SpeakOn is not difficult to learn if you follow the suggestions below.
All media supported by SpeakOn available now and in the future will work in a similar way. It is therefore worthwhile learning the basic principles of how SpeakOn works.
Start by using the Standard keyboard and for now, ignore the Numerical keypad, TouchScreen and TouchPad. The Standard keyboard should work while your screen reader or magnifier are running provided you don't use 'Key echo' while typing.
You may wish to keep this manual open while running SpeakOn for quick reference until you are comfortable with the system. You can switch between SpeakOn and your internet browser in the usual Windows way [Alt + Tab].
Start by following the
'Installing and getting started with SpeakOn' section
which provides a very basic guide to SpeakOn and will enable you to start using SpeakOn quickly. Then follow the
Tutorial section
which will take you step by step through typical usage of SpeakOn and its tasks. After the Tutorial, you should be able to operate the most common features of SpeakOn comfortably. To expand your knowledge further, you may wish to look at specific topics and get more information in the
'Reference - Operating SpeakOn' section
For technical detailed information on media directories, format supported and settings, read the
'Reference - SpeakOn media tasks - additional information' section
When you are confident with using SpeakOn, you may wish to continue to use the Standard keyboard interaction or try one of the other ways to interact with SpeakOn.
The Numerical keypad (NumPad) interaction enables you to operate SpeakOn with one hand with only 10 keys.
If you use Windows 8 and above with a laptop with touch screen capabilities or you use a tablet you can take advantage of SpeakOn's TouchScreen interaction. With TouchScreen interaction you can perform all operations with a single finger using gestures and single taps.
A TouchPad (sometimes called a TrackPad) is usually integrated into a laptop or sometimes with an external keyboard. Although operating SpeakOn with a TouchPad works well, operating SpeakOn using either the Standard keyboard or the NumPad would probably be faster. However, operating SpeakOn with the TouchPad can be still useful especially if you might want to evaluate interacting with SpeakOn with touch before investing in a tablet or a laptop with a TouchScreen.
The
'Technical Information' section
is provided for interest only, and it is not necessary to read it to use SpeakOn.
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