In this section we'll go over as many of the NVDA settings that can be configured as we can. NVDA is extremely configurable. It has a lot of things that the user can adjust, and there are multiple ways to do most of the adjustments. I wouldn't start worrying about any learning curves yet, however. There does happen to be one sentral location where almost all of NVDA's settings can be found. The other methods are intended as shortcut ways to do the same thing, and you theoretically haven't much need to know the shortcut commands if it floats your boat to just use the settings menu. The settings menu is a standard menu bar called the preferences menu located in the NVDA Window. To locate the preferences menu, follow these steps.
- Launch NVDA if it isn't already running.
- Press NVDA+n to bring up the NVDA Window.
- Press alt to move to the menu bar.
- Press right arrow to move over to the preferences menu.
- Press down arrow or enter to open the preferences menu.
or
- Press alt+p from within the NVDA Window
From this point on, we will visit each menu item's associated dialogue box one by one, starting from where you land after opening the preferences menu, and going all the way down through the menu. The preferences menu may be slightly different for you if you are using a different version than I am which may have had menu items added or removed. The preferences menu should be quite similar to mine, however, so even in that case, you'll likely find this somewhat helpful. I am using snapshot r1136.
Select the menu item you are interested in and press enter on it to be skipped to the guidance on this page for that menu item, or skip ahead and start reading through. You should be able to use heading navigation, often the letter h, to skip forward through the menu items one by one. You'll notice the reference to a keystroke after each item. This information is heard when actually moving through the menu bar, and the keystrokes indicated are shortcuts that you can press from within the NVDA window to immediately bring up the dialogue box associated with the menu command and the shortcut. For example, voice settings is followed up by the text ctrl+shift+v. This means that while you can navigate to the preferences menu from within the NVDA window and locate the voice settings menu item and press enter on it, you could also, while in the NVDA window, press ctrl+shift+v to do the same.
Note that you can move through any of the NVDA configuration dialogues with tab and shift+tab. You can activate a button or toggle a checkbox with the space bar. You can adjust the setting of a combo box, radio button selection, or a slider with up and down arrows.
User Interface... ctrl+shift+u
The user interface dialogue, which can be accessed from within the NVDA Window by either pressing alt+P to bring up the preferences menu and then pressing enter on User Interface, or by pressing ctrl+shift+u, allows you to adjust how NVDA looks and behaves.
Language (Requires restart to fully take effect) combo box
You can use the down arrow key to increase the value, page down to increase in larger incrimints, or the end key to jump to the last value in this combo box. You can, of course, use up arrow, page up, and home to decrease the value instead.
This option lets you choose which language the NVDA window is displayed in. By default, NVDA is set to windows. This means that NVDA will automatically display it's user interface in the same language as windows, but you can adjust this with your up and down arrow keys. If you make an adjustment to the language setting, you will be prompted to let NVDA restart itself after you activate the OK button in the User Interface dialogue. Hit ok and NVDA will save the new language setting, close itself, and then launch itself again, now displaying the interface in the new language. Default setting is windows.
Hide User Interface on startup checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will not display the NVDA Window when it is running. It will remain running from the system tray, however. You can bring up the NVDA Window with the NVDA+n keystroke. Default setting is not checked.
Save configuration on exit checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will automatically save any configuration changes you made while running it before it closes. This is not the case if you simply restart or shut down your computer without first closing NVDA. If restarting or shutting down your computer with NVDA running, you will need to press ctrl+s while in the NVDA Window in order to save your settings before hand. If checked, NVDA does save your settings if you exit NVDA, however, with either the exit option in the NVDA Menu of the NVDA Window, or by pressing NVDA+q. Default setting is not checked.
Warn before exiting NVDA checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will not confirm whether you really want to exit NVDA if you press the NVDA+q keystroke or navigate to the exit menu item in the NVDA menu of the NVDA Window. If not checked, NVDA will ask you if you really want to exit NVDA, and you will need to press the ok button to exit, or press the escape button on your keyboard or the cancel button to abort the exit. Default setting is checked.
Ok button, and cancel button
You can press the space bar or the enter key on ok to apply any changes you have made in the user enterface settings dialogue and close it, or on cancel to close the dialogue without applying any changes that you have made, which can also be done by pressing the escape key.
Synthesizer... ctrl+shift+s
The synthesizer dialogue allows you to adjust which text to speech synthesizer you wish for NVDA to use. Synthesizers are the programs that allow NVDA to produce speech through your system's sound card. NVDA includes an ulgra portable version of the speech synthesizer called ESpeak. ESpeak sounds like a robot or something, but it is very responsive and it runs nicely with NVDA on which ever computer you decide to launch it on. NVDA also supports SAPI5 and SAPI4 voices. In addition, this dialogue allows you to set which sound card NVDA uses. You can navigate the Synthesizer dialogue with your tab and shift+tab keys, adjust the combo boxes with your up and down arrow keys, and activate the ok or cancel button with your enter or space bar keys.
synthesizer combo box
You can use the down arrow key to increase the value, page down to increase in larger incrimints, or the end key to jump to the last value in this combo box. You can, of course, use up arrow, page up, and home to decrease the value instead.
This allows you to actually set which speech synthesizer NVDA uses. You can adjust the value with your up and down arrow keys. The synthesizer isn't instructed to begin speaking for NVDA until you activate the ok button. The combo box depends on which synthesizers are available on your system before it will show them. For example, I have no SAPI4 compatible voices on my system at all, therefore, NVDA doesn't provide SAPI4 as an option in the synthesizer combo box. There should usually be SAPI5, and always be ESpeak and scilence available for selection. ESpeak is set by default.
output device combo box
You can use the down arrow key to increase the value, page down to increase in larger incrimints, or the end key to jump to the last value in this combo box. You can, of course, use up arrow, page up, and home to decrease the value instead.
This allows you to choose which sound card NVDA speaks through. Of course, if you only have one sound card, this isn't so cool, but fif you do, here's the place to set which one NVDA uses. Chances are, however, that it will start using the correct one automatically. Change the value with the up and down arrow keys. I estimate that Microsoft Sound mapper allows it to use the default sound card automatically. This means, that if you plug in a pair of USB headphones that appear like a new sound card, NVDA should be able to smoothly switch to the USB headphones. In practice, this isn't so smooth, though. When I do the same, NVDA continues to speak through my internal speakers. Closing and then launching NVDA again then causes it to start speaking through my headphones, however. The default selection for me is microsoft sound mapper.
Ok button, and cancel button
You can press the space bar or the enter key on ok to apply any changes you have made in the synthesizer settings dialogue and close it, or on cancel to close the dialogue without applying any changes that you have made, which can also be done by pressing the escape key.
Voice Settings... ctrl+shift+v
The voice settings dialogue allows you to choose which voice for the currently selected synthesizer you wish to use. This is dependent on the currently selected speech synthesizer. See the previous heading for more information about speech synthesizer selection. It also allows you to take control of the voice you have selected, by adjusting voice rate, pitch, inflection, variant, volume, etc. Not all of these adjustments are available in all speech synthesizers. It also allows you to choose how NVDA alerts you when it comes across an uppercase character. Finally, it lets you choose how NVDA announces punctuation.
Voice combo box
You can use the down arrow key to increase the value, page down to increase in larger incrimints, or the end key to jump to the last value in this combo box. You can, of course, use up arrow, page up, and home to decrease the value instead.
This allows you to choose which voice NVDA uses to speak. If the currently selected synthesizer is ESpeak, you will have a lot of choices as this point, many in different languages. For users in Australia and UK, ESpeak en may suit them the best, where American english users may like ESpeak en-r the best. Note that en-r may soon be renamed to us for united states, so if you can't find en-r with your version, look around for something that has US in it. Remember, these voices are ESpeak voices, and are not available to you if you have opted to use a different speech synthesizer. Don't forget, the voices available to you at this point are the voices that are supported by the currently selected speech synthesizer. For example, L&H Peter is a SAPI4 voice, therefore L&H Peter won't be available to me if I have either SAPI5, ESpeak, or Silent speech synthesizers selected. For information on selecting speech synthesizers, see the information for synthesizers located earlier on this page. By default, this combo box is set to ESpeak en, but obviously it will change if you have modified which speech synthesizer is being used.
Variant combo box
You can use the down arrow key to increase the value, page down to increase in larger incrimints, or the end key to jump to the last value in this combo box. You can, of course, use up arrow, page up, and home to decrease the value instead.
This allows you to set the tone value, basically, of supported speech synthesizers. ESpeak is probably the only one that supports this control right now. Adjusting the variant will change the sound of ESpeak. For example, from variant 11 up to about 14, ESpeak will have a female voice. This control will not be available if either NVDA or the currently selected voice doesn't support variant change in it's protocol. Default value is variant 0.
Rate slider
You can increase the value of this slider with down arrow, or page down to move in larger incrimints. Decrease it with up arrow or page up. Press end to go to the last value of the slider, and home to go to the first value in it.
This slider allows you to choose how quickly your currently selected voice speaks. With most SAPI5 voices, you'll likely notice a better output if you have the rate set to 50 percent. I have ran into a few that don't seam to lose quality when you speed up or slow them down. One of these is Microsoft Anna, another is the SAPI5 version of ESpeak, and still another are the VW Voice Ware voices Paul and Kate. I have managed to crash Loquendo TTS voices by changing the rate, although they do support it. Changing the rate of RealSpeak voice gives you extremely sick results, and I've neglected to try it much with AT&T Natural Voices. At any rate, speed up the voice by increasing the percentage, down arrow, and slow it down by decreasing the percentage, up arrow.
Pitch slider
You can increase the value of this slider with down arrow, or page down to move in larger incrimints. Decrease it with up arrow or page up. Press end to go to the last value of the slider, and home to go to the first value in it.
This slider allows you to adjust the pitch, if supported, of your currently selected voice. Some voices, the AT&T Natural Voices, for example, don't support pitch change, so if this slider isn't available, you can asume that the voice you have selected doesn't support pitch change. The default pitch is usually 50 percent.
Inflection slider
You can increase the value of this slider with down arrow, or page down to move in larger incrimints. Decrease it with up arrow or page up. Press end to go to the last value of the slider, and home to go to the first value in it.
This slider allows you to adjust the inflection of the currently selected voice if the voice in question supports inflection change, and if NVDA realizes it. In short, this setting will probably only work if you have the built in version of ESpeak running. Increasing the inflection means that NVDA will apply more articulation, change it's pitch more, for commas and exclamation marks, question marks, for stressed strings of text etc. If you set the inflection to 0 percent, you will get a perfect monotone, just like a fictional robot. Default setting is likely to be 50 percent.
Volume slider
You can increase the value of this slider with down arrow, or page down to move in larger incrimints. Decrease it with up arrow or page up. Press end to go to the last value of the slider, and home to go to the first value in it.
This slider allows you to adjust the volume of the currently selected voice. Adjusting this value shouldn't modify the volume of other sounds like NVDA's startup sound, the windows default beep sound, etc. Default value is 100, but may be less depending on the voice you've selected.
Speak All Punctuation checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will force the speech to inform you of all punctuation marks it reads. If not checked, it will let the speech handle what it reads on it's own. This means that unchecking this checkbox doesn't necessarily mean you'll never hear a punctuation mark, but most voices are pretty good at announcing punctuation on their own in only the appropriate situations. For example, ESpeak will say the . (period) sign in a file name just before the three letter extention as "dot", so, test.txt would be spoken as "test dot txt". Default setting is checked.
Rays Pitch for Capitals checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will attempt to increase the pitch of the voice when it directly encounters an uppercase character. Saying a single character as a string, or reading a string of text as a whole which contains capitalized characters won't do this, but typing or arrowing over a capitalized character will. Not all voices support pitch change, which is one great reason why the other two capitalization options are available. This checkbox is checked by default.
Say Cap Before Capitals checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will say the word cap before it speaks a capital or uppercase character. For example, if you're typing This is a test, notice the capital t there, it would say, as you typed the letter t, "cap t". This checkbox is unchecked by default.
Beep for Capitals checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will beep when you type or arrow over an uppercase character. It will still read the character as usual, but it will beep at the same time to indicate a capitalized character. By default, this checkbox is unchecked.
Ok button, and cancel button
You can press the space bar or the enter key on ok to apply any changes you have made in the voice settings dialogue and close it, or on cancel to close the dialogue without applying any changes that you have made, which can also be done by pressing the escape key.
Keyboard Settings... ctrl+k
The keyboard settings dialogue allows you to configure which keys on your keyboard NVDA uses as NVDA modifyer keys. It also lets you configure how NVDA announces characters, words, and command keys as you type them.
Use Capslock as an NVDA Modifyer Key checkbox
You can press the space bar to toggle this checkbox.
If checked, NVDA will treat your capslock key as an NVDA modifyer. This means that any NVDA keystroke that is available, [insert+n], for example, can be entered by pressing the capslock in stead of the insert key. So, to issue the command [insert+n] while this is enabled, press and hold down the capslock key, and then tap the letter n on your keyboard. You can still use the normal insert key as well. If you actually need to toggle capslock, simply tap the capslock key twice quickly. If this checkbox is unchecked, the capslock key will behave normaly. This checkbox is not checked by default.
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