Modifying Microsoft Word for the elderly

David Rostenne <davetheconsultant.net> wrote:

> A client of mine is slightly visually impaired and, at 80 years old,
> has started learning to use a Mac. Everything is going well, except
> he has difficulty seeing the I-Beam in MS Word 2004. Is there a way
> to change the shape/color/size of it? Maybe a plugin or third party
> tool?

You could try Biggy:
    http://www.rjcooper.com/biggy/

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On or about 7/6/05 1:24 PM, thus spake "David Rostenne"
<davetheconsultant.net>:

> A client of mine is slightly visually impaired and, at 80 years old,
> has started learning to use a Mac. Everything is going well, except
> he has difficulty seeing the I-Beam in MS Word 2004. Is there a way
> to change the shape/color/size of it? Maybe a plugin or third party
> tool?

The trick to using Word if you don't see too well is simple. First, consider
using a lower screen resolution, such as 800 x 600. Second, if that's not
enough to read the text easily, work in a zoomed document; this enlarges
your whole view of the document.

In Tiger, the cursor (the I-beam) can be made considerably larger - it's a
feature built right into the system. It's under System Preferences >
Universal Access > Mouse. While there, look to see if any of the other
accessibility features might be helpful!

> As well.. he has the habit of entering text without adding spaces
> after commas and periods. I am guessing there is a way to write a
> macro that would search for a comma or period with no space after it
> and add one. Either that or using the Autocorrect feature, but I saw
> no way to add logic to a correction.

It's easy to set this up as a find and replace. Find this:

([.,])([! ])

Replace it with this:

\1 \2

Make sure the "use wildcards" checkbox is checked and click Replace All. And
yes, if you do it while recording a macro, there's your macro. m.

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On Jul 6, 2005, at 6:37 PM, Matt Neuburg wrote:

> In Tiger, the cursor (the I-beam) can be made considerably larger -
> it's a
> feature built right into the system. It's under System Preferences >
> Universal Access > Mouse. While there, look to see if any of the other
> accessibility features might be helpful!

Thanks, I had forgotten about that! While testing I noticed that it
does not keep to a larger size once you click into the text, which is
what is causing him the most trouble.

I'll try switching him to a larger serif font, which should help with
the spacing between letters.. which may make the i-beam more distinct.

>> As well.. he has the habit of entering text without adding spaces
>> after commas and periods. I am guessing there is a way to write a
>
> It's easy to set this up as a find and replace. Find this:
>
> ([.,])([! ])
>
> Replace it with this:
>
> \1 \2
>
> Make sure the "use wildcards" checkbox is checked and click Replace
> All. And
> yes, if you do it while recording a macro, there's your macro. m.

For a moment I thought you were talking about Regular Expressions in
BBEdit!

That worked perfectly, thanks again!

Dave

You might try something like TypeIt4Me to add the spaces after commas/periods.

Hi,

Try http://www.rjcooper.com and you'll probably find something to solve your problem. I saw something called BigCursor that will increase the size of the cursor big as well the I-Beam.

For the commas and periods stuff, have you tried TypeIt4Me? There you can define that after a comma or after a period you can substitute those for a comma or a period with a space, as well for other features that will surprise you!

Good luck!

Carlos Mico Barcelona, Spain

On Jul 7, 2005, at 09:53, David Rostenne wrote:

> While testing I noticed that it does not keep to a larger size once
> you click into the text, which is what is causing him the most
> trouble.
>
> I'll try switching him to a larger serif font, which should help with
> the spacing between letters.. which may make the i-beam more distinct.

First, a little terminology clarification:

- The "I-beam" mouse pointer is shaped similarly to the letter "I" and
is the thing that moves around when you move the mouse, and if you
click in some text, it places the insertion point there.

- The "insertion point" is the flashing vertical line in the text that
indicates where new text will be inserted.

If you mean that the insertion point isn't bigger, you're right, it's
always based upon the size of the surrounding text.

It sounds to me like your friend might want to try turning on zooming,
which makes everything on the screen bigger. That avoids mucking around
with fonts, which only addresses the problem for some documents and
doesn't make anything else on screen any easier to read.

Look in (on Mac OS X 10.3.9):

        System Preferences:Universal Access:Seeing

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