Hi Ricardo, William is referring to the fact that the native Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts use Control+F2 to move to the menu bar, Control+F3 to move to the dock, and Control+F8 to move to the status menu bar. So people who use the Mac defaults where available will use Control+F2 (instead of VO+M), and Control+F8 (instead of VO+M twice) to move to the application menu bar and the status menu bar. Either of these options works. The advantage of using the native Mac shortcuts is that they work even if VoiceOver freezes. I'm not sure why he can't use Control+F8. Depending on whether your System Preferences for keyboard are set to use the F keys in their hardware or software functions, some operations requiring pressing an Fn key with a function key.
The setting for this behavior is in System Preferences > Keyboard and on the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard tab there is a check box for "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys; When this option is selected, press the Fn key to use the special features printed on each key." I suspect that the answer to William's question is that he could use map out the position of the Dropbox status menu icon with the Trackpad movement, using VO+F5 to check when Dropbox is under the mouse and VO+F5+F5 to read off the cursor location. Then, he could use something like Voxkeys to make a script that would move the mouse to that location in the status menu bar and click the icon. The script could be bound to a shortcut key and this could be used without requiring the navigation tracking setting in VoiceOver utility to be set to "Mouse Cursor Moves VoiceOver Cursor". In order to make the measurement in pixel coordinates (which the scripts would use), he'd have to set the combo box under the Announcements tab of Verbosity in VoiceOver Utility to "Speak size and position in Pixels" instead of millimeters or inches. Then VO+F5 would announce "Dropbox is under the mouse" and pressing the F5 key again (VO+F5+F5) would give the pixel coordinates of the mouse cursor on his status menu bar, for input into the relevant Voxkey scripts. I should add that I'm not doing any work with scripts myself, but this is being discussed on other lists (for using the BBC iPlayer controls, for example). It's also actually possible to map out the status bar menu cursor locations of those icons like Dropbox without having the mouse cursor set to follow the VoiceOver cursor, as long as no windows are open (or they're all hidden) and you're working from Finder, but it's trickier, and I wouldn't do this in practice. In answer to Jes' question (way down the thread) about how one is managing to access the full status bar, what's being used here is the ability to move the mouse cursor with the Trackpad independent of VoiceOver's navigation. VoiceOver can report when the cursor is on the icon in the status bar; it just doesn't have a way of navigating to some of these icons by VoiceOver shortcuts and keystrokes because they aren't exposed for navigation purposes. VoiceOver can also report the pixel positions of icons, so you can get another feeling of how much you move between typical icons on the status menu bar if you check the offset positions for the icons you can navigate to with VoiceOver. This is a particularly good case for using Trackpad navigation, since you can't move beyond the top of the screen with your cursor, even if you don't move the cursor to the right or left in a perfectly straight line. So if you move to the left, but slightly up on the Trackpad, only your horizontal motion will be used if your vertical motion would otherwise position the cursor "above" the status bar. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jan 23, 2011, at 07:45, Ricardo Walker wrote: > Hi, > > I'm not a braille user so I have no answers for you regarding that. I'm a > bit confused about control F8 though. I don't remember mentioning control F8 > in the show. I did say press control option F8 to open VO utilities. Could > this be what your referring to? > > Ricardo Walker > rwalker...@gmail.com > Twitter, Skype, and AIM: rwalker296 > Google Voice: 1-646-450-2197 > > > > On Jan 22, 2011, at 6:32 PM, William Windels wrote: > >> Hi Ricardo, >> thanx for your podcast about this problem, it works! >> But, on my system , control+f8 isn't working also (f-functions are done >> without fn). >> And about the settings in navigation of the vo-menu: >> normally the mouse-cursor was set to ignore the voiceover-cursor so , for >> this, I have set it to follow the vo-cursor. >> >> I know that I have troubles with braille when I set this option to "move >> vo-cursor"but I don't know if "move vo-cursor" can be a default setting >> without having problems in other situations/programs with vo and/or braille? >> >> Thanx for your answer, >> >> best regards, >> William >> Op 22-jan-2011, om 20:31 heeft Ricardo Walker het volgende geschreven: >> >>> I show how to get to the hidden icons in the status bar like hot spot >>> shield. >>> >>> hth >>> >>> Ricardo Walker >>> rwalker...@gmail.com >>> Twitter, Skype, and AIM: rwalker296 >>> Google Voice: 1-646-450-2197 >>> >>> >>> >>> On Jan 22, 2011, at 1:23 PM, Michael Busboom wrote: >>> >>>> Hello Ricardo, >>>> >>>> Are you saying that you discuss how to find "hidden items" like Hot Spot >>>> Shield items in the system Status menu in this podcast? Or, rather, are >>>> you referring to the Ctrl-F8 discussion point? >>>> >>>> Have a super weekend, >>>> >>>> Mike >>>> >>>> On 22,Jan,2011, at 5:56 PM, Ricardo Walker wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi, >>>>> >>>>> this happens to be my main topic in my first episode of, Apple to the >>>>> core. lol. You can listen here >>>>> http://goo.gl/8FoSJ >>>>> >>>>> Ricardo Walker >>>>> rwalker...@gmail.com >>>>> Twitter, Skype, and AIM: rwalker296 >>>>> Google Voice: 1-646-450-2197 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Jan 22, 2011, at 11:40 AM, Michael Busboom wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Dane, are you sure about that command? I hit the VO-M command twice to >>>>>> get to the system status menu, but entering Ctrl-F8 didn't accomplish >>>>>> anything. >>>>>> >>>>>> I have this program called Hot Spot Shield that hangs out in the System >>>>>> Status area, and it is, thus far, inaccessible to me. Too bad, because >>>>>> it's a great program that hides your IP address which can be very useful >>>>>> when you are out in public. Does the Ctrl-F8 give you better access to >>>>>> this area of the screen than the traditional VO-M*2? >>>>>> >>>>>> Take care, >>>>>> >>>>>> Mike >>>>>> >>>>>> On 22,Jan,2011, at 1:43 AM, Dane Trethowan wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> Even better way of doing it, try ctrl-f8. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On 22/01/2011, at 11:13 AM, Jeffrey Shockley wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Hi, >>>>>>>> I will add that if you VO M twice, and arrow through the menues, you >>>>>>>> can get more info by pressing Option with left/right arrows to explore >>>>>>>> the status bar. >>>>>>>> HTH, >>>>>>>> Jeffrey >>>>>>>> On Jan 21, 2011, at 6:50 PM, Teresa Cochran wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> VO-m two times quickly. Then right-arrow through the menu items till >>>>>>>>> you get to one you want to explore further. >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> HTH, >>>>>>>>> Teresa >>>>>>>>> On Jan 20, 2011, at 2:55 AM, Jes Smith wrote: >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Hi all, >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> How does one access the full status bar with voiceover, as I thought >>>>>>>>>> the icons for things such as drop box and such were not accessible. >>>>>>>>>> I realize that someone posted a work around for the v o m m thing, >>>>>>>>>> but I just subscribed to the list yesterday so would appreciate the >>>>>>>>>> info. >>>>>>>>>> Thanks and take care. >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> Jes >>>>>>>>>> -- 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.
