Internet Explorer 7 Guide
A guide for Jaws users, written by David Bailes at Chorlton Workshop for
hsbp.
More guides are available on the
Jaws Guides page
of the VIP Software Guides website.
Contents
Introduction
This is a guide to the web browser Internet Explorer version 7,
running under Windows XP. To use this version of Internet Explorer,
you'll need Jaws 7.10 or later, and preferably Jaws 8.0 or later.
The new features in version 7 include:
- Tabbed browsing,
which allows you to have a number of web pages
open in a single Internet Explorer window, and to easily move
between them.
- A Search box on one of the toolbars,
which you can use to conveniently search either the web,
or websites such as Wikipedia.
- A feed reader is now included in Internet Explorer.
- The Favorites Center,
in which you can open your favorites, recently visited web pages (history),
and your subscribed feeds.
The first time you open Internet Explorer after you've installed it,
you're automatically taken to a web page which has brief descriptions
of some of the new features, and which leads to a number of pages
where you have to choose a small number of settings. These pages
are described in detail in the
Customise your settings pages.
On subsequent times, when you open Internet Explorer it displays
it's “Home” page. You can set this home page to whatever
web page you want, as described in the
Browser home page section.
Main Window
This section describes the main window of Internet Explorer,
and how to move around it.
Components of the window
- Title bar. The title bar contains
the title of the web page, followed by the
name of the program — Internet Explorer. To read the title
bar, press INSERT + T.
- First toolbar, which includes the address bar, and is
described in the next section.
- Menu bar.
- Second toolbar, which is described in the
Second toolbar section below.
- Information bar, if it's being displayed. The information bar
if used for displaying security alerts, and is described in the
Information bar section below.
- Web page pane. Displays the web page
whose address is shown in the address bar.
- Status bar. You can
read the status bar by pressing INSERT + PAGE DOWN
The first toolbar contains the following groups of controls:
- Back and Forward buttons (ALT + LEFT ARROW
and ALT + RIGHT ARROW).
- The address bar is an edit-combo box which contains
the address of the web page which is displayed in the content pane.
To read the address bar, press INSERT + A.
- Refresh (F5) and Stop (ESC) buttons.
- Search box (CTRL + E).
- Search split-button. Press the button to search,
or DOWN ARROW to open the Search Options menu.
In practice you never need to use this split button, as all
the functions are available from the Search box by using the
appropriate keystrokes.
Normally, you'll move to these controls directly using their
shortcuts, but you can move around this toolbar, and the Second toolbar
by using standard navigation keystrokes. To move between the groups
of controls use TAB
and SHIFT + TAB, and to move within the groups
use LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW.
Note that you can't move to the Back and Forward buttons, the only
way of pressing these is to use their shortcuts.
This section describes the Second toolbar, and can safely
be omitted on the first reading of this guide.
The second toolbar contains the following groups of controls:
- Favorites Center and Add to Favorites buttons.
- Buttons for tabbed browsing:
- Quick Tabs (CTRL + Q).
- Tab List (CTRL + SHIFT + Q).
- Buttons for each of the open tabs.
- New Tab (CTRL + T).
- Command bar, which contains:
- Home split button. Pressing the button takes you to
the browser's home page, and pressing DOWN ARROW
opens the Home menu. The Home menu has shortcut
ALT + M.
- Feeds split button, which is only available if there are
one or more feeds on the page. Pressing the button goes to the first
feed, and pressing DOWN ARROW opens the
Feeds menu which contains the feeds on the page. The Feeds
menu has the shortcut ALT + J.
- Print split button. Pressing the button prints the page,
and pressing DOWN ARROW opens the Print
menu. The Print menu has the shortcut ALT + R.
- Page button (ALT + P), which opens the Page menu.
The items on this menu can all be found on the menus of the menu bar.
- Tools button (ALT + O), which opens a Tools menu.
The items on this menu are different from those on the Tools menu on
the menu bar, but they can all be found on the menus of the menu bar.
- Help button (ALT + L), which opens a Help menu,
which is the same as the Help menu on the menu bar.
Moving around the window
- To move to the menu bar, press ALT,
and to leave it, press ESC or ALT.
- To move to the address bar which is part of the First toolbar,
press ALT + D. Note that this also selects
the text in the address bar.
- Pressing F6 cycles you round the following
components:
- First toolbar.
- Second toolbar.
- Web page pane, or the Information bar
if it's being displayed.
Pressing SHIFT + F6 moves you in the opposite direction.
Note that if the web page contains frames, then F6
also moves you through the frames on the web page.
- Pressing TAB cycles you round the following:
- The groups of controls on the First toolbar.
- The groups of controls on the Second toolbar.
- The Information bar, if it's being displayed.
- The links and controls in the web page.
Pressing SHIFT + TAB moves you in the opposite
direction.
Reading a web page
- When you move to a web page, Jaws normally starts reading it from
the top of the page. You can press CTRL + HOME,
which stops Jaws reading, and takes you to the top of the page.
You can then navigate to the information you want to read, as
described in the next section.
- When you move to some web pages, such as Google or a page
where you have to sign in, rather than Jaws reading it from
the top of the page, the initial focus is the appropriate
edit box.
- You can use all the standard keystrokes for reading text.
- If you are reading a line at a time, a link appears on its
own line.
- If a web page tries to do something that might be unsafe,
then Internet Explorer alerts you to this by using the Information
bar, which is described in the
Information bar section below.
For more information about reading and interacting with the
HTML elements on a web page, see the separate
HTML
guide.
Moving around a web page
- To move to the top or bottom of a page, press
CTRL + HOME or CTRL + END,
respectively.
- Quick navigation keys, like H to move to the next heading.
- Lists of HTML elements. For example, INSERT + F7
opens a dialog box containing a list of the links on the page.
- This page links, like the “skip to content” link at the
top of the page on some web sites.
- Find. Press CTRL + F to open the Jaws
find dialog, and F3 to Find next.
For more information on moving around a web page, see the separate
HTML
Page Navigation guide.
The Information bar is used for displaying warnings about security
related conditions. When a web page tries to do something that might
be unsafe, like install an ActiveX control, open a pop-up window,
or download a file, the Information bar appears between the second
toolbar and the web page. It contains an brief description of the
warning, and often an invitation to click the bar for various options.
After you've installed IE7, when the Information bar appears,
a dialog box with the title Information Bar also opens. This asks
you whether you've noticed the Information bar. The dialog
contains a “Don't show this message again” checkbox,
which you'll probably want to check. There's also a
“Learn about the Information Bar” link which opens
Help at the relevant page. Press ENTER to close
the dialog.
When the Information bar appears, then apart from the dialog box
described above:
- Jaws reads the Information bar.
- If you want to move to the Information bar so you can
click for options, press ALT + N ( or press
F6 three times).
- Press SPACEBAR to open a pop-up menu,
and choose an option.
Navigation
There are several ways of moving to another web page:
- Type a web address in the address bar. Press ALT + D,
which moves you to the address bar, and selects the text in the
address bar. Then type in the address and press ENTER.
- Use the Search box. Press CTRL + E
to move to the Search box, type in one or more search terms,
and then press ENTER. More details are given in the
Search box section.
- Go to one of the web pages in your Favorites. Press
CTRL + I to open the Favorites page of the
Favorites Center, and then choose a web page. More details about
Favorites are given in the
Favorites section.
- Go to a web page which you've visited recently. Press
CTRL + H to open the History page of the
Favorites Center, and then choose a web page. More details are
given in the History section.
- Open a link on a web page. To open a link,
press ENTER.
- Go Back and Forward, by pressing ALT + LEFT ARROW
and ALT + RIGHT ARROW respectively. Going back,
retraces your path of web pages, ending up with the page
with which the tab (page) opened. Once you have gone back, you can
also go forward again.
- Go to your Home page, by pressing ALT + HOME.
Instructions for setting the Home page are given in the
Browser home page section of
the Internet options dialog section below.
- Open an HTML file on your computer. Press CTRL + O,
and an Open dialog opens with the initial focus on an open edit box.
Rather than type in the full path of the file, it's easier to
TAB to the Browse button and press it. A dialog
with the title Microsoft Internet Explorer opens, which the
same structure as a standard Open dialog. Select a file,
and press ENTER to press the default Open button.
You are returned to the Open dialog,
and press ENTER to press the default OK button.
Search box
You can use the Search box, which is on the first toolbar,
to search either the web, or often used websites like Wikipedia.
It's a convenient alternative to going to the appropriate web page,
and using the search edit box on that page.
To search using the Search box:
- Press CTRL + E to move to the Search box.
- Type in your search terms. (You don't have to go into forms
mode to do this, as you're on a toolbar, not on a web page.)
- Press ENTER.
When you search using the Search box, you use the search of
a particular search provider, like Google or Microsoft's Live Search.
When you move to the Search box, Jaws says the name of the current
search provider: for example “Live search edit” or
“Google edit”. Internet Explorer has a list of
available search providers, and you can choose
which of these you want to use as your current search provider.
In addition, one of these search providers is set
as your default search provider: the current search provider is
set to this each time you start Internet Explorer.
After you've installed Internet Explorer 7, the list of
available search providers may contain only a single search
provider, Microsoft's Live Search. However, you can easily add
other search providers to this list, as described in the
Adding a search provider section below.
To view the available search
providers, go to the Search box (CTRL + E),
and press CTRL + DOWN ARROW to open the
Search Options menu. On this menu:
- The items on the menu before the “Find on this Page”
item are the available search providers.
- The default search provider is indicated by Default in parenthesis
after the search provider.
- The current search provider is indicated by the item being
checked. If you select a search provider on this menu, and press
ENTER, this becomes your current search provider.
If you don't want to change your current search provider,
close the menu by pressing ESC.
The following sections describe how to change the current search
provider, and manage the list of available search providers.
Changing the current search provider
When you move to the Search box, Jaws reads the name of the
current search provider. To change the current search provider,
with the focus in the Search box, press CTRL + DOWN ARROW to
open the Search Options menu, and choose a provider.
Adding a search provider
To add a search provider to the list of available search providers:
- Press CTRL + E to move to the Search edit box.
- Press CTRL + DOWN ARROW to open the Search Options menu, and
choose Find More Providers.
- You are moved to a web page which has the title Add Search
Providers to Internet Explorer 7. Unfortunately the accessibility
of this page could be better. Move to first and only heading on the
page. Following this are links for various providers, which you
can TAB through. The first few are providers
which search the whole web, and this is followed by providers
which search particular sites, like Wikipedia. Move to one
of the links and press ENTER.
- An Add Search Provider dialog opens. The dialog's default
button is Cancel, so TAB to the Add Provider
button, and press it.
Setting the default search provider
- Press CTRL + E to move to the Search edit box.
- Press CTRL + DOWN to open the Search Options menu,
and choose Change Search Defaults.
- The Change Search Defaults dialog opens. The first control
is a list of your search providers, where the default provider is
appended by the word the word Default in parenthesis. Select
the provider which you want to be your default, and then
TAB to the Set Default button and press it.
- TAB to the OK button, and press it.
Removing a search provider
You can remove a search provider using the Change Search Defaults
dialog which was described in the previous section. In this
dialog, select a provider, then TAB to the
Remove button and press it.
Downloading
When you open a link to a file such as a word document, a pdf,
or an application, a File Download dialog opens. The exact form
of the dialog depends on the type of the file:
- If you open a link to an application, then a dialog with
the title File Download – Security Warning opens. This
gives you the options of either running the program directly
from the web, or saving it. The default button is Cancel,
so you have to TAB to either the Run or the
Save button and press it.
- If you open a link to a file such as a word document or a pdf,
then a dialog with the title File Download opens. This gives you
options of either opening the file using the default program for
the given file type, or saving it. The default button is Cancel,
so you have to TAB to the Open or Save button
and press it.
Note that this dialog also contains an “Always ask
before opening this type of file” checkbox, which by
default is checked. If you uncheck it, and then press Open
or Save, then the next time you open a link to this type
of file, Windows automatically either opens or saves the file,
depending on your choice above. You're no longer given the
option of whether to open or save.
If you've pressed the Save button in either of two dialogs
described above, then:
- A standard Save As dialog opens. When you're happy with
the settings, press ENTER to press the default
Save button.
- A dialog opens which contains information about the
progress of the download. During the download, the title of
the dialog is “x% of somename.sometype”, and
Jaws automatically reads out this percentage from time to time.
When the download is complete, Jaws says 100%, and the title
of the dialog changes to Download complete. Note that if the
download looks as if it's going to take a long time, you can
do other things, and then use ALT + TAB to
switch back to the dialog to check whether it's finished.
Once the download is complete, you can either press
ENTER to press the default Close button, or
TAB to the Open button and press it to
immediately open the file.
Tabbed browsing
The tabbed browsing feature in Internet Explorer 7 lets you
have a number of web pages open at the same time within a single
program window, and lets you easily move between these pages. If
you don't find this feature useful, you can turn it off, as described
in the tabbed browsing options section below.
Each open web page has a corresponding tab button on the second
toolbar. When describing tabbed browsing, pages are often referred to as tabs,
as in “opening a new tab”. Also, the page with the
focus is often referred to as being in the foreground, and the
other tabs as being in the background.
Opening tabs
- To open a new blank tab in the foreground, press
CTRL + T. The initial focus is the address bar.
After installing Internet Explorer 7,
the title of the new page is Welcome to tabbed browsing, and
the page contains a brief introduction to tabbed browsing. The
page also contains a checkbox “Don't show this page again”
which by default is unchecked. If you check this, and move to
the Close button on the next line and press it, then in future the new page has
the title Blank Page, and is blank.
- To open a new tab when you open a link, press either
CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER or CTRL + ENTER
to open in the tab in the foreground or background respectively.
- To open a new tab from the Favorites Center
(Favourites, History, or Feeds), press either
CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER or CTRL + ENTER
to open in the tab in the foreground or background respectively.
- To open a new tab from the address bar or the search box,
press ALT + ENTER. The new tab is in the foreground.
Switching between tabs
- To move to the next or previous tab, press
CTRL + TAB or CTRL + SHIFT + TAB
respectively.
- Press the Tab List button on the second toolbar
(CTRL + SHIFT + Q), which opens a menu containing the titles
of the tabs. To move to a tab, choose it from the menu.
- To move to the first, second, third, etc. tab press
CTRL + 1, CTRL + 2,
CTRL + 3 etc. This works up to the eighth tab.
- To move to the last tab, press CTRL + 9
Closing tabs
- The close the current tab, press CTRL + W
or CTRL + F4. Note that if only one tab is
open, then these keystrokes also close the program.
- To close all the tabs apart from the current tab,
press CTRL + ALT + F4.
Tabbed browsing options
- Open the Internet Options dialog, which is on the Tools menu.
- On the General page, press the Settings button in the Tabs section.
- The Tabbed Browser Settings dialog opens. There are numerous options,
which include:
- An “Enable Tabbed Browsing” checkbox,
which is checked by default.
- A “Warn me when closing multiple tabs” checkbox, which is
checked by default. If this is checked, then when you
close the program with more than one tab open, a message
box opens with the title Internet Explorer, asking you
whether you want to close all tabs. The default button
is Close Tabs.
- A “When a pop-up is encountered” set of radio buttons.
By default this is set to Always open pop-ups in a new window, but you might
want to change this to one of the other alternatives.
When you've made your changes, press ENTER
to press the default OK button.
- You're returned to the Internet Options dialog. TAB
to the OK button, and press it.
Favorites center
The Favorites Center, despite its name, is used for opening
recently visited web pages and subscribed feeds, as well as favorite
web pages. This section gives a brief overview of the Favorites
Center, and then the next three main sections of the guide give
detailed descriptions of its use for Favorites, History, and Feeds.
The Favorites Center is normally closed, but when opened, it
appears below the second toolbar, on the left hand side of the
window. The Center contains the following controls:
- A toolbar containing Favorites and Feeds buttons, and a
History split button. To move between these buttons, use
the arrow keys.
- A tree view of either Favorites, Feeds, or History, depending
on which button is pressed on the toolbar.
- Either a Pin Favorites Center button, or Close the
Favorites Center button.
You can think of the Favorites Center having multiple pages,
like a multi-page dialog box. The pages each contain a single control:
a tree view of favorites, or subscribed feeds, or recently visited
web pages.
Opening and closing the Favorites Center
There are keystrokes for opening the Favorites Center on each of
the three pages:
- CTRL + I opens the Favorites page.
- CTRL + J opens the Feeds page.
- CTRL + H opens the History page.
If you use one of these keystrokes to open the Favorites Center and
select a web page, then when you press ENTER to open
the web page, the Favorites Center automatically closes. If you
open the Favorites Center, and then decide you don't want to open
a web page, press ESC to close the Favorites Center.
When the Favorites Center is open, and you want to move to
a different page, it's easier to use the keystrokes given above than
to TAB to the toolbar and press one of the buttons.
Note that it's possible to pin the Favorites Center open so that
it doesn't automatically close when you open a web page, but
this isn't normally very useful if you're using a screen reader.
You can pin open the Favorites Center either by pressing
the Pin Favorites Center button in the Favorites Center,
or by adding the SHIFT key to
the above keystrokes for opening the Favorites Center. For example,
if you press CTRL + SHIFT + I this opens the
Favorites page of the Favorites Center, and pins it open, and you
can close it using the same keystroke. You can also close it by
pressing the Close button in the Favorites Center. If the Favorites Center
is pinned open, then if you use F6 or
TAB to cycle through the components of the main
window, then the Favorites Center is included in this cycle, and
comes after the second toolbar.
Tree view navigation
You can navigate the tree view in the Favorites Center using
all the standard keystrokes for navigating a tree view:
- UP and DOWN ARROW,
HOME and END, and the first letter
of the folder or web page you want to find.
- LEFT ARROW has two uses: if you're focussed
on an open folder, it closes it; else it moves you up the list
to the parent folder.
- RIGHT ARROW also has two uses: if you're
focussed on a closed folder, it opens it; else if you you're
focussed on an open folder, it moves you down to the first
child folder or web page.
Favorites
If you visit a particular web page often, or want to make a note
of a web page for future reference, you can add it to a list of
“favorite” web pages. You can then easily open the
web page from that list, without having to remember and type in
its web address.
Adding a web page to your favorites
- Choose Add to Favorites from the Favorites menu
(CTRL + D).
- The Add Favorite dialog opens. The first control is an edit
box for the name of the favorite. By default it's the title
of the web page, but if you want, just type in a different name.
- Press ENTER to press the default Add button.
Opening a favorite web page
- Press CTRL + I to open the Favorites page
of the Favorites Center.
- In the tree view of your favorites, select a favorite, and
press ENTER to open it. If you decide that
you don't want to open one of your favorites, just press
ESC to close the Favorites Center.
Note that as in Internet Explorer 6, you can also open a favorite
web page from the Favorites menu (ALT + A).
Using folders to organise your favorites
If you end up with a large number of favorites, you can use
folders to organise your favorites.
You can create a new folder in the Favorites page of the
Favorites Center, as described in the next section, or you can
press the New Folder button in the Add a Favorite dialog.
To add a web page to a particular folder in your favorites,
in the Add a Favorite dialog box, there's a Create in combo
box immediately following the Name edit box which you can use to specify
the folder.
Managing favorites
First, press CTRL + I to open the Favorites
page of the Favorites Center, then:
- To rename a selected favorite, choose Rename from its shortcut
menu or press F2, type in the new name,
and press ENTER.
- To delete a selected favorite, press delete. A message box
with the title Confirm File Delete opens, asking whether you're
sure. Press ENTER to press the Yes button. Note
that the Favorites center will now be closed (unless it's pinned
open) so if you want to get back to your favorites, you'll have
to press CTRL + I again.
- To move a selected favorite up or down the tree at the same
level, press ALT + UP ARROW or ALT + DOWN ARROW
respectively.
- To create a new folder at the top level of the tree,
select any favorite or closed folder at this level,
and choose Create New Folder from its shortcut menu. Type in
a name for the folder, and then press ENTER.
- To move a selected favorite or folder to another folder,
choose Cut from its shortcut menu, select the folder where
you want to move it to, and choose Paste from its shortcut menu.
As well as being able to manage your favorites using the
Favorites page of the Favorites Center, alternatives are:
- Use the Organize Favorites dialog, which you can open
by choosing Organize Favorites on the Favorites menu
(CTRL + B).
- Use Windows Explorer. Your favorites are stored in a Folder called
Favorites, and each favorite is stored as a file.
To Open Windows Explorer with your Favorites folder selected:
open the Favorites menu in Internet Explorer; select
Organise Favorites, and then press SHIFT + ENTER,
rather than just ENTER.
History
To open a recently visited web page:
- Press CTRL + H to open the History page
of the Favorites Center.
- In the tree view of your recently visited web pages,
select a web page, and press ENTER to open it.
If you decide that you don't want to open one of these pages, just press
ESC to close the Favorites Center.
By default, Internet Explorer keeps a list of visited pages for
the last 20 days, but this period can be changed in the Internet Options
dialog box, as described in the
History options section below.
The following sections describe the different views of the
visited web pages, how to search them, and history options.
Views
On the History page of the Favorites Center, the recently
visited web pages can have the following views:
- By Date. The items at the top level of the tree view are a mixture
of days and weeks, for example, Today, Tuesday, Last Week. If
you open one of these items, then its children are the websites
visited on that day/week. If you open one of these websites, then
its children are the web pages which you visited on that
website.
- By Site. The items at the top level of the tree view are
the recently visited websites, and these are sorted
alphabetically. If you open one of these websites, then its
children are the web pages which you visited on that website.
- By Most Visited. A list of the most visited web pages, with
the most visited web page at the top of the list.
- By Order Visited Today. A list of the web pages visited today,
with the most recent at the top.
To change the view of the recently visited web pages:
- TAB or SHIFT + TAB
to the toolbar of the Favorites center.
- Press LEFT ARROW to move to the History
split button.
- Press DOWN ARROW to open the History menu,
and choose one of the views.
Search History
- TAB or SHIFT + TAB
to the toolbar of the Favorites center.
- Press LEFT ARROW to move to the History
split button.
- Press DOWN ARROW to open the menu,
and choose Search History.
- In the Search for edit box, type in your search terms, and
press ENTER.
- TAB twice to move to the list of web pages
which have been found, and press ENTER to open
one of them.
History Options
To set the number of days Internet Explorer keeps visited web
pages in History:
- Open the Internet Options dialog which is on the Tools menu.
- On the General page, press the Settings button in the
Browsing history section of the page.
- A Temporary Internet Files and History dialog opens. In the
History section, you can change the “Days to keep pages in
history” edit spinbox. Press ENTER to press the
default OK button.
- You're returned to the Internet Options dialog box.
TAB to the OK button and press it.
Feeds
Feeds are used by websites to inform anyone who is interested
that new content is available. They are also known as RSS feeds,
and web feeds.
When a website has some new content, it can put information about this
as a new item in a feed, which is just a file which available from
the website. If you tell a feed reader, such as the feed reader
in IE7, to monitor that feed, then it checks the feed at
regular intervals and downloads and stores any new items. Every so
often, you can open your feed reader, check whether there are
any new items in any of the feeds that you're monitoring, and
read them.
Feeds can contain information about different types of new content:
News and blog feeds contain information about new articles,
whereas podcast feeds contain information about new audio files which
are available. Internet Explorer can be used both for news/blog feeds and
podcast feeds.
The feeds which a feed reader monitors are known as subscribed
feeds, even though normally no money is involved. The following
sections describe how to find feeds, subscribe to feeds, and then view and manage
these subscribed feeds.
Finding feeds
There are two ways of finding feeds:
- Using Internet Explorer's feed detection, which is described below.
- On some web pages there are links to feeds.
When you move to a web page, if Internet Explorer detects that
there are feeds available, then:
- Jaws version 8 and above says RSS Feeds.
- There's an option in Internet Explorer to make a sound, as
described in the
Feed Settings dialog section below.
- For sighted users, the Feeds button on the second toolbar
changes colour.
If you press the Feeds menu button on the second toolbar
(ALT + J) a menu opens which contains the
available feeds. There are a couple of reasons why there may be more than one
feed available on a web page:
- Feeds can be in two different main formats, RSS and Atom,
so a web page may offer the same feed in both formats.
Internet Explorer can read both formats, so just choose either
of them.
- A web page may have feeds with different content, for
example a news feed, an article feed, and a podcast feed.
Choose one of these feeds, and you're taken to
a feed page, where there's an option to subscribe to the feed,
as described in the next section.
Subscribing to feeds
If you choose a feed from the Feed menu (ALT + J)
or open a link to a feed, then you're taken to a feed page, which
contains the feed items which are currently in the feed file on the
web.
At the beginning of the page, there's a short section about
subscribing to the feed. This is followed by the items currently
in the feed, and each item has a level 2 heading.
If you decide that you want to subscribe to the feed:
- Either open the “Plus Button Subscribe to this feed”
link, which is near the top of the page,
or choose Subscribe to this Feed from the Tools menu.
- A Dialog opens, which has the title Internet Explorer. The
first control is the name of the feed which will appear in your
list of feeds. If you want to change the name, just type in
a new name to overwrite the existing text.
Then press ENTER to press the default Subscribe
button.
- You are returned to the feed page, and at the top is some
text telling you that you've successfully subscribed to the feed.
Once you've subscribed to a feed, Windows checks the feed at
regular intervals, and if it finds any new items that it hasn't
previously saved, it saves them. A new feed is set to use the
default update schedule, which by default is once a day. If necessary
you can easily change the update schedule for a feed using the
Feed Properties dialog box.
Viewing subscribed feeds
To open a subscribed feed:
- Press CTRL + J to open the Feeds page
of the Favorites centre.
- In the tree view of your subscribed feeds, feeds which
have new content are indicated by having the word new in
parenthesis after the feed name.
- If you're impatient, and want to check whether new content is available for
one or more of the feeds since the last automatic update,
you can perform a manual update by choosing either Refresh
or Refresh All from the shortcut menu of a feed.
- Select the feed you want to open, and press ENTER. (Or
alternatively press ESC to close the Favorites
Center.)
- You're taken to a feed page, which contains the saved feed
items for your subscribed feed. The structure of this page
is described in the next section.
Note that if you read any documentation about feeds in IE7
which doesn't involve the use of a screen reader, then you'll find
that IE7 normally indicates that a feed has new content by
making the feed name bold. However, in the presence of a screen
reader, new content is also indicated by the word new in parenthesis
after the feed name.
Feed pages
A feed page contains the following:
- A link to the web page or website providing the feed.
- Items in the feed. Each item starts with a level 2 heading.
The structure of items in both news/blog
and podcast feeds are described in the following sections.
- An edit box and links for searching, controlling the display of,
and sorting the feed items. These are described in the
Searching and sorting feed items section below.
If there are new items, then initially only these items are
displayed. To view all the items, open the All link near the
bottom of the page (ALT + L, then ENTER).
Items in a news/blog feed
- The name of the item, which is a level 2 heading and a link
to the full article on the web.
- Date and time when the item was published.
- The link graphic “Go to full article”.
- Either the full article, the beginning of the article,
or a summary of the article.
Items in a podcast feed
- The name of the item, which is a level 2 heading and a link
to the audio file on the web.
- Date and time when the item was published.
- The link graphic “Go to full article”, which is
a link to the audio file on the web.
- A brief description of the podcast.
- Open attached file something.mp3 link graphic, which is a link
to the audio file. See the following discussion as to it's location.
The location of the audio file pointed to by the Open attached file link
depends on whether you've chosen to automatically download attached
files in the Feed's properties, as described in the
Feed properties dialog section:
- If you've chosen the option to automatically download,
the audio file should be on disk, and
there should be the word downloaded in parenthesis after the link.
Use this link to open the audio file, otherwise you'll needlessly
download the file again. Your default mp3 player will open and
start playing the file.
- If you haven't chosen the option to automatically download,
and the audio file is still available on the web, then when you open any of the links
to the audio file, your default mp3 player will open and start
downloading and playing the file.
Searching and Sorting feed items
At the bottom of a feed page there are an edit box and some links for
searching and sorting the feed items. The easiest way to move to
these is to press E to move the the edit box,
and then navigate from there.
Near the bottom of the page, there is:
- The text “Displaying”, followed by two numbers separated by
a slash. The first number is the items currently being displayed,
and the second is the total number of items.
- An edit box for searching the feed items, which is described
in the next section.
- The link All, followed by the total number of items. To view
all items, open this link or press ALT + L.
- If there are new items, then there is a New link, followed by
the number of new items.
- The text Sort by:, followed by the links Date, Title, and Author.
For each of these criteria, the items can be sorted in ascending
or descending order. Repeatedly opening one of these links toggles
between the these two options. Initially, the items are displayed
in date order, with the most recent at the top.
- If the items in the feed have category tags, then there is the
text “Filter by category”, followed by links for the categories. If
you open a category link, then only the items in that category
are displayed.
Searching feed items
- Press E to move to the edit box.
- Press ENTER to go into Forms mode, and then type in
one or more search terms.
- Press CTRL + HOME to move to the top of the
page, and then use the quick navigation key H
to move through the results.
Managing subscribed feeds
First, press CTRL + J to open the Feeds
page of the Favorites Center, then:
- To rename a selected feed, choose Rename from its shortcut
menu or press F2, type in the new name, and press ENTER.
- To delete a selected feed, press delete. A message box
with the title Internet Explorer opens, asking whether you're
sure. Press ENTER to press the Yes button. Note
that the Favorites center will now be closed (unless it's pinned
open) so if you want to get back to your feeds, you'll have
to press CTRL + J again.
- To edit the properties of a feed, including it's update
schedule, choose Properties from its shortcut menu. The Feed
properties dialog opens, and is described in the next section.
- To move a selected feed up or down the tree at the same
level, press ALT + UP ARROW or ALT + DOWN ARROW
respectively.
- To create a new folder at the top level of the tree,
select any feed or closed folder at this level,
and choose Create New Folder from its shortcut menu. Type in
a name for the folder, and then press ENTER.
The dialog which opens when you subscribe to a feed contains
a Create in combo box, which allows you to place a new feed in
a folder.
- To move a selected feed or folder to another folder,
choose Cut from its shortcut menu, select the folder where
you want to move it to, and choose Paste from its shortcut menu.
Feed Properties dialog
You can change the properties of a feed, including its update
schedule, using the Feed Properties dialog. To open this dialog,
select a feed in the Feeds page of the Favorites Center
(CTRL + J), and choose Properties from its shortcut menu.
Some of the settings in this dialog are described in the following
sections.
Update schedule
In the Update schedule section of the dialog, there's a set
of two radio buttons which allows you to choose between the
default schedule, and a custom schedule:
- To use the default schedule, set the
Use default schedule radio button. If you want to change the default
schedule, then TAB to the Settings button
and press it. A Feed Settings dialog opens, where you can
change the frequency of update using the Every combo box.
Note that changing the default schedule affects all feeds which
are set to use the default schedule.
- To use a custom schedule, set the Use custom schedule
radio button, and then TAB twice to the
Frequency combo box, where you can set the frequency of update.
Automatically download attached files
Also in the Update schedule section, there's an “Automatically
download attached files” checkbox which is relevant for podcast
feeds. If this is checked, then Internet Explorer automatically
downloads and saves the audio files referred to in the new
feed items. If you set this, you'll probably want to change
the maximum number of items saved for the feed from the
default value of 200, as described in the next section.
If the checkbox is unchecked, an audio file is downloaded from
the web when you open a link to an audio file in a feed item,
providing that the audio file is still available.
Maximum number of items saved
In the Archive section of the dialog, there is a pair of
radio buttons which let you set the maximum number of items saved:
- Keep maximum items (2500).
- keep the most recent items only. This is followed by an
edit spinbox for setting the number.
Feed Settings dialog
To open the Feed Settings dialog, open the Internet Options dialog
on the Tools menu, and then on the Content page press the
Settings button in the Feeds section. Alternatively, the dialog
can be opened from the Feed Properties dialog, as described in the
previous section.
Default schedule
In the default schedule section, there's an “Automatically check
feeds for updates” checkbox, which by default is checked.
Following this is an Every combo box, which you can use to set
the frequency of the updates. After installing Internet Explorer,
this is set to 1 day. If you change the value, then this affects
all your subscribed feeds which are set to use the default schedule.
Play a sound when a feed is found
In the Advanced section there's a “Play a sound when a
feed is found for a webpage” checkbox. By default it's
unchecked, but if you really want to, you can check it.
Internet Options dialog
The Internet Options dialog is a multi-page dialog, and you
can open it by choosing Internet Options on the Tools menu
(ALT + T, then O).
Some of the options are covered in the relevant sections of the
guide:
- Tabbed browsing. You can open the Tabbed Browser Settings
dialog by pressing the the Settings button in the Tabs section
of the General page. See the
Tabbed browsing options section
above.
- History. To open the Temporary Internet Files and History dialog,
press the Settings button in the Browsing history section of
the General page. See the
History Options section above.
- Feeds. To open the Feeds Settings dialog, on the Content page,
press the Settings button in the Feeds section. See the
Feed settings dialog section above.
Browser home page
To set the browser's home page:
- Navigate to the web page you want as your home page.
- Open the Internet Options dialog, which is on the Tools menu.
- The dialog should open on
the General page. The first control is an edit box which
contains the address of your current home page.
TAB to the Use Current button, and press
ENTER to change the home page.
TAB down to the OK
button at the bottom of the dialog box and press it.
Customise your settings pages
The first time you run Internet Explorer 7 after you've installed it,
you're automatically taken to a web page which has brief descriptions
of some of the new features, and which leads to a number of pages
where you have to choose a small number of settings.
The title of this page is Customize Your Settings, and the opening
text thanks you for choosing Internet Explorer 7.
- Go to the bottom of the page (CTRL + END).
Jaws reads the last line as “Choose your settings, clickable
on mouse over”. Press ENTER to click this,
and you're taken to the next page.
- The opening text of the second page is Setup is quick and easy. Read
down the page a line at a time. The settings on this page are
described in the following steps.
- There is one required setting,
which allows you to choose your default search provider. There
is a set of radio buttons with two options. It's simpler to
choose the “Keep my current default search provider”
option — if you need to change your default search provider,
you can do this later as described in the
Search box section. You can set this
option using the SPACEBAR without having to go
into Forms mode.
- There is then the first of 4 optional settings. It's
worth setting the first, but you can ignore the other three,
which are in fact on different pages. This first optional setting
has a checkbox for whether the automatic Phishing Filter is turned
on. The Phishing Filter filters out hoax websites that
try and trick you into entering important personal details such
as bank account numbers. It's recommended that you check this
option.
- After the Phishing Filter checkbox, there's a clickable graphic
which could take you to the other optional settings. Ignore it,
and read the following line which is the bottom line of the page.
Jaws reads this line as “Save your settings, clickable on mouseover”.
Press ENTER to click this, and you're taken
to the next page.
- The opening text of the the third page tells you that
your settings have been saved successfully, and you're
ready to go. From now on, when you open Internet Explorer, you'll
be taken to your Home page.
Keystrokes
General
Command |
Keystrokes |
Select address bar |
ALT + D |
Select the search box |
CTRL + E |
Open the search options menu |
CTRL + DOWN ARROW |
Go to home page |
ALT + HOME |
Go backward |
ALT + LEFT ARROW |
Go forward |
ALT + RIGHT ARROW |
Go to Information bar |
ALT + N |
Refresh page |
F5 |
Stop downloading web page |
ESC |
Cycle through first toolbar, second toolbar, and web page
or information bar if displayed |
F6 |
Cycle through groups of controls on the first and second toolbars,
the Information bar if displayed, and the links and controls
on the web page. |
TAB |
Favorites, History, and Feeds
Command |
Keystrokes |
Open favorites page of Favorites Center |
CTRL + I |
Add to favorites |
CTRL + D |
Open history page of Favorites Center |
CTRL + H |
Open feeds page of Favorites Center |
CTRL + J |
Available feeds on a page |
ALT + J |
Close Favorites Center (if not pinned open) |
ESC |
Tabbed browsing
Command |
Keystrokes |
Open new tab |
CTRL + T |
Open link in new foreground tab |
CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER |
Open link in new background tab |
CTRL + ENTER |
Open new tab from Address bar or Search box |
ALT + ENTER |
Switch to next tab |
CTRL + TAB |
Switch to previous tab |
CTRL + SHIFT + TAB |
Open the tab list menu |
CTRL + SHIFT + Q |
Close tab |
CTRL + W, or CTRL + F4 |
Close all tabs except current tab |
CTRL + ALT + F4 |