Using PlaceMarkers and the Custom PlaceMarker Page Summary

PlaceMarkers

PlaceMarkers allow you to quickly and easily navigate to commonly used areas of your favorite Web pages or HTML documents when using JAWS. You can use PlaceMarkers to jump between certain areas of a page, mark important sections of an HTML document, or indicate key form elements. For example, you could use PlaceMarkers to move to required fields in a complicated form or specific paragraphs in a long HTML document. Press the navigation quick key K to move to the next PlaceMarker, or press SHIFT+K to move to the prior PlaceMarker.

A random selection of fictitious stock quotes for today are listed on the E-Stocks sample page.

EXERCISE: Open the E-Stocks sample page, and follow along with the directions below to navigate to the table containing stock listings.

  1. Press CTRL+HOME to go to the top of the page.
  2. Press T to move to the table which contains stock listings.
  3. Press DOWN ARROW until you hear JAWS say "Change," which is the third column. The first column has the stock symbol, and the second column has the stock price.
  4. Next, press CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW to move down to the second row and JAWS should say ATVI, which is the stock symbol in column one, followed by a number and a percentage. The number and the percentage are the amount of change for ATVI stock since the page was last updated.

Inserting PlaceMarkers

EXERCISE: Follow the steps below to put several PlaceMarkers in this table.

  1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K to display the PlaceMarker list.
  2. Press ENTER to choose the Add button. An edit box appears with the number and the percentage taken from the Web page. This text is highlighted, so type over it and give this PlaceMarker the name of "ATVI."
  3. Press ENTER to close the PlaceMarker dialog box.
  4. Press CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW two more times. You should hear JAWS identify that the focus is in the cell at the intersection of the row heading LEA and the column heading Change. You can press CTRL+ALT+NUM PAD 5 to read the current cell coordinates, column headings, and cell contents. Focus should be in column three, row four. This is the percentage change for the stock symbol LEA in column one.
  5. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K to display the PlaceMarker list.
  6. Press ENTER to create a new PlaceMarker. The text for the current price change and percentage should appear in the edit box that displays. Again, JAWS has taken text from the position of the virtual cursor on the page. Type in the stock symbol "LEA."
  7. Press ENTER to close this dialog box.
  8. Press CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW two more times to move to the row containing the percentage change for the stock symbol NT in column one.
  9. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K to display the PlaceMarker list.
  10. Press ENTER to create a new PlaceMarker. Type "NT" to replace the suggested text taken from the Web page.
  11. Press ENTER to close this dialog box.

Navigating with PlaceMarkers

EXERCISE: Now, practice moving from one PlaceMarker to the next by pressing the navigation quick key K to move forward and SHIFT+K to move backwards.

Notice that you will hear JAWS announce "wrapping to top" or "wrapping to bottom," depending on the direction you are going when JAWS reaches either the bottom or the top of the page.

EXERCISE: Next, take a few minutes to explore part of the PlaceMarker dialog box.

  1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K to display the PlaceMarker list.
  2. Press INSERT+E to hear the default button in this dialog box. You should hear JAWS announce that the Add button is the default button.
  3. Press the SPACEBAR to select the first PlaceMarker in the list.
  4. Now press INSERT+E to read the default button. Notice that the default button is now Move To. This is a smart dialog box. Initially, when you first enter it, JAWS assumes that you want to add a new PlaceMarker. However, after you select an existing PlaceMarker in the list, JAWS assumes that you want to move to one of them.
  5. Press DOWN ARROW to select the third PlaceMarker, "NT."
  6. Press ENTER to move to this PlaceMarker. Notice that JAWS begins reading the text of the cell that the PlaceMarker is located in. JAWS remembers, down to the character, where you set your PlaceMarkers.

Sharing PlaceMarkers

PlaceMarkers remain in place even when you shut down JAWS and come back again. You can also share PlaceMarkers with other JAWS users. The PlaceMarkers are stored in the Settings\Enu\PlaceMarkers folder. The file name will be the URL of the Web page followed by the file extension PMI.

Other PlaceMarker Options

EXERCISE: Take a look at some of the other parts of the PlaceMarker dialog box.

  1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+K to display the PlaceMarker list.
  2. Press the SPACEBAR to select the first item in the list, which is the stock name ATVI in the second row.
  3. Press the TAB key to move to the Add button.
  4. Continue pressing the TAB key to explore the other buttons. You can change the name of a PlaceMarker, remove a PlaceMarker, or remove all PlaceMarkers.
  5. For now, press ESC to close the PlaceMarker list.

Custom PlaceMarker Page Summary

EXERCISE: Use the custom PlaceMarker page summary to automatically read the stocks you want to monitor whenever you visit this page.

To begin, do the following:

  1. Go to the E-Stocks sample page and press INSERT+V to display the JAWS Quick Settings dialog box. Focus is in the search edit box.
  2. Type "custom" without the quotes. The tree view below the search edit box changes to show settings containing the word custom.
  3. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Custom Page Summary in the General Options node of the tree view. By default, it shows Do Nothing.
  4. Use the SPACEBAR to choose either Speak PlaceMarkers On Page Load or List PlaceMarkers in Results Viewer On Page Load. If you choose Speak PlaceMarkers On Page Load, JAWS reads the custom PlaceMarker page summary from the PlaceMarker locations with speech only. If you choose List PlaceMarkers in Results Viewer On Page Load, JAWS displays the PlaceMarker page summary in the Results Viewer.
  5. Press TAB to move to the OK button, and then activate it with the SPACEBAR.
  6. Press F5 to refresh the E-Stocks sample page. You can also use the access key ALT+Q to activate the Update Quotes button on the page.

NOTE: Firefox uses the SHIFT key in addition for access keys on Web pages. If you are using Firefox, press ALT+SHIFT+Q to activate the Update Quotes button.

When the page refreshes, JAWS gives you a summary of the PlaceMarkers on this page with speech or with the Results Viewer, depending on how you set it. You hear each stock that you marked, and the change in that stock's value. This is an example of how you can use the PlaceMarkers and the custom PlaceMarker page summary to track changes and updates to Web pages that you visit frequently.

NOTE: To choose a custom PlaceMarker page summary that applies to all HTML pages for an entire domain, such as FreedomScientific.com or Google.com, use the Personalized Settings feature of JAWS. When you press INSERT+V to start Quick Settings do the following:

  1. Type "custom" without the quotes. The tree view below the search edit box changes to show settings containing the word custom.
  2. Press DOWN ARROW to move to Custom Page Summary in the Personalized Web Settings node of the tree view. By default, it shows Do Nothing.
  3. Try changing the settings as described above.

Personalized settings remain in effect the next time you go to any page on that domain. Personalized settings are discussed in a later module.

To choose a custom PlaceMarker page summary setting that applies to all HTML pages, refer to Custom PlaceMarker Page Summary Step-by-Step Instructions.

Temporary PlaceMarkers

You can create one temporary PlaceMarker per Web page by pressing CTRL+WINDOWS Key+K in the spot where you want to place it. The temporary PlaceMarker is also saved in the PMI file. You can only have one temporary PlaceMarker per page, but you can move it to a different location by pressing CTRL+WINDOWS Key+K again in a new spot on the page.