Hi Lou, This is very useful infomration, indeed, that can help people. I've retitled the thread in hopes that more people will read it.
I didn't realize there was this reproducible, testable way of dealing with VoiceOver when it stopped speaking and getting it restarted, and that the standard things we try might not work. Thanks on behalf of everyone.! Cheers, Esther On Dec 14, 2007, at 10:08AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Hello! > >I know this problem has already been resolved for Simon, but this >info might help others experiencing the problem of VO not talking... >It did not dawn on me to provide this info previously until I heard >Simon's solution was, with sighted assistance, to physically turn on >VO using the mouse. > >Ever since I installed Mac OS X 10.4.11, this problem has been >cropping up for me. I will be working in Safari, Mail or Vienna and >the Mac becomes "busy." After clearing the application's "busy" state >in one of the many ways described in this forum, Voice Over >occasionally stops speaking and cannot be turned back on again with >Command-F5 (generates the "invalid" beep) -- or even restarting the >computer. >With sighted assistance, I discovered that: >- the "Command-F5 check box in "KeyboArd Shortcuts" was, indeed, >checked (even tried unchecking and rechecking this box to see if it >had any affect), >- the Voice Over "Off" radio button was selected in the Universal >Access/Seeing Pane of System Preferences. > >Because the computer was not accepting the Command-F5 keyboard >command, the only way to turn VO back on was to use the mouse to >click the VO "On" button. > >This happened several times while I had no sighted assistance around >-- *** VERY FRUSTRATING! *** I figured there must be a way to turn VO >back on again without sighted assistance. Here is what I did: >1. Press Control-F2 to move the mouse to the Menu Bar. >2. Press the Down Arrow to open the Apple Menu. >3. Quickly type "sy" to jump to System Preferences. >4. Press Return to open System Preferences. >5. Press Control-F2 to return to the Menu Bar. >6. Press "v" to jump to the "View" menu. >7. Press Down Arrow to open the View Menu. >8. Press "u" to jump to "Universal Access." >9. Press Return to open the Universal Access Pane of System Preferences. >10. Press Tab twice to select the Voice Over On/Off controls. >12. Press Left Arrow to select the Voice Over "On" radio button. > >At this point, Voice Over starts talking again and (miraculously) >Command-F5 starts working again. > >Notes: >- I am running Tiger 10.4.11, so I do not know if these steps will be >the same under Leopard. >- In step 11, the first time you press the Tab key takes you to the >"tab bar" where the various tabs for Universal Access sections are >located. I have the "Seeing" Tab already selected, so I do not have >to mess with it. If the "Seeing" tab is not selected for you, you >will have to move to a different Tab with the Left and/or Right >Arrows -- but, because there is no feedback, I think this may have >the potential of causing some problems... I suggest setting the tab >to "Seeing" while you have VO working as a precaution. This way, you, >too, could just press the TAB key twice like I did and not worry >about it. >- Maybe, one of you Apple Script/Automater geniuses might be able to >create an app that could, in emergencies, do this for us automatically. > >Hope this helps someone... > >Lou. > >=== Original Messages === > >Dear Simon, > >Delighted to hear that you are connected and that Voiceover is up and >running. Thank you for providing us with the details of what happened. > ><snip> >Dear Esther and All, > >I have finally got my Voceover back!!! I'm delighted, relieved and >very very >excited at the quality of the default voice in Leopard. A sighted >friend of >mine came over a couple of hours ago, and using the mouse, activated >Voceover in the system preferences. It works! > ><snip> > > > >
