Go to page controls

Windows Narrator.

Back to Home Page

Applies to Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1

Ref: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/hear-text-read-aloud-with-narrator/?v=t

Starting Narrator

There are different ways to start Narrator. These are the four ways many people prefer:

On a Windows 10 keyboard, press Control + the Windows logo key + Enter.
To turn off Narrator, repeat the above steps.

On a tablet, press the Windows logo button and Volume Up button together.

On the sign-in screen, tap or click the Ease of access button in the lower-left corner and choose Narrator.

Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.) Tap or click
Ease of Access, tap or click Narrator, and then move the slider under Narrator to turn it on.

Tips
If you want to get started right away, press Caps Lock+F1 after you open Narrator, or tap the touchscreen three times with four fingers. This will show you all of the

Narrator commands.

If you want to use Caps Lock to capitalize letters while you're using Narrator, press the Caps Lock key twice in quick succession.

Exiting Narrator

There are also different ways to exit Narrator. These are the two shortcuts many people prefer:

On a keyboard, press the Windows logo key +Enter.
On a tablet, press the Windows logo button and Volume Up button together.

New touch gestures    
Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 have new actions and new locations for common commands. Here are a few important gestures to get you started.

Use this touch gesture To do this:
Swipe in from the right edge with one finger Open the charms (Search, Share, Start, Devices, Settings)
Swipe in from the left edge with one finger Switch apps, snap them to the side, and close them
Swipe in from the top or bottom edge with one finger Show app commands like Save, Edit, and Delete.

Note
The press and hold gesture isn't supported in Narrator.

New keyboard shortcuts.
Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 have new keyboard shortcuts too. Here are a few helpful ones.
Use this keyboard shortcut To do this,
Windows logo key +C, to Open the charms (Search, Share, Start, Devices, Settings).
Windows logo key +Z, to Show app commands like Save, Edit, and Delete.
Windows logo key +period, to Snap apps to the side.
Windows logo key +Tab or Alt+Tab, to Switch apps.

Narrator settings
You can change settings for Narrator in PC settings. To find these settings:

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
2. Tap or click Ease of Access, and then change any of the following settings.

Hear what's on the screen
Narrator. Use this slider to turn Narrator on or off.
Start narrator automatically. You can choose whether Narrator starts automatically each time you sign in.

Voice

Choose a voice. With this drop-down menu you can select different types of voices in Narrator, if they're available in your language.
Speed. You can change the speed of the voice with this slider.
Pitch. You can change the pitch of the voice with this slider.

Sounds you hear

Read hints for controls and buttons. You can choose whether Narrator will read hints about how to interact with common items such as buttons, links, list items, and sliders.
Characters you type. You can choose whether or not Narrator reads each key you enter
Words you type. Choose whether or not Narrator reads the words that you type.
Lower the volume of other apps when Narrator is running. This option makes other apps quieter so it's easier to hear Narrator.
Play audio cues. This option turns on the extra sounds that Narrator plays when you do certain actions.

Cursor and keys

Highlight the cursor. This option lets you show or hide the box that highlights where Narrator is on your screen.
Have insertion point follow Narrator. This option lets you show or hide the box that highlights where Narrator is on your screen.
Activate keys on touch keyboard when I lift my finger off the keyboard. If touch mode is available, you can turn this setting on so you can type faster using the
touch keyboard. With this setting, you can drag to search for the item you're looking for and lift your finger to press the key.

Keyboard commands
The special Narrator key can be set to be the Insert or Caps Lock key, goto Narrator Settings by pressing CTL + Windows key + N and adjust the Narrator key as required.

Some basic keyboard shortcuts are itemised below, remember for your system instead of CAPS Lock as the Narrator key, you might have changed this to the Insert Key

Ctrl, to Stop reading.
Windows logo key + Enter, to Exit Narrator.
Caps Lock+Space, to Do primary action.
Caps Lock+Right arrow, to Move to next item.

Caps Lock+Left Arrow, to Move to previous item.
Caps Lock+Up arrow, to Change view. (Note, view is equivalent to granularity on other systems, i.e. change from jumping from headings to hyperlinks when you move around the screen.)
Caps Lock+Down arrow, to Change view.
Caps Lock + A, to Change verbosity mode.

Caps Lock+F1, to Show commands list.
Caps Lock+F2, to Show commands for current item.
Caps Lock+F3, to Jump to next cell in row.
Caps Lock+Shift+F3, to Jump to previous cell in row.

Caps Lock+F4, to Jump to next cell in column.
Caps Lock+Shift+F4, to Jump to previous cell in column.
Caps Lock+F5, to Read which row and column Narrator is in.
Caps Lock+F6, to Jump to table cell.

Caps Lock+F7, to Read current column.

Hear text read aloud with Narrator
Use this keyboard shortcut To do this,

Caps Lock+F8, to Read current row.
Caps Lock+F9, to Read current column header.
Caps Lock+F10, to Read current row header.

Caps Lock+F11, to Toggle touch mode on/off.
Caps Lock+F12, to Toggle keystroke announcements.
Caps Lock+Z, to Lock Narrator Key. (Note, saves you having to press the Caps Lock key all the time, if using Narrator commands.)
Caps Lock+X, to Pass keys to app.

Caps Lock+V, to Repeat last phrase.
Caps Lock+Page, to Up Increase voice volume.
Caps Lock+Page, to Down Decrease voice volume.
Caps Lock+Plus, to Increase voice speed

Caps Lock+Minus, to Decrease voice speed.
Caps Lock+D, to Read item.
Caps Lock+F, to Read item advanced.
Caps Lock+S, to Read item spelled out or read detailed reading for Japanese or Korean.

Caps Lock+W, to Read Window.
Caps Lock+R, to Read all items in containing area.
Caps Lock+, to Move to last item in containing area.
Caps Lock+G, to Move Narrator cursor to system cursor.

Caps Lock+T, to Move Narrator cursor to pointer.
Caps Lock+Tilde, to Set focus to item.
Caps Lock+Backspace, to Go back one item.
Caps Lock+Insert, to Jump to linked item.

Caps Lock+M, to Start reading.
Caps Lock+Close, to bracket Read text from start to cursor.
Caps Lock+0 (zero), to Read text attributes.
Caps Lock+H, to Read document.

Caps Lock+U, to Read next page.
Caps Lock+Ctrl+U, to Read current page.
Caps Lock+Shift+U, to Read previous page.
Caps Lock+I, to Read next paragraph.

Caps Lock+Ctrl+I, to Read current paragraph.
Caps Lock+Shift+I, to Read previous paragraph.
Caps Lock+O, to Read next line.
Caps Lock+Ctrl+O, to Read current line.

Caps Lock+Shift+O, to Read previous line.
Caps Lock+P, to Read next word.
Caps Lock+Ctrl+P, to Read current word.
Caps Lock+Shift+P, to Read previous word.

Caps Lock+Open bracket, to Read next character.
Caps Lock+Ctrl+Open bracket, to Read current character.
Caps Lock+Shift+Open bracket, to Read previous character.
Caps Lock+J, to Jump to next heading.

Caps Lock+Shift+J, to Jump to previous heading.
Caps Lock+K, to Jump to next table.
Caps Lock+Shift+K, to Jump to previous table.
Caps Lock+L, to Jump to next link.

Caps Lock+Shift+L, to Jump to previous link.
Caps Lock+Y, to Move to beginning of text.
Caps Lock+B, to Move to end of text.
Caps Lock+C, to Read current date/time.

Touch commands
If you have a new PC that supports four or more contact points, you can use touch commands to control your PC.

Use this touch command To do this,
Swipe left/right with one finger, to Move to next or previous item.
Swipe up/down with one finger, to Change move increment.
Tap or drag a single finger, to Read what's under your finger.
Double-tap with one finger, to Activate primary action.

Triple-tap with one finger, to Activate secondary action.
Swipe left/right/up/down with two fingers, to Scroll.
Tap with two fingers, to Stop Narrator from reading.
Double-tap with two fingers, to Show context menu.

Hold with one finger and tap with a second, to Activate primary action.
Hold with one finger and double-tap with a second, to Activate secondary action.
Swipe left/right with three fingers, to Tab forward and backward.
Swipe up with three fingers, to Read current window.

Swipe down with three fingers, to Start reading explorable text.
Tap with three fingers Change, to verbosity mode.
Double-tap with three fingers, to Read Text Attributes.
Hold with one finger and tap with two other fingers, to Start dragging or extra key options.

Swipe left/right with four fingers, to Move Narrator cursor to beginning / end of unit.
Swipe up/down with four fingers, to Turn zoom on/off.
Tap with four fingers, to Show commands for current item.
Double-tap with four fingers, to Toggle search mode.

Triple-tap with four fingers, to Show Narrator commands list.

Note
Narrator provides basic screen-reading capabilities so you can use Windows when you don't have a more comprehensive screen reader. Narrator isn't designed to read content in all apps. For more info about screen readers and other assistive technologies, go to the Microsoft Accessibility website.

Go to top


Accessibility Page Control Section


Keyboard control (Chrome/Safari): Screen Speak - Press ALT + s, Pause Audio - Press Alt + p. To reset/reload page activate the Reload Page button below.


Search Section

If you are using a laptop, then to search for text on any currently displayed page press Control and F, then enter the required search text in the displayed search box. Any text found in the current page will be highlighted, you can use the up and down symbols displayed within the search box to search forward or backwards for occurrences of your search text.

If you are accessing this site via a smart phone or tablet, you will need to navigate to the 'More options' button, usually towards the top right hand side of your screen, to access your device Search options for the currently displayed page. Note that sometimes instead of the word 'Search' your device might display 'Find in page' as the option to select for searching the current page.

To search for text primarily in other pages of the Simplyinformed Website, enter text in the search box below. To get back from the search results Press ALT and Left Arrow. Please note there may be a few initial links that take you to other sites that match your site search string, these can of course be disregarded if you only want to be taken to content on this site. Please note that the Search box is displayed as a table with one row and three columns, in other there are three cells in the search table layout. Cell one is where you enter your search string and press enter, or move to cell two to activate the Search Button. Move to cell three to find the clear search content button to clear out the text in cell on, ready to enter a new search string. Use the Up and Down arrows to move through search table cells when using NVDA. Once the Narrator has been taken to the search box press the enter key so that the screen reader switches into text input mode.

Go to top


Find us on Facebook button Icon

Copyright © Simply Informed 2010 Simply Informed Icon