+shift+NumPad 5 hot key to rotate between scanning off, relative, absolute and blip modes.

Scanning Off

When scanning is off, the arrow keys move the cursor, but do not start the playback. So, you will not hear any sound. You must press the space bar to start the playback at the new position.

Absolute Mode

In absolute mode, your cursor keys control an anchor point which is moved through the file. No matter how long you let the file play, the anchor point is not moved unless you operate the cursor keys. So, if you strike a right arrow, the anchor point will move forward by a small amount, and playback will begin at the new location. If you let the file play for a minute, then hit the right arrow key again, the original anchor point will be moved by the amount set by the zoom ratio, and playback will jump clear back to the new anchor point. This mode is best for detailed editing, because the amount of time you allow the file to play does not affect the position of the anchor point. However, if you are just browsing the file, playing and skimming around, this mode will not be your preferred mode, because striking an arrow key after the file has been playing for a long time, will suddenly cause playback to restart at a much earlier location, specifically, the position of the anchor point. If you want to move the anchor point to the current playback position, press the enter key while the file is playing.

Relative Mode

Relative mode, on the other hand, allows playback to move the anchor point as the file plays. So, cursor keys move the start of playback relative to the currently playing position. This mode is best for just skimming through the file looking for a particular passage. But, it is not good for detailed editing, because the anchor point is moved by the playback operation.Specifically, while the file is playing, press the left arrow or page up to move back a little bit, or the right arrow or page down to move forward a bit relative to the presently playing position. Press down arrow to increase the zoom ratio if you want to make larger jumps.

Blip Mode

Blip Mode, is similar to absolute mode and, again, is useful in detailed editing, but when you do not have any data selected. In Blip Mode, when you strike an arrow key, the scripts move the cursor by an amount controlled by the zoom ratio, and select the small region between the previous anchor point, and the new anchor point. The selected region is then played. So, you will hear just a short burst of audio each time you press an arrow key. In our example using the left arrow key, the cursor is actually at the left end of the small selection. If you press left arrow again, the small region is dragged to the left by an amount controlled by the zoom ratio, the new selection is played, and the cursor is again at the left side of the new selection. If you press a right arrow, the selection will not be moved, but the cursor will jump to the right end of the selection, and the same selection will be played. A second right arrow drags the selection to the right by the same amount, and the new selection is played. the cursor is now positioned at the right end of the selection.The purpose of blip mode is to provide a less distracting way to do detailed editing since the playback does not run away from the area of interest. The disadvantage is that, if you decrease the zoom ratio to a very small value using the up arrow key, the amount of movement becomes very small. As a result, the burst of audio becomes very short, and may or may not be useful depending on your skill level and what you are doing. It is not presently possible to maintain the duration of the audio blip independent of the zoom ratio.

You can control the zoom ratio using the up and down arrows. This will cause sound forge to move in larger steps with higher zoom ratios, and smaller steps with smaller ratios. The duration of the blip played is also a function of the zoom ratio. Typically, you lower the zoom ratio using the UpArrow key when you want to make finer adjustments to the cursor position. You increase the zoom ratio with the DownArrow key when you want to make larger movements with each press of the left or right arrow keys.

Tip: you can turn on loop playback with the Q key while in blip mode, and sound forge will repeatedly play the small selection. This can sometimes give a better view of the adjustments you are making.

If you have data selected, and attempt to use blip mode while pressing the shift arrow keys, the scripts will revert to absolute mode. This is because blip mode makes use of a temporary selection which can not be established without redefining your selection.

When you exit blip mode, if you press the space bar, you will usually find that data is still selected due to the way blip mode is implemented. This selection will be cleared when you operate the arrow keys, or you can press the s key to undo the selection.

Selecting Audio

There are several ways to select audio. While playing, you can press the left and right bracket keys to mark the start and end of the selection.Or, you can use the standard windows conventions, using the shift key in conjunction with the arrow keys, the home and end keys, or the page up and page down keys. When you use the shift key, the anchor point is moved, and audio from the old anchor point to the new anchor point is selected, in addition to any audio that was already selected. So, you are extending or shrinking the selection.

When data is selected, you can telll the scripts to either play the selection, or play from cursor. Use the shift+control+NumPad 5 to select the desired mode. Often, such as when adjusting the end points of a large selection, you want to play from cursor to hear the details at the point of interest.

When data is selected, pressing the space bar will honor the rules established by the mode you have selected, i.e. play selection, or play from cursor. Also, you can use alt+control+t to hear the start and end times of the selection, or shift+alt+t to hear the length of the selection.

If you have a braille display, the length of the selection is displayed.

Play Mode

The shift+control+NumPad5 key controls what is played when you press the space bar or use the arrow keys.

Play Selection

If data is selected, then the selection is played. Otherwise, playback starts from the edit cursor. This is the default mode for sound forge.

Play From Cursor

Playback always starts from the edit cursor, even if data is selected. This is useful if you have a long section selected, and are adjusting the right end of the selection, because instead of playing from the start of the selection, which is a long way away from the point you are adjusting, playback starts at the edit cursor so you can hear the Effect of your adjustments.

Audition Cut

This mode should be used when you have selected a portion of audio which you want to delete from the file. Because audio is selected, you would normally use the home and end keys to select the left or right ends of the selection, then use shift in combination with left and right arros to adjust that selection end point. When Audition cut is active, and data is selected, each time you press a shift arrow key, the scripts will move the end point, then issue the control+k keystroke to sound forge, which causes sound forge to play a portion of the file, pretending that you had deleted the selection. so, you can easily hear what it will sound like if you perform that delete with the selection end points at their current location. this allows you to adjust your endpoints for that perfect, seamless cut.

Automatic Time Announce

Sometimes, you want a selection that is a specific length. Here is an easy way to do that. Establish the starting point of the selection. Then, press control+shift+t to turn on automatic time announcements. Normally, this causes jaws to say the time of the cursor after each arrow key, or when you press enter to stop playback. But, if data is selected, Jaws will speak the length of the selection after each press of the shift+left or right arrow keys. So, by adjusting the zoom ratio to make the size jumps you want, you can press shift left and right arrows until the selection is the exact length you want.

Making A Selection

Here is a hint on making fine adjustments to the ends of a selection. You can use blip mode to locate the exact desired end point without having yet mnade the selection. Remember, with blip mode, the scripts establish a small, temporary selection, and you can use the home and end keys to place your cursor at the left or right ends of the tiny selection. Once you have located the exact point, press the m key to drop a marker at that location.

Let's suppose that we just established a marker at the left end of our intended huge selection, and dropped a marker there. Now. page down to find the point for the right end of the selection. The page down key just discarded the temporary selection, and now, nothing is selected at all.

Again, when you get near the intended right end of the selection, you can use blip mode to precisely locate the point where the selection should end. Once the cursor is there, press shift+control+LeftArrow. This will select from the cursor location, clear back to the marker we established earlier. Now, you can use the home and end keys to jump back and forth between the left and right ends of the selection. And you can press shift+alt+t to hear the duration of the selection to assure yourself that the operation was successful. Don't use any of the arrow keys by themselves, or you will discard that selection. But, if you want to make a fine adjustment to the right end, for example, press the end key. This will move the cursor to the right end of the selection, but leave the selection in effect. Now, use shift+control+NumPad 5 to change to play from cursor mode. Now, when you press the space bar, you will not hear the selection, but will start playback from the right end of the selection. To shorten the selection, press shift+LeftArrow. To lengthen it, press shift+rightArrow. In either case, you will change the length of the selection by an amount controlled by the zoom ratio, and will hear playback from the new selection end point. Do not use blip mode for this, unless you don't mind undoing your selection. Fortunately, you have a marker established, so, if you do lose the selection, you can still find the intended right end of the selection, then just use shift+control+LeftArrow to select all the way back to the marker.

Markers

A marker is used to label a precise location in your sound file. You can place a marker in your file while playback is stopped or in progress. Typically, you will be more accurate if you position the cursor carefully before dropping the marker. Stil, it can be useful to drop a marker on the fly to allow you to get back to a general location later.

To Drop a marker, press the m key. To move to a marker, press control plus the arrow key in the direction of the marker. Sound Forge will move all the way to the marker with a single key press.

If you think you are at a marker, press Alt+control+m. Jaws will tell you if you are at the marker or not. If you are at the marker, you can press shift+control+m to delete the marker.

Audio Level Indication

When you are recording, or even when playing, provided you have play meters enabled, you can read the peak level detected by sound forge using f11 and f12 for left and right channels respectively. Shift+f11 or f12 will reset the peak level. Usually, you must reset the peak level before the first time you read these in a given recording session. The scripts do not monitor these actively by default. you must press the reading key when you want to check on the level.

However, if you want to automatically monitor the level indications. double click the f12 hot key while recording, or while in the record dialog. Jaws will say "Clip Monitoring Active". As long as the record dialog is still open, the scripts will check the level indicators once per second for clipping in either channel. Because this is a peak level indicator, once clipping occurs, the clip status will remain until you clear it. Jaws will say "clip" once for each channel which has clipped, and will repeat this once per second to make sure you are aware of it. To clear this status, press shift+f11 or shift+f12 depending on which channel you want to reset. While clip monitoring is active, you can still press the f11 and f12 keys to read the status of the corresponding channel. In this way, you can determine which channel clipped.

Clip monitoring will cease when the record dialog is closed. It will not automatically activate next time you record. You need to intentionally activate this feature for each session in which you want to use it.

With some combinations of certain versions of jaws and Windows, the one second periodic monitoring schedule is not reliably maintained. This is out of the control of script development and, unfortunately, can not be addressed.

Opening Multiple Sound files

In the past, if you had several sound files open at the same time, the only way to move from one file to another was to press control+tab and listen for the name of the file you want. this can be a tedious, time consuming process. However, starting in scripts version 6.31, you can assign one of the numeric keys on the numbers row to a sound file. Then, you can control+tab to a different sound file. When you want to return back to the marked file, just press the numeric hot key you assigned.

To assign a hot key to a file, make sure you are focused in the data window, and control+tab to the file you want to mark. Then, press shift plus the hot key you want to use. valid keys are 0 through 9 on the numbers row. Jaws will speak the name of that file, and record the assignment.

You can now move to other files, open new files, or perform any other actions you want. When you want to return to the marked file, while focused in the data window, press the numeric key you assigned. Jaws will speak the name of the file, and focus will be placed on that file. Of course, if you have closed the file, you are notified that the file is not currently open,and no action takes place.

Because sound forge remembers what files you had open when it is closed, the scripts remember your hot key assignments as well. So, when you reopen sound forge, those same assignments will be present. No need to worry about deleting unused assignments. Just reassign them when you need them.

The Braille display

If you are lucky enough to have one, the Braille display is a very handy adjunct to these scripts. When focused in the data window,the display shows the playback cursor time, which increments approximately once per second as you play, or record. When you stop, the current time is displayed to the millisecond.

If you have data selected, the time becomes the selection length, and is enclosed in less than and greater than signs, such as <00:01:23.456>. These signs make it very obvious whether or not data is selected.

Also, while focused in the data window, you can press a routing key to jump playback through the file. The scripts will calculate a new start time based on the routing key you pressed, the total number of routing keys on your display, and the total length of the file. It will then jump sound forge to that location and begin playback. this is very handy for quickly jumping around the file.

The amount of time between two adjacent routing keys depends on the length of the file, and how many keys are on your display. The way to calculate this, if you care, is the total time divided by the number of keys. For example, on a 32 character display, with a 5 minute file, the time jump from one key to the next is calculated as 300 seconds divided by 32 keys, or about 10 seconds per key.

Of course, the routing keys work as normal if you are not focused in the sound forge data window.

The Audio Plug In Chainer

The Audio Plug In Chainer lets you string multiple plug ins together in series to perform very complex processing on a sound file. It contains no menus, but does show a set of graphical buttons to control it's operation. This feature was very difficult to use without the aid of scripts. But, now it's a breeze. To open the Audio Plug In Chainer, press alt+9 on the numbers row. Once there, you can obtain a list of graphics which can be clicked by pressing f9. If no graphics are found, jaws will inform you that you need to run the AutoGraphics Labeler while focused in the Plug In Chainer in order to get this list of buttons. If a list appears, use your arrow keys to explore the list, or just type the first letter of your favorite item, then press enter to click the button.

Some commonly used items have direct hot keys. for example, alt+p to preview the sound. Press alt+A to add a plug in to the chain. A dialog will open which allows you to select a plug in to add. You must click the Add button, by tabbing to it and pressing the space bar. In this way, you can add several plug ins consecutively. When you are done adding plug ins, press Ok. You are then placed in a multi-page dialog, with one page for each plug in in your chain. As you press the tab key, you move through the various parameters which can be changed for the currently selected plug in. To move to the next plug in in the chain, pres control+tab. Or, press shift+control+tab to move to the previous plug in. This navigation does wrap around, but the scripts always tell you which position the current plug in occupies in the chain.

You can modify the order in which plug ins appear in the chain. To do this, the scripts enter a special mode, as described in the help. Press insert+f1 while focused in the Audio Plug In Chainer for more details. But, suffice it to say that you have complete control over the order of the plug ins, and that you can selectively enable or disable any plug in.

Trouble Shooting

With so many possible combinations of various versions of Jaws, plus different versions of Windows, not to mention the other idiosyncracies of hardware, and other unknown software installed, it has become increasingly difficult to get the same performance on every machine. This means that it is increasingly likely that you will experience some difficulty in getting these scripts to work correctly when you first install them. some of the problems are basic setup issues. but, others relate to such factors as graphics recognition, which has become increasingly problematic with Jaws on Windows XP. Also, for several recent versions of jaws, frames are not always transported correctly from one machine to the next. If you have problems like this, we will make every effort to help you through them. But, first, please consult this trouble shooter guide to see if your problem is addressed here. If so, then follow these instructions very carefully. If you still have problems, report the details of what actually happened, to the SnowMan for analysis. Please be precise and descriptive in order to best support the analysis. for example, it is not helpful to simply say that the scripts don't work, or that, when I do item x, the scripts bomb out. We need to know what key strokes you pressed, what you expected, and what actualy happened. What did JAWS say, or not say. Thank you.

Tool Bars

Earlier versions of the scripts required these tool bars in order to operate. However, starting in scripts version 6.31, the toolbars are no longer necessary. Because they can float around the screen, and there is no convenient way of docking them, they can cause problems by obscuring other windows. Go to the view menu, select ToolBars, and arrow down through the list, making sure none of them is selected. press the space bar to change the status of selected items to their unselected state. then press OK.

No Playback In Response To Arrow Keys

In the following exercises, make sure that you have a single sound file open. use only one file, not multiple files. The scripts can handle multiple files, but we want a single file for the simplest environment when attempting to correct problems as described here.

If your NumPad arrow keys do not cause playback, yet you have a single audio file loaded, and have the scanning mode set to absolute or relative, here are a couple of things to check. Use the alt+control+numpad 5 toggle key to change between original and standard stop methods. This has to do with how the scripts operate the transport controls. The standard method uses graphical buttons to control playback. The original method uses the menus to control playback. The standard method is much more responsive and is preferred. If the arrow keys cause playback in the original stop method, but not when using the standard stop method, then the scripts are probably clicking the incorrect location for the PlayNormal graphic. In some cases, this can cause the Plug In chainer window to pop open. Before you proceed, you must close that Plug In Chainer window. press alt+9 on the numbers row to focus on the Plug In chainer. then, press control+f4 to close that window. Now, do not use the left and rightr arrow keys until the remedies below have been attempted, because the Plug In Chainer window will most likely pop open again.

when playback does not occur when you operate the numPad arrow keys, then the first step is to retrain the location of the graphical controls. To retrain these locations, press alt+control+shift+t. Then, use your up and down arrow keys to choose yes and press enter. The retraining process takes only a second or two. Once complete, the resulting information is stored in the forge60.ini file in your settings\enu folder. This should allow the standard stop method to work correctly. If not, then, if you receive a message that jaws was unable to locate a graphic, then you are the lucky recipiant of idiosyncratic behavior, where in jaws does not recognize graphics labeled on one machine, but used on another. This has become increasingly common with jaws and Windows XP. You will need to relabel the graphics as described below. then, you will need to retry the retraining exercise with alt+control+shift+t.

Because of the problems with graphics, there are systems in which the AutoGraphics Labeler described below does not detect any tool tips, and thus labels 0 graphics. On other systems, even though graphics are labeled, the retraining exercise fails because the JAWS FindGraphic function is unable to find graphics by name. In such cases, it is possible to label the most crucial position yourself. Near the bottom of the sound window in Sound forge is a series of buttons. These are labeled GoToStart, GoToEnd, Stop, PlayNormal, and Open PlugInChainer. If the AutoGraphics labeler succeeded, you might be able to find these with the jaws cursor. If not, you may need a sighted person to position the mouse for you. The text labels do not appear on screen until the mouse is positioned over the button. the one we want is the PlayNormal button. Position the mouse on that button, and press alt+control+shift+A. This will capture the screen coordinants and record them for future use, and should enable your NumPad arrow keys to perform audio scanning..

Relabeling Graphics

To relabel the graphics for use on your system, do the following. Make sure you have a single sound file loaded into Sound forge. Note that you will need to do this labeling operation once for the data window, a second labeling session for the record dialog, and a third session for the Audio Plug In Chainer.

Navigate to the settings\enu folder for the version of jaws you are running. Locate and delete file forge60.jgf. This is the jaws graphics file which will be recreated with the automatic labeling process.

Now, return to Sound forge and make sure you have a single sound file loaded, and are focused in the main data window. Press alt+0 on the numbers row to focus in the data window. Use your jaws cursor to explore the Sound Forge window to make sure no other windows have come open. Most likely, is the audio plug in chainer window which will pop open if the scripts clicked the incorrect location when attempting to start playback when you used the scanning arrows. Find the close symbol and close any open windows other than the single sound file you loaded. Leave that sound file window open. Just make sure the audio plug in chainer is not open.

Next press control+insert+g. This starts a special version of the jaws autoGraphics labeler. You will hear an announcement, along with a repeated wheedally wheedally sounder. The sounder plays each time jaws moves on to the next graphic. If the graphic posts a tool tip, the scripts will capture the tool tip and label the graphic. You will hear the tool tip spoken. You may hear wheedally wheedally sounds with no speech. These are cases where the graphic did not produce a tool tip and thus can not be labeled, but jaws is waiting just to make sure. This entire process takes a minute or so. Do not use your keyboard while labelling is in progress. When the process completes, jaws will announce the number of settings derived, and that wheedally wheedally sounder will cease.

If you did not hear jaws speak any tool tips as this process took place, and, at the end of the process, jaws says that zero settings were derived, then no tool tips were posted. There is a setting in the view menu|toolBars dialog, which must be checked to allow tool tips to be displayed. Make sure that item is checked. Also, with windows XP, I did see a case where, even though tool tips were enabled, Sound Forge was not posting them. However, when I closed Jaws, the tool tips started appearing. After restarting jaws, the tool tips continued to appear, and the graphics labeling worked properly. I have no idea why this is. Your guess is as good as mine. but, it is important that those tool tips appear and are spoken in the labeling process.

Starting with scripts version 6.31, ToolBars are no longer needed. Since these can cause trouble if they float around, obscuring other windows, proceed to the View Menu, the toolbars dialog, and make sure all tool bars are unchecked.

Sound forge is a very versatile program, allowing the user to rearrange the screen in all kinds of ways, some of which can make things essentially unusable for blind folks. As a last resort, if your scripts used to work, but things somehow got changed, you can force sound forge back to it's installation defaults. Close Sound forge. then, move to the icon on your desktop which would start sound forge, and hold down the control and shift keys and press enter. Continue to hold down the control and shift keys until the program opens fully. This will probably override other preferences you have set up yourself. but, it should make the screen format revert to a usable state. Among other things, You will have to reset your sound card choices in the Options\preferences|wave page. Also, go to the view menu, and disable all tool bars again.

One thing that causes problems, is the minimize symbol that is associated with each opened sound file. don't click that minimize symbol with the jaws cursor. it seems to make the transport controls disappear. If you do that, close and reopen that sound file.

Once you have successfully trained the main window, switch focus to another application. Then, return focus to Sound forge. This causes jaws to read the new graphics file you just created. Then, use shift+alt+control+t and select to retrain the controls. This retraining process should succeed this time, and the scanning arrow keys should work properly.

Now, activate the Audio Plug In Chainer with alt+9 on the numbers row. Then press control+insert+g again to label the graphics in the plug in chainer. Again, do not press any keys while labeling is proceeding. When that completes, use control+f4 to close the plug in chainer window.

Finally, use control+r to activate the record dialog. Once the record dialog is open, press control+insert+g again to label the graphics that appear in the record dialog. Again, most graphics in here do not produce a tool tip. but five or six tool tips should be spoken before this process completes. Again, you may need to run this a second time to get it to find the important graphics, such as record. Then, press escape to close the record dialog. Again, it's a good idea to restart jaws, or to switch to another application, then back to Sound forge, to put the new graphics in effect.

Numeric File Hot Keys Don't Work

This is another symptom of windows somehow getting dragged around, so that the windows needed for this feature are obscured. We're seeking an automatic solution. but, for now hold down the shift and control keys while Sound forge starts up. this will reset the window locations, allowing the feature to work again. but, you will need to reconfigure any preferences you had installed, including sound card selection. And, you will need to go to the view menu and disable all toolBars again.

The Equalizer

When entering the graphical E Q dialog, the sliders are not visible until the choice to use 10 band or 20 band E Q is made. The scripts attempt to make this selection when the dialog is opened but no selection has yet been made. For reasons that are not yet clear, this sometimes fails. Jaws will say something like "unable to locate the band", and tabbing will not speak the sliders. The work around is to press the hot key to manually select the E Q size, alt+control+1 or 2 on the numbers row for 10 or 20 band E Q, while the E Q dialog is open. Once this selection is made, the sliders appear, and the dialog works correctly with each subsequent time it is opened. Jaws will save your preference for the number of bands in the forge60.ini file when you close or alt+tab away from Sound Forge. This setting will be loaded again when you focus back on Sound Forge.

In this dialog, when you press the tab key, jaws speaks the center frequency of the band of the slider gaining focus. Use the up and down arrow keys, or page up page down to change the gain of that slider. Or press numPad 5 to read the present value. Values are reported in Decibels.

We have heard of cases where JAWS no longer recognizes the slider controls as sliders. We know this means that window class names changed on an individual's system, but do not know the root cause. the solution is to tab to a slider, then press JAWSKey+7 on the numbers row to activate the Window Reclassification dialog. PYou will be focused on an edit box showing the true class name. Usually, it has the word Fader somewhere in that name. press the tab key to go to the list of classeswhich JAWS can assign to this window. Press the S key and choose Slider. Then, tab to the add button and press enter. This tells jaws to think of that weird window class as a slider. Then close the window reclass dialog.

Storing Personalized Settings

There is a file in your settings\enu folder called forge60.ini. This file contains settings for your desired scan mode, playMode, number of equalizer bands, and preferred stop method. As you change modes, the scripts will save these in the ini file so they will be reloaded of you have to restart jaws or when you exit then restart sound forge. This file does not usually require editing. However, if you do wish to edit it, it is a text file that can be edited with NotePad. The format of the file is important, so please be careful to maintain the format.

Progress Sounders

When these scripts were originally invented, the jaws Beep function was used to cause a series of brief clicks in the PC speaker when Sound Forge was performing extended processing tasks. This provided an indication that the status line at the bottom of the screen was being updated, and that processing was in progress. However, some computer systems have a service running which intercepts this signal and plays a wav file. This causes a repeated ding ding sound to play which is very annoying. If you want to have the clicking sound, you must locate and disable that service on your machine. If you really just want to get rid of the sound altogether, edit the forge60.,ini file, and set the value of the ProgressSounds to 0. Then save the forge60.ini file. The next time you focus on Sound Forge, the scripts will no longer produce the ding sound, but will still announce percentages from the status bar.

Use Of Extended Arrow Keys

If you wish to use the extended arrows rather than the numpad arrow keys for editing, you can do this by activating the configuration manager while in Sound Forge. Under the keyboard options, general tab, uncheck the option labeled, "differentiate between NumPad keys and Extended keys". I use this differentiation to help in the development process, and the option is left set in the configuration shipped with this release.By unchecking this option, you can use either set of keys for editing.

Sluggish Performance

If you start Sound Forge recording, and then attempt to alt+tab to another application while recording is in progress, you may discover that Jaws becomes very unresponsive. One thing that does help on some systems, is to open the configuration manager, and load the default configuration, file default.jcf. Go to the Advanced Options, and locate the item called, Text Out Delay. Normally, this is set to 50. Set it to 0 and press enter. Then close the configuration manager saving the changes. Because this is a default setting, it has a global effect, and may have other implications for the behavior of jaws in other applications. So, remember that you have changed that setting in case it causes other annoying symptoms on your machine. Most likely, is pressing down arrow in a word processor and hearing the same line repeated, rather than hearing the next line. If this happens, then try a value of 10 or 20 for Text Out Delay. Alternatively, you can change this same setting in the configuration of specific applications where the value of 0 creates a problem, leaving the default value at 0. Experimentation is the only way to arrive at the best settings for your system and suite of applications.

Purchasing The Sound Forge 6 Scripts

Click on the link below to contact the SnowMan to purchase a permanent authorization file. Please include your Name and jaws serial number, along with the version of jaws you are using, so your authorization file can be constructed. If you want to pay by credit card, do not include your credit card numbers. The SnowMan will send you an invoice via the ProPay system. You will receive a link to a secure web site where you can enter your credit card information. They will send us a notification when your transaction is complete, and you will receive your permanent authorization file via e-mail attachment.

Naturally, we would love to hear from you. Send e-mail to:Snowman@SnowManRadio.com.

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