Freedom Scientific JAWS 2025 2025.2508.120.400

What's new in 2025.2508.120.400

The following is a list of improvements made between the July 2025 release and the September 2025 update.
Support for Multi-Line Braille Displays
JAWS now fully supports multi-line Braille output to compatible Braille displays. This is a major leap forward in Braille access, enabling users to interact with complex content more naturally and efficiently than ever before.
- View multiple lines and even entire paragraphs simultaneously rather than having to constantly pan the display line by line.
- Get a better representation of the structured layout in a document or web page, especially when viewing tables, charts, or spreadsheets.
- An enhanced Structured Mode in Word documents, web pages, and other rich text environments for showing control type indicators across multiple lines and not limiting them to the line containing the cursor.
Currently, JAWS supports the Monarch from American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and the Dot Pad from Dot Inc. Note that to use JAWS multi-line functionality on the Monarch, you must be running firmware version 1.3 or higher.
Two Distinct Modes Depending on Reading Context
- Wrapped Mode: Ideal for reading documents and web pages, with text flowing naturally across lines. Great for reading books, articles, or emails when you just want to continuously read.
- Cropped Mode: Best for structured content like tables and spreadsheets. This mode keeps things aligned so columns, rows, and layout stay true as you move from line to line.
To select a reading mode, use the Select Braille View dialog (ALT+INSERT+V).
Cropped Mode is also used exclusively in Excel, or when focus moves into a table in Word documents, Google Docs, and on web pages. This allows for the proper display of column and row data along with their coordinates in spreadsheets and tables. A column separator represented by DOTS 4-5-6-8 is also displayed to help easily identify the separation between columns. Specific to Excel, cell titles remain at the top while any monitor cells defined in JAWS Quick Settings persist at the bottom for easy reference.
Split Braille Extended for Multi-Line Use
The Freedom Scientific Split Braille feature lets users show content on a Braille display from two different locations. When Split Braille is active, the Braille display is split into two regions. One region contains the text at the cursor, while the other region contains the split content based on a selected view.
Split Braille now works with multi-line displays. …

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