Hello Terri, The learning curve before you is very steep. Don’t give up, it’s going to take time and people on the list are wonderfully supportive.
As for the finder/desktop, I often feel they are the same things. You can’t get rid of Finder, in fact it’s essential; it’s a bit like desktop in windows. You can customise Finder. when you are in Finder, pressing command+comma will open settings for Finder. (In fact, command+comma is your friend for settings in most applications). Bear in mind, that in all applications there’s a toolbar. You can find more items in the toolbar but you have to interact with it by pressing vo keys+command plus down arrow. Stop interacting by pressing vo+command+up arrow once you have finished activating elements in the toolbar, to move to the right with vo+right arrow to the settings available. Once you adjust your settings for Finder, you close the settings windows with command+w. While in settings window, you can return to Toolbar and interact with it and choose another category to adjust its settings. I know it’s a steep learning curve, so be patient and gentle with yourself. When your focus is in Finder, command+shift+a will take you to the list of all the applications you have on your mac. This is very useful. Another shortcut key that’s essential is command+option+l; this will take you to your downloads folder. If you download a new application like dropbox, it will hopefuly be downloaded to your downloads folder. Mac applications have the extension .dmg. Once the application’s downloaded, it will be in your downloads folder. Open your downloads folder with command+option+l, arrow up and down to find the application, and if you wish to install it, once voiceover is focused on the name, press command+down arrow to open the .dmg file. This command will open the .dmg application file in a new window. It might say something like “icon view”. This is not the best view in my opinion. Press command+2 to change the view to list. This is by far the easiest view to navigate with up and down arrows. .dmg files usually contain the application file, for instance, dropbox.app and often application alias file. What I usually do is the following. I explore the window. Once I hear the name of the application with the extension .app, I copy it to clipboard with command+c. Then if the application alias is present I activate with vo+spacebar. But often I just press command+shift+a to go to applications folder and paste the app there with command+v. This adds your newly downloaded app into your applications folder where all your apps reside. Remember command+w closes your windows so you need to close your applications folder to return to finder. Hope this helps a littl.e Andrew > On 15 May 2026, at 15:47, Terri Stimmel <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > As my subject says, I have some more questions regarding my Macbook. > > First of all, I love it! I love how small, and portable it is. I also love > the keyboard on it. > > I haven’t listened to any of the podcasts that were suggested yet. Just, > because I am finishing up my current semester at college. And honestly, if I > have to read, or listen to anything else I might lose my mind. But, in the > next couple of weeks I do plan to check out the Applevis site. > > First of all, what is this desktop thing that always seems to be there? It > sometimes seems to be called a finder as well. I don’t know what to do with > that area. > Do I add things to it, like Apps? Right now, there just seems to be a few > wijits there. But I always seem to just end up stuck in it. Which is not > cool! > How can I get rid of it, or close it out? > > I tried to follow the instructions the Voiceover gives to close it. But it > doesn’t seem to work. > > Also, sometimes when I try to open an App, or press on a button like the > Voiceover states to do, nothing seems to happen. My boyfriend, who is > sighted, has had to help me a few times. I try to not let this happen too > often, because like I tell him, I will never learn how to do it if he helps > me. Thankfully, he understands, and respects this. > > Also, if you have multiple email accounts, within mail, how do you move back, > and forth between the inboxes? > I can’t seem to figure this out. I keep opening a certain email over, and > over again. Which is getting rather annoying! > > One last question for now. Although, I am sure I will have more. > > When I want to install an App from the website, such as something like > Dropbox, how do I know where to put it? And how do I get it there? > > Any help is much appreciated. And, I really appreciate the time people take > to respond. > > Thank you, > > Terri > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can > reach Cara at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/PH7PR84MB19810D43523837CD35E853CDA8042%40PH7PR84MB1981.NAMPRD84.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/PH7PR84MB19810D43523837CD35E853CDA8042%40PH7PR84MB1981.NAMPRD84.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: [email protected] and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/macvisionaries/EB402BEC-4A68-4100-9FAC-427C451BCDC2%40me.com.
