On-Screen keyboard problem.

[jnoseworthy]

Hi Folks:

As a Blind user, I would like to disable the on-screen keyboard in order to access all of the keyboard shortcuts as the program is, basically, inaccessible to those of us who are Blind/Visually Impaired.

If anyone could tell me how to do this, I would appreciate it all over the place.

Thanks.

[Spiritos]

What program or DAW are you using?

[jnoseworthy]

Hi:

I am using Cantabile Performer.

Thanks.

What program or DAW are you using?

[Spiritos]

Assuming you're using Vista or Win7 you should do:

1. Go to 'Start' Searchbox.
2. Type 'Ease'
3. Open 'Ease of Access Center'
4. Choose 'Use the computer without a mouse or keyboard'
5. Uncheck the box 'Use On-Screen keyboard'
6. Click 'Save'.

If this is not what you mean you might want to give more info on what OS you're using and what the exact problem is as I'm unsure about your question, but maybe this is what you were looking for.

So hope this helps!

[jnoseworthy]

Hello:

Thanks much for taking the time to respond. Actually, I am an Assistive Technologist for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and so, I am quite skilled with screen reading access software. It was good of you, however, to take the time to source that information.

The problem is related to the inaccessibility of Cantabile itself; that is to say, nothing is spoken while using the keyboard. So, for example, if I bring up a menu, I cannot cursor down through the menu and have Cantabile relay the appropriate menu item choices to me. At the present time, the only way I might be able to use the program is if I can gain access to all of the keyboard shortcut commands.

This brings me to another question: is there a place where I can obtain a complete list of the keyboard shortcuts for Cantabile Performer?

Thanks all over the place for listening.

[Spiritos]

I'm unfamiliar with Cantabile so I'm afraid I can't help you. All I could find in the online manual was this which probably won't be of much help as it states you will 'see' the shortcuts when hovering over it:

Many commands also have Ctrl key shortcuts. To discover these, simply hover over the command and the short-cut key (if available) will be shown in the tooltip.

As a final note on using the keyboard, don't forget that if the on-screen keyboard's capture feature is enabled, most shortcut keys won't work as they'll be controlling the on-screen keyboard instead.

Hope someone else has a list for you!

[pinkcanaru]

Hello jnoseworthy.

I believe you are trying to disable the onscreen virtual piano keyboard and to prevent your computer keyboard from triggering sounds.
The F12 key on your computer keyboard should toggle the on and off status for triggering of sounds from the computer keyboard.

However, if the virtual piano keyboard is being displayed by Cantabile and the mouse is over it, the virtual piano keyboard will always operate, regardless of the F12 setting. To prevent this you should hide the virtual piano keyboard from the display. F12 will still toggle the status but you are immune from the mouse turning it on.

There is no key command for hiding the virtual keyboard. Unless you are using software which can identify that menu option for you, you may need assistance to click that field which lives in the top right area of Cantabile under a drop down menu called Show/Hide Panels.

Once you have setup all the fields to your liking, you can save the session and use it as as template.

I don't believe there is an itemised list of key commands in the manual. Someone would need to extract them and provide the list. Cantabile is not a particularly key command driven program although once setup, you should be able to progress through the subsession list easily with key commands which can call specific setups or simply advance through the list. You can also use MIDI to activate important functionality.

Things like tabbing between fields, opening certain editing windows, starting and stopping playback, save and load are all available via key commands. I imagine you may have software which would allow you to assign key commands to any required function such as provided by Quick Keys.

Please post if you need help. This forum has a lot of helpful people at hand!

Good luck!