Transcript: QuickMail tour, with Windows Narrator

Hosts: Michael and Maya (Kokoro AI voices). Demos: Windows Narrator with the Microsoft Zira voice, reading the real QuickMail program.

Times are where each chapter starts in QuickMail-audio-demo-v4.mp3. "Narrator:" lines are the real recordings; "..." marks speech cut short by the next key press.

• Download QuickMail tour, with Windows Narrator (MP3, 24 MB)
• Back to the tour on the audio tours page

Welcome (0:00)

Michael: Welcome to a guided tour of QuickMail. I'm Michael.

Maya: And I'm Maya. QuickMail is a free email program for Windows, and it was built screen reader first. Over the next twenty minutes or so, we are going to show you what that means, not just tell you.

Michael: Here's how this works. Every demo you'll hear is the real program, running on a Windows test machine, with Windows Narrator reading it. Narrator is using the Microsoft Zira voice. We pressed real keys and recorded exactly what Narrator said. The only editing was trimming long pauses.

Maya: One more thing about that test machine. It has two email accounts set up, a work account and a personal account, but their mail servers don't exist. So everything you hear is QuickMail working offline, from the mail it keeps on your own computer. That turns out to be a good place to start.

Starting QuickMail, offline (0:53)

Michael: Let's start QuickMail and just listen.

Narrator: QuickMail window, enter table messages, 11 by 5, unread. Sam Patel. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Updated numbers are in. Travel came in under. 7:47p, Work, Inbox, selected, 1 of 11. Connecting to 2 accounts. No accounts could be connected. Offline. Showing cached messages.

Maya: So, a few things happened there. QuickMail opened straight onto All Inboxes, and Narrator read the first message: unread, from Sam Patel, the subject, a preview of the first line, the time, and which account and folder it came from.

Michael: Then it tried to connect to both accounts. When it couldn't, it said so once, and then told us it was offline and showing cached messages. It waits a few seconds before saying offline, so a quick blip in your Wi-Fi never interrupts you. You keep reading and writing, and anything you send waits in the Outbox until you're back.

Maya: And notice what it didn't do. No error dialogs, nothing to dismiss. It just told us where things stood.

Getting around: F6 and the command palette (2:07)

Michael: QuickMail has one layout, and you reach it the same way every time. Control 1 goes to the accounts list. Control 2 goes to the folders. Control 3 goes to the messages. F6 moves to the next pane, and Control 9 reads the status bar. Here are all of those, one after another.

Narrator: Exit table, email accounts, Work, disconnected, selected, selection. Folder list tree view, All Inboxes, 2 of 9, selected. Enter table messages, 11 by 5, unread. Sam Patel. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Updated numbers are in. Exit table, no accounts could be connected. Never synced. Main toolbar, toolbar, New message, button, new message. No accounts could be connected. Never synced. Status bar, no accounts could be connected.

Maya: If people remember one key from this whole tour, we want it to be F6. Whatever you're doing, F6 and shift F6 walk you around the window, and you'll always know where you are.

Michael: And if they remember two keys, the second one is control shift P. That's the command palette. Every command in QuickMail is in it, with its shortcut, and you find things by typing any part of the name, or even just the initials.

Maya: Watch this. We'll press control shift P, and type G T F, the initials of Go to Folder. Then Enter, and in the folder picker we'll type inbox and press Enter again.

Narrator: Command palette window. Filter commands, edit. Go to Folder, 1 of 6, selected. Go to Folder window, Folders, All Inboxes, selected. Inbox, Work. QuickMail window, enter table messages, 11 by 5, unread. Sam Patel. Budget review for next quarter.

Michael: G T F found Go to Folder as the top match. Then the picker took us to the work inbox, and Narrator read the first message there. There's no need to memorize a menu. If you can describe what you want, the palette will find it.

Maya: Other windows have their own palette on the same key, too. In the compose window, control shift P lists everything you can do while writing. Same key, same idea.

Message List Fields: choose what each message says (4:34)

Michael: Now the feature that I think surprises people most. You get to decide what each message says when you arrow onto it.

Maya: This is Message List Fields, on the View menu. We'll open it from the palette. First, listen to one message the way it reads by default. Then we'll go down the list of fields to Preview and press space to turn it off. Then we'll go up to Subject and press alt up arrow, so the subject is spoken before the sender. Then Escape, and back to the messages.

Narrator: Unread. Attachments. Mia Rivera. Photos from the lake. The kids loved the canoe. Photos attached. 7... Command palette window. Filter. Message List Fields window, Fields list view, Flag checkbox checked. Unread... Rep... For... From... Preview checkbox checked. Unchecked. Subject checkbox checked. Moved up. Position 6 of 14. All Inboxes, QuickMail window, enter table messages. Unread. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Sam Patel. 7:47p. Unread. Attachments. Photos from the lake. Mia Rivera. 7:23p, Personal, Inbox, selected.

Michael: Did you catch that? Before, the row was long: unread, attachments, Mia Rivera, Photos from the lake, the whole first line, the time, and the folder. Afterwards, Sam's message read: unread, Re: Budget review for next quarter, Sam Patel, and the time. Subject first, and no preview.

Maya: And the dialog has a spoken preview box, so you can check what a row will sound like before you close it. Unread is only spoken when a message is unread. Read is never spoken at all, because that's the normal case and you don't need to hear it fifty times.

Four ways to view a folder, and conversation fields (6:31)

Michael: Next, four ways to look at a folder. Control shift V opens the view menu: Messages, Conversations, From, and To. Each folder remembers its own view, so your inbox can stay in conversations while your receipts stay a plain list.

Maya: We'll switch to Conversations, open up the budget conversation with the right arrow, and go down through it. Then we'll switch to the From view, which groups mail by who sent it.

Narrator: Exit table. Messages. Menu item. Conversations. Menu item. Messages tree view. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Three messages. Sam Patel. Has unread. Expanded. Not unread. Sam Patel. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Updated numbers are in. Travel... Not unread. Priya Shah. Re: Budget review for next quarter. Can we keep the training line? I think. Conversations, menu item. From, menu item. Messages tree view, Ava Chen. Two messages... has unread. The new noodle place opened on Main Street. Ben Ortiz. One message... flagged. Please review the attached invoice before Friday. 3:11p.

Michael: So the conversation is one item: Re: Budget review for next quarter, three messages, Sam Patel, has unread. Right arrow opened it, and each reply is underneath. In the From view, everything from Ava Chen is together, two messages, and Ben Ortiz's invoice shows up as flagged.

Maya: Oh, wait. Michael, you heard that conversation say three messages, and has unread?

Michael: I did.

Maya: Remember Message List Fields, a few minutes ago? It isn't only for messages. Conversations have their own set of fields, and one of them isn't turned on yet. It's called unread of total. So instead of has unread, the row tells you exactly how many are unread.

Michael: Show me.

Maya: We're in the conversations view. Open Message List Fields from the palette. Shift tab goes back to the row type, and down arrow changes it from messages to conversation groups. Then tab into the fields, down to unread of total, and space to check it. Alt up arrow moves it up, right after the message count. And since we don't need to hear has unread anymore, we'll arrow down to it and turn it off.

Narrator: Command palette window, filter commands. Message List Fields window, Fields list view, Flag checkbox checked. Row type, Messages, combo box. Fields list view, Subject checkbox checked. Unread of total checkbox unchecked. Has unread is also on, so a row with unread mail says so twice. Turn Has unread off to use this on its own. Checked. Moved up, moved up, moved up, moved up, moved up, moved up. Position 3 of 9. Sender... Flag... Has unread checkbox checked. Turn this field on to choose when it is spoken. Unchecked. All Inboxes, QuickMail window, messages tree view. Re: Budget review for next quarter. 3 messages. 2 of 3 unread. Sam Patel. Updated numbers are in. Photos from the lake. 1 message. 1 of 1 unread. Mia Rivera. The kids loved the canoe. Photos attached. 9:25p.

Michael: Two of three unread. That's so much better. And did you catch that QuickMail noticed what we were doing? When we turned on unread of total, it said: has unread is also on, so a row with unread mail says so twice. Turn has unread off to use this on its own.

Maya: And the photos from the lake, a conversation of one, now says one of one unread. Every view gets this treatment. Messages, conversations, and the sender and recipient groups each have their own fields, so each one can say exactly what you want it to.

Reading mail (10:47)

Maya: Moving quickly through mail. Alt down arrow goes to the next unread message, even across collapsed conversations. Enter opens the message, and then you read it the way you read anything else, with the arrow keys. Escape takes you back to the list, right where you were.

Narrator: Unread. Attachments. Mia Rivera. Photos from the lake. The kids loved the canoe. Unread. Ava Chen. Lunch on Thursday. The new noodle place opened on Main Street. Lunch on Thursday. Document, exit table, group. Message body. Lunch on Thursday, scan. Lunch on Thursday. The new noodle place opened on Main Street. Thursday. Enter table messages, 11 by 5, Ava Chen. Lunch on Thursday. The new noodle place opened on Main Street.

Michael: Two presses of alt down arrow, past the photos from the lake, and onto Ava's lunch invitation. Enter, then Narrator read the body one line at a time. Escape, and we were back on Ava's message in the list.

Maya: One more thing about reading. QuickMail doesn't load pictures from the internet unless you ask it to, so senders can't tell when you've opened their message. And if a message is noisy or looks suspicious, control shift H shows it as plain text.

Search (12:12)

Michael: Search. Control shift S puts you in the search box, or you can press slash in the message list. As you type, the list narrows, and QuickMail tells you how many messages match.

Maya: We're going to type a search that combines three things: from colon Sam, the word budget, and is colon unread. So: unread mail from Sam about the budget.

Narrator: Exit table. Search messages. Edit. Search the messages in this folder. Search box. Type to filter messages. Sam. Budget is. One message. Enter table messages. 11 by 5, unread. Sam Patel. Budget review for next quarter. Updated.

Michael: One message. And it searches message bodies and attachment names too, not just subjects. If you'd rather not learn that syntax, control slash opens Advanced Search, which is an ordinary form, and it can search every folder at once, or the server.

Writing, and two ways to check spelling (13:17)

Maya: Writing. Control N opens a new message. We'll type the first few letters of Ava's name and pick her from the suggestions. Tab moves through the address fields to the subject, and alt Y jumps to the message body. Control Enter sends.

Michael: And remember, this machine is offline. So listen for what happens to the message.

Narrator: New message, plain text, QuickMail window, To, edit. One suggestion. Address suggestions list view, Ava Chen. To, edit. Subject, edit. Lunch. On. Message body, edit, Alt plus Y. Noon. Works. For. See. You. There. All Inboxes, QuickMail window, enter table messages. Folder list tree view, exit table. Outbox, 1 waiting, 9 of 9, selected.

Maya: Typing A V A offered one suggestion, Ava Chen. Down arrow and Enter added her. Then the subject, then the body. When we pressed control Enter, the window closed, and when we went to the folder list and typed the letter O, we landed on the Outbox: one waiting. It'll go out by itself the moment the connection comes back.

Michael: The compose window has three modes: plain text, Markdown, and HTML, on control shift 1, 2 and 3. In HTML mode you get real formatting from the keyboard, like control B for bold, and control T tells you what formatting is at the cursor. Drafts save themselves as you write.

Maya: And there are two ways to check spelling, because people work in two different ways. Some of us like to fix words as we go, and some of us like to write first and check at the end.

Michael: For this one we wrote a short message with two mistakes in it: thanks for the receipt, spelled R E C I E P T, and I will send the report tomorrow, spelled with one R. First, the fix-as-you-go way. Control home goes to the start, and control F7 jumps to the next misspelling. It tells you the word and the first suggestion, and alt 1 takes that suggestion. Then the check-at-the-end way: F7 opens the full spelling dialog.

Narrator: Misspelling, reciept. 1, receipt. Replaced with receipt. Spelling window, Suggestions list view, tomorrow, 1 of 1, selected. Not in dictionary, tomorow. Spelling dialog, OK, button. The spelling check is complete. One word changed.

Maya: Control F7 said: misspelling, R E C I E P T, one, receipt. That one is the number of the suggestion, so alt 1 took it, and QuickMail said replaced with receipt. Then F7 opened the spelling window with focus right on the suggestions, and said what was not in the dictionary. Alt C changed it, and the check was complete. One word changed.

Michael: In that dialog, alt I ignores a word, alt A adds it to your dictionary, and alt R reads the word in its sentence, so you can tell which word it means. And if you'd like to hear about misspellings as you type, there's a setting for that too. It's off by default, because not everybody wants it.

Staying organized: watched conversations and the calendar (16:42)

Maya: Staying organized. Control shift W watches a conversation. From then on, every reply, in any folder, collects in Watched Conversations, even replies that haven't arrived yet.

Narrator: Unread. Priya Shah. Budget review for next quarter. Can we keep the training line? I think... Watching conversation: Budget review for next quarter.

Michael: Watching conversation: Budget review for next quarter. K flags a message, and rules, on control shift L, file your mail automatically. On Microsoft 365, those can be the same server rules Outlook uses.

Maya: And there's a full calendar on control shift C, with agenda, day, week and month views. When it opens, it tells you how to use it. That hint is long the first time, and you can turn hints like that off in settings. After the hint, we'll press W for the week view and arrow down through the events.

Narrator: Calendar. 3 upcoming events. Use up and down arrows to browse. Press Enter to open. Press N for a new appointment, E to edit, Delete to remove. Press A for agenda, D for day, W for week, Ctrl plus left or right to move between days or weeks. Week of October 18 to October 24. 3 events. Team stand-up. Project Falcon planning session, Thursday, October 22, 2 PM to 3 PM, pending. Dentist, Thursday, October 22, 3 PM to 4 PM, Main Street Dental, local, selected, 3 of 3, offline.

Michael: Three events this week: the team stand-up, the Project Falcon planning session, still pending because it's a meeting invitation we haven't answered yet, and a dentist appointment. Invitations have accept, tentative and decline. And date and time fields are ordinary edit fields. You type a date, or change it with the arrow keys. There's no date picker to fight with.

Context menus, the archive folder and the startup folder (18:54)

Maya: Now, a habit that pays off everywhere in QuickMail. Shift F10, or the applications key if your keyboard has one, opens the context menu for whatever you're on. A message, a folder, an account, an attachment. If you're ever wondering what you can do with something, that's where to look.

Michael: Here's the menu for a message. We'll open it with shift F10 and arrow down through it.

Narrator: Exit table. Reply, menu item. Reply all, menu item. Forward, menu item. Move to folder, menu item. Copy to folder, menu item. Save as, menu item. Print, menu item. Delete, menu item. Move to archive, menu item, 9 of 11. Enter table messages, 11 by 5, unread.

Maya: Reply, reply all, forward, move to folder, copy to folder, save as, print, delete, and move to archive. Move to archive has its own shortcut, control shift M, and it's one I use all day. One keystroke, and the message is filed out of your inbox.

Michael: We didn't press it here, and that's the one honest limit of this offline machine. Moving mail between folders happens on your mail server, so it needs a connection. Sending can wait in the Outbox. Moving can't.

Maya: But where does archive put things? QuickMail finds your provider's archive folder on its own. If you'd rather it used a different one, there's a folder menu for that. This work account has a folder called Old Mail. Let's go to it in the folder list, press shift F10, and choose set as archive folder.

Narrator: Old Mail, 7 of 9, selected. New folder, menu item, 1 of 12. Move... Copy... Set as archive folder, menu item. Folder list tree view, All Inboxes, 2 of 9, selected. Old Mail set as the archive folder for this account.

Michael: Old Mail set as the archive folder for this account. From now on, control shift M on any work message files it in Old Mail. And if you change your mind, the same menu has use automatic archive folder.

Maya: Remember how QuickMail opened on All Inboxes when we started it? That's a choice too. Same menu, on the work inbox this time: set as startup folder.

Narrator: Inbox, 4 unread, 2 of 9. New folder, menu item, 1 of 9. Move... Copy... Set as startup folder, menu item. Folder list tree view, All Inboxes, 2 of 9, selected. QuickMail will open in Inbox.

Michael: QuickMail will open in inbox. That's the kind of thing that, in a lot of programs, is buried three tabs deep in an options dialog. Here it's right on the folder, where you'd think to look.

Properties with Alt+Enter (21:46)

Maya: One more key that works on almost everything: alt Enter. It shows the properties of whatever you're on. We'll press it on a message, then on a folder, and then on an account, and arrow down through each one.

Narrator: Message Properties window, Message Properties, data grid. Headers, selected. From, Sam Patel, selected. To, Jordan Lee, jordan@contoso.example. CC, none, selected, 4 of... All Inboxes, QuickMail window. Folder list tree view, exit table. Folder Properties window, Folder Properties, data grid. Folder, selected. Name, All Inboxes, selected. Full path, selected, 3 of... All Inboxes, QuickMail window. Email accounts, Work, disconnected, selected. Account Properties window, Account Properties, data grid. Identity, selected. Display name, Work, selected. Email address, jordan@contoso.example. Incoming, IMAP, selected, 4 of... All Inboxes, QuickMail window. Email accounts, Work, disconnected, selected.

Michael: For the message: the headers, who it's from, who it's to, the CC. For the folder: its name and its full path. For the account: its display name, its email address, and its incoming server. Each one is a simple list you arrow through.

Maya: And every properties window has a copy all button. If you ever need to tell somebody exactly what you're seeing, like when you're reporting a problem, copy all puts the whole thing on the clipboard.

You're in control: settings and shortcuts (23:28)

Maya: The last part of this tour is about control. Everything QuickMail says on its own, it says because you let it. In settings, there are separate switches for instructional hints, for background status like syncing, and for the results of what you do, like search counts. Or turn them all off at once.

Michael: And QuickMail tries hard not to repeat what your screen reader already says. When you check a checkbox, your screen reader tells you it's checked, so QuickMail stays quiet. There are no scripts to install, and it works with whichever screen reader you use.

Maya: Every keyboard shortcut can be changed, too. You press the keys you want, and if they're already taken, QuickMail tells you which command has them.

Michael: It updates itself. Help, Report a Bug, sends a report without needing a GitHub account. And F1 opens the user guide.

Summing up, and where to get QuickMail (24:20)

Maya: So, to sum up. F6 to move around. Control shift P to find anything. Decide what each message and each conversation says with Message List Fields. Four ways to look at a folder. Shift F10 for a menu on anything, and alt Enter for its properties. Search that understands what you mean, and two ways to check your spelling. And it keeps working when the internet doesn't.

Michael: QuickMail is free. QuickMail download links can be found under the QuickMail heading of Kelly Ford's project page, at the idea place dot net, slash projects. That's the idea place, all one word, dot net, slash projects.

Maya: Thanks for listening. I'm Maya.

Michael: And I'm Michael. Happy emailing.