Managing Favourites
Note: text in square brackets [] denotes text spoken by the screenreader.
Welcome to this tutorial on managing favourites in AT Prime.
In an earlier tutorial, I created six favourites for the Demo app, four toolbar buttons plus the Hello button and the Gender combo box.
This tutorial is about how to manage favourites, that is, how to change properties of a favourite and also how to delete a favourite. This tutorial also introduces you to the Favourites Inspector.
The first thing I am going to do is to delete a favourite, the Hello button favourite. As with some other functions in AT Prime, there is more than one way of doing this. This first way I am going to show you only applies to a control which has keyboard focus, or one that you can tab to in Optimise Tabbing mode, and it involves, of course, the Object Inspector.
Firstly, I’m going to focus on the Hello button in the Demo app.
[Demo app for AT Prime. Enter your name ... Hello, button, Displays the message 'Hello Word!'], control+h
We know that this is a favourite but I want to delete it now. I can select the Object Inspector from the AT Prime menu
[Context Menu
Object Inspector. Name of object, Hello]
and here we are. If I tab down to the Favourites checkbox:
[This object is a favourite, checkbox checked, alt F]
As expected, this is already checked as the object is a favourite. All I have to do to delete this favourite is to uncheck the checkbox:
[Space, Not checked]
And when I press Enter and the Object Inspector closes, the Hello button is removed from my collection of favourites for this window. When I tab away and then back to the Hello button, you will hear that the keyboard shortcut is no longer announced by the screenreader.
[Demo app for AT Prime dialog. This is a simple ... Current total ... Hello button, Displays the message 'Hello World!']
This is because keyboard shortcuts that you specify only relate to favourites and since this object is no longer a favourite, it no longer has the keyboard shortcut which was earlier assigned to it.
I’m going to open the Favourites popup menu using control+alt+backslash key and, arrowing down, we can hear that the Hello button is no longer listed.
[Context menu
Create a new document...
Open; button...
Print the...
Make the selected text...
Gender...
Create a new document...]
Deleting a favourite this way in the Object Inspector is convenient if you are inspecting an object there and decide there and then to delete it as a favourite. However, if you want to delete a favourite which does not currently have keyboard focus, you need to use the Favourites Inspector.
You can open the Favourites Inspector in one of two ways. From the AT Prime menu or from within the Window Inspector. I’ll show you how to open the Favourites Inspector from the Window Inspector.
[Context menu ... Window Inspector - AT Prime dialog. List. Minimize...]
Here’s the Window Inspector showing the objects for the Demo app window. If I press the letter G,:
[Gender, combo box, alt+g, Yes]
focus jumps to the Gender combo box and you can hear that it is a favourite with a shortcut key. I want to delete this favourite from within the Favourites Inspector.
The Favourites Inspector is a special version of the Window Inspector. It looks just like the Window inspector but it only shows you the active favourites for the current application window. It does not, however, have the Actions and Auto-labeller menus. Also, you can't activate a favourite from the Favourites Inspector list. The Favourites Inspector is just for managing your favourites.
To open the Favourites Inspector, I go to the menu bar and arrow along to the Favourites menu:
[View menu alt v; Actions submenu, alt A; Favourites submenu, alt F]
open this menu and select 'Show Favourites Inspector'.
[Show Favourites Inspector, F3, Refreshes this list to show only your favourites for the application window
Favourites Inspector - AT Prime dialog. List]
The window title changes to Favourites Inspector and when I start arrowing down, you will hear that only the remaining favourites are listed.
[Create a new document, button
Open, button
Print the current document, button
Make the selected text bold, button
Gender, combo box, alt G, activate, 10, 5 of 5]
There are five in all, the last one being the Gender combo box and that's the one I want to delete.
With the Gender combo box favourite highlighted, I can now go back to the Favourites menu
[View submenu, Actions submenu, Favourites submenu
Show Favourites Inspector
Add to favourites]
and select this item
[Delete favourite, F4, Deletes the selected object from your favourites collection, D
Favourites Inspector - AT Prime dialog. List.
Create a new document, button, control+1, Activate, 1, 1 of 4]
The list updates and now there are only four items in the Favourites Inspector List - that's the four toolbar buttons.
Remember that all the items in the Favourites Inspector are, by definition, favourites so the 'Add to favourites' command is disabled in the Favourites menu and also, of course, the 'Show Favourites Inspector' command. But you can change the name or label of a favourite, its description and help text, the action the favourite performs and you can add, change or remove a keyboard shortcut for a favourite. You do this in the Object Inspector which you can open from the View menu.
You can also sort and filter your favourites using the appropriate commands in the View menu.
Finally, to close the Favourites Inspector, select the Exit command in the View menu or simply press alt+F4.
If the Window Inspector is not already open and you want to go straight to the Favourites Inspector, you can select the Favourites Inspector item in the AT Prime menu and the Favourites Inspector will be displayed immediately, like this:
[Context menu
Text Inspector
Object Inspector
Window Inspector
Favourites menu
Favourites Inspector, Displays your favourites in a list similar to the Window Inspector, v
Favourites Inspector - AT Prime dialog. List.
Create a new document, button, control+1...]