I'll provide a brief tutorial based on what I wrote years
ago of how to work with ribbons. I've added a
little to it here.
I don't know how the organization of Windows has changed
in Windows 10 but this description should allow you to look through the Windows
ribbons, or any other ribbons, and see how things are organized.
First, I'll discuss a structure found in later versions of
Windows that you need to know about-- the split button.
One thing you
will see as you look around ribbons and in other places in Windows are split
buttons. A split button often allows you to see more options than just the
default action. Let's take an example.
Let's say you come across
a split button that says shut down Windows. If you press enter on that
button, Windows will shut down. That is the default action. Split
buttons often show more options if you either right arrow while on the button or
down arrow. As an example, if you are on the shut down split button, you
can right arrow and a list of options will open. the items in the list
include sleep, hibernate, restart, and others. You up or down arrow
through the list or use the short cut commands you hear announced as you move
through the list. the letter shortcuts often take actions without pressing
enter so be careful when using them, just as you are in menus.
So, let's review. You find a split button that says
shut down. If you press enter, the computer will shut down. If you right
arrow, other options may be displayed. Or if you down arrow, other options
may be displayed. A split button won't work with both methods. One
method, either right arrowing or down arrowing will do so if it can be done with
the button. Try both methods if you don't know which one might work.
If you are on a tool bar which extends across the screen from left to right,
down arrowing will open additional options. If you think about this, it
makes sense. If you are in a menu, down arrowing will move you to the next
item in the menu. So you right arrow on the split button to cause it to
display more options. In a tool bar that extends across the screen from
left to right, right arrowing will move you to the next item in the tool
bar. So you down arrow when on the split button to cause it to display
more options. But some tool bars run up and down the screen, as menus
do. And at times, you may not be sure which way a structure extends on
screen. So, as I said, if you are not sure or don't know, try both methods
of causing the split button to display more options. Often, one of them
will work. If you open the options a split button offers and don't want to work
with them, arrow in the opposite direction to move out of them. For
example, if you right arrowed to open more options, left arrow.
Some
split buttons don't do anything when you right arrow or down arrow. In
that case, open them with alt down arrow. Then tab through the additional
options. I've almost never worked in this way with split buttons but if
you want to close a split button, try alt up arrow if you've used alt down arrow
to open it.
Now, to ribbons themselves.
Regarding ribbons, much of the complaining about them is
not warranted if you understand how they work and how to use short cut commands
effectively and efficiently. and I would strongly recommend against using
the JAWS virtual menus, no matter what the JAWS training material says about
ribbons being difficult to use. the training material is just plain wrong
and using virtual menus, you will be unnecessarily dependent on one
screen-reader. There are other disadvantages to using them which I won't
go into here.
Try looking at ribbons and doing what is described below
in wordpad. Everyone with Windows 7 has Wordpad on their machine.
Wordpad provides a good environment to look at and practice working with
ribbons.
The essence of working with ribbons is this:
Press alt
to move to the upper ribbon.
You will probably be on an item that says home
tab. Items on the upper ribbon are announced as tabs such as home tab, view tab,
etc.
To see what ribbons are available, right or left arrow repeatedly
to move through the ribbons. Move in one
direction to move through all
of them, just as you would to move through all the menus.
For this demonstration, just so we are all doing the same
thing, move with the right arrow. When you get back to where you started, you
can keep right arrowing to move through the items again, if you wish. You
can move through all the items as many times as you want. Or you can move with
the left arrow whenever you want to move in the opposite direction.
Stop on view. Then start tabbing. You will
move through all items in what is called the lower ribbon that are in the view
ribbon.
In other words you tab to see the items in a ribbon once
you move to it. Tab moves you forward through the items, shift tab moves
you backword.
So tab and shift tab are used instead of up and down
arrow.
Many items in the lower ribbon are buttons. Use
either the space bar or enter to activate the button. You may find a button that
opens a menu and if you press enter or the space bar, you will then be in a
menu.
Each time you move to an item, you will hear the short cut
command to work with that item.
But JAWS has a bug and you often
won't. To hear the short cut, use the command JAWS key tab. If you
are using the default JAWS key, it is either insert.
Try tabbing to an item in a Wordpad ribbon and using the
command insert tab. You will hear some extraneous information. The
last thing you will hear is the short cut sequence. You can repeat the
information by repeating the command as often as you want.
Let's look at an item which is usually called the
application menu. Return to the main program window in wordpad by closing
the ribbons. You can either press escape repeatedly, if necessary, or you
can press alt once. Now, open the ribbons again with alt.
Start
right arrowing until you get to the application menu.
You will hear
application menu and then something like button drop down grid. Never mind
drop down grid. It's a description you don't have to worry about.
The important things are that you are on a button and at the application
menu. Press enter or the space bar to activate the button.
Activating the button opens the menu. Start down arrowing. you will hear
all the short cut commands necessary to open an item or take an action.
When you got to the menu item, you heard alt f. When you open the menu and
move through it, you will hear all the letters announced. for example, if
you down arrow to save as, you will hear alt f a. that means that, when
you are in the main program window, you open the menu as you always did, alt f,
then type a. Alt f opens the menau and a then opens save as. Ribbon
programs have one menu and you should look through it. Many important and
common commands and interfaces such as options may be there. By options, I
mean the kind of options interface you used to find in the tools
menu.
Now the we have seen the menu, let's look at the ribbons
structure some more.
To review, and add more information, as you have seen,
you can move to the ribbon interface with alt. Then right and left arrow,
just as you would move from menu to menu.
You can also move to a
ribbon using alt and a letter. So, alt h takes you to the home
ribbon. Alt v takes you to the view ribbon, etc. Once you are on the
ribbon you want to work with, tab to move forward through the items in a
ribbon. Shift tab to move back through the items. So tab and shift
tab are used instead of up and down arrow.
Ribbons are divided into
categories which you will hear announced as you tab. for example, in an
e-mail program, a ribbon may have a category named respond. You may hear
this announced as respond tool bar. As you tab, you will hear commands
such as reply and forward in the respond category. When you hear a
category announced, don't tab until you hear everything spoken. You will
miss the first command in the category if you do. I'm talking about
working with an unfamiliar ribbon.
there are often many more commands
and items in a ribbon than in a menu. So memorize command sequences for
items you know you will use regularly.
As I said, there are different
categories in ribbons to help organize items. You can quickly jump from
category to category in a ribbon to help you see if there is a category you want
to look through.
Move to a ribbon in Wordpad. For example, alt h
for hhome or alt v for view.
Then repeatedly issue the command control right
arrow to move forward from category to category and control left arrow to move
back. When you get to a category you want to hear the items in, start
tabbing. Of course, you can shift tab to move back.
Open a ribbon in Wordpad and tab through it to see how it
is organized by moving through it.
Then use control right arrow to
move by category and tab to see what is in a category.
Commands such as control o, control n, control s, control
r, etc. are mostly retained in programs
that use ribbons, though you won't
hear them announced. If you don't already know them, you'll have to find them in
ways such as by looking at a list of keyboard commands for the program.
Such lists are often available in the help for the program. If you already know
the commands from having used an older version of the program, most or perhaps
even all of the commands you know will work.
