OK, first of all:
When you first open Safari, you then immediately typed the U R L to a
web site. There's part of your issue.
You need to first always always always! hit command+L first to focus
yourself to the address bar. Then! type the address and hit return.
Second off, do you have Voiceover set to automatically interact with
html areas?
Let's take a quick look. Go into your voiceover utility with vo+F8.
Remember you may need to do fn+vo+F8, depending on your setup.
Vo+right arrow over to the categories table and then hit the letter W.
Don't worry, you don't even need to interact first. As long as you're
actually on the table itself, you should be then able to hit W to jump
to the web category.
OK, vo+right arrow two times, and you should hear page loading tab. If
it isn't already selected, go head and hit vo+space on it to do so.
OK, now vo+right arrow 4 times. You should hear a checkbox to move the
voiceover cursor when loaded. You need to be absolutely certain that
this box is indeed checked. If it's not, hit vo+space to check it.
OK, that should help but don't close the Vo Utility just quite yet. I
wanna lookat one more thing, just? in case.
go back up to the top of the window, and go to the categories table.
I'm gonna assume that from this point forward you are using either Lion,
or Mountain Lion. If you're on anything earlier, I E, Snow Leopard,
Leopard, or Tiger, God forbid!... then you're not gonna have this
option, so in that case, just hit command+W. You're done, otherwise
though keep on following my directions.
In the category list, again, make sure you're focused on it. You again
do not need to interact, just be sure you're on it first. Then, hit the
letter A, as in activities.
Once here vo+right arrow until you get to the activities table. Again,
no need to interact here. Just down arrow and if anything is in that
table, see if you have an activity for Safari. If not, then you're good
to go. Just hit command+W. If you do however, then read on.
So, if you're still reading, then that tells me, you actually did have a
Safari activity. Otherwise I'm expecting you read no further.
So, make sure Safari is selected in the table.
Vo+right arrow 12 times. You should get to a check box that says Web.
Is it checked? If not, then you're good to go. Just hit command+W. If
it is! checked however, then keep reading.
If checked then there should be a set button just to the right of the
checkbox. Vo+Space on it.
Now again, locate the page loading tab and select it, then make sure the
box to automatically move the Voiceover cursor is checked. Then go down
to the very bottom of the screen, and vo+Space on the OK button. Then,
finally command+W to close the Voiceover Utility.
Now, If Safari was running, command+Tab to it, if needed, then hit
command+Q to quit it. Now, reopen it. I know that sounds a little
silly. Why quit it then reopen it, but trust me. You're right, it's
probably not necessary to do, but I wanna cover all of our grounds just
in case.
OK, now hold it! Don't do anything! Don't start typing a U R L.
First, hit command+L.
Now, and only! now, type in your
hairyfox.com
Then hit return.
Wait a sec, and let the page load.
Now! vo around, and see what you get.
Did that work?
Another thing, too, you may want to do, is, In Safari itself, hit
command+Comma, to bring up the preferences, then find your toolbar and
interact with it. Vo+Space on general, then stop interacting with the
toolbar. OK, in here, we want to look for new tabs open with, and there
should be a pop up menu. Make sure that is not set to blank or untitled
or what not. You want that on home page. Then vo+right a few times and
you should hear home page then again takes you to a text box. In here,
just type something like: google.com
This way, every time a new tab opens it doesn't just take you to a blank
nul page. In theory, having a blank page really shouldn't effect
anything. I'm not saying that it messes things up having it that way,
as actually, it doesn't, but who knows. Again, I'm only trying to rule
out every possibility I can think of.
OK so once this all's done, let's again hit command+W to close the
preferences, then hit command+Q to quit Safari.
OK, now again, reopen it, and see if it landed you in the html area
automatically for your home page, which is google in the above example.
If that doesn't work, I do have another idea we can try, although it's a
bit overkill most likely, so I'd rather not go that route until I first
know if this fixed things, as I'll bet my money on it, that if you set
it all up the way I just talked you through doing, it should! ok, key
word, should! work.
Give me a little more info: what version of OSX are you running? What
type Mac is this you're using?
Chris.
