Complete ultimate guidelines of NVDA for beginners and advanced users.

NVDA guidelines for beginners.

What is NVDA?

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free screen reader for computers running on the Windows operating system. NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) is an open source software.

Features.

• Support for popular applications including web browsers, email, internet chatting, and office programs including Word and Excel.
• NVDA can be installed directly on to your computer, but it has the ability to run entirely from a USB stick or other portable media.
• Built-in speech synthesiser for English and more than 43 other languages.
• Reporting of textual formatting where available, such as font name and size, style and spelling errors.
• Automatic announcement of text under the mouse and optional audible indication of the mouse position.
• Support for many refreshable braille displays.
• Easy to use talking installer.
• Support for common accessibility interfaces including Java Access Bridge.
• Support for Windows command prompt and console applications.

System Requirements.

NVDA runs on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows XP or later. NVDA has no additional hardware requirements beyond those of the operating system and requires around 50 MB of disk space.

NVDA is bundled with eSpeak, a free multi-lingual speech synthesizer. Additionally, NVDA can use both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 speech engines.

Steps.

How does these options work

Note: You will get this message only if you have not lower your security level down.

Note: To disable the security level press windows button which is on the left side of the ALT button type in UAC. when you type in UAC you will hear user account control press enter on it. First option you hear tell me more about user account control settings. Second you hear notification level which is by default 67% use your aero keys to keep your slider to 0 or you can use your page down key as well for the same. Press TAB for such OK button. then you will see a message that says user account control here, you have to press yes, if you want to change the settings otherwise press no button. i want to keep my security level as it is so i will not do anything here.

1. Download the copy of NVDA software from nvaccess.org or from this page
2. Go to the location where you have downloaded the copy of software.
3. Press enter on nvda_2017.1.exe file.
4. When you press enter on NVDA file you will hear a music sound after a while you hear NVDA loading sound.
5. Then you hear NVDA is announcing the NVDA license agreement.
6. When you hear that sound just click on "I agree" button it is unchecked but you have to press spacebar to put check mark to accept the license agreement.
7. After you press on "I agree" button you can use tab or shift+tab key to hear the options. It has four options.
   • "install nvda on this computer".
   • "create portable copy".
   • "continue running".
   • "exit".

   Note: if you click on "continue running" it will run until you reboot your system once you have rebooted your system you have to again either install the software, create a portable copy, or choose the option of continue running.

   • If you click "install NVDA on this computer" it will install NVDA on your computer.
   • If you click on " create portable copy" button you can use NVDA using your USB flash drive no need to run NVDA from your personal computer or laptop just insert your flash drive and run NVDA portable copy.
   • If you click on "continue running" your NVDA copy will just simply run no need to install or create any portable copy.
   • If you click on exit your setup window will close and nothing will happen you will have to again launch the setup and install NVDA on your computer.
8. Click on install NVDA on this computer.
9. You get options use NVDA on windows logon screen. You can either tickmark to use it on logon screen or leave it as it is. After that you will get another option to create a shortcut on desktop. Here also you can use the tickmark option by pressing spacebar key. you will also see continue button and cancel button.
10. Press continue button you can either press space on continue button or Alt+C.
11. You will get message of yes or not. click on yes.
12. Wait for the setup to complete.
13. You will get successful installation of NVDA.
14. Press OK button.
15. Congrats you have successfully installed NVDA.
16. Wait for the NVDA to load.
17. After it gets loaded it will give you several options.

• Use caps lock as NVDA modifier key.
• Automatically starts NVDA after i logon to windows.
• Show this dialouge when NVDA starts.

You can either do a tickmark on these options by pressing spacebar or leave it as it is.

Note: use capslock as NVDA modifier key, it is only for those who does not have insert key in his/her keyboard. this capslock key will work as NVDA key. by pressing capslock key two times simultaneously your capslock is on and you can use that. and if you press capslock key only one time you have to use another key for insert combination. for eg. capslock+Q for NVDA menu.

How to configure NVDA like the voice of JAWS. i.e. with eliquence

Note: when you install NVDA for the first time without any add-ons you will get NVDA installed in eSpeak voice which is quite robotic. To get the voice of jaws and other voices do the following.

1. download the NVDA add-on eloquence from the same page of nvda mensioned above. or by Google it or type in NVDA add-ons on google.
2. once you have downloaded press enter on that very file.

Note: before pressing enter you should check in the extension of the add-on. If suppose it is written eloquenceTTs.zip then it will open as zip file to avoid this it should be EloquenceTTS.nvda-addon then only it will work. So to do this press windows key which is located at the left side with the alt key. once you press the key type in folder options. in windows 10 it will give you file explorer options. press the key control+tab key to go to view tab window. when you are in that window nvda or jaws will announce tree one tree view files and folder open. you have to use your down aero key to find this option hide extension for non file type. it is by default on you have to press spacebar to off it. then you have to use tab key to click on apply button. In windows 8 when you type in folder options in search menu by pressing windows button NVDA or jaws will announce. You can open that options. In windows 7 you can use ALT key which is use to open menu bar options. you can easily find files and folder options.

Note: to install this add-on NVDA is necessary to be running on your desktop/laptop.

1. Once done with that come back to that very folder where you have eloquence NVDA add-on downloaded.
2. Once you are their just press F2 key or use application to go to rename option you can now see the file extension of that file which you have downloaded. if it is written .zip change to NVDA -addon.
3. After you changed the extension now press enter.
4. Once you press enter you will get a message of add-on installation yes or no press yes button to install.
5. After you press yes button you will get a message of add-on installation and restart of NVDA.
6. Click on yes button to make changes.
7. You have successfully installed eloquence NVDA add-on. now you can hear jaws voice instead of robotic voice in NVDA.

How to change the voice/synthesiser in NVDA?

If the voice in NVDA automatically do not change do the following.

1. Press capslock +N or insert+N for NVDA menu.
2. When you are in NVDA menu, use your down aero to find preferences menu and then use your write aero to find general settings.
3. Once you find general settings then use down aero to find synthesizer settings.
4. When you get this option press enter.
5. You will see NVDA automatically speaks about the synthesiser already selected in the box choose the eloquence option.
6. Once you have selected the option use tab key to find ok button.
7. Once you find ok button click on it by pressing spacebar.

How to change voice rate in NVDA.

1. Press capslok+N or insert+N for NVDA menu.
2. When you are in NVDA menu, use your down aero to find preferences menu and then use your write aero to find general settings.
3. Once you find general settings then use down aero to find voice settings option.
4. When you get this option press enter.
5. You will see various options. like
   • Different voices like american language, british english etc.
   • Variants like read, roko etc.
   • Rate option where you can adjust the speed according to your convenience.
   • pitch how the software should speak.
   • Inflection.
   • Volume. where you can adjust volume according to your convenience.
   • Enable backcot voices.
   • Automatic language switching when supported.
   • Automatic dialect switching (when supported).
   • Punctuation/symbol level: where you can choose punctuations accordingly like some most.
   • Trust voice's language when processing characters and symbols.
   • capital pitch change percent.
   • Say cap before capitals.
   • Beep for capitals.
   • Ok button.
6. Select the rate option to increase or decrease the speed.
7. Once you have selected the option use tab key to find ok button.
8. once you find ok button click on it by pressing spacebar.
9. Congrats you have successfully changed your voice rate of NVDA eloquence addon.