Open and Save As Dialogs Guide

A guide for Jaws users, written by Chorlton Workshop for hsbp.

Introduction

This document describes the Open and Save As dialogs, which are used for opening and saving files in Microsoft Word. There are also similar dialogs in other programs.

The process of selecting the folder where you want to open or save a file is the same for the two dialogs. So, in the next section there is a detailed account of how to select the folder. After this, there are separate sections on the Open and Save As dialogs.

Selecting a folder

Selecting a folder where you want to open or save a file is a two stage process. The following description is given for opening a file, and is almost exactly the same for saving a file.

1. From the “Look in” combo box which contains a list of disks and folders, you select the folder or drive which contains the file, or if this is not in the list, the folder or drive which is the nearest ancestor to this folder. For example, say you want to open a file which is in the folder Fred, and Fred is in the My Documents folder. If Fred is not in the list of folders, then you would select the My Documents folder, because it's the closest ancestor. As with any combo box, you can navigate the list using: UP and DOWN ARROWS, HOME, END, and the first letter of the folder. Often you will be opening a file that is either in My Documents or on a floppy, or is in a descendent folder of one of these. The floppy drive appears as 3 1⁄2 Floppy(A:), so its first letter is 3.
2. You then move to a list of the folders and files which are contained in the folder which you set in the combo box. The folders are listed first, followed by the Word documents. When you first move to the list, the first word document in the folder is selected. If the folder which contains the file you want to open is further down the folder tree, you can navigate there in the normal manner ( select a folder, and press ENTER ).

Open dialog

To open a file press CTRL + O, which opens the Open dialog. To select the file:

1. When the dialog opens the focus is on the File name edit box. To move to the Look in combo box, press ALT + I, or TAB about 4 times.
2. Select the folder or drive which contains the file you want to open, or the folder or drive which is the nearest ancestor to this folder.
3. Press TAB three times to move to the list of folders and files contained in the folder which you set in the combo box. If necessary move down one or more levels of folder, then select the file you want to open. Press ENTER.

Save As dialog

The first time you save a newly created document, the Save As dialog opens to let you select a folder and filename for the document. So, to save a new document, press CTRL + S, and follow these steps to select the folder and filename:

1. When the dialog opens the focus is on the File name edit box. To move to the Save in combo box, press ALT + I, or TAB about 4 times.
2. Select the folder or drive where you want to save the file, or the folder or drive which is the nearest ancestor to this folder.
3. Press TAB 3 times to move to the list of folders and files contained in the folder which you set in the combo box. If necessary move down one or more levels of folder.
4. Press TAB to move to the File name edit box, and type a filename. Press ENTER.