Introduction and getting started with SpeakOn:
SpeakOn contains four main elements: applications, tasks, controls and menus. The functions of these are explained below. The first three form a hierarchical structure where applications contain tasks and tasks contain controls.
There are four menus. The Main menu is used routinely and there are other menus which provide help functionality.
In SpeakOn, the focus is always on one of the controls or a menu item. The only way to communicate with a SpeakOn application or task is by using the control or the menu item that has the focus.
Applications
A SpeakOn application is equivalent in concept to an application under Microsoft Windows or the Apple Mac. Currently there are five applications in SpeakOn; the Manager (which is automatically launched when starting SpeakOn), the Media Centre, Radio Time, Last FM and VI Services applications.
An application performs a group of related tasks.
The user can start an application and end an application when no longer required. The application used is termed the current application.
Tasks
As the name implies, tasks perform related operations within an application. For example, the Media Centre application contains two tasks; the Listener task and the Finder task. The Listener task allows the user to listen to media and the Finder task allows the user to find media to play.
To switch between tasks, press the 'Task' [Ctrl + Tab] (1) key. The task you switch to is termed the current task.
Each task contains one or more controls.
Controls
Controls are elements within a task to perform a specific operation. For example, the Finder task above contains one control named 'Library' of the type 'Tree' which allows the user to navigate a tree-like structure of directories to find media to listen to.
The user can operate only one control at a time and this is the control that has the focus. To move the focus between controls, press the 'Focus' [Tab] (3) key (this is the SpeakOn Focus navigation key - do not confuse this with the [Ctrl] key on the standard keyboard). The control that has the focus is termed the current control.
The user operates the controls using the context keys and SpeakOn responds with speech.
There are nine controls: Message, Action, List, Check List, Options, Change, Edit, Tree and Player. The operation of these is explained as part of the 'Tutorial' section and also summarised in the section 'Reference - Operating SpeakOn' on the page 'Controls' operations reference'.
Menus
A Menu always starts with a vertical list of menu items. Each menu item can have sub menus containing other menu items of related operations and so on.
There are four menus as follows:
1. Main menu - a context-sensitive menu which relates to the current appplication, task and control.
2. Help menu - contains a list of all help functions.
3. Main Keys menu - contains a list of all Main keys and their associated commands
4. Control Context Keys menu - a context-sensitive menu which contains a list of the current control's specific context keys and their associated commands.
The functionality of these menus is described below:
The Main menu is the one you will use most. It contains operations relating to the current application task and control. It usually also contains an item to end the current task or the current application. When operated from the Manager application it contains an item to shutdown SpeakOn itself.
The Help menu contains a list of all help facilities in SpeakOn including the menus mentioned below.
The Main Keys menu and the Control Context Keys menu help you remember the keys and their associated commands. By scrolling through these menus you can remind yourself of the keys available and their functionality. You can also run the various key commands directly from these menus by selecting the key you want. As you become familiar with SpeakOn's key commands, you will use these keys menus less and less.