The Idea Place Audio Tours

Guided audio tours of the apps from The Idea Place. Two AI hosts walk through each app, and every demo you hear is a real recording of a screen reader using it.

Tours of:

QuickMail

Get QuickMail

QuickMail tour, with Windows Narrator

QuickMail is a free email program for Windows, built screen reader first. In this tour, two hosts, Michael and Maya, walk through the program, and every demo you hear is the real QuickMail running on a Windows test machine with Windows Narrator reading it (Microsoft Zira voice). Real keys were pressed and Narrator was recorded exactly as it spoke. The only editing was trimming long pauses. The test machine is offline, so you also hear how QuickMail works without a connection.

25 minutes, with Windows Narrator.

Parts and start times: QuickMail tour, with Windows Narrator
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Starting QuickMail, offline, at 0:53
  3. Getting around: F6 and the command palette, at 2:07
  4. Message List Fields: choose what each message says, at 4:34
  5. Four ways to view a folder, and conversation fields, at 6:31
  6. Reading mail, at 10:47
  7. Search, at 12:12
  8. Writing, and two ways to check spelling, at 13:17
  9. Staying organized: watched conversations and the calendar, at 16:42
  10. Context menus, the archive folder and the startup folder, at 18:54
  11. Properties with Alt+Enter, at 21:46
  12. You're in control: settings and shortcuts, at 23:28
  13. Summing up, and where to get QuickMail, at 24:20

QuickMail tour, with NVDA

QuickMail is a free email program for Windows, built screen reader first. In this tour, two hosts, Michael and Maya, walk through the program, and every demo you hear is the real QuickMail running on a Windows test machine with NVDA reading it: NVDA 2026.2 with its out-of-the-box settings and the standard Windows voice. The hosts are AI voices; NVDA is not. A script pressed the keys and NVDA was recorded as it spoke. Afterwards a soft click was added at each key press, the volume was evened out, and long pauses were shortened; NVDA's words were not changed. The test machine is offline, so you also hear how QuickMail works without a connection. (There is also an edition with Windows Narrator.)

25 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail tour, with NVDA
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Starting QuickMail, offline, at 1:09
  3. Getting around: F6 and the command palette, at 2:09
  4. Message List Fields: choose what each message says, at 4:28
  5. Four ways to view a folder, and conversation fields, at 6:28
  6. Reading mail, at 10:51
  7. Search, at 12:29
  8. Writing, and two ways to check spelling, at 13:39
  9. Staying organized: watched conversations and the calendar, at 17:10
  10. Context menus, the archive folder and the startup folder, at 19:00
  11. Properties with Alt+Enter, at 21:48
  12. You're in control: settings and shortcuts, at 23:30
  13. Summing up, and where to get QuickMail, at 24:22

QuickMail tour, with JAWS

QuickMail is a free email program for Windows, built screen reader first. In this tour, two hosts, Michael and Maya, walk through the program, and every demo you hear is the real QuickMail running on a Windows test machine with JAWS reading it: JAWS 2026 with its standard Eloquence voice, typing echo set to words, and tutor and access key messages turned off. The hosts are AI voices; JAWS is not. A script pressed the keys and JAWS was recorded as it spoke. Afterwards a soft click was added at each key press, the volume was evened out, and long pauses were shortened; JAWS's words were not changed. The test machine is offline, so you also hear how QuickMail works without a connection. (There are also editions with NVDA and with Windows Narrator.)

26 minutes, with JAWS, recorded with QuickMail 0.8.63.

Parts and start times: QuickMail tour, with JAWS
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Starting QuickMail, offline, at 1:19
  3. Getting around: F6 and the command palette, at 2:31
  4. Message List Fields: choose what each message says, at 4:59
  5. Four ways to view a folder, and conversation fields, at 7:00
  6. Reading mail, at 11:19
  7. Search, at 12:57
  8. Writing, and two ways to check spelling, at 14:09
  9. Staying organized: watched conversations and the calendar, at 17:51
  10. Context menus, the archive folder and the startup folder, at 19:57
  11. Properties with Alt+Enter, at 23:00
  12. You're in control: settings and shortcuts, at 24:46
  13. Summing up, and where to get QuickMail, at 25:38

QuickMail's address book, with Windows Narrator

Two hosts take you through everything QuickMail does with addresses: the address book, saving every address from a message with Grab Addresses, groups (making them, renaming and deleting them, adding people and taking them out), the Group Manager, and how it all comes together when you address a message.

29 minutes, with Windows Narrator.

Parts and start times: QuickMail's address book, with Windows Narrator
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Opening the address book, at 1:15
  3. Adding, editing and deleting a contact, at 3:28
  4. Contact properties, at 6:28
  5. Finding mail from a contact, at 7:52
  6. Grab Addresses, at 9:23
  7. The Groups tab, at 13:10
  8. Adding someone to a group, at 15:04
  9. Creating, renaming and deleting groups, at 16:24
  10. The Group Manager, at 18:14
  11. Addressing a message, at 20:29
  12. Inserting a whole group from the address book, at 22:35
  13. New addresses and Check Addresses, at 24:05
  14. What we didn't demonstrate, at 26:09
  15. Wrapping up, at 27:38

QuickMail settings, episode 1: General, part 1. Reading, views and sync

Episode 1 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the General tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

14 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 1: General, part 1. Reading, views and sync
  1. Welcome to the settings series, at 0:00
  2. Opening Settings and moving around, at 1:42
  3. The General tab at a glance, at 3:52
  4. Preview lines, at 5:17
  5. Plain text and pictures, at 7:25
  6. Display mode, and remembering views, at 8:12
  7. Sync: how much mail, and how often, at 10:18
  8. Coming up, at 13:34

QuickMail settings, episode 2: General, part 2. Trash, saving, notifications and writing

Episode 2 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the General tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

9 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 2: General, part 2. Trash, saving, notifications and writing
  1. Welcome back, at 0:00
  2. Confirm before emptying trash, at 1:53
  3. Saving messages to files, at 2:37
  4. Notifications, and staying in the notification area, at 4:48
  5. The desktop shortcut, at 6:01
  6. Writing messages, at 6:23
  7. Coming up, at 9:01

QuickMail settings, episode 3: General, part 3. Screen reader announcements

Episode 3 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the General tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

13 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 3: General, part 3. Screen reader announcements
  1. Welcome back, at 0:00
  2. The master switch, at 2:30
  3. Four kinds of announcement, at 4:31
  4. Spelling, at 5:37
  5. Field labels, at 8:20
  6. Appointment reminders, at 10:18
  7. A word about access keys, at 10:40
  8. Coming up, at 12:11

QuickMail settings, episode 4: the Advanced tab

Episode 4 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the Advanced tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

9 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 4: the Advanced tab
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Updates, at 1:59
  3. Google sign-in and POP3, at 2:47
  4. Moving your settings to another computer, at 4:00
  5. Logging and connection diagnostics, at 6:25
  6. Log format, at 7:42
  7. Settings that aren't in the window, at 8:23
  8. Coming up, at 8:59

QuickMail settings, episode 5: Keyboard Shortcuts

Episode 5 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

6 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 5: Keyboard Shortcuts
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. The list of commands, at 0:47
  3. When a key is already taken, at 4:17
  4. When your keys take effect, at 4:43
  5. Coming up, at 5:32

QuickMail settings, episode 6: the Startup tab

Episode 6 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the Startup tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

6 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 6: the Startup tab
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Where QuickMail opens, at 1:37
  3. How much to check at startup, at 3:33
  4. Starting with Windows, at 4:31
  5. Coming up, at 5:47

QuickMail settings, episode 7: the Windowing tab

Episode 7 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the Windowing tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

6 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 7: the Windowing tab
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Reading pane, the default, at 1:43
  3. Tab mode, at 1:58
  4. Window mode, at 3:32
  5. Closing a tab with unsaved changes, at 4:45
  6. Coming up, at 5:16

QuickMail settings, episode 8: the Appearance tab

Episode 8 of 8 in the QuickMail settings series: the Appearance tab of the Settings window (Ctrl+comma, or File, Settings). Every setting on it: its default, what you can change it to, and what happens when you do.

6 minutes, with NVDA.

Parts and start times: QuickMail settings, episode 8: the Appearance tab
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Themes, at 2:18
  3. Font and text size, at 3:27
  4. Message list density, at 3:58
  5. Vision settings, at 4:32
  6. That's every setting, at 5:18

QuickMail sounds, with JAWS

QuickMail, the free email program for Windows built to be screen reader friendly, plays sounds now (version 0.8.67 or newer). Maya and Michael play every built-in sound in all three themes, Glass, Soft bell and Wood, show how to turn sounds on and change them, then hear them in real mail, and finish with their own voices playing from mail rules: "Mail moved", "Invoice filed", "Sam wrote".

9 minutes, with JAWS.

Parts and start times: QuickMail sounds, with JAWS
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. The sounds in Glass, at 0:29
  3. Turning them on, at 2:33
  4. Sounds in action, at 4:29
  5. Saved the best for last, at 6:38
  6. Tell us what you think, at 8:17

WeatherFast

Get WeatherFast

WeatherFast for Windows tour, with JAWS

A walk through WeatherFast for Windows, a free weather program built to be quick to use with a screen reader. Two AI hosts, River and Maya, explain it, and every demo you hear is the real WeatherFast 3.0.2 (recorded just before its release) running on a Windows test machine with JAWS reading it: JAWS 2026 with its standard Eloquence voice, punctuation set to some, a slightly faster rate, typing echo set to words, and tutor and access key messages turned off. The hosts are AI voices; JAWS is not. A script pressed the keys and JAWS was recorded as it spoke. Afterwards a soft click was added at each key press, the volume was evened out, and long pauses were shortened; JAWS's words were not changed. The weather is live, recorded just after midnight Central on October 28, 2026.

22 minutes, with JAWS, recorded with WeatherFast 3.0.2.

Parts and start times: WeatherFast for Windows tour, with JAWS
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. Starting WeatherFast, at 1:15
  3. Your list of cities, at 2:08
  4. Full Weather: everything about one place, at 3:25
  5. Reading a whole alert, at 5:38
  6. Other days, at 6:53
  7. Adding a city, at 8:22
  8. Adding several cities at once, at 9:23
  9. Units, and what you see, at 11:13
  10. The Weather menu, at 12:36
  11. Weather Around Me, at 13:43
  12. Historical weather, at 15:23
  13. The moon, at 17:06
  14. Browsing every alert, at 18:06
  15. Tidying the list, at 20:13
  16. Summing up, and where to get WeatherFast, at 21:28

RSS Quick

Get RSS Quick

RSS Quick tour, with NVDA

RSS Quick is a free news reader for Windows, built first for people who use a screen reader, a braille display or just the keyboard. In this tour, two hosts, Michael and River, get it from the Microsoft Store, install it, and read the news with it. Every demo you hear is real: the real Microsoft Store and RSS Quick 1.4.1, running on a Windows test machine, with NVDA reading them. That's NVDA 2026.2, on its out-of-the-box settings and the standard Windows voice. The hosts are AI voices; NVDA is not. A script pressed the keys and NVDA was recorded as it spoke. Afterwards a soft click was added at each key press, the volume was evened out, and long pauses were shortened. NVDA's words were not changed. The test machine was online, so the headlines are the real news of October 25, 2026.

15 minutes, with NVDA, recorded with RSS Quick 1.4.1.

Parts and start times: RSS Quick tour, with NVDA
  1. Welcome, at 0:00
  2. What an RSS reader is for, at 1:03
  3. Getting it from the Microsoft Store, at 1:48
  4. Moving around the feed tree, at 4:03
  5. Reading a feed, at 5:34
  6. A whole folder at once, at 7:16
  7. Search every feed, at 9:08
  8. Adding your own feeds, at 10:38
  9. Help, and built for braille, at 12:35
  10. Where to get RSS Quick, at 14:46