Nifty method for attaching files in Outlook

[kestrell]

I thought everyone was aware of this method, but someone asked about it recently on a list and no one else seemed to know about it, so I'm posting the steps here.

I’m using Jaws 2020 and Office 365.

If you have not opened or worked on the file recently, open the file you wish to attach and then close it.
Open Outlook and start your message.
Once you have filled out the To, Subject, and message body, and are ready to send the message, do the following:
Press alt +h and tab over to the Insert submenu, but do not hit return
Arrow down to Attach File and hit return
You will now be in a horizontal list that lists all the files you have recently worked on and each file has an accompanying button.
Tab until you get to the file you wish to attach and then activate the button with either spacebar or return.
You can press shift + tab once to check that the attached file is really attached to your email message.
Send your email as usual.

Comments

[kestrell]

So it turns out that this is the method the person on the list was hoping someone would reember, but when I posted it, one of the Carroll Center instructors posted that it was as quick as the method that he had posted, which was go to your desktop, open documents, go to the file you want to attach, copy it, go back to Outlook, and paste the file into your email.

As far as I can see, both methods are about equal on time and cognitive load, and the one I explained was the one the original poster wanted, so what's with correcting me on list? I know this shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but wtf?

Some users just find one method easier to remember than another: what's with pwd criticizing the way other pwd do things? Perhaps it's just because I've been hearing some of this same sort of criticizing going on in the Voiceover class, and I think it just makes some non-expert users feel as if they are doing something wrong and being a bad blind person.

I say, Rock being a bad blind person!

WTF WTF WTF

[jesse_the_k]

Ridiculous!

I know there's less cognitive load when I find something from "within" my email program. Once I've located the correct file and pressed the default button, I'm back where I was. If I go searching for a file I want to send, I may find it and forget that I was looking to mail it.

Short term memory? I have none.

Re: WTF WTF WTF

[kestrell]

Apologies for my typos: I wrote "was as quick" when his criticism was that the method I described "wasn't as quick," but you seem to have gotten the idea despite my typos.

Yes, this method seemed easier to me for the same reason: once I'm in a program, it feels easier if I can manipulate the file I want from within that program, rather than switching programs.

Also, isn't being able to manipulate what we want to do with files from within a sinlge progam what all these features are for ? That is the idea that is being emphasized in the VoiceOver class: that all these things like sharing can be donw from within a program, without having to switch programs, and that, as users, we should explit those methods.