Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is an email program, with many other functions.  It has Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes sections.  Each of these sections give the user the ability to organize information, and time.

Press the Windows key and tap the letter r.  Type outlook and tap enter.  You will be place in the Outlook email program.

To quickly go to each of the five main areas of Outlook, press the control key and tap the numbers 1 through 5.  Control 1 puts you in the Inbox, control 2 puts you in the Calendar, control 3 puts you in the Contacts, control 4 puts you in the Tasks, and control 5 puts you in the notes section.  Now, press control 1 to go to the Inbox section.

Down arrow through your emails.  When you hear one that you want to read, tap the enter key.  Tap control to make JAWS stop talking.  You can press and hold the alt key, and tap the grove tilde key (just under the escape key), release these keys and press insert down arrow to read the email.  There are a few ways to go about reading the email. 

Let's say this email has an attachment.  Press and hold down the insert key and tap the letter a.  Tap the left arrow one time.  Right arrow until you hear the attachment.  Tap enter to open the attachment.  You will hear a box that asks if you want to open or save.  Tap the letter o to open the attachment.  Press control home to go to the top of the attachment, then press insert down arrow to read the attachment.  When you are finished reading the attachment, press alt F4 to close the attachment.  You will be back in the email with the attachment. If there is more than one attachment, right arrow until you hear the next one, then tap enter, then o to open, read the attachment, then press alt F4.  Now you are back in the email again.  Let's say you read all of the attachments and want to get back to the list of emails in the inbox.  Tap the escape key one time and you will be there.

We want to send a basic email, with no attachments.  Press and hold down the control key and tap the letter n.  Type in the email address of the person you are sending the email to.  Tap the tab key two times to get to the Subject area.  Type a few words concerning your email.  Tap the tab key one time. Type your email message.  Press control home to go to the top of what you just typed.  Tap the F7 key to spell check the material.  Press and hold down the alt key and tap the letter s to send the email.

Let's say you want to send an email with an attachment. We will look at how you do this in Outlook 2003 and in Outlook 2007. 

In Outlook 2003, press alt i.  Release these keys.  Tap the letter l.  You will be placed in an "Insert File" dialogue box.  Press and i, release these keys, tap the down arrow to go to the drive you want, tap the tab key three times, down arrow to the folder you want, tap enter, down arrow to the file you want, then press alt s to insert the file.  You can either choose to insert more files, or press alt s to send the email. 

In Outlook 2007, press alt n.  Release these keys. Type the letters a f quickly.  You will be placed in an "Insert File" dialogue box.  Press and i, release these keys, tap the down arrow to go to the drive you want, tap the tab key three times, down arrow to the folder you want, tap enter, down arrow to the file you want, then press alt s to insert the file.  You can either choose to insert more files, or press alt s to send the email. 

Folders are a good way to organize the emails you want or need to keep.  Press and hold the control and shift keys and tap the letter e.  Release these keys.  Type a name for your folder.  Tap enter.  Do this as many times as you need to make folders for items such as specific company email, friend's email, vendor email, and so on.  You might have a folder for a candy supplier, and another for a chip supplier.

Putting an email into a different folder is done by pressing control shift and tapping the letter v.  Down arrow to the folder you want.  At this point it is important to understand that you may not hear the folder you created.  If this happens, tap the letter i until you hear "inbox."  Tap the right arrow to open the inbox, then down arrow to your folder, and tap enter.  When you tap enter, the email you want to move, is moved into this folder.

Press control y.  This lists all of the folders in Outlook.  Tap the letter i until you hear "inbox."  Tap enter and you will be back in the inbox, and in the list of emails that you have received.

Press control 2 to go to the Calendar. JAWS will tell you the date, if you have items in the Calendar, and that you can use your up and down arrow keys to go to different times of the day, or you left and right arrow keys to go to different days of the week.

There are many ways to put items onto your Calendar.  The simple way is to down arrow to a time you wish to put and item in, type the item, such as meeting with Vendor X, and tap enter one time.  Tap the escape key one time, arrow to another time, and put in another item.  If you need to put in more information that just a brief sentence, press and hold down the control key and tap the letter n.  An "Appointment" box will come up.  You will be in the "Subject" box.  Type something like "Meet with Vendor X," then tab one time.  You will be in the "Location" box.  Type where the appointment will be.  Tab again and you will be in the "Start Date" combo box.  You can leave the date as it is, or down arrow to pick a future day.  Tap one time to the "Start Time" combo box.  You can down arrow to a time.  Tab one time to the end date, and arrow to the date the meeting will end.  Tab one time to the end time, then down arrow to the ending time for the meeting.  Tab one time and you will be in a check box that indicates "All Day Event."  If this is an all day conference or meeting, tap the space bar to check this box.  If it is a shorter meeting, do not tap the space bar.  Tab one time and you will be in the section where you can write notes concerning the meeting.  Press alt s to save and close this box.

To read appointments in the Calendar, press control 2 to go there, then tap the tab key to move through the appointment for the day.  If you hear an appointment that has further information, such as where a meeting is, tap enter, then tab through the fields to hear information concerning the meeting, where it is, when it is, and any notes that you have typed.  Please note that you will be in the area where you typed notes concerning the meeting and cannot tab out.  Press alt u to be placed in the "Subject" area.  Now, you can tab through the boxes and hear the information.  When you are finished reading, tap the escape key to go back to the Calendar.  You can continue tabbing through your appointments.

Press control 3 to go to the Contacts area.  You can down arrow until you hear a contact that you want to open, tap enter, then tab through the fields to find items such as address, phone number, email address, etc.  This is information that you have typed in in the past.  When you are finished reading the information, tap the escape key.  To make a new contact, press control n.  Type in the first box, tab, type in the next box, tab, and so on.  You can leave boxes blank if you do not have that information.  When you are finished, press alt s to save and close.

Press control 4 to go to the Tasks area.  This is like a shopping list.  Maybe you want to type in items that you need to do in a single day, and to not want to clutter your Calendar.  Simply type the first item, tap enter, type the second item, tap enter, and so on.  When you are ready to read your list, press control 4 to be sure you are in Tasks, tap the tab key one time, then down arrow.  If you hear an item that you are finished with, tap the delete key and it will be gone.  To just read the tasks, all you have to do is press control 4, then start down arrowing.

Press control 5 to go to the Notes area.  Press alt n and a menu drops down.  Down arrow through this menu to see what is on it.  We want to make a "Distribution List."  This is a list of a group of email addresses that is represented by one name.  If you have a group of vendors that you email to as a group, again-and-again, this Distribution List will save you time--you will only have to type the name you give to this list of people, and the email will go to all of them.  Press control 5, release these keys, and press alt n.  Down arrow until you hear "Distribution List," and tap enter.  In Outlook 2007, type the name you want to give this group.  Press alt h, release both keys, tap the letter m, type the display name for the person, tab one time, type the person's email address, tab down to "Add to Contacts," tap be space bar if you want to check this, tab to the OK button and tap enter.  Do this alt h, then m process until you have put in all of the email addresses you want for this specific group name.  When the list is finished, press and s to save and close.  Now, press control 1 to go to the inbox, then control n for new email, type the name you gave for the group, tab to the Subject box, type in a few words concerning the email, tab one time, type the actual email, then press alt s to send the email.  This email will go to every member of the group.

Meeting request can be created by pressing control 5 to go to the Notes area, then by pressing alt n to bring down the menu.  Once at the menu, down arrow until you hear "Meeting Request."  Type the group name, or individual email addresses of the people you want to meet with.  Tab one time to the "Subject," type in a few words concerning the meeting, tab once to "Location" and type where the meeting will take place, tab once to "Start Time," down arrow to pick the date, tap once and down arrow to pick the start time, tab once then down arrow to pick the end date, tab once and down arrow to pick the end time, tab once but do not press the space bar to check, unless this is an all day event, tab once, type in the information concerning the meeting, then press alt s to send the meeting request.