Greg.Mason@f11.n203.z1.fidonet.org (Greg Mason) (01/04/91)
Index Number: 12642
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
I have recently purchased a copy of Q and A. My problems is that I
am having dificulty using the program with screentalk. I have also
tried using soft vert. I would like to use screen talk because it
has interruptability which comes in handy. When using screentalk
with q and a, my cursor keys do not work and the only time I can
really access the screen is in review mode. Can anyone help me? I
think Q and A is a powerful program and I would like to have full
access to the screen. I have heard a lot of good things about
Vocal Eyes and I plan on getting it as soon as I can get the
bucks. Maybe I will get lucky and get it for Christmas. Any help
will be appreciated!
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Internet: Greg.Mason@f11.n203.z1.fidonet.orgRick.Alfaro@f8.n369.z1.fidonet.org (Rick Alfaro) (05/04/91)
Index Number: 15360
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
MO>YOu seem like a very experienced program user, maybe even a
MO>programmer, from some of your comments. I wonder what you
MO>really like about q and a. I had thought about getting it
MO>about a year ago, and got cold feet, so to speak. I am
MO>heartened to hear you say it works so well with speech. How
MO>about the manual? Is it available on disk or do you have to
MO>have a sighted person or a scanner to tread read it? Do you
MO>like any pd or shareware databases?
Mary,
Nice to hear from you. I am not really a programmer, but I guess I
would be considered to be an experienced user. I am an instructor of
sorts, and teach privately out of my home...
One of the things I like most about Q&A V3.0 is the fact that it is
quite speech friendly. In addition, it is also a fairly powerful
program that can handle most word processing and database tasks with the
exception of the most demanding applications. The word processor is
extremely nice and lets you use just about any font that your printer
supports. It doesn't handle things like table of contents generation,
or some of the other real fancier things that WordPerfect does.
However, a program like WordPerfect is over kill for most people unless
you are a writer, lawyer, legal secretary, or something like that. You
can get Q&A for a much lower price than WordPerfect and have everything
all rolled into one package that is easy to use. Mail merging for
example, is a real snap with Q&A. Setting up a simple database is also
extremely easy, with some very good help screens. With the database,
you also have the advantage of getting very sofisticated if you want to
use it built-in programming language, for doing on screen calculations
and such, but this is strictly optional. Setting up a database can be
as simple as typing a few fields on a blank screen terminated with a ":"
(colon) and then answering a few questions about each field. However,
if you enjoy prgramming, you can get quite sofisticated if you want. I
wrote a Q&A application for a local Doctor, and to this day, he is still
running a very large practice with it. So you can see, you have the
best of both worlds available if you want. Ofcourse, it has it quirks
like any other piece of software, but in general a very easy to use
package.
As for shareware packages, I haven't looked at pc-file in a long time,
but many people think it is a great piece of software at a very low
cost. It is my understanding that it also works well with speech. I
believe it is currently up to version 5.0, or 5. something anyhow.
One more point about Q&A...Its spell checker is real nice, and very
useable with speech as well. When you have it list possible
replacements for your misspelled word, you can use the up and down arrow
keys to cursor through the list, which makes it very convenient. At
least, this is the way it works with Vocal-Eyes which is what I am using
for speech software. The menu selections also work with your arrow keys
which is nice too. Hope this answers your questions...
Regards,
Rick
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