Hi All, I'll cc this reply to the macvisionaries list, because I think it is of general interest, and also because this will let me easily find and link to an archived post if there are further questions/discussion on the viphone list.
Dean Martineau asked about finding and quickly going to text on an iPhone: I'd like to be able to do two things: (a) search
a folder for text found in a document and see a list of documents containing that text; when I open the desired document, the screen focus is on the found text,and VoiceOver tracks the focus. I don't think that one is possible. or: (b) I manually open a document, search for text I know is found within it, and screen and VoiceOver focus on the found text. I would prefer this work with text documents, but I can deal with most any file format.
and Annie Skov Nielsen replied: The only program it works in is ibooks. therefore I am using that program much. It's possible to do what Dean wants for text in the Simplenote app by Codality. You can type in search terms and the app will list the notes with matching text, and let you immediatley go to the first found instance of a match in your selected note, and then find the next match and navigate to it, all under accessible VoiceOver control. I've been recommending this app on this list for about a year, and the developers continued to add great features. Since I'm pressed for time, I won't repeat everything again, except to forestall the people who want note apps that specialize in formatting and specifically focus on creating Microsoft Office Word Documents -- this is not that sort of app; Simplenote focuses on simple text and content, and working with this as fast and efficiently as possible in synced fashion across your iDevices. The iPad implementation of this app is a particularly nice in making efficient use of the layout possibilities of the larger device, but I'll focus on how this works on the iPhone, where a few more steps are required to switch and access options. Locating notes with words that match all your search terms has always been possible in Simplenote from the beginning: on the "All Notes" screen you simply flick right past the "Add" button for creating new notes to the search field to type in the terms you want, then run your finger down the list of notes that match results and double tap to select the one you want to view. Now, instead of flicking right from the heading of your selected note to have VoiceOver start reading the complete entry, just move your finger down from the note heading. The line at the top of the screen is the first match in that note to any of the search terms you typed in. If you move your finger to the bottom left corner of the screen, you'll hear VoiceOver announce two buttons: "BTN prior" and "BTN next". Double tap the "BTN next" button to find the next instance of a match, and then touch the top of the screen just below the note heading to read the match. If you want to start reading from that point, do a two-finger flick down. Either touch the bottom of the screen, just to the right of the "prior" and "next" buttons, and directly above the "Home" button, or flick right from the "prior" and "next" find buttons for a summary of the search terms in use and, to have this announced by VoiceOver. A few comments: if you search on more than one word or part of word, you'll only get matches to notes that use all your search terms. However, when you use the buttons to find the next or prior match to a search term, you'll be advanced to the next occurrence of any of your search words in the note. So if your search was a two word phrase that often occurs together, it will seem as though you're picking up the same line twice, because the find action will pick up the first word in the phrase, and highlight it, and then pick the next word in the same phrase and highlight it, but you'll still be on the same line in the note, and won't appear to have advanced. However, if individual word matches to your search terms appear in the note, it's quite obvious that double tapping "BTN next" moves you to a different part of the file. Once again, you can always get to the matched line by simply touching the top of the screen, since the app will scroll through the display of your note to insure that the match is the first visible line on the screen. That's why you need to touch the screen instead of just flicking to have VoiceOver start reading the entire note. I'm not sure how this would work for navigation via keyboard control unless Apple implements shortcut sequences for "first visible element" on an iPhone screen, etc. the way that they do on the Mac Normally, the order of listing files is most recently modified first. However, Simplenote now lets you "pin" the notes that you most frequently view to the top of the list. On the iPhone you need to get out of the current screen in order to access this function. Double tap the "Cancel" button in the bottom right corner of the screen to leave the previous set of find controls. (You can get back to them later). Now the buttons on the bottom of screen have changed to "sharing", "version", "delete", "info", and "full screen" (listed from left to right). Flick left to "BTN info" and double tap. You'll get a "Details" screen that gives the word and character count for the note, and a "Pin to Top" switch that you can double tap to turn on by flicking right to the switch and double tapping. Leave the screen by double tapping the "Done" button at the top right, and you'll be back to the screen with "Find" control buttons at the bottom. You could also email the note content with the "sharing" button, or take the document to "full screen mode" by double tapping the "BTN full screen" button in the bottom right corner. In this mode, there are no screen controls, only text. To get back to this button to turn controls back on, do a four finger flick down from any where in the note, since the "Full Screen off, button" will be the last element on the screen. (This feature is more useful on the iPad, where you can either work within the selected document on the right side of the screen, while keeping access to the search index on the left, or go to full screen document mode). There are still a few awkward bits of the iPhone app version. You can't get directly back to the screen with the find controls unless you "Done" button at the top right corner of either the "sharing" screen (first button) or the "info" screen (fourth button). (This problem doesn't exist with the iPad screen layout). Also, at present the process of adding tags to notes from the iPhone is not accessible, although tags can be added (and synced) with desktop apps, like Notational Velocity on the Mac. What you currently have to do to add a tag is first make sure that the first line of the note is at the top of the screen (e.g., use three finger flicks down to scroll as far as you can.) Then you need to toggle VoiceOver off by triple clicking the home button, if you have set this up in Settings, and flick your finger down on the center of the screen to expose the tag control at the very top of the screen. With VoiceOver still toggled off, tap the top of the screen. (This is at the position where the first line of the note appeared before you toggled VoiceOver off). Now toggle VoiceOver back on, and you'll be on a "Tags" screen. To create a new tag, double tap the "Add" button in the bottom right corner, type in a tag name on the virtual keyboard, and double tap the "Done" button at the bottom right coner of the keyboard. (Or, if you don't enter a new tag, just double tap the "tags, back" button at the top left to return to the previous screen.) You can select (double tap) any of the listed tags for your note, and create new ones with the "Add" button. If you want to reorder the tags or delete tags, double tap the "Edit" button in the bottom left corner. The deletion buttons will appear to the left of each entry, and the reorder buttons will be to the right of each tag entry. Double tap the "Done" button in the same position as the original "Edit" button (bottom left) when you're finished, and double tap the "Done" button for the Tags screen in the top right corner to get back to your note. Your notes can now appear under tag category, and if you back up past the "All notes" category using the "Back" button in the top left corner of the screen, you'll find listings for "All Notes", "Trash", and whatever tag categories you've created. Double tapping a tag category will show you notes tagged with that description. Simplenote (free) by Codality: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplenote/id289429962?mt=8 The basic ad-supported app is free, and completely usable, Premium subscriptions give extra features, such as nightly backups, RSS feeds, creation of notes from email, unlimited note creation, etc. You can also pay to turn off ads. HTH. Gotta run. Cheers, Esther -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@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.
