Access Technology Institute

Setting the Standards Others will Follow

Downloading with Internet Explorer

Listen to the mp3 Document

When you download a document to your computer, you have a choice of opening the document or saving it to your computer. 

If you opt to open the document, the item is downloaded to a temporary location on your computer and the associated application opened.  If it's an mp3 file, the file will start to play.  If it's a zip file, your default archive program opens.

If you choose to save the document to your computer, you can select a location to which the document is saved and keep a copy of the document.  When download class files from Access Technology Institute or software, I recommend using the Save option to insure you have a permanent copy of the documents for your personal use.

there are two ways you can download files in Windows Explorer.  If the document is an archive such as a .zip or .rar, pressing ENTER on the link will automatically open the download selection dialog.

If the item associated with a link is a word document, mp3 file, or a document associated with a program on your computer, pressing ENTER launches the associated application and you're never presented with the download dialog.  You need to use your Windows application menu for such instances.

In this lesson, we'll discuss both ways of downloading items to your computer.

Downloading Archives

Archived documents are usually large files that are compressed to be a bit smaller on a server or a large number of files added to one archive for easy download.  Archives can contain a single mp3 or wmv file, as is the case with my class files.  They are placed in .zip format to insure the download is initiated when a student presses ENTER on the link with which the document is associated.

In this example, you'll download an archive containing an mp3 file.  The file is located here.  When you are ready to practice downloading archived documents, activate the link.

Downloading Non-Archived Documents

If a document isn't archived, use the Windows Application Menu to save the document.  To access an mp3 document for download, place focus here

Focus on the link for the document and open the Windows Application Menu with the WINDOWS APPLICATION KEY. Within the menu, navigate to "Save Target As..." and press ENTER.  The Download Dialog opens.

The Download Dialog

The Download dialog contains options for opening or saving the downloaded document. Prior to selecting an option within the dialog, read the dialog with your screen reader.  Review the information carefully.  You'll hear some important information.  Listen for the following:

You can read the dialog with your screen reader.  These commands are custom to your screen reader and aren't Windows commands.

When you activate a link for an archive, the download dialog opens.  The dialog contains options to:

There is also a checkbox.  The checkbox is labeled, "Always Ask Before Opening this type of File."  If you uncheck this checkbox, Windows won't prompt you the next time you access a similar document, it will automatically attempt to open the downloaded item.

Navigate among the options in the dialog with TAB and SHIFT-TAB.  TAB moves the focus forward and SHIFT-TAB moves the focus backward among the controls.  The Open, Save and Cancel options are buttons.  Buttons are activated with SPACEBAR.  The checkbox is a toggle.  You can enable and disable the checkbox with the same command.  To toggle the checkbox on and off, focus on the checkbox and press SPACEBAR.

The Save As Dialog

Since you'd like to save this document, navigate to the "Save" button and activate it.  The Save As dialog of Windows opens and you can choose where to save your document.  A lot of people accept the default location without knowing where the location is.  Since you'd like to be sure of the location to which the document is saved, you'll want to do a little exploration.

The Save As dialog is a window in which you can perform configurations and provide information.  The information is the name of the document.  You'll configure where on your computer the item is saved through the remaining options in the dialog.

As with all dialogs, navigate among the options with TAB and SHIFT-TAB.  Once again, TAB moves the focus forward and SHIFT-TAB moves the focus in reverse.

You'll find a number of options available.  The options in which you'll be most interested for downloading documents are:

By default, focus is placed in the Combo-Edit name field.  If you're downloading an application and the name didn't adequately describe the application, you can save the document with a new name by typing the name into the edit field. When you type a new name, be sure to preserve the file extension.  If the file name ends in .zip or .rar, be sure to keep the proper extension when you rename the document.  Type the new name into the File Name field.  This is the first field you'll access when you open the Save As dialog.

You'll also want to insure you know where the document is saved.  Until you're more familiar with downloading, I recommend saving  documents to your Desktop. You can select the desktop via the split button at the top of the dialog.  To access the split button, press TAB to navigate among the options until you hear the split button echoed by your screen reader.  Go slowly and listen carefully to each of the controls.

When you hear the split button, press ENTER to expand the drop-down list of options. Navigate the list with UP AND DOWN ARROW and select "Desktop."  When you locate "Desktop," press ENTER to select the option.  You won't have to do this again until you decide to change the download location on your computer. All downloads will go to your Desktop until you change the location via the address bar or split button.

After naming your document and selecting the Desktop as the default save location, navigate to the "Save" button and activate it with SPACEBAR.

Gauging the Progress

Windows Explorer starts the download and saves the document with the specified name to the Desktop of your computer.  If you have the progress bar enabled in JAWS or the script running in Window-Eyes, you'll be updated on the progress of the download.  If you don't have either of these options enabled, read the dialog with the special screen reader commands described above.

When the download is complete, move focus to your desktop (WINDOWS KEY-D) and locate the archived document.  You're now ready to unzip its contents with Windows Explorer.

Continue to Opening Archived Documents