This was a marvelously helpful message. I read nothing about either of these features in the voiceover quickstart, and no one has suggested them. Thank you so, so much for making me aware of them. I think this will make the Mac and I better friends in a much more timely manner. (Smile)
Shannon Are you a fan of women's music? If so, join me each Thursday from noon until three for the Eclectic Collection: a Celebration of Women In Music. Point your media player to: http://mojoradio.us/listen or www.mintfm.net On Jun 8, 2011, at 10:11 AM, Neil Barnfather - TalkNav wrote: > Joanne, > > for me the podcasts etc do help, but by far the biggest thing that very few > people seem to throw up as the most obviously easy way into Mac usage is to > use QuickNav. > > let me explain, there are a number of ways to use a Mac, unlike with a PC, > where you can really only use the qwerty keyboard. > > A Mac has different commanders as they are referred to, these are ways of > inputting commands or actions to Voice Over to make a desired thing happen, > be it navigation or more. > > you can use your keyboard, with the Voice Over keys, control and options, > with a range of additional keys to activate various commands. You can use the > number pad if your keyboard has one to also do the same, if you have a track > pad you can use that to gesture like you can on an iPHone, iPod Touch or iPad. > > but the big one for me that is often overlooked is Quick Nav, quick nav uses > the four arrow keys to enable you to quickly navigate around everything from > finder Windows, to apps, to text edit areas to the internet etc. > > firstly you need to know that in certain cases you have to turn quick nav off > and indeed back on again. you enable / disable quick nav using the left and > right arrow keys pressed once at the same time. quite literally left and > right arrow keys press once together. > > you'll hear Voice Over say, Quick Nav on or off. > > once its on, you can use individual presses of the right / left arrow to move > the Voice Over cursor from item to item on the screen... > > inserted little note here, you need to also understand that whilst PC's > screen readers use up and down arrows to move you about, the Mac uses left / > right, and thinking about this, it does make sense, as this is how sighted > folk read. > > so the left / right keys will move item by item, be it a chunk of text on the > internet, or icons on a desktop etc. > > the up / down arrow keys again individually pressed will cycle through the > elements of the item that you are interacting with based on the rotor > setting, the rotor is a dial or rotory styled switch which adjusts the method > of moving through elements in a given thing. > > let me explain, a web-site is made up of headings, links, visited links, > fields, form fields, tables etc. so when you're in Safari the rotor may have, > and you can customise this, headings, tables, links, words and characters > within the rotor. if you want to quickly move between the headings on a web > page you should make sure that the rotor is set to headings, you cchange the > roter setting by pressing together the up and left arrow keys, or the up and > right arrow keys. > > once you're on heading, use the up / down arrow key indivually to jump > between headings since this is what your roter is now set to. > > say you find the heading you are looking for, you can now right arrow through > the content, imagine though you find a word that Voice Over doesn't quite > read right, and you think, what did it say? change the roter to word, using > the up and right or up and left arrows together, now down press until yu are > one word ahead of the word you wish to have spelt, now change the roter to > charicter, press down arrow and the cursor will move charicter by charicter. > > once done simply change the roter bakc to heading or whatever you wish. > > this is just one example of how the roter works. > > another amazing thing which gets little press is the Item Chooser, which by > pressing control, options, I, will bring up a list of every single item on > any page you are on, be it a finder window or safari window etc. > > this has to be one of my favourite features of Voice Over. > > with this snazy feature you now have a list of every componant on the screen, > say you are on Amazon, and you've got an item up in front of you, you want to > find the add to basket button, but can't. > > press control, options, I, and then type basket, or b, a, s and leave it at > that... the list of items reduces based on the available options with your > letter combination. this is fantastic for finding things you are having > trouble with, or where for example you don't quite know if the item is, add > to basket, put in basket, add to cart, etc.... as you can try a few words > until you find what you want. you don't need to do it in any given order, so > even if the link reads add this dam item to my cart, you could type dam, and > the list will reduce to any option with dam in it. > > Quick Nav and the Item Chooser have to be my two main features of Voice Over > and this is how I have successfully last October made the switch to Mac from > being a JAWS PC user for 12 years before that. > > hope that this has helped. > > > Regards, > > Neil Barnfather > > Talks List Administrator > Twitter @neilbarnfather > > TalkNav is a Nuance, Code Factory and Sendero dealer, for all your > accessible phone, PDA and GPS related enquiries visit www.talknav.com > > URL: - www.talknav.com > e-mail: - serv...@talknav.com > Phone: - +44 844 999 4199 > > > > On 8 Jun 2011, at 13:58, Joanne Chua wrote: > > hi there, > > i'm Joanne, from Australia whom currently on total transit from PC to > Mac. however, i found that the commands and learning the back takes me > too long, and i'm not really sure where to start. > it sounds stupid i know but, may i ask, is there any tips or ways for > me to fast track my learning curves with using voice over? > > any suggestion is deeply appreciated. > > many thanks > > Joanne :) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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