From: Rosemarie Chavarria
Sent: October 19, 2020 9:30 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] my friend's problem is solved for now

 

Hi, Arleen,

 

I think I remember fixing a drive in windows XP one time. I don't know how it's done in the latest version of windows 10 but it can't betoo much different.

 

Rosemarie

 

On 10/19/2020 9:26 AM, Arlene wrote:

Rose, I don’t know about this. But in older versions of windows. You can do a scandisk fix and  what that did was fix anything that had become corrupt over time. You go to the control panel and find your c drive. You didn’t enter on it. You did alt enter. There, you check what you need scandisk fix your corrupt files and drives. Then you had to restart your computer and it took maybe an hour or depending on how big your computer hard drive is.  I’ve done this in xp and 7. In the present time  in my  case I’d have to go to This pc and there I find my c drive. I wonder if that’s the same way or is there something different in fixing your drives?  I hope this makes scence.   

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: Rosemarie Chavarria
Sent: October 19, 2020 9:20 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] my friend's problem is solved for now

 

Hi, Orlando,

 

 

You're absolutely right. I told her she needs to start learning to do

some of these things for herself. I can't be holding her hand 24/7 when

it comes to computers. Part of the problem is that when we blindies go

for computer training, we get very poor training. I taught myself pretty

much everything I know how to do because of tutorials andbeing on great

lists like this one. I'm glad I'm not a computer instructor because I

wouldn't tolerate a person saying things like "I don't know how to do

xxxx". There's no excuse for laziness. I tried to get my friend to join

different tech lists but she refuses to do so. I won't say anything more

because it may sound like I'm judging her.

 

 

Rosemarie

 

 

 

On 10/19/2020 9:09 AM, Orlando Enrique Fiol via groups.io wrote:

> At 01:44 PM 10/17/2020, Rosemarie Chavarria wrote:

> >She'll have to use narrator but she doesn't know how to check for drive

> >damage.

> 

> There's no nice way to say this; she needs to learn. Checking for hard

> drive corruption is easy and accessible, either through thee Tools 

> tab under her hard drive's properties, or using the command "choked

> /f  C:," where C: is the letter of the drive to be checked. The

> slash+F switch tells Windows to fix any scandisk errors it finds.

> She can use the Optimize Drive option on her drive's properties, which

> will check and defragment her disk.

> 

> 

> No one would get behind a steering wheel without knowing how to use

> the brakes. No one would try to use a microwave for the first time

> without becoming acquainted with the panel layout and each button's

> function. Yet, too many people, especially we "blindies," refuse to

> learn enough about computers to keep them working and resolve urgent

> problems,  preferring to leave all these matters in the hands of often

> unscrupulous technicians who may overcharge, keep computers longer

> than necessary or live too far away to be practical.

> All these circumstances demonstrate our need to become acquainted with

> everything software-related that is accessible to use. Simply saying

> we don't know how doesn't cut it anymore. we need to learn.

> 

> As an example, for years, I've been dissatisfied with my laptop's

> internal speakers, which I use exclusively for speech. The sub woofer

> never seemed to work, or only worked intermittently. The wonderful

> application Equalizer APO helped somewhat in this regard, but not

> enough. I un installed and reinstalled the Realtek drivers, trying out

> different official and unofficial versions, some of which worked

> better than others.

> 

> I learned the registry syntaxes of the Realtek and Nahimic keys,, but

> editing the values seemed to do little good.

> Finally, I learned about MN Devices, a section of the Windows registry

> where the properties for each hardware device are laid out in great

> detail. There, I found my Realtek  devices:: speakers, headphones,

> mic,digital out, etc. Under the Rendering category, I looked for any

> values between 100 and 500, since I needed to change the cutoff

> frequency to reengage the missing subwoofer. There are three such

> settings. Once, I changed them to a value of 50 hz, everything worked

> as I always wanted.

> Would the average tech have taken time, even for a fee, to hunt down

> this solution? Probably not.

> Orlando Enrique Fiol

> Charlotte, North Carolina

> Professional Pianist/Keyboardist, Percussionist and Pedagogue

> Ph.D. in Music theory

> University of Pennsylvania: November, 2018

> 

> 

> 

>

> 

> 

 

 

 

 

 

On 10/19/2020 9:26 AM, Arlene wrote:

Rose, I don’t know about this. But in older versions of windows. You can do a scandisk fix and  what that did was fix anything that had become corrupt over time. You go to the control panel and find your c drive. You didn’t enter on it. You did alt enter. There, you check what you need scandisk fix your corrupt files and drives. Then you had to restart your computer and it took maybe an hour or depending on how big your computer hard drive is.  I’ve done this in xp and 7. In the present time  in my  case I’d have to go to This pc and there I find my c drive. I wonder if that’s the same way or is there something different in fixing your drives?  I hope this makes scence.   

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: Rosemarie Chavarria
Sent: October 19, 2020 9:20 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] my friend's problem is solved for now

 

Hi, Orlando,

 

 

You're absolutely right. I told her she needs to start learning to do

some of these things for herself. I can't be holding her hand 24/7 when

it comes to computers. Part of the problem is that when we blindies go

for computer training, we get very poor training. I taught myself pretty

much everything I know how to do because of tutorials andbeing on great

lists like this one. I'm glad I'm not a computer instructor because I

wouldn't tolerate a person saying things like "I don't know how to do

xxxx". There's no excuse for laziness. I tried to get my friend to join

different tech lists but she refuses to do so. I won't say anything more

because it may sound like I'm judging her.

 

 

Rosemarie

 

 

 

On 10/19/2020 9:09 AM, Orlando Enrique Fiol via groups.io wrote:

> At 01:44 PM 10/17/2020, Rosemarie Chavarria wrote:

> >She'll have to use narrator but she doesn't know how to check for drive

> >damage.

> 

> There's no nice way to say this; she needs to learn. Checking for hard

> drive corruption is easy and accessible, either through thee Tools 

> tab under her hard drive's properties, or using the command "choked

> /f  C:," where C: is the letter of the drive to be checked. The

> slash+F switch tells Windows to fix any scandisk errors it finds.

> She can use the Optimize Drive option on her drive's properties, which

> will check and defragment her disk.

> 

> 

> No one would get behind a steering wheel without knowing how to use

> the brakes. No one would try to use a microwave for the first time

> without becoming acquainted with the panel layout and each button's

> function. Yet, too many people, especially we "blindies," refuse to

> learn enough about computers to keep them working and resolve urgent

> problems,  preferring to leave all these matters in the hands of often

> unscrupulous technicians who may overcharge, keep computers longer

> than necessary or live too far away to be practical.

> All these circumstances demonstrate our need to become acquainted with

> everything software-related that is accessible to use. Simply saying

> we don't know how doesn't cut it anymore. we need to learn.

> 

> As an example, for years, I've been dissatisfied with my laptop's

> internal speakers, which I use exclusively for speech. The sub woofer

> never seemed to work, or only worked intermittently. The wonderful

> application Equalizer APO helped somewhat in this regard, but not

> enough. I un installed and reinstalled the Realtek drivers, trying out

> different official and unofficial versions, some of which worked

> better than others.

> 

> I learned the registry syntaxes of the Realtek and Nahimic keys,, but

> editing the values seemed to do little good.

> Finally, I learned about MN Devices, a section of the Windows registry

> where the properties for each hardware device are laid out in great

> detail. There, I found my Realtek  devices:: speakers, headphones,

> mic,digital out, etc. Under the Rendering category, I looked for any

> values between 100 and 500, since I needed to change the cutoff

> frequency to reengage the missing subwoofer. There are three such

> settings. Once, I changed them to a value of 50 hz, everything worked

> as I always wanted.

> Would the average tech have taken time, even for a fee, to hunt down

> this solution? Probably not.

> Orlando Enrique Fiol

> Charlotte, North Carolina

> Professional Pianist/Keyboardist, Percussionist and Pedagogue

> Ph.D. in Music theory

> University of Pennsylvania: November, 2018

> 

> 

> 

>

> 

> 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Rosemarie Chavarria
Sent: October 19, 2020 9:20 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] my friend's problem is solved for now

 

Hi, Orlando,

 

 

You're absolutely right. I told her she needs to start learning to do

some of these things for herself. I can't be holding her hand 24/7 when

it comes to computers. Part of the problem is that when we blindies go

for computer training, we get very poor training. I taught myself pretty

much everything I know how to do because of tutorials andbeing on great

lists like this one. I'm glad I'm not a computer instructor because I

wouldn't tolerate a person saying things like "I don't know how to do

xxxx". There's no excuse for laziness. I tried to get my friend to join

different tech lists but she refuses to do so. I won't say anything more

because it may sound like I'm judging her.

 

 

Rosemarie

 

 

 

On 10/19/2020 9:09 AM, Orlando Enrique Fiol via groups.io wrote:

> At 01:44 PM 10/17/2020, Rosemarie Chavarria wrote:

> >She'll have to use narrator but she doesn't know how to check for drive

> >damage.

> 

> There's no nice way to say this; she needs to learn. Checking for hard

> drive corruption is easy and accessible, either through thee Tools 

> tab under her hard drive's properties, or using the command "choked

> /f  C:," where C: is the letter of the drive to be checked. The

> slash+F switch tells Windows to fix any scandisk errors it finds.

> She can use the Optimize Drive option on her drive's properties, which

> will check and defragment her disk.

> 

> 

> No one would get behind a steering wheel without knowing how to use

> the brakes. No one would try to use a microwave for the first time

> without becoming acquainted with the panel layout and each button's

> function. Yet, too many people, especially we "blindies," refuse to

> learn enough about computers to keep them working and resolve urgent

> problems,  preferring to leave all these matters in the hands of often

> unscrupulous technicians who may overcharge, keep computers longer

> than necessary or live too far away to be practical.

> All these circumstances demonstrate our need to become acquainted with

> everything software-related that is accessible to use. Simply saying

> we don't know how doesn't cut it anymore. we need to learn.

> 

> As an example, for years, I've been dissatisfied with my laptop's

> internal speakers, which I use exclusively for speech. The sub woofer

> never seemed to work, or only worked intermittently. The wonderful

> application Equalizer APO helped somewhat in this regard, but not

> enough. I un installed and reinstalled the Realtek drivers, trying out

> different official and unofficial versions, some of which worked

> better than others.

> 

> I learned the registry syntaxes of the Realtek and Nahimic keys,, but

> editing the values seemed to do little good.

> Finally, I learned about MN Devices, a section of the Windows registry

> where the properties for each hardware device are laid out in great

> detail. There, I found my Realtek  devices:: speakers, headphones,

> mic,digital out, etc. Under the Rendering category, I looked for any

> values between 100 and 500, since I needed to change the cutoff

> frequency to reengage the missing subwoofer. There are three such

> settings. Once, I changed them to a value of 50 hz, everything worked

> as I always wanted.

> Would the average tech have taken time, even for a fee, to hunt down

> this solution? Probably not.

> Orlando Enrique Fiol

> Charlotte, North Carolina

> Professional Pianist/Keyboardist, Percussionist and Pedagogue

> Ph.D. in Music theory

> University of Pennsylvania: November, 2018

> 

> 

> 

>

> 

> 

 

 

 

 

 

On 10/19/2020 9:09 AM, Orlando Enrique Fiol via groups.io wrote:

At 01:44 PM 10/17/2020, Rosemarie Chavarria wrote:

She'll have to use narrator but she doesn't know how to check for drive
damage.

There's no nice way to say this; she needs to learn. Checking for hard drive corruption is easy and accessible, either through thee Tools  tab under her hard drive's properties, or using the command "choked /f  C:," where C: is the letter of the drive to be checked. The slash+F switch tells Windows to fix any scandisk errors it finds.
She can use the Optimize Drive option on her drive's properties, which will check and defragment her disk.


No one would get behind a steering wheel without knowing how to use the brakes. No one would try to use a microwave for the first time without becoming acquainted with the panel layout and each button's function. Yet, too many people, especially we "blindies," refuse to learn enough about computers to keep them working and resolve urgent problems,  preferring to leave all these matters in the hands of often unscrupulous technicians who may overcharge, keep computers longer than necessary or live too far away to be practical.
All these circumstances demonstrate our need to become acquainted with everything software-related that is accessible to use. Simply saying we don't know how doesn't cut it anymore. we need to learn.

As an example, for years, I've been dissatisfied with my laptop's internal speakers, which I use exclusively for speech. The sub woofer never seemed to work, or only worked intermittently. The wonderful application Equalizer APO helped somewhat in this regard, but not enough. I un installed and reinstalled the Realtek drivers, trying out different official and unofficial versions, some of which worked better than others.

I learned the registry syntaxes of the Realtek and Nahimic keys,, but editing the values seemed to do little good.
Finally, I learned about MN Devices, a section of the Windows registry where the properties for each hardware device are laid out in great detail. There, I found my Realtek  devices:: speakers, headphones, mic,digital out, etc. Under the Rendering category, I looked for any values between 100 and 500, since I needed to change the cutoff frequency to reengage the missing subwoofer. There are three such settings. Once, I changed them to a value of 50 hz, everything worked as I always wanted.
Would the average tech have taken time, even for a fee, to hunt down this solution? Probably not.
Orlando Enrique Fiol
Charlotte, North Carolina
Professional Pianist/Keyboardist, Percussionist and Pedagogue
Ph.D. in Music theory
University of Pennsylvania: November, 2018

Hello all,

Using Office 365 for companies for some months now, I have encountered one problem accessing cell content in Braille.

When I want to edit a shared Excel file and write in a particular cell, opening it with F2, NVDA does not refresh the Braille display and I cannot correct typos with the braille display, only with the speech synthesiser.

I use last NVDA 2020.3 version with Office 365 for businesses.

Is it a known problem of NVDA or should I rather contact Microsoft?

Thank you for any experience some of you may have.

Best

Sylvie

On 2020-10-19 4:55 a.m., Martin O'Sullivan wrote:

Well I have managed to resolve the problem.

I used the following command to give NVDA a Realtime priority on the system.

wmic process where name="nvda.exe" CALL set priority 256

NVDA is working faster than it ever did.

The reason I was using task manager is that NVDA was slow.

I also found out why NVDA was slow.  Looks like my company is running some sort of data processing screen saver in the background (World Community Grid) which is working on testing for bloody covid.  So, I am giving NVDA higher priority than a deadly virus.

On 2020-10-19 4:55 a.m., Martin O'Sullivan wrote:

Well I have managed to resolve the problem.

I used the following command to give NVDA a Realtime priority on the system.

wmic process where name="nvda.exe" CALL set priority 256

NVDA is working faster than it ever did.

The reason I was using task manager is that NVDA was slow.

I also found out why NVDA was slow.  Looks like my company is running some sort of data processing screen saver in the background (World Community Grid) which is working on testing for bloody covid.  So, I am giving NVDA higher priority than a deadly virus.

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Doc Wright godfearer
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2020 8:17 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: [nvda] control+f


Supposedly this key command performs a find in page. unfortunately, it does not exist in the users guide. using the command without the nvda key does not do anything useful.
******
Jesus says, follow me and I'll help you through the rough spots.
the world says, hey come with me. My way is broad and easy. So what if you get crap on your shoes. You can always wash it off, can't you!



Family times where there is fun for every ear!
http://stream.wrighthere.net:8000/stream.mp3

Or ask your A device to play Family times on tuneIn
You can also find us on your mobile device install OoTunes and search for Family times

Well I have managed to resolve the problem.

I used the following command to give NVDA a Realtime priority on the system.

wmic process where name="nvda.exe" CALL set priority 256

NVDA is working faster than it ever did.

The reason I was using task manager is that NVDA was slow.

I also found out why NVDA was slow.  Looks like my company is running some sort of data processing screen saver in the background (World Community Grid) which is working on testing for bloody covid.  So, I am giving NVDA higher priority than a deadly virus.

-----Original Message-----
From: Quentin Christensen
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2020 4:01 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA Settings Documentation


Hi everyone,

Lots of good points here. So firstly, from a very simplistic view - if there are any settings which experienced people such as yourselves can't get an explanation of from the User Guide, then that's definitely something we should address. Please either let me know (or file a GitHub issue) as you find examples.

Re the user guide being too thick and heavy for new users to get start with - that's largely because that's not who it is really aimed at. For a lot of users, the Basic Training for NVDA would be the best place to start. There is potentially a gap for a short "quick start" guide, and I'd be happy to explore that further with anyone who has ideas on the subject.

Joseph, re some sort of training for new contributors - that too is a great idea, and I'd be happy to work further with you on it.

I've made a note to follow all of this up (since it's into the evening here and I'm trying to figure out book week costumes while getting the kids to bed).


On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 10:44 AM Robert Doc Wright godfearer <godfearer@comcast.net> wrote:

Where I need direction on what I need to study in order to be a tech writer for NVDA. I believe that once I understand something I can teach it to anyone. My stumbling block is that I have had some programming classes but that was twenty years ago. I taught myself basic web design from a book. What do I need to know to be of help where the users guide is concerned?
******
Jesus says, follow me and I'll help you through the rough spots.
the world says, hey come with me. My way is broad and easy. So what if you get crap on your shoes. You can always wash it off, can't you!


Family times where there is fun for every ear!
http://stream.wrighthere.net:8000/stream.mp3

Or ask your A device to play Family times on tuneIn
You can also find us on your mobile device install OoTunes and search for Family times
----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph Lee
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2020 1:45 PM
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA Settings Documentation


Hi,

Agreed (that’s one of the reasons why I comment a lot in my add-on source code).

One holiday wish I have (possibly a long-term wish) is to help folks get started on revamping the NVDA community documentation. At least this can include add-on user guides, but I foresee a day where the screen reader user guide would not escape this rewrite in hopes of making it more relevant for users. I would go so far as ask NVDA code contributors to add extensive documentation in source code itself – it is now possible to do it easily with help from a module called Sphinx, a source code based documentation generator. There are major issues to consider, however:

Who is the target audience: thinking about this changes the game, as it will dictate tone, style, word usage, and organization of the document and supplemental materials.
Mindset of code contributors: are we just software developers or technical authors? Some people would argue that developers should focus on programming and testing, leaving the task of documenting what developers wrote to technical authors, and this separation of concerns may foster better communication amongst team members. On the other hand, by forcing developers to become technical authors, they can make crucial decisions about the user-visible aspects of a given product a bit early.
How can we show we accept diversity in terms of culture, language, skill level, and other factors: although the community documentation was written by NV Access people at first, it is increasingly written by people from diverse backgrounds in terms of culture, language, skill level, and other factors (although I did receive training on technical communication and software development, I’m not a native English speaker). This is more so for parts that are written by people who may have different interpretation about a UI message or concepts, more so if the author’s native language is not English (the reverse is true for translators as they need to grasp concepts written in English in their native languages).



My responses to the above questions are:

Who is the target audience: it varies. For NVDA user guide, it is users with differing skill levels. For add-on guides, they target end users. For this reason, whenever I edit the NVDA user guide or add-on guides, I think about what users expect and NVDA’s response. This changes if we’re dealing with a document meant for developers (such as add-on internals and such).
Mindset of code contributors: I believe that, as much as programming skills is important, willingness to communicate with audiences (users, other contributors, industry experts, etc.) is also important. One way to practice both is thinking and writing to and about users, therefore I tend to fall into a bit of the latter category from above: programming is, in one way or another, writing. Python is just one of the more specialized languages used to communicate with another entity (the machine), and if one can teach a computer to do something (along with fixing mistakes), it would be possible to train developers to respect users more by writing good documentation (of course someone may need to look at the documentation for style and such). My philosophy partly stems from my experiences as a former computer science major at a college I attended (different from the one I’m about to graduate from): my first computer science professor stressed the importance of source code comments and documentation, and I still practice this lesson today, which fuels my overall frustration with the current state of NVDA user guide and source code documentation in general. I think one exercise code contributors can do before submitting anything to GitHub (specifically, pull; requests) is writing an early user facing documentation, because doing so helps you improve your writing skills and think carefully about the impact of your changes when users meet them (I sometimes find myself struggling for minutes to hours over UI messages and documentation for this reason; I know what my code will do, but I hit a roadblock when explaining what I’ve done to would-be users before actually writing code).
How can we show we are a group of people coming from diverse backgrounds: I think this goal was somewhat achieved when we look at recent NVDA work – many new features and bug fixes included in NVDA 2020.3 were written by someone other than an NV Access staff member, from people living in different countries and speaking many languages. But I know that we can improve on that somehow.



Another wish I have, mostly for Quentin: can we develop some sort of a training program for would-be contributors wishing to improve the overall NVDA community documentation, including the user guide? It may include basics on technical writing, tone and style, audience analysis, exercises where coding and documentation should be done together, and documentation production in a variety of formats (including online media). I think this may help us dive deeper into user guide issues being brought up, including the guide being “too thick” for newbies (in terms of understanding, lack of solid examples, and friendliness), especially for preferences chapter.

Cheers,

Joseph









From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Brian Vogel
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2020 11:56 AM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA Settings Documentation





Joseph,

While I applaud your efforts, and tutorials are invaluable, I wasn't even going that far. I'm talking basic documentation, where each item in a panel/pane/settings group in a given pane are briefly documented. There are myriad NVDA settings that, if their actual function is not directly obvious, which is the case, for example, with most checkboxes, then they're a black hole.

Even I will admit that for all software it is a limited number of end users who refer to this sort of thing. That being said, some do, and it serves as a very important basis for new developers to develop depth of knowledge of "what's in there and what it's for."

I was just commenting to someone for whom I've done custom VBA scripting for Outlook that I am eternally grateful to myself for having developed the habit of rigorously commenting my code, at a bare minimum, as even I would have no idea what some of what I've written actually does when looking at it much later. Complex stuff doesn't remain in "off the top of my head" mode (for most "mes") as time moves on. That's one of the reasons that basic documentation is so important.
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 2004, Build 19041

It’s hard waking up and realizing it’s not always black and white.

~ Kelley Boorn

















--

Quentin Christensen
Training and Support Manager


Web: www.nvaccess.org
Training: https://www.nvaccess.org/shop/
Certification: https://certification.nvaccess.org/
User group: https://nvda.groups.io/g/nvda
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NVAccess
Twitter: @NVAccess

If she presses control+alt+n does she hear the NVDA startup sound?  If she does, and there is no speech, then as Chris suggested, it could be she has disabled speech inadvertently.  In that case, she could press NVDA+control+r three times quickly to reset NVDA back to factory defaults.

If NVDA isn't running, she could press WINDOWS+CONTROL+ENTER to start Narrator to find it.

On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 3:15 AM Rosemarie Chavarria <knitqueen2007@...> wrote:

Hi, everyone,


A friend of mine is having a problem with her computer and NVDA
crashing. She just called me and said when she turns on her computer,
she gets the windows sounds but no speech. I had her do a couple of
things like hitting alt control N to bring NVDA back up. I also had her
hit her windows logo key and type NVDA in the search box. Nothing we did
brought NVDA back up. What can she try?


Thanks so much for your help in advance.


Rosemarie

--

Quentin Christensen
Training and Support Manager

Web: www.nvaccess.org 

Training: https://www.nvaccess.org/shop/

Certification: https://certification.nvaccess.org/

User group: https://nvda.groups.io/g/nvda

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NVAccess 
Twitter: @NVAccess