Winace: Initial Impressions

Zack,

How does you screen reader deal with toolbuttons?
On WinACE just below the menu is a tool bar of buttons which have
images, will the screen reader give you the tool tip?

I recently discovered that the tool tips are not working at this point,
if tool tips are useful I will make sure to fix them.

On the main map, you can right click it should give you a context
sensitive menu with the available commands for the current sector.

There a number of shortcut keys that I will need to research and let
you know.
I know ctrl-x does starvation for example which is pain when I want to
paste in the command line area of window, ctrl-d does designate, ctrl-t
does threshold, ctrl-m does move.

The small command line area of the main form and the separate window
both work the same. There is single line area at the bottom for
entering the command and scrollable textbox above it with the server
output. The main form has a filter on the output, less of the output
is shown. You also have an option to display only last command output
in the small command area on the main form (i.e. it clears for each
command). The options are under View->Options and it opens Option form
with tabbed panels.

The keys I use a lot are F2, repeat last command, this executes the
last command immediately. F9 recall last command into the command line
input window, it does not execute it immediately. If you press F9
again it will go back farther in history. There is a limited number of
commands stored in the history. I added Shift F9 to go forward in
history. I use this when I went to far using F9.

There a few tricks for the command interface like &S which I will
replace &S the current sector from the map with sector address before
submitting the command. I will need to look them up as I do not
remember the exact syntax.

F4 is filter for the display. It will bring up a tabbed panel will
display options.
When this you present information overlayyed on map. Probably not
useful for you.

I need to run, more later.

Ron K.
 >> Stay informed about: Winace: Initial Impressions 

Tooltips tend to work reasonably well with the screen reader. As for
the command interface and other such windows, I'll continue to
experiment and see what I find.
Also, the prompt boxes for 'attack', and other similar commands, are
very confusing to me. Would I be better off just using the command
line?
Thanks,
Zack.
 >> Stay informed about: Winace: Initial Impressions 

Zack Kline wrote:
> Tooltips tend to work reasonably well with the screen reader. As for
> the command interface and other such windows, I'll continue to
> experiment and see what I find.
> Also, the prompt boxes for 'attack', and other similar commands, are
> very confusing to me. Would I be better off just using the command
> line?

Yes, the attack form is complicated, it is trying to gather information
to answer all the prompts that come up from the attack command.

You can use the command line interface instead.
Almost all the forms do submit additional commands to the server to
keep the local database up to date. When you submit the command from
the command line, there is logic to try and submit the commands to
update the local database but the logic is much simplier therefore does
not do as good a job. You can always use the update tool bar buttons
to refresh the local database (sector, units, map).

There are a few forms like explore that do more than the server
commands.

In the general, the forms help you with what information you need for
or can get from the command and with the selection of data like which
ships are available for assault for example.

Ron K.
 >> Stay informed about: Winace: Initial Impressions 

WinACE keys that are not obvious.

F2 - repeat last command
F9 - retrieve last command, maybe be repeat to go back farther in the
list.
Shift F9 - move forward in the command list.

Page Up - move small command window up a page
Page Down - move small command window up a page
Ctrl - 1 Select Command Window
Ctrl - 2 Select Telegram Window
Ctrl - 3 Select and Open Telegram Window
Ctrl - 4 Open Font Window

If you click on the map with the ctrl pressed down one of the following
will happen.
If the current command line text has an &S or &s in it, it will be
replaced with sector selected on the map otherwise it will be replace
the selected text on the command line text with current sector.

The rest of the shortkeys should be listed in the menu text.

Ron K.
 >> Stay informed about: Winace: Initial Impressions