By Michelel Castle on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 03:29 pm:

Most of you may already been using this and think me a
fool for just figuring it out, but in the event othors
don't know, I thougt I'd share.

Wicrosoft Windows versions 95 and later have an
accesibility pack with some features I've found
helpful. If you have it installed, it'll be in the
control panel called accessibility. You can make fonts
easier to see, eliminate the need to hold control,
alt, and shift down, and more.

The lifesaver for me is "MouseKeys" which allows you
to control the mouse position and click with the
numeric keypad. So much of my computer related pain is
from mouse use, I was trying to find alternative
pointing devices or voice software to navigate
programs (hitting tab and arrow keys repeatedly and
keyboard shortcuts weren't enough for me).

Another thing I'm experimenting with is a "dvorak"
keyboard layout instead of the typical "querty". I
moved the letters on an extra keyboard to match the
right-hand only layout, and changed layouts under
control panel \ keyboard settings. It's frustrating to
re-learn the layout when I could type so fast the
other wey, but the most frequently used keys are
easier to reach. Once I get my left hand out of the
cast, I'll switch to the two handed layout on my split
keyboard.

Do you already use these features? What else helps you
have easier computing?

Michelle

By Myke on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 09:46 pm:

FYI: Shift+Tab goes back a field.

WindowButton + R: Run Dialog
WindowButton + F: Find Dialog
WindowButton + E: Explorer
WindowButton + M: Minimize all windows