The PhoneAnything web access system provides phone access to web pages on the internet. The content of each web page is read out to the user using text to speech technology. Most web pages contain a lot of information and so the PhoneAnything system allows users to navigate around a web page using the keys on the telephone keypad. For example, the three key on your keypad takes you forward through the text items on a page. Other keys allow you to move backwards and to move to other positions within a page. Let's practice moving forward through the text items on this web page. In a moment some text from a classic story will be read out. Press the three key on your keypad once to move to the next item of text on the page before the story text has finished. The three key is positioned on the top right of your keypad. Are you ready? Here goes. Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: "Who do you think you are? There's no denying you're swift, but even you can be beaten!" The hare squealed with laughter. "Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there's nobody in the world that can win against me, I'm so speedy. Now, why don't you try?" That piece of text was from the Tortoise and the Hare. Did you press the three key? If you did, that's great. If not, why not have another go? Press the five key in the centre of your keypad now to try again If you were to press the three key again now, you would move to the next item of text on this page. But don't do it yet! You will need to know how to move back through text items first. To move back through items of text, you would press the one key on your keypad once. The one key is positioned on the top left of the telephone keypad. Let's practice using the one key. In a moment, some more text from the Tortoise and the Hare will be read out. Press the one key while the text is playing to return to this paragraph of text. Then allow the story text to finish playing. Here goes. Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. Story ends. If you would like to practice going back again, press the one key once now. To recap, the one key takes you back through the text items on a page and the three key takes you forward. Both the one key and the three key are positioned in the top row of keys on the telephone keypad. The one key is on the left and the three key is on the right. In general, keys that are on the left hand side of the telephone keypad move the user backwards through the page. Keys on the right take the user forwards through the page. This should become clearer when we look at the function of other keys on the keypad. If you are comfortable pressing the one key and the three key to take you backwards and forwards through a page, you can now use these keys to navigate around these help instructions. However, a quick word of caution. When pressing the one and three keys, do not press these keys too quickly. Pressing the one key or three key quickly twice will perform a different function that has not yet been explained. So wait a second or so before pressing these keys more than once. If you are not comfortable pressing the one and three keys to go backwards and forwards, you can return to the beginning of the practice session by pressing the five key in the centre of your keypad now. The two key, positioned between the one key and the three key at the top of the keypad, allows the playback of text to be paused. This is useful if you need to take a break while listening to a long item of text or if you need to talk to someone else while using the system. When playback is paused, pressing the two key again will continue the playback of text. Let's practice pausing the system and then cancelling pause. In a moment some more text from the Tortoise and the Hare will be played. Press the two key once to pause playback while the text is being read out. Then press the two key again to continue the playback of the text. Here goes. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. "Take your time!" he said. "I'll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute." The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. Story ends. Did you manage to pause the system? If not, have another go pausing the playback of the text. Remember that the two key pauses text that is already playing. Pressing the two key again will switch pause off. Press the five key now to practice pausing text again. So to recap, the top row of keys on your telephone keypad allow you to navigate through the text items on a page, and pause or continue playback of text. The one key takes you back, the two key pauses or plays text, and the three key takes you forwards. The position and function of these keys is broadly similar to the buttons you might find on a tape or CD player. If you are comfortable using keys one to three, we will now look at the function of the next row of keys on the keypad. If you are not yet comfortable and would like to practice using keys one to three again, press the five key in the centre of your keypad now.
Links on web pages allow the user to navigate to different internet sites. They function as standard items of text and can be navigated using the one and three keys on the telephone keypad. They can also be navigated specifically using the second row of keys on the keypad, containing keys four to six. When a link on a page is reached, the system will say link or "Graphical link" and then read out the text of the link. For example: This is an example of a link A number of links have already been read out during the tutorial so far. You may have noticed the system say link before reading out particular items of text. Let's now walk through the process of navigating and selecting links. To begin with, the six key, on the right hand side of the second row of keys, allows you to navigate forwards through links. Pressing this key will find the next link on the page, missing out any text items in between. Let's practice using the six key now. A sample of text from "The Tortoise and the Hare" will be read out shortly, followed by a link. Press the six key while the story text is read out and you will be moved to the link that follows the story. Here goes: But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. This is the first link following the sample text. Did you press the six key okay? If not, you can have another go by pressing the one key now. Otherwise press the five key now to continue with the tutorial. To navigate back through links, you would press the four key on your keypad. This key is located on the left hand side of the keypad in the second row of keys. Let's practice using the four key now. A link will be read out shortly followed by some sample text. Press the four key while the sample text is being read out and you will be moved to the link that precedes the story. Here goes: This is a web page link. If you pressed the four key to get to this link, press the five key now to continue with the tutorial. Otherwise wait for the sample text to start playing before pressing the four key. Start of sample text. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise's face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. Did you press the four key okay? If not, you can have another go by pressing the five key now. To recap, the four key takes you back through the links on a page and the six key takes you forwards. Both the four key and the six key are located in the second row of the telephone keypad with the four key on the left and the six key on the right. These two keys operate in a similar way to the one and three keys on the top row of the keypad, except that they allow you to navigate through the links on a page rather than through text items. Once again the key on the left hand side of the keypad takes you in a backwards direction and the key on the right hand side takes you forwards. There is, however, one major difference between navigating links and navigating text items using the keypad. When navigating links, the system will stop reading text after each link is read out. This is to give the user time to select the link they have navigated to. When navigating text items, by contrast, the system will continue to read text items without stopping. When links are read out continuously in this way, there may not be time for the user to select the link they are after. For example, press the six key now to navigate to the next link. If you have not yet pressed six, please press the six key once now. Once this link has finished playing, no more text will be read out until the user presses an appropriate key on their telephone keypad. Press the three key to move to the next text item after this link has finished playing. If you pressed six to navigate to the link that has just been read out, the system would have stopped reading text after the link had finished playing. You would have had to have pressed three to get to this piece of text. The system will now continue to read out the text on this page without manual intervention. You should now be comfortable navigating backwards and forwards through links on a web page. If you are not comfortable navigating links, press the five key now to repeat the last tutorial. If you are not comfortable navigating text items as well, press the five key now to start the tutorial from the beginning. Links are selected or "clicked on" using the five key. This key is located in the centre of the second row of keys on the keypad. On many telephone keypads the five key has one or more bumps to distinguish it from the other keys on the keypad. To select a link, press the five key while the link is being read out, or just after the link has played. You should be aware that if you press the five key too late, you may end up selecting the next link on the page. If a piece of text is being played that is not a link, pressing the five key will take you to the nearest link on the page. Let's practice selecting links now. In a moment, two links will be read out. If you press the five key while the first link is being played, you will be taken to one particular place on the page. If you press five while the second link is being played, you will be taken to a different place. Here goes: Link one. Press five to select. Link two. Press five to select. You selected link one. You selected link two. Do you want to try selecting links again? Press five now to try the link tutorial again. In conclusion, keys four to six on the keypad allow you to navigate around links and select links on a web page. Key four takes you back through links, key five selects links and key six takes you forwards through links.
The third row of keys on the telephone keypad, containing keys seven, eight and nine, allow you to navigate to specific positions within a web page. If you were to press any of these keys now, you would be taken to an entirely different position within this web page and would lose your current position within the tutorial. We do not therefore recommend pressing these keys during this tutorial unless you are reasonably comfortable navigating around a web page using the keypad. Keys seven, eight and nine perform the following functions: The seven key pressed once takes you to the beginning of the web page. The eight key pressed once takes you to the main area of the web page. The nine key pressed once takes you to the end of the web page. The seven key is positioned on the left hand side of the keypad. Like the one and four keys that are on the left hand side, the seven key takes the user in a backwards direction. Similarly, the nine key on the right hand side of the keypad, takes the user in a forwards direction. In general, left means back and right means forwards. The eight key will take the user to the main area of text on the web page. This is determined by the system according to the layout of the page. On some pages the system will be unable to determine the main text area on the page. In this case, the eight key will take the user to the beginning of the web page. To recap, seven takes you to the beginning of the page, eight takes you to the main area of the page, and nine takes you to the end. The seven and eight keys perform additional functions when they are pressed twice in quick succession. You should therefore not press these keys more than once if you just want to go to the beginning of a web page, or the main text area of the web page. Information about this additional functionality will be explained later in this tutorial. To repeat the instructions about keys seven, eight and nine, press the five key now. We will now look at the function of the bottom row of keys on the telephone keypad.
The bottom row of keys on your telephone keypad, containing the star key, zero key and hash keys, perform the following functions. The star key, on the left hand side of the keypad, acts like the "back" button on a web browser and takes you back through the web pages you have navigated. The zero key takes you to a main menu of commands. The commands in this menu will be explained later in this tutorial The hash key takes you to the main Phone Anything Home Page. If you were to press the star key or the hash key now, you would be taken to an entirely different position within the web access system and would lose your position within this tutorial. We do not therefore recommend pressing these keys now unless you are entirely comfortable navigating around web pages using the telephone keypad. However pressing the zero key to access the main menu does not alter your position within the page. Before attempting to access the main menu, you should be aware that pressing the nine key from the main menu will return you to your current position within the web page. If you would like to listen to the main menu of commands, press the zero key now. Don't forget to press the nine key to return to this tutorial. To repeat the instructions about the star key, zero key and hash keys, press the five key now. We will now explain the additional functionality that is available by pressing particular keys more than once.
Particular keys perform specific functions when they are pressed twice in quick succession. The one and three keys in the top row of the keypad allow you to "rewind" and "fast forward" through a web page when they are pressed twice. These "rewind" and "fast forward" functions allow you to move quickly through the contents of a web page. To understand the purpose of the rewind and fast forward functions, imagine that you are at the beginning of a long web page. You would like to find out what is in the centre of the web page but don't want to press your keypad lots of times to find out. A good way to find out would be to "fast forward" through the web page. If you press the three key twice, the system will start "Navigating forwards", reading out its position in the page as it does so. When the system announces that it is half way through the page, you would then press the two key once to stop fast forward. Similarly, if you are at the end of a long web page and would like to find out what text is earlier in the page, you could press the one key twice to start "Navigating backwards". To recap, pressing the one key twice quickly will "rewind" your position in the page. Pressing the three key twice quickly will "fast forward" through the page. Pressing the two key once will stop rewinding or fast forwarding through the page. If you are comfortable navigating a web page using the keypad, then have a go now rewinding and fast forwarding through this page using the one and three keys. Don't forget to press the appropriate key twice quickly and don't forget to press the two key once to stop! If you would like to listen to the instructions about rewinding and fast forwarding through a web page again, press the five key now. The seven and eight keys in the third row of the telephone keypad also perform specific functions when they are pressed twice. If you press the seven key twice, the system will attempt to locate the main set of links on the page. If you press the eight key twice, the system will attempt to locate the largest item of text on the page. In the case of a news story, for example, this would typically be the headline to the story. If the system is unable to determine the main set of links on the page or the largest item of text on the page, the user will be taken to the beginning of the web page. To listen to these last set of instructions again, press the five key now.
The main menu can be reached by pressing the zero key while navigating web pages. The list of menu options will then be read out to the user. These options are as follows: Press the zero key from the main menu to access a quick guide to navigating web pages using the keypad. This guide contains brief descriptions of the functions of each telephone key. You should refer to the current help file if you require additional help information. Press the one key from the main menu to increase the speed of the system voice. This will increase the speed of the text to speech engine used to read out text. This option can be selected multiple times to increase the speed of the engine to its maximum value. Press the two key from the main menu to decrease the speed of the system voice. This will decrease the speed of the text to speech engine used to read out text. You can select this option more than once to make the text to speech engine run slower and slower. Press the three key from the main menu to bookmark the current page. Pages that are bookmarked can be accessed at a later date by going to the PhoneAnything home page and pressing "11" for bookmarks. Press the four key from the main menu to switch automatic navigation on or off. By default, the system automatically navigates to the next item of text once it has finished reading the previous item. By pressing the four key you can switch automatic navigation off, or switch automatic navigation back on again. Press the five key from the main menu to go to a specific link. This option allows you to go to a specific numbered link on a web page. To determine the number of a particular link, navigate to the link using the four and six keys. The number of the link will then be read out after the text of the link has been spoken. Press the six key from the main menu to remove or add a pause between links. By default, the system pauses after reading each link to give the user time to select the link. However, you may want to remove this pause so that the links on a web page are read out more quickly. Pressing keys seven to nine from the main menu will return the user to their original position within the web page. To listen to the main menu options again, press the five key now. The tutorial will now explain how web page forms containing pop up fields, text boxes and other form items can be completed and submitted.
The PhoneAnything system allows web page forms to be completed and submitted using the telephone keypad. Form items on a web page are presented to the user in a different style from standard text items. When a form item such as a pop up is reached, the type of the form item is read out to the user. For example "pop up", "check box", "text input field" or "form button". The content of the form item is then read out. For example "one selected" or "check box selected". This is similar to the way in which web links are presented to the user, where the word link or "Graphical link" precedes the text of the web link. Here is an example of a pop up form item: First value Second value Third value The user can modify a form item or click on a form button by pressing the five key while the form item is being read out. The user can also navigate through form items as if they were web links using the four and six keys on their keypad. If a form button is selected or "clicked on" using the five key, then the web form will be submitted to the appropriate internet site. If a form item other than a form button is selected using the five key, then the content of the form item will be modified accordingly as follows: If the form item is a check box, then pressing five will toggle the value of the check box on or off. You can try this out by pressing the five key with the following check box: If the form item is a radio button, then pressing five will select the particular radio button. You can try this out by pressing the five key with the following two radio buttons: If the form item is a text input field, then pressing five will enter "Text input mode". You will then be able to modify the content of the text field using the buttons on the telephone keypad. The method of entering text strings using the keypad is explained in detail in the next section of this tutorial. If you select a pop up field or a multiple selection box, then the system will enter "Pop up selection mode" or "Multiple selection box mode". The items in the pop up or multiple selection box can then be scrolled through using the one and three keys. The one key goes back through the items in the popup or selection box and the three key goes forwards. You can select one or more items in the pop up or multiple selection box by pressing the five key. Press the hash key to leave the pop up or multiple selection box after you have finished selecting items. You can practice selecting items in a popup by pressing the five key with the following pop up field. Remember to press the hash key when you are finished: First value Second value Third value You can practice selecting multiple items in a multiple selection box by pressing the five key with the following multiple selection box. Remember to press the hash key when you are finished: First multiple value Second multiple value Third multiple value If you would like to hear the instructions about completing web forms again, press the five key now. The tutorial will now explain how text strings can be entered using the buttons on the telephone keypad.
Text strings can be entered using the buttons on the telephone keypad. This allows text input fields on web pages to be completed, and internet addresses to be entered. Each character of the text string should be entered separately, using the sequence of keypad keys listed below: To skip the full list of character codes that is about to be read out, press the five key now. For single digits, enter the digit followed by zero and then hash. For dot, press the one key once followed by hash. For forward slash, press the one key twice followed by hash. For space, press the one key three times followed by hash. For the @ character, press the one key four times followed by hash. For hyphen, press the one key three times followed by the two key and then hash. For underscore, press the one key three times followed by the three key and then hash. For ay press the two key once followed by hash. For b press the two key twice followed by hash. For c press the two key three times followed by hash. For d press the three key once followed by hash. For e press the three key twice followed by hash. For f press the three key three times followed by hash. For g press the four key once followed by hash. For h press the four key twice followed by hash. For i press the four key three times followed by hash. For j press the five key once followed by hash. For k press the five key twice followed by hash. For l press the five key three times followed by hash. For m press the six key once followed by hash. For n press the six key twice followed by hash. For o press the six key three times followed by hash. For p press the seven key once followed by hash. For q press the seven key twice followed by hash. For r press the seven key three times followed by hash. For s press the seven key four times followed by hash. For t press the eight key once followed by hash. For u press the eight key twice followed by hash. For v press the eight key three times followed by hash. For w press the nine key once followed by hash. For x press the nine key twice followed by hash. For y press the nine key three times followed by hash. For z press the nine key four times followed by hash. To enter the letter ay, for example, you would press the two key once followed by hash. The character codes listed above correspond to the text characters printed on the keypads of most phones. After entering a character, the system will repeat the character you have entered back to you. To delete the last character entered press the star key once followed by hash. To listen to the full list of character codes again, press the five key now. To listen to the general instructions for entering text, press the five key now. To practice entering text into a text field, select the following text input field using the five key. This concludes the tutorial on accessing web pages using PhoneAnything. You will now be presented with a list of topics in this help file in case there is any topic you would like to revisit.
Navigating text on a web page. Navigating and selecting links on a web page. Navigating to specific positions within a web page. Going back, accessing the main menu and going to the home page. Additional functionality available through multiple key presses. Commands available from the main menu. Completing forms on a web page. Entering text strings.
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