Let me take a stab at these:
Does the mac have plug and play, like windows or would I have to
install a bunch of drivers for my printer/scanner etc?
Yes like Windows and other modern operating system Macs will use most
USB based peripherals. You should check that Any printer or scanner
supports the MacOS. You may need to load software which the
manufacturer should supply with the product. Most printers are
supported in the OS and will not require extra software.
Text edit...is it a fully functional word processor with a good spell
checker, all the attributes you can add to your text in ms-word, etc?
TextEdit, despite it name is a very capable editor which can open edit
and save MSWord documents. There are other VoiceOVer compatible word
processors such as Nisus which are also VoiceOver compatible. At this
time Microsoft Office 08 for Macintosh is not accessible. Spell
checking is a system wide resource found in TextEdit, Main and most
other programs.
Is there a way to tell with voiceover whether text is single/double
spaced, the font, where the indents are, all that important stuff?
Yes VoiceOver provides a full range of text attributes (VO-T) as well
as control over the verbosity to tell you the if spaces, tabs and
other attributes of text are present. For the greatest control over
the writing and layout process I recommend taking the time to learn
LaTeX a cross platform typesetting program that is command based and
puts simple word processing to shame.
I heard that voiceover also worked with open office, which
apparently is a freeware wannabe office suite...is that true?
While work is being don on making Open Office compatible with
VoiceOver it is not as of now accessible with VoiceOver.
Would there be a way for me to save files as .doc or .rtf or
something that other people could open on their pc's?
Yes TextEdit will save files in both formats.
I heard it's possible to load windows onto the mac and then switch
between the two operating systems...is that hard to do?
Not particularly but you may want help in doing so. There are two
approaches to this. Boot Camp is Apple software which come with every
Mac. It can be used to set aside part of your hard Disk as a Windows
disk onto which windows is installed. You then choose when starting up
the computer which OS you wish to use. VMware Fusion is a software
program which lets you use the Windows OS at the same time you use
Mac. In both cases you will need a screen reader for the Windows side
as VoiceOver can not interact with the Windows OS.
is there an accessible OCR program, like open book or k1000, for the
mac?
There is something called Kurweid 3000 which is a Mac product. I know
it is expensive and I do not know if they have fixed the accessibility
issue I have told them about. If you already own 1000 the cheaper
solution would be to use Fusion to run it in a Windows setting. We, my
wife and I, have done this.
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Mar 18, 2008, at 12:12 PM, Jessi R wrote:
hey, people!
my name is Jessi and I'm new to the list. I was at CSUN this past
week, where I got to play with voiceover both just generally and
also exclusively with ITunes. I was so impressed with it that I'm
now possibly thinking a bout switching to a mac, and this is kinda
weird for me since I've been a windows user with jaws for about ten
years. but voiceover and the mac really made an impression on me and
I feel like I'm up for a challenge and something new!
I have quite a few probably silly questions though, so I'm hoping
ya'll can give me some answers.
does the mac have plug and play, like windows or would I have to
install a bunch of drivers for my printer/scanner etc?
text edit...is it a fully functional word processor with a good
spell checker, all the attributes you can add to your text in ms-
word, etc? is there a way to tell with voiceover whether text is
single/double spaced, the font, where the indents are, all that
important stuff? I'm a creative writing/journalism major in college,
so having a good, fully functional word processor is very very
important to me.
I heard that voiceover also worked with open office, which
apparently is a freeware wannabe office suite...is that true?
would there be a way for me to save files as .doc or .rtf or
something that other people could open on their pc's?
I heard it's possible to load windows onto the mac and then switch
between the two operating systems...is that hard to do? I thought I
might do that and kinda use both until I got to know voiceover
really well.
is there an accessible OCR program, like open book or k1000, for the
mac?
I think that's all I have for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with
more, lol.
peace and positivity:)
Jessi with guide dog Goldina
I am only one but I am one,
I can't do everything but I can do something,
the something I can do, I must do,
and by the grace of God, I will!
count it all joy, no matter what!
