Microsoft Outlook with JAWS!

The objectives in this lesson is to enhance perceptual ability and perceptual awareness of blind and visually impaired person by informing and training use of Microsoft Outlook for communication, independence, employment, Education, and Fun ...

This Microsoft Outlook lesson has designed to be at your own convenient time, place, and pace; therefore, develop your own workable strategy by planning, organizing, directing, controlling and evaluating your learning process to insure your objectives have met.

In addition, this Microsoft Outlook learning module has introduced and defined basic e-mail terminologies and concepts. Therefore, familiarize yourself with these e-mail basics. Read the page contents carefully and then click on your chosen topic. After you have learned that desired module, press alt + left-arrow to go back to the table of content, or continue to learn by pressing down arrow. These instructions works with PCS, Win 7, and JAWS 15 or above. However, it is up to you what type of assistive technology or operating system you should use.

JAWS is very responsive and easier to use and access alongside Microsoft Outlook xxxx. At its' default configuration, of JAWS is very usable and Microsoft Outlook is accessible. Using my Windows 7 and Windows 10 64-bit machine with Outlook 2010 /2013 /2016 /365 JAWS is very responsive in all areas of the program without any adjustments being made. However, if you are encountered some problem, you may do the following adjustments within outlook:

1. Disable the Reading Pane by pressing ALT + V, then P, then N, then O, alternatively press the ALT key then use the left / right / up /down arrows. However to do this the 'JAWS Vertual Ribbon' should be turned on, if it is not on, do the following instructions:
A. Press JAWS + V.
B. At the search box type the word "Ribbon", then press the down arrow key
C. When JAWS says, "Vertual Ribbon check-box", press the SpaceBar key to check it on
D. Press the tab key until JAWS says "OK", at the OK button, press the 'Enter' or 'SpaceBar' key now the Vertual Ribbon toolbar is on and focus will go back to the Outlook mail view screen.
2. Disable the "Show in Groups", to do this press ALT + V then move by arrows or tab to Arrangement option and press the Enter key. Press Up arrow and if JAWS says "Show in Groups Checked", press the 'SpaceBar' key to uncheck it. This procedure should be carried out on each mailbox you have.
3. Disable the To-Do Bar by pressing ALT + F2.

Note: the following procedure of working in the Trust Centre is a security feature; therefore, you may do it at your own risk. If you like to activate the "Enable Editing" option through the use of the keyboard on every attachment you open, please do not follow the instruction below. However, if you chose to disable Protected View here are the steps:

4. Launch Microsoft Outlook.
5. Press ALT + F then T, then T repeatedly until JAWS says Trust Centre
6. press the Tab key until JAWS says Trust Centre Settings then press Enter.
7. Press the letter P to reach the 'Trusted Zone', or 'Protected View', or Press the Tab repeatedly when JAWS says 'Trusted Zone', press the spacebar to uncheck the box in the control buttons.
8. Press the enter or the Space Bar on the "OK" Button. Now you are on Outlook mail view and continue to work.

What is Microsoft Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook is an email client or a program used to access email. Email client can be located locally on a computer or on the internet. Email client based on the internet are known as "webmail clients" however, an email client that are located on a local computer such as Microsoft Outlook provides more options for mail management than a webmail client. An email client has the ability to work offline. Even though, there are many email clients like Apple Mail, but in this lesson you will learn Microsoft Outlook 2010 or above with JAWS 17. and windows 10 platform. After you completed this lesson you will be able to define what is an email, Sending&Receiving, Managing, creating Contacts, Calendars, Tasks, Notes and Journals.

Apply your JAWS Navigation Skills (Microsoft Outlook)

1. If you would like to get the JAWS help topic for Outlook, press JAWSKey+F1 twice quickly.
2. If you like to get the JAWS hot keys, press the JAWS + W at any time while your in Outlook!
3. If you would like To see the global key stroke dialog list, press JAWS Key + F8, and this is the Outlook Message list, you can move by pressing ApArrow/DownArrow to move up and down through the list, press the Enter key to open a message for reading.
4. If you would like to hear the MSAA data for the current message, press Control + Alt + Shift + M.

E-mail Basics

Electronic mail or an e-mail is a way to send and receive messages through the Internet. Email account is needed in order to send and receive emails. Through the email hosting companies or web email providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or through personal website hosting companies, one's email account can be created and email address can be aquired. Email addresses are written in a standard format, An email address includes a username, the @ (at) symbol, and the email hosting company domain. Usernames may include numbers and shortened versions of a name in order to create a unique email address. Email addresses usually look like this: Gmicael33@gmail.com. Email is delivered electronically across the internet and it is received by the inbox of an email hosting service provider like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook or your personal email service provider. Email is delivered instantly within 20 seconds to a few minutes. One may send and receive messages through attached documents, images, videos, audios, links and more. To receive and send emails, one has to have Internet Service Provider (ISP), a computer, a modem, a router and it has to be connected to the Internet.

You probably have an email account with Gmail.com, Outlook.com or with Yahoo.com, if you have not create one. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft outlook are free web email service providers and these are a few among many top webmail providers. These three providers allow you to access email accounts from anywhere with an Internet connection including access to webmail from mobile devices. Therefore, create an email account with one of the free web email service provider. In order to use Microsoft outlook as your email client you have to know your credentials: email address, password including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol (POP3) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). If you work for an organization that hosts your email, the system administrator has to tel or give you all credentials and protocol requirements in order to use Microsoft outlook as your email client.

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol and IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol! SMTP, POP3 and IMAP are Transfer Control Protocol for Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols used for mail delivery and each protocol is just a specific set of communication rules between computers.
SMTP
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) uses port 25 and it is used when email is delivered from one email server to another using an email client such as Microsoft Outlook to an email server.
POP3
The Post Office Protocol (POP3) uses port 110. POP3 allows an email client to download an email from an email server. POP3 protocol downloads all available email from the server, deletes them from the server and then disconnects.
IMAP
The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) IMAP normally uses port 143 and shares similar features with POP3. It is a protocol that an email client can use to download email from an email server. One advantage of the IMAP over POP3 is, the IMAP protocol let users keep their email on the server. On the other hand, IMAP takes more disk space on the server and more CPU resources as all emails are stored on the server.

A profile is consists of the accounts, data files, and settings that specify where email messages are saved. To create a new profile, use Windows Control Panel. There are multiple ways you can take to get to Mail settings in the Windows Control Panel. The path depends on which Windows operating system 32-bit or 64-bit is being used, and which version of Outlook is installed.

In Microsoft Outlook, there are tools that help stay organize and current. It is very important to keep up with all of messages regularly and there are several features that can help manage and organize messages. In this lesson, you will create folders and set rules and using flags to manage messages and deleting messages from inbox or from another folder.

Using folders

In Microsoft Outlook there are folders like inbox, draft, outbox, and deleted folders etc like the folders in file explorer in the desktop. These folders in Outlook can be nested for organization purposes to keep track of the different types of messages received.

1. To access folders in outlook, press CONTROL + Y and locate the desired folder by moving up/down arrows.
2. To create a new folder, press CONTROL + Shift + E.:
3. When the Create New Folder dialog box appears type the name for the folder, then click OK. The folder will be created in the selected location.

Applying rules

Rules can save a lot of time by automatically performing commands like moving or deleting messages as they arrive. For example, if always move emails from a manager or specific person to a folder, you could create a rule to do this automatically. You can create rules that look for a specific recipient, subject, sender, or specific words that are in the body of the email. To create a new rule:

1. Activate the virtual ribbon by pressing the ALT key and go to the home tab by right/left arrows. When you press the alt key, usually focus lands on the home tab, if focus lands on blank area press the ESC key until you hear one of the tab name. Then move by right/left arrows to the right tab.
2. Select the Rules command on the Ribbon from the home tab.
3. Select Manage Rules & Alerts... from the drop-down menu.
4. When the Rules Wizard appears follow the instructions to create a new rule.

Keeping your messages organized

With all folders and rules created, it can be difficult to keep up with each message you receive. The following strategy below may help to manage messages more effectively.

Using flags

Some messages may be more time sensitive than others. You like to respond to urgent messages quickly as possible! Therefore, flag a task associated with the message, which will prompt with reminders until the task is complete.,

1. Press Control + shift + G to flag item for follow up Use, and press up/down arrows and make your selection.
2. Choose the deadline for the task from the form, or drop-down menu and the flag will be applied.
3. Click on to-do item complete, or click the flag, then select Mark Complete from the drop-down menu.

To delete messages permanently:

When you delete messages from your inbox, they are first moved to the Deleted Items folder. The deleted folder is like the Recycle Bin on the desktop. To delete messages permanently, you need to empty the Deleted Items folder.

1. Press CTRL + Y and open the needed folder.
2. Press the "ALT" key and move by arrows on the home tab and make your selection which mean empty this folder or
3. Locate and right-click the Deleted Items folder in the Navigation pane, then select Empty Folder from the drop-down menu.
4. When a confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes to continue, the messages will be permanently deleted.

Contacts view

Contacts view is the central place for all contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Maintaining a detailed contacts list will make sending emails and scheduling meetings much easier. Therefore, in this lesson, you'll learn how to add, manage, and organize contacts. Outlook keeps all contacts organized in Contacts view. Once you've added contacts to Outlook, you'll use the same contact information to send emails, schedule meetings, and assign tasks. There are two ways to add contacts:

1. Enter information manually for each of your contacts, or
2. By import existing lists of contacts from other accounts, such as Gmail account.

Adding contact manually:

1. Press Control + shift + C to create a new contact, or
2. From Contacts view, locate and select the New Contact command on the Ribbon and the Contact dialog box will appear.
3. Enter the contact information
4. Press the Alt key to activate the virtual ribbon.
5. At the home tab press, down arrow until JAWS says, Action
6. Select save and exit or save and continue to new contact. Either way the contact will be added to your contacts list.

To import contacts:

First you must export those contacts to a file to Comma Separated Value file, known as CSV. Most email applications provide instructions on how to export existing contacts. After exported contacts, new contacts are ready to import them to Outlook.

1. Press ALT + F, or click the File tab on the Ribbon.
2. When the backstage view appears select Open.
3. Depend the version of outlook in use, click on options and select Import.
4. When the Import and Export Wizard appears follow the instructions to import contacts into Outlook.

Outlook 2010 includes powerful scheduling features in Calendar view. From there, you can create appointments and manage your time. In this lesson, you'll learn how to schedule appointments and create multiple calendars. I'll also talk about how to organize your schedule, including how to apply reminders.

Calendar view

The calendar view is used to schedule and keep track of appointments like a desk calendar and it allows to quickly edit and rearrange schedule whenever wanted., Calendar view can be used at work as well as at home for business and personal purposes.

1. You can move to the Calendar by pressing Ctrl + 2. If you are in another tool of Outlook, press Ctrl + Shift + A to create a new appointment. If you are in the Calendar, press ctrl + N to create a new appointment, or trigger the virtual ribbon menu (press and releace the Alt key) from the home tab select the New Appointment command on the Ribbon.
2. The New Appointment dialog box will appear. Enter the desired information, but you can also include lots of other information, such as reminder preferences and detailed notes.
3. When you're done entering the appointment information, click Save & Close.
4. The appointment will be saved and added to your calendar.

Using multiple calendars

Use of multiple calendars help organize your schedules. For example, one might use one calendar to keep track of personal tasks and another to manage upcoming business meetings. To create a new calendar:

1. Go to the calendar view by pressing control + 2
2. Click the Folder tab on the Ribbon, then click the New Calendar command, if you are JAWS user what this mean is:
3. The Create New Folder dialog box will appear. Enter a name for the new calendar, press the read line (JAWS key + up arrow to make sure Calendar is selected, > then press the enter key on OK.
4. If the new calendar appears in the View pane. Click the check box in the Navigation pane to toggle the calendar on and off. (Outlook 2010).

Doing more with calendars will continue soon.

1. Create a new folder within your Inbox folder.
2. Use the Rule Wizard to create a new rule.