Accessibility in Windows 8
Overview of accessibility in Windows 8, tutorials, and keyboard shortcuts
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Table of Contents
Overview of Accessibility in Windows 8 7
What’s new in Windows 8 accessibility 7
Narrator and touch-enabled devices 7
Magnifier and touch-enabled devices 9
Ease of Access 12
Make your PC easier to use 12
Customizing the Ease of Access page 12
Choosing more tools and settings in the Ease of Access Center 14
Get recommendations for Ease of Access settings 16
Make the text on your screen larger or smaller 16
Hear text read aloud with Narrator 17
Starting Narrator 17
New touch gestures 18
New keyboard shortcuts 18
Narrator settings 18
Using Speech Recognition 22
Set up Speech Recognition 23
Using Speech Recognition 24
Controlling your PC with Speech Recognition 25
Dictation 26
Keyboard keys 27
Punctuation marks and special characters 27
Controls 29
Windows 30
Tap or click anywhere on the screen 30
Use Magnifier to see items on the screen 31
Using Magnifier 31
Changing Magnifier views 31
Customizing Magnifier 32
Use the On-Screen Keyboard (OSK) to type 32
To open On-Screen Keyboard 33
Use text or visual alternatives to sounds 34
To change your settings 34
Personalization 35
Personalize your PC 35
Change your background, colors, and account picture 35
Themes and desktop backgrounds 36
Customize the Start screen 36
Create tiles for your favorite people and places 36
Pin or unpin apps 36
Rearrange and resize tiles 37
Rearranging tiles on Start 37
Get started with themes 38
What's a theme? 38
Creating themes 39
Where is Control Panel? 42
How to use the taskbar 44
Rearrange taskbar buttons 44
Move the taskbar 44
Change how taskbar buttons appear 45
Pin an app to the taskbar 46
Customize the notification area 46
Take a look at the desktop 47
Change taskbar settings for multiple displays 48
Adding apps, websites, and more to Start 49
Connect multiple monitors to your PC 50
Connect another screen to your PC 51
Set up your screens 51
Sync your settings 51
Mouse and Keyboard 52
Mouse and keyboard: What's new in Windows 52
How to use the touch keyboard 55
Touch: swipe, tap, and beyond 56
Touch and pen settings: Frequently asked questions 60
How do I check if my PC has a touchscreen? 60
How do I calibrate my pen and touch settings? 61
How do I get my touchscreen to go to the correct screen? 61
How do I change my pen and touch actions? 62
Change keyboard settings 63
Change the keyboard layout 64
To change the keyboard layout for a language 64
Change mouse settings 65
To change the mouse settings 65
Use the numeric keypad to move the mouse pointer 65
To turn on Mouse Keys 65
Moving the pointer using Mouse Keys 66
Selecting a mouse button 66
Clicking items using Mouse Keys 66
Dragging items using Mouse Keys 67
Keyboard Shortcuts 68
New keyboard shortcuts for Windows 8 and Windows RT 68
Useful keyboard shortcuts for Windows 68
Complete list of keyboard shortcuts 69
General keyboard shortcuts 69
Dialog box keyboard shortcuts 71
File Explorer keyboard shortcuts 71
Taskbar keyboard shortcuts 72
Windows logo key keyboard shortcuts 73
Calculator keyboard shortcuts 76
Calendar keyboard shortcuts 78
Ease Of Access keyboard shortcuts 79
Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts 79
Magnifier keyboard shortcuts 79
Mail keyboard shortcuts 80
Messaging keyboard shortcuts 81
Narrator keyboard shortcuts 82
Narrator touch keyboard shortcuts 83
Paint keyboard shortcuts 83
People App keyboard shortcuts 84
Reader keyboard shortcuts 84
Remote Desktop Connection on the desktop keyboard shortcuts 85
Remote Desktop Connection keyboard shortcuts 86
Skydrive keyboard shortcuts 86
Windows Help viewer keyboard shortcuts 86
Windows Journal keyboard shortcuts 87
Wordpad keyboard shortcuts 88
Overview of Accessibility in Windows 8
The built-in assistive technologies in Windows 8 work with both Windows 8 applications and with desktop software to provide seamless access to the entire Windows experience.
Devices running Windows 8 Professional will also allow you to use assistive technology (AT) software from specialty Assistive Technology vendors (http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/).
What’s new in Windows 8 accessibility
One of the most exciting aspects of Windows 8 is the introduction of touch-only devices. With touch devices, you can directly interact with everything on your screen by touch, without using a keyboard or mouse, including managing accessibility options in the Ease of Access Center.
With Windows 8 you can easily access the most commonly used accessibility options right from the sign-in screen. Select the Ease of Access button in the lower-left corner of your screen, or press the Windows logo key+U, to choose the settings for your PC that you want to have available each time it starts. Learn more in the Ease of Access section below.
Narrator and touch-enabled devices
Narrator, a basic screen reader that reads aloud the text that appears on screen, and describes events such as error messages, has been redesigned in Windows 8 to be substantially faster, and to support many new features.
Whether you’re an individual who is blind, has low vision, or who is fully sighted, you will be able to use Windows 8 from the fir...
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