Hi gordon and others,
Here are some of the reasons I find having the caps lock key act as the
VO keys a advantage.
I'm a touch typist using the Home row of keys. The caps lock key location
lets me use VO and often keep my fingers ready to go on the Home row. Much
faster work flow for me.
Many commands using VO and letters on the left side of the key board are
especially easy to use with the caps lock as VO. example VO A, reading the
contents of the voice over curser.
I use two fingers on my left hand without leaving the home row. The small
finger on caps lock and the ring finger to tap the A key. Without caps lock I
must drop my left hand to the VO keys then cross my right hand over to find the
A key. Or, I can cross my right hand down and under my left. There is just no
easy way to keep typing and press VO A, or VO S, or VO D for that matter.
The caps lock key as VO is also a big help to me when I need to do command that
has multiple keys. for example VO shift home. with the caps lock as vo I can
still essentially keep my left hand on the home row. and pressing caps lock key
is easy. pressing VO shift means my left hand is off the Home row and busy
using three fingers to hold down the keys.
I can give many more examples. One more good one is using the command VO W.
this is a very handy command to hear the word you are on, Press it a second
time for the spelling, and the third time for the phonetic spelling.
With VO as caps lock I hold down the caps lock key with my small finger on my
left hand and use my left hand ring finger two then press the W as many times
as I need. both hands remain on the home row.
Now go ahead and try this with the usual VO keys on the left of the space bar.
that simple command VO W is a hand twister for me and a slow down in my work
flow.
Before using the caps lock as a VO key I modified my laptop keyboard to have a
set of VO keys on the right. Now that I have the caps lock key working as VO I
returned my other keys back to the default. I don't need the VO keys on the
right to work quickly.
This modification has nothing to do with my past and current work on the
windows side of the world. It is just a much more efficient way of navigating
the keyboard on the Mac.
I continue to be grateful it is a option thanks to keyremap4macbook.
Best.
Eric Caron
On May 25, 2014, at 2:38 PM, Gordon Smith <gor...@mac-access.net> wrote:
> Hello
>
> Regarding your first point, I too came to the Mac after a very long time
> using Windows. Now, however, I need to use both and, moreover, on the same
> machine preferably at the same time.
>
> I believe that I was the first in the visually impaired community to
> introduce the concept of VMWAre Fusion, way back in April 2007 whilst beta
> testing for VMWAre with Fusion 1.0. I produced a demo for ACB Radio main
> stream, which was well received in many quarters, I’m flattered to say.
>
> I worked closely in those days with the VMWAre engineering staff to ensure
> accessibility. This was because at that time the only other solution was
> Parallels Desktop 1.0 which was, and remains to this day, totally
> inaccessible. When I contacted VMWAre in the very early part of 2007, they
> were extremely receptive to my comment and, as I said, invited me to
> participate in what was then private beta testing. It went public not too
> long after my original demo which was compiled with their knowledge and
> permission.
>
> In recent times, however, I haven’t really given much thought to using it
> since about Fusion 4, which was very different. I find that the host system
> keeps grabbing control of the keyboard when, for instance, I hit Command+M
> which should produce the equivalent to Windows+M in the guest. I don’t want
> to go down the road of configuration of the guest on this forum because it
> would put me off topic, and my fellow moderator would probably banish me from
> the list, despite the fact that I own it! ;-)
>
> Seriously, however, if there is anybody who wants to take up this discussion
> and if they are a member of either Techno-Chat, or our sister group,
> Windows-Access, I’d love to hear from you as to how you avoid the conflicts
> to which I seem to be prone.
>
> For reference once again, I shall post here the links that people may use to
> join these groups if they wish:
>
> Techno-Chat, <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat/>
> Windows-Accesss, <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access/>
>
> Back to the original topic, what I was going to say was that I believe that
> it is essential if you want to cut the learning curve down a bit, to throw
> away what seems sensible on Windows or other platforms, and take VoiceOver
> for the beast that it is. Learning native functionality before venturing out
> to changing things seems, to me at least, to be a more preferable way to
> work. I’ve found when coaching new users that, if I can get the user to
> totally forget about Jaws, NVDA, Window-Eyes, Access2Go, Window-Bridge or any
> other such solution, the user seems to learn more quickly. VoiceOver is, as
> most would agree, a very different concept to the majority or maybe even all
> of those screen-readers with the possible exception of NVDA whose basic
> principles are the same.
>
> Anyway, I’ll end with another question. If you make this change, and the
> caps lock key is used as a VoiceOver key, what happens with your other
> solutions which also require the caps lock key? I too am using a MacBook, a
> 2012 MacBook Air in my case. OK, so that I can comment from the perspective
> of one who has at least tried the change, I shall go and make a total system
> backup, and then I shall make the change; see if I prefer it. If so, I shall
> then bow to the inevitable.
>
> Finally, to be very clear, I don’t want you to think I’m in any way
> ridiculing, patronising, disputing or in any way trying to be obnoxious. I’m
> just interested in the concept of why people find these changes advantageous.
> Perhaps, after trying it, I may come out on totally the other side of the
> fence. But I shall, rest assured, try it. I wouldn’t like to in any way be
> presumptuous.
>
> Kindest regards
>
> <--- Gordon Smith --->
> <gor...@mac-access.net>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> On 25 May 2014, at 18:50, Geoff Stephens <geoffsli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> For me at least, recently coming to the Mac after many years of Windows use,
> the idea that two keys are necessary to control VO seems nonsensical.
> Therefore, I immediately made the change. It also seems rather intuitive
> that the caps lock key would be the most logical choice since it allows one
> to leave the left hand on the home row. I do not have any problem with
> dexterity. More than a few of the keystrokes required to use VO if one
> leaves it at the default Control Option setting are needlessly difficult to
> accomplish. I only use VO on a laptop keyboard. Another reason the Caps
> Lock key is such a logical choice is that it is commonly used in Windows
> screen readers as the dedicated key for issuing screen reader commands in a
> laptop layout.
>
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To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net
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As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that
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worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy.
We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable
happen.
Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting
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