Microsoft Office Tutorials: Use a screen reader to add an appointment in Outlook 2016

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Use a screen reader to add an appointment in Outlook 2016

Outlook 2016 makes it easy to keep track of appointments, meetings, and tasks. This topic explains how to use a screen reader to add an appointment to your calendar.

Note: This topic assumes that JAWS users have turned off the Virtual Ribbon Menu feature.

Add an appointment to your calendar

To open the Outlook calendar from anywhere in Outlook 2016, press Ctrl+2.
Press Alt+H, N1 to open a blank appointment window. Focus is on the Subject box.
You hear "Subject edit. Type in text." . Type the subject.
Press Alt+L, or you can press the Tab key, to move to the Location box. You hear "Location edit." (In Narrator, you hear "Combo box. Editable combo box.") . Type a location for the appointment.
Press Alt+T to move to the Start time area. Focus is on the start date for the appointment.
Important: Outlook can understand date information in many different forms.
- You can type in ordinary words instead of dates. For example, you can type Today, Tomorrow, or any of most holiday names. You can even type something like Two weeks from tomorrow.
- You can also use different formats when you type an actual date. For example, you can type Apr 25, April 25, 25 April, or 4/25.
  
  Outlook automatically translates each of these into its standard format, MM/DD/YYYY.
After you type in a date, press Enter. Focus changes to the Start time box. You can type in the time of day, or you can use the Up or Down Arrow keys to browse through different times of day until you reach the one that you want.
Tips: If your appointment lasts an entire day, you can mark it as an All day event.
- Press Alt+D to move to the End Date box.
- Press the Tab key twice to move to the All day event checkbox, then press Spacebar to select it.
- To move to the Notes area, press Enter.
After you enter the start time, press Alt+D, or press the Tab key, to move to the End Date area. Focus is on the End Date box.
By default, Outlook enters the same date as the Start Date in this box. To accept this date, press Enter. Or, you can type over this date by using the same methods that you used to type in a Start Date (see Step 4). When you finish typing an End Date, press Enter.
To move to the Notes area, press the Tab key until you hear, "Notes edit". (In Narrator, you hear, "Message editing."), then type any information that you want for the appointment.
To save the appointment, press Alt+H to open the Appointments tab.
Press the Tab key to reach the Save and Close button, and press Enter.

Let people know your availability

You can add a status indicator to your appointment to let other people know your availability. If someone tries to schedule a meeting with you, they'll find this, and know if you are available.

Open the appointment in the calendar by selecting the appointment and pressing Enter.
To add a status indicator, press Alt+H, B to go to the Free/Busy drop down.
Press the down arrow to browse and Enter to select one of these options: Free, Working Elsewhere, Tentative, Busy, and Out of Office.
Save and close the appointment. Press Alt+H, press the Tab key once to the Save and Close button, and then press Enter.