8. Accessories and Accessibility

Or do you see tools as just the means to an end? Do you look through the computer screen at what you’re working on rather than at it? If that’s you, you seek simplicity, and you just want to get on with the job.

Whichever “type” you are, what if I told you that those simple, forgettable accessories and apps that come with Windows—some of which have been there since the late 1980s—are worth more than you think? We’re going to give them a quick review, to remind you that they’re there, to show you some interesting tips, and to show that they’re actually more useful than you might remember. At the end of the chapter, we cover additional accessibility tools that can make Windows easier to use.

Of course, the Windows Store does have a fair stock of useful tools and gadgets. But it’s still worth knowing about the basics, the ones that you can count on being there on every copy of Windows you encounter.

The Sidebar system was removed for two reasons. For one thing, as we mentioned, “live tiles” can do the same things that the Gadgets did. But the primary reason the Gadgets are gone is that security risks were discovered in the Sidebar system’s design. In July 2012, Microsoft shut down the Windows Live Gallery and issued a security bulletin describing how to disable Gadgets on existing Windows 7 and Vista systems (see the accompanying caution).

The Modern apps that are standard on all copies of Windows 10 are covered in Chapter 5, “Windows Apps and the Windows Store.” In this chapter, we cover the standard Desktop accessories. Later in the chapter, we cover the accessibility tools.

In the taskbar’s search box, or while viewing the Start menu, type the first few letters of the accessory’s name, wait a moment, and then select the accessory from the search results.

Touch or click All Apps at the lower-left side of the Start menu. Scroll down to Windows Accessories and click the v-shaped mark to expand the list.

(You might notice that other sets of tools are listed near Windows Accessories. We cover Windows Ease of Access later in this chapter. The entries under Windows Administrative Tools and Windows System are covered elsewhere in this book, under the relevant maintenance topics. You might want to take a quick look at them now to see what’s available.)

You can start some accessories quickly if you know the accessory’s program filename. Just press Windows Logo+R followed by the name, or type the name into a Command Prompt window or the taskbar’s search box. In the descriptions that follow, we list the filename for each command that can be run this way. (The technical scoop is this: The filename technique works only for those commands whose program file is in a folder that’s listed in the PATH environment variable.)

We also try to offer an obscure, helpful tidbit about each accessory, just to prove that they’re more interesting than they seem.

By the way, some of the accessories are covered in other chapters, as follows:

Calculator—Is now a Modern app and is covered in Chapter 5. Program name: calc.

Remote Desktop Connection—Covered in Chapter 39. Program name: mstsc.

Windows Fax and Scan—Covered in Chapter 12, “Scanning and Faxing.” Program name: wfs.

Program name: charmap (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: By default, Character Map displays fonts by their Unicode (16-bit) numerical value, and all of the font’s symbols are listed. But only some applications accept Unicode characters and values. Many applications accept only local (regional) Windows encodings, where just 8 bits (or 256 numbers) are used to represent a subset of the font’s symbols. If you check Advanced View, you can display various encodings. When an 8-bit encoding is selected, the status bar at the bottom of Character Map shows the Unicode value followed by the 8-bit value. For example, when you’ve selected the Windows: Western character mapping used in the United States, you can see that the Em Dash symbol is 2014 (hexadecimal) in Unicode but 97 (hexadecimal) in the Windows encoding (see Figure 8.1). Character 97 might be something else in other encodings.

If you get the wrong characters when you use Copy and Paste to move characters in Character Map into an application, check Advanced View, set the Character Set to Windows: Western, clear out Characters to Copy, and start over.

Alternatively, you can put symbols into an application by character number: hold down the Alt key and type the decimal representation of the number on the numeric keypad. The decimal representation is shown at the right side of Character Map’s status bar.

You can also use the Programmer version of the Calculator to do the hexadecimal-to-decimal conversion, but it’s easier to just go to Google and type something like 0x2014 in decimal. Put 0x (zero x) in front of any hexadecimal number to do the conversion.

For information on the Calculator app, see “Calculator,” p. 135.

The MIP works better with a stylus and a touch-sensitive screen than with your fingers or a mouse, although you can make do with those. It takes some trial and error to train yourself to draw symbols the way the MIP expects them. It’s quite a trial, actually.

To enter an equation, open the MIP, and then draw the letters and symbols in the large lower portion of the MIP window, just as you would on paper. As you write, Windows typesets and displays its interpretation in a second window. You can’t edit anything in the result window. You have to edit your input. If Windows gets a symbol wrong (and it does, frequently), touch Select and Correct; then touch the symbol you drew. You might be able to select the correct symbol from the pop-up list. If that doesn’t help, touch Erase and then rub out the symbol you drew. Touch Write, and try again. When you’re satisfied with the result, touch Insert. If the cursor is in an application that can accept MathML, it will be pasted in automatically. Otherwise, you might have to manually paste in the equation. When you close the MIP window, it will minimize itself to the notification area of the taskbar.

Program Name: MIP (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box, or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: As I wrote this chapter, I found that if your cat faces away from the computer’s touchscreen and you scratch her head, her tail draws equations. Most of them are unsolvable. (Bonus question: Use Mathematica to calculate how long it would take for Schrödinger’s cat to come up with Schrödinger’s equation by chance alone.)

I use it so often myself that I always install a shortcut batch file named n.bat on my computers so I don’t have to type out notepad all the time; I can just type the letter n. You learn how to do this in Chapter 30, “Command-Line and Automation Tools,” under “Batch File Tips.”

Program name: notepad (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: If you turn off Word Wrap in the Format menu, you can use the Ctrl+G keyboard shortcut to jump to a specific line in the file, by number. This shortcut is really handy when you’re editing programs or Windows Script Host scripts. Error messages usually tell you on which line the error occurred. Ctrl+G takes you right to the broken program statement.

If you’re new to ribbon interfaces, using this tool can take some getting used to. The trick is to notice the small downward arrows in each of the sections of the ribbon. They lead to more detailed choices. The other tricky thing is that, on the Home menu, usually Color 1 and Color 2 mean “foreground” and “background”—the colors laid down by drawing and erasing, respectively. When you’re drawing shapes, Color 1 is used for the shape’s edges, and Color 2 is used to fill in the middle of the shape. To control whether shapes have an outside line and/or a fill color, use the unlabeled icons at the right side of the Shapes ribbon section.

You can set the image’s desired dimensions using the familiar File, Properties menu item.

The new Paint can read and write files in Windows Bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and PNG formats. If you don’t know which to use, here’s a short description of each format, along with some pros and cons:

BMP—The Windows Bitmap format stores images with all details preserved. The three BMP formats are 16 Color, 256 Color, and 24-bit color. The 16 and 256 Color formats can record only that many distinct colors in the whole image. If an image has a larger variety of colors, Windows degrades the image. (You may see dithering, which looks like someone sprinkled salt or pepper on the image, or posterizing, where large swaths of the image are the same color—a sort of paint-by-numbers effect.)

TIFF—TIFF format preserves all colors, and the saved file size can be much smaller than BMP due to lossless compression. The downside of TIFF is that not every application can display it. It’s not used to store images for web pages but is great for pasting into Word documents or storing scanned images.

GIF—This format uses lossless compression and is widely supported by web browsers and email clients. It’s suitable mostly for drawings in color or black-and-white where there are relatively few distinct colors.

PNG—This format is similar to GIF and is used primarily for web page and app graphics, when it’s used at all. It was created to circumvent a patent on software used to create the GIF format (which is a rather funny, sad story, but I don’t have room to digress). GIF is still the most widely used format for drawings and small graphics.

JPEG (JPG)—JPEG is a highly compressed, lossy format that’s appropriate only for photographic images of natural (real-world) scenes. Lossy means that the image degrades with each edit-and-save iteration. JPEG does a terrific job of reducing the amount of storage needed to hold pictures by eliminating fine detail that our brains tend to overlook, so to speak (for example, fine gradations in color in a section of an image where brightness and darkness are changing rapidly). It’s a very poor format for drawings and text because the JPG format blurs sharp edges.

If you’re editing and saving photographs, use JPG to get smaller file sizes. If you’re editing a graphic to put on a web page, try GIF, and try PNG or JPEG if you end up with bad color dithering. If you’re storing drawings or computer images that you’ll later put into documents, use TIFF rather than BMP.

Program name: mspaint (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: When you drag or paste a selected part of a picture and drop it, you’ll see that the background pixels in the selection get copied too. On the Home panel, if you check Transparent Background under Select, when you paste or drop a selection on another part of the screen, Paint drops only those copied or dragged pixels that are not the background color (Color 2). If you set Color 2 before you paste, you’ll be able to control which color gets ignored in the pasting process.

To use it, start the Snipping Tool and select the down arrow next to New. Then, before you select the portion of the screen you want to capture, choose the shape you’d like to snip. Here are your options:

Free-form—Use the cursor to encircle the exact portion of the screen that you want.

Rectangular—Drag the cursor to select a rectangular portion of the screen.

Window—Click the cursor in an open window to capture the entire window (including its frame and menu).

Full-screen—Use to capture the entire screen. Using this option is like pressing Shift+PrintScrn, but you get to draw on the captured image before you save it.

When you’ve selected the snipping region, the Snipping Tool window expands to show the captured image. You can draw on it with the Pen Tool, shade sections with the Highlighter Tool, and erase portions with the—you guessed it—Eraser Tool. You can paste whatever the Snipping Tool shows directly into another program, or you can save the result as in an image file in GIF, JPEG, PNG, or HTML format. (The HTML format is actually saved with an .mht extension and contains the image as a MIME enclosure. It’s very strange.)

Program name: snippingtool (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box or at the command prompt).

To create a recording, start the Steps Recorder and then click Start Record. Perform the task you want to document. You can use the following tools:

Click Pause Record if you have to stop to think about things, or if you need to, say, open another window to look up information that doesn’t pertain to what you’re recording. Close the window, and then click Resume Record.

If you want the slideshow to explain something on the screen, click Add Comment. Use the mouse to drag a box around a part of the screen that you want to call attention to, and then type a message into the text box. Click OK to continue recording the slideshow.

Click Stop Record when you’re finished. Save the recording using the Save menu item. This creates a ZIP file that contains the slideshow in MHTML format. You can send the ZIP file to someone else, who can open it and then open the MHTML file inside it to view the recording. The top of the recording contains links that let you view the recording step by step or view it as a slideshow. The best way to view a Steps Recorder slideshow is to click Pause and then use Next and Previous to step through the recording manually.

Program name: psr (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box, or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: The Steps Recorder is really useful if you’re having a problem with a software program. Record yourself performing the task that’s vexing you, review the recording, and if it does a good job of illustrating the problem, send it to a tech support person. This person might be able to tell you whether you’re doing something wrong or might see evidence of a bug that needs fixing.

Program name: stikynot (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box, or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: Billions of Post-it Notes are used and thrown away each year, so just think how much this app could save in paper, energy, and water pollution if everyone used it.

When the volume level is set, start the Sound Recorder tool and click Start Recording. When you’re finished, click Stop Recording and save the resulting Windows Media Audio (WMA) file. To start a new recording, you must close the Sound Recorder and open it again. If you click Resume Recording, you’ll add to the recording you first made.

Program name: soundrecorder (works with Windows Logo+R, in the taskbar’s search box, or at the command prompt, type soundrecorder).

What you might not have known: This tool is just barely adequate for the task. If you’re serious about recording audio, get a third-party tool such as Audacity (http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity).

The first time you run it, it will ask whether you want to install the Journal Note Writer printer driver. This driver sets up a virtual printer that lets other applications print into the file format that Journal uses so that you can view, open, and mark up output from any other programs in Window Journal. You don’t need to install it. If you select Cancel and change your mind later, you can install it from Journal’s Tool menu. If you select Yes and change your mind, you can remove the printer icon from the Devices and Printers window.

Journal’s features are pretty “discoverable” by poking around its menus. Here are some tips for the less obvious things:

Each whole stroke of the stylus (or your finger or the mouse) is stored separately and can be selected, moved, or deleted independently.

To convert handwriting to text, click the Selection tool button. It looks like a loop of rope. Draw completely around the writing you want to convert, and then click Actions, Convert Handwriting to Text.

File, Save and File, Save As save files in the Journal application’s file format. You can save a document as a Journal template, which makes it available as a starting point for future documents.

File, Export lets you save pages as MHTML or TIF image files.

Program name: journal (works with Windows Logo+R or in the taskbar’s search box).

What you might not have known: You can use Windows Journal as a sketching tool even if you don’t have touch or stylus input. Just use the mouse and hold down the left button to draw. Note, however, that many Store apps do a better job and back up your musings in the cloud; Evernote is a good example.

This tool actually provides a good introduction to ribbon bar applications, because in this rather singular case, it’s simple, pretty intuitive, and well organized. About the only flaws are a couple of obscure symbols in the ribbon’s Paragraph section. Just hover the mouse over them to see what they do. The program’s options are set in the View menu (which is odd because, in Microsoft Office applications, options are set in the File menu; the best advice we can give on that score is to learn to enjoy playing hide-and-seek). You can set tab stops by dragging the mouse in the ruler at the top of the page.

Program name: wordpad (works with Windows Logo+R or in the taskbar’s search box). At the command prompt, type start wordpad.

What you might not have known: WordPad saves files in formats that are compatible with most other word processing programs: Rich Text Format (.rtf) and Office Open XML (.docx) are both native formats for Microsoft Word. Use either of these formats if you want to trade documents with Office users. WordPad can read documents created by Microsoft Word, too; however, it just might not display all the document’s fancy formatting. Tables and page headers and footers, for example, don’t show up correctly. And if you edit and save a Word document with WordPad, the undisplayed formatting will be lost permanently. Most Apple programs and almost all Windows publishing programs can read .rtf files, too. OpenDocument Text (.odt) format is compatible with the Apache Open Office productivity suite (www.openoffice.org), a free alternative to Microsoft Office.

Windows 10 has built-in PDF creation software (which you will see as the Microsoft Print to PDF printer selection), so the handwriting is on the wall for XPS format.

Program name: XPS Viewer (works in the taskbar’s search box).

What you might not have known: If you upgraded from Windows 8, .xps files and .oxps files might be set up to open by default in the Modern-style Reader app. I personally don’t like Reader. If you don’t either, and if you want to use the Desktop version of the XPS Reader, you must change a setting. Here’s how: Open the Control Panel by pressing Windows Logo+X or by right-clicking the Start button and then selecting Control Panel. Select Programs, Make a File Type Always Open in a Specific Program. Scroll down and select .xps, click Change Program, click XPS Viewer, and then click OK. Do the same for extension .oxps.

Ease of Access—In the PC Settings app, Ease of Access lets you control a large number of settings and features that make Windows more accessible.

Ease of Access Center—In the Control Panel, the Ease of Access Center provides the same settings as Ease of Access and has an additional wizard that helps you select appropriate accessibility aids.

Magnifier—The Magnifier accessory lets you see an enlarged version of a portion of the screen.

Narrator—The Narrator uses a synthesized voice to speak aloud the contents of the screen.

Speech Recognition—Speech Recognition lets you use a computer without touching it. This topic is covered in Chapter 13, “More Windows 10 Media Tools.”

On Screen Keyboard—The On Screen Keyboard lets you type by clicking on the screen with a mouse, or if you have a touch-sensitive screen by touching the screen. The On Screen Keyboard is similar to the Touch Keyboard, which is discussed in Chapter 4, “Using the Windows 10 Interface,” but it uses much smaller on-screen buttons for the keys. Its layout exactly matches a standard PC keyboard.

Welcome (logon) screen—The dashed-circle icon in the lower-right corner of the Welcome screen opens a panel that lets you turn on various accessibility settings. The Narrator starts reading the contents of this panel aloud when you open it. The Welcome screen is discussed in Chapter 3, “Your First Hour with Windows 10.”

The last three tools are discussed in other chapters. The remaining tools are described in the following sections.

To change Ease of Access settings, open the Start menu and select Settings, Ease of Access. Or, in the taskbar or Start menu search box, type the word ease and then select Other Ease of Access Settings. If you have enabled the Cortana voice search mechanism, you can just say “Hey, Cortana, open Ease of Access.”

The Ease of Access app lists several accessibility categories in the left pane. You can select any of the following categories:

Narrator—Enables the Narrator tool, which reads the screen aloud.

Magnifier—Enlarges a selected portion of the screen for better visibility.

High Contrast—Lets you select a visual theme that makes text more readable.

Keyboard—Has options to make the keyboard easier to use if you have limited mobility.

Mouse—Has settings to make the mouse pointer and cursor more visible.

Closed Captioning—Lets you change the color and other attributes of text displayed over TV shows and other CC-enabled media.

Other Options—Let you reduce the visual distraction of animated menus and background images. Touch Feedback gives enhanced visual feedback of touchscreen contacts.

To open the Ease of Access Center, either press Windows Logo+X or right-click the Start button, and then select Control Panel, Ease of Access, Ease of Access Center; or, in the taskbar or Start menu search box, type ease and then select Ease of Access Center.

To run the settings wizard, select Get Recommendations to Make Your Computer Easier to Use. This wizard lets you describe your limitations in eyesight, hearing, and so on. Windows adjusts itself in response. Alternatively, you can select specific accessibility settings from a long list of tasks, such as the following:

Make the computer easier to see

Make the mouse easier to use

Make the keyboard easier to use

Use text or visual alternatives for sounds

Make it easier to focus on tasks

Make touch and tablets easier to use

To open the Magnifier, use the Ease of Access PC Settings app described in the previous sections, or just press the Windows Logo+= key combination (press the Windows logo key and the = key at the same time).

The Magnifier’s control box enables you to adjust the way the tool works. If you see just a magnifying glass icon (somewhere) on the screen, click it to restore the control box and then make one of the following choices:

Click the + or – icon to zoom in or out, respectively.

Click Views to change how the Magnifier works. In the Full Screen view, the screen is expanded and the zoomed portion moves to follow the mouse pointer. In the Lens view, you drag a box around, and it shows a zoomed view of what’s underneath it. In Docked view, the upper part of the screen shows a magnified version of the lower part of the screen. The zoomed part follows the mouse pointer.

Click the gear-shaped icon to change Magnifier’s settings. You can enable Color Inversion to make the magnified portion have higher contrast.

Whenever Magnifier is in operation, you can use the following hot keys:

Windows Logo+= and Windows Logo++ (that is, the Windows logo key and either + or =) increases the magnification.

Windows Logo+– (Windows logo key and –) decreases the magnification.

Ctrl+Alt+Space temporarily zooms out so that you can see what part of the full screen you’re looking at.

Other shortcuts let you switch the view mode. The Views menu lists these.

Program name: magnify (works with Windows Logo+R; in the Start menu or at the command prompt, type magnify).

By default, Narrator reads the contents of any window when you activate it—that is, when it becomes the topmost window. It will also describe what’s under the mouse pointer as you move it. As Narrator reads menus and dialog box controls, the input focus follows along so that you can press the spacebar to trigger the most recently described pushbutton, check box, or radio button, or you can type to enter text into the most recently described input field.

Be forewarned, though, that check boxes work as toggles. If you trigger a check box that’s already checked, you will uncheck it. So, for example, if you press spacebar after Narrator says “Always read this section aloud” and the box was already checked, you will turn off the option. Just press the spacebar again to toggle it back on.

When Narrator is active, its icon appears in the Desktop’s taskbar. You can click that icon to open the Narrator’s Settings window, where you can change the voice and navigation options as well as fine-tune what sorts of events Windows will describe, from pop-up warnings to keystrokes. Turn off Narrator by clicking Exit in the Narrator’s Settings window.

Program name: narrator (Windows Logo+Enter; works with Windows Logo+R, in taskbar’s search box, or at the command prompt).

What you might not have known: If you change the voice to Microsoft David, increase the speed two ticks, and raise the pitch all the way, you’ll get something close to NPR’s Ira Glass.