Dell computer tech savvy help

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Brenda_V

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I come to you my CAF friends with a question. I have an Avon Customer/cum friend who is in her 70’s and has severe arthritis among other problems that have her living her life in a wheel chair and bed now (her husband of 50+ years takes care of her with some outside help) anyway, she has a Dell computer and can use her mouse but it is with great difficulties because of the arthritis in her hands - she mostly does e-mail right now but used to do so much more from working on her family tree to selling things on half.com so knowing this - are there any keyboard short cuts she could use one fingered to help with the computer?

I am going to bring my daughter’s Mac laptop over to see if working with the “mouse” pad on that is easier then she can pull out her daughter’s laptop (probably a PC) right now.

Pray for this couple, their daughter (my age) had a stroke this summer while visiting with them and is now in a nursing home getting PT and OT - once she can take care of her most basic needs they will bring her home with them.

Brenda V.
 
I’m a Macbook user now (👍 ) so I can’t double-check, but on my previous Dell laptop there was something called StickyKeys. I think if you go into the settings (or what is it called anymore? 😛 ), they have a little icon with a wheelchair on it. Click on it, and that will bring up disability settings. (I had it set for deaf people–it blinks the window instead of playing a sound).

In there somewhere, there is a place where you can check the box if you want to turn on StickyKeys.

For example, when you want to do capital letters, in StickyKeys you press on Shift, and it will remember it for about 5 seconds so you can press another key. So, you can do Shift and then 1, to make it put a ! on the screen.

Also, you can turn on StickyKeys by pressing Shift 5 times in a row. It’s the annoying way of turning it on (I’ve done it a lot accidentally, trying to think of what to write next). But it will work, as well. ShiftShiftShiftShiftShift, turns on StickyKeys, then you can do Shift + (whatever key).

Hope this helps!
 
Is her problem with using the mouse, or using the keyboard?

If her trouble is with using the mouse, sure, every program has keyboard shortcuts. The easiest way to find them is to go into the help for the program and search for “keyboard shortcuts”. Really, most of what you do with the mouse can also be done with a keyboard.

Can she still use a pencil easily? If so, she could get a tablet like this ( amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-Pen-Tablet-Only/dp/B000V9T2JA/ ) which allows you to use an electronic pencil like a mouse.
 
I second the suggestion on sticky keys.

There are also two other ‘keys’ functions you can enable (available in Vista for sure, need to double check for XP/2000).

Filter Keys - helps prevent repeated keystrokes by slowing the repeat rate.

Toggle Keys - sends an audio alert when the Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock keys are pressed.

Additionally, you can get a good keyboard which has dedicated buttons to certain items, like volume, internet, email etc…

Something like this would be worth looking into:

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109137

But make sure you install the drivers for her, and customise the buttons if necessary 😉

God Bless,
 
ack said:
Is her problem with using the mouse, or using the keyboard?

If her trouble is with using the mouse, sure, every program has keyboard shortcuts. The easiest way to find them is to go into the help for the program and search for “keyboard shortcuts”. Really, most of what you do with the mouse can also be done with a keyboard.

Can she still use a pencil easily? If so, she could get a tablet like this ( amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-Pen-Tablet-Only/dp/B000V9T2JA/ ) which allows you to use an electronic pencil like a mouse.
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She can not use a pen or pencil her hands are that crippled, she was barely able to hold a bottle of nail polish for me to touch up some nails for her (we did a lot of, you got it right? before I let go as I didn’t want nail polish all over her bed!)

She can one finger things though so if I can get the shortcuts for the key board that would be best. The other suggestion looks good, I will look it up and help them get everything all together or get my husband or daughter to help me with the set-up as they are my tech savvy people (my other daughter is like me, we pretty much can do anything on the computer but if something goes wrong we need someone else to fix it for us 😉 - some of that is I am sure we have very little patience for some things, with children I can be very patient with technology, not so)

Thanks everyone so far. I won’t be seeing her for a little while but will follow up much sooner if I get a lot of other easy to do stuff for her.

Brenda V.
 
Magicsilence said:
Something like this would be worth looking into:

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109137

But make sure you install the drivers for her, and customise the buttons if necessary 😉

God Bless,
Click to expand...
My husband and I looked at one similar the other day because our keyboard is getting old and literally sticky 😛 and the wrist rest that I purchased 15 years ago when we got our second computer (count Vic20 as first) was so flat it didn’t work anymore. Well we replaced the wrist rest and we are in good shape so won’t need a new keyboard for a little while but will get one of those ergonomic ones when we do!

I will see if the other suggestions work first before I suggest they get a new key board although they may already have one, I haven’t seen her computer for some time.

Brenda V.
 
There are programs available that let you dictate directly to the computer. Dragon Dictate is one. They may not be accurate enough for an unedited business, letter, but it might suffice for emails to family and friends.
 
Inman said:
There are programs available that let you dictate directly to the computer. Dragon Dictate is one. They may not be accurate enough for an unedited business, letter, but it might suffice for emails to family and friends.
Click to expand...
that might work too. I will bring all these ideas to her and her husband - it is wonderful to see such love after over 50 years, like my parents and my in-laws!

Thank you everyone!

Brenda V.
 
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