Read line by line with the arrows

Step by step

1. Turn on the screen reader. Press Ctrl + Alt + Enter: hold down Ctrl and Alt, then press Enter. You hear "Screen reader on". (On a real PC the shortcut is Ctrl + the Windows logo key + Enter.)
2. Open Start with the keyboard. Press Ctrl + Esc: the Start menu opens and the reader reads the search box, where you can type straight away. (A real PC also has a Windows logo key for this.)
3. Type "settings". Type the word settings: the reader says each letter, and Settings becomes the first result.
4. Press Enter. Press Enter: Settings opens, and the reader reads its window.
5. Leave the search box: Tab. Settings opens with the keyboard in its "Find a setting" box (the reader said "edit"). In a box where you type, the arrows move inside the text. Press Tab once to leave it.
6. Press the Down arrow 4 times. Press the Down arrow, listen, and do it again 4 times. Unlike Tab, the arrows also read plain text, not only buttons: this is "scan mode".
7. Go back up: Up arrow. Press the Up arrow once: the reader reads the item before.
8. Scan mode off: reader key + Space. Hold down Caps Lock and press the Space bar: you hear "Scan mode off". The arrows now work as usual in the window.
9. And back on. Caps Lock + Space again: "Scan mode on".
10. Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Settings" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.
11. Turn the screen reader off. Press Ctrl + Alt + Enter again. You hear "Screen reader off".

These steps are written for SafePC, a pretend Windows-style computer in your web browser. On your own computer, the buttons and menus may look a little different, but the idea is the same.

More lessons in Screen reader

• Turn on the screen reader
• The on/off keyboard shortcut
• Move with Tab and Shift + Tab
• Open an app without the mouse
• Read a whole window, then stop
• Make it speak slower or faster