Using EmacSpeak

Emacspeak is a speech interface to Linux and Unix, which provides speech output solely within the Emacs environment. Emacs is essentially a text editor, but a large number of available extensions add to its functionality (including web browsing, etc.). Emacspeak is available on all College of Engineering Realm Linux computers, and is installed in a locker for the Solaris platform.

Starting Emacspeak for Realm Linux
User accounts must be specifically configured to support Emacspeak for Realm Linux. Here's how:

1.) Configure your account to automatically start Emacspeak by typing the following commands:
add emacspeak-linux
configure_emacspeak_account

OR

2.) Insert the following lines into the ~/.emacs file:
;; Emacs/W3 Configuration
(require 'e3-auto "w3-auto")

3.) Insert the following lines into the ~/.Xstartup file:
if (`uname` == Linux) then
setenv LD_ASSUME_KERNEL 2.4.1
sleep 5;emacspeak
endif

Assuming the user's account has been appropriately configured, the application can be launched from the terminal command prompt by entering the following command:

Emacspeak

For help setting up your account to support Emacspeak, email disability@ncsu.edu.

Starting Emacspeak for Sun Solaris

If you would like to configure your account to automatically launch Emacspeak for Solaris and would like assistance, please email disability@ncsu.edu.

Operating Emacspeak

Emacspeak has many more features than can be covered in this document. To help you get started, the following is a summary of some of the more common commands. For additional information, including a complete Users Guide, see the Emacspeak web site.

Note that the following commands are case sensitive. Also, a note regarding convention: C refers to the Control key, and M to the Meta key (ALT on most keyboards).

Emacspeak Tutorial: C-h C-e
Emacs Tutorial: C-h t
C-h c <any character> tells you the function performed by that character

Stop Speech: C-e s

Toggle character echo: C-e d k
Toggle line echo: C-e d l
Pronunciation mode: C-e d m
Set punctuation: C-e d p
Set rate of speech: C-e d r (30 to 100 is a reasonable rate)

Read a character at a time: arrow left and right -
Read current word: C-e w
Spell current word: C-e W
Read a word at a time in either direction: M-arrow
Move to end of line: C-e e
Read a line at a time: arrow up and down -
Read page: C-e [
Read paragraph: C-e {
Read page interactively: C-e ]

Current window information: C-e C-w
Percentage into the current buffer: C-e %

Shell command: C-e !
Login to a remote terminal (e.g., telnet): C-e C-r
View man pages: M-x man
Terminal: M-x term
Run w3 (web browser): M-x w3
Kill emacs: C-e ESC C-k

Time: C-e t
Version: C-e v

Common Emacs keystrokes

Open file: C-x c-f (If the file doesn't yet exist, you'll create a new file with the name you enter.)
Save file: C-x c-s
List buffers: C-x C-b
Quit emacs: C-x C-c
Undo: C-x u
Number of windows: C-x #

Replace a string (with prompts): M-x repl s
Search: C-s
Reverse search: C-r

Using w3 for web browsing

By default, w3 launches with its help file as the home page. Read this for more information. Here are some of the more common keystrokes:

tab - navigate through links
M-tab - navigate in reverse through links
B - back to previous document
F - forward to next document
b - back to previous link within document
f - forward to next link within document
Return - activates a link (must be on link; use tab)
s - source
l - last buffer
q - quits WWW mode
p - prints the current document