The HotSpotClicker website is sponsored by:

Phil Muir.

HotSpotClicker for JAWS For Windows
Build 241

HotSpotClicker is a free set of jaws scripts which you can use in conjunction with any application to provide increased accessibility and convenience. You can define locations on the screen where mouse clicks need to be performed, or where there is information you want spoken, and, if you like, associate that location with a hot key. When you press the hot key, the click is performed, or the information is spoken. You can also create a hot key to set focus on a particular control, and even implement custom tab ordering for applications that do not honor the tab key, or override the tab handling presently implemented in the application.

This is especially helpful with applications which do not provide keyboard accessibility, where mouse clicks are required, but can also be used to make keyboard accessible applications operate much more conveniently.

It also contains a means of assigning spoken prompts to controls, similar to, but different than the prompt manager in JAWS. This can help deal with situations where you tab to a control, but jaws speaks the wrong label, or speaks the incorrect information.

You can use HotSpotClicker in addition to any custom scripts you already have for an application, as long as the custom script source, the JSS file, exists on your system. If you do not have the jss file, as is sometimes the case with proprietary scripts, you can only use HSC if the script developer has installed the necessary hooks.

If you are a proprietary script developer, and want to make your scripts HSC-ready: Download HSCStubsForDevelopers.zip Instructions are included in this .zip file.

Please Consider Donating

HotSpotClicker development has thus far been a labor of love, and has involved thousands of hours of dedicated work. if you have a PayPal account, you can donate to support HotSpotClicker development by sending cash to:
snowman@HeartOfIowa.net
Or, you can donate by clicking the donate button below. Please consider donating.
If you wish to donate, but have problems with the payPal interface, you can send the Snowman an e-mail to make more convenient arrangements. TheSnowman@SnowManRadio.com.

 

Use the next few links to read the detailed documentation, or to download the HSC installer. The installer will place the scripts files in your user-specific settings area of jaws, and will make HSC generally available. The documentation, which will be placed in the HotSpotClicker section of your programs folder under the start menu, describes the manual steps you will need to perform in order to integrate HSC with each application.

HotSpotClicker is 64-bit ready. The same installer works on both 32 and 64 bit systems.

Read the quick start guide Read the monstrously detailed documentation

Build 241 fixes very lengthy processing chores that were failing to complete in jaws 16 or later. This only applied to very large hotspots sets, when performing such processes as licensing a set, applying offsets, or converting positioning modes to application plus window relative.

Click below to download build 242. This installer has been updated to work properly with JAWS 2018. The installer covers 32 and 64 bit systems. If you are migrating to a new version of jaws, and have hotspots working under a previous version, read the section below on migrating your settings. Download HotSpotClicker 242 Original installer,

If the installer tells you that you already have HSC on ytour system, tell it that you do not want to remove HSC first. There are some installer problems, and it will eventually tell you that hsc was successfully not removed, which will see to make no sense, but seems to work. . Once you get through that, the regular installation can safely be performed over the top of your existing installation. If you have keys that do not work as expected, or sounds that do not play, please contact snowman@SnowManRadio.com

Migrating Settings

when you install a new version of jaws, you need to install HSC into that new JAWS version. You also need to make sure that any application scripts that you modified, in order to connect HSC also get moved. Usually, you can do these things with the JAWS merge utility. If that utility is successful, then HSC will be migrated, along with all those modified application scripts. If not, then you need to install HSC into the new version, and manually copy the modified script files. Such scripts are located in the folder that opens when you choose, "Explore My Settings". from the JAWS item in the windows programs list.

The hotspot definitions are usually stored under settings\enu, down in the "Personalized Settings" folder, with one subfolder for each application. This is the default location. And, unless you are using a shared folder, you will also need to copy all those application-specific subfolders over to the same place in the new version. However, the more convenient thing is to establish a shared folder, that will be used by all installed JAWS versions. Create a folder in a convenient place, and copy all the application subfolders into that folder. Now, go to the settings\enu folder, and open file "hotSpotClicker.ini". In that file should be a line that says:
BasePath=$
Replace the dollar sign with the complete path to the new folder.
BasePath=c:\MyFolder
Now, HSC will look in that folder, rather than the Personalized settings folder, and all hotspots, even new ones, will be shared with all versions of jaws that reference the new folder. When you install the next version of jaws, all you need to do is make sure the BasePath parameter in HotSpotClicker.ini in the new jaws is pointing to the shared folder.

Articles

Audio Graphing, second generation - Audio Demo Link To the page used in the Audio Graphing demo

Chaining Browser Audio Demo Stereo Audio Demo: HSC and MSA Objects An audio demo of creating a hotspot Menu Spot failures, a list of most common reasons why HotSpots Fail.

Known issues

A list of known issues, (if there are any), and maybe some usage tips, can be viewed here at : The HotSpot Zone

Looking for HSC sets for your applications? You will find them on:

The HotSpot Sets Page

Feeling brave? Then checkout the sets people are presently developing on the:

HSC Beta Sets Page.

Audio PodCasts of people setting up and using HotSpotClicker can be obtained here. When listening to the Sonar demonstration, realize that the JSonar scripts already have support for HotSpotClicker built into them. Choose from the following:

Download Victor Tsaran's Podcast ON Installing HSC And Importing HSC Sets for Sonar 6 (12.8mb).

Or:

Download the author's Podcast On Using HotSpotClicker (6.95mb).

 

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