Shannon, I tried to make the switch to Mac three times over, and failed, always resulting in me sending back my Mac within the 14 days.
When I discovered QuickNav and the Item Chooser it finally made the cross over to the Mac world so much more easier and intuitive. Why these aspects of the Mac and Voice Over are not covered int the quick start is beyond me, but they aught to be. In October last year I bought, for the fourth time in my life, a Mac, this being the 27in iMac fully loaded with all the treats, I've kept this machine and am writing to you now on it, and since October also have bought a MacBook Air to replace my laptop and a MacMini for use in my TV room. what does this mean, I've made the switch, and if you check the list achieves you'll discover that I was a pretty hardened, this is impossible type chap. its not impossible, its just that many of us forget just how hard it was in the first place, and forget the specifics of the mechanics we used to over come the experience... so you tend to get a lot of, its hard, just stick with it, its a learning curve, OSx is just different, type messages. these are all true, and indeed, practice makes perfect, I would now say that 7 months or so into my switch, I am as fluent a MAc user if not more than my Windows experience... What is the key here is to identify the tools one uses on a day to day bases with the Mac, for me QuickNav and the Item Chooser are solid and functional ways of using my Mac, they keep me quick and can save the use of multiple key press commands. The Item Chooser is the one thing that I would argue really sets Voice Over apart from the Windows screen readers, yet again, as per my earlier message, it gets very little press. The other thing you'll find is of course the stability of Voice Over, which is far greater than that of any of the PC screen readers. People will preach that the Mac and OSx is different to a PC, I don't buy this line, a PC and a Mac are far more similar than people would have you believe. PC users say Control Panel, Mac users say System Preferences, PC users have a Start Button at the bottom left, Mac users have an Apple button at the top left. PC users have in dependant menu bars per application, Mac users have a unified single menu bar, which alters its content as you alt-tab key between applications. PC users have an explore window, or windows, Mac users have finders, or finder windows. PC users have search in the start menu, Mac users have spot light at the top right of the screen. PC Users have a desktop, surprise, surprise, so does the Mac, PC users alt-tab key between running apps, Mac users do the same, PC users have an applications folder, so do Mac users. some useful tips: command key followed by , will bring up the preferences of an app you are in, almost any or every app. the tab key pretty much works just like back in windows, alt-tab will switch between running apps. if you enable keyboard commander in the commanders section of Voice Over config, enable the right hand options key in the radio buttons, and this will mean you can do things like right options key t, this will announce the time and date. you can if you wish, in date / time in the system preferences have the time auto announced every hour, every3 30 minutes, or on the quarter hour. the system preferences found in the apple menu, got to by pressing control, options m, which is the Mac version of the control panel, has many of the things you are likely looking for in relation to configuring your Mac, like when it sleeps / hibernates, etc. you can of course press control, options, space bar to activate anything, but if you use QuickNav, as previously outlined, you can just arrow right / left with individual key presses to the icon or item you want, say a link in Safari, then pressing the up and down arrow keys together will result in a press of that button / link etc. hope that this helps a little further. 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 18:16, Shannon Dyer wrote: 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 rotary 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 > rotor 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 individually to jump > between headings since this is what your rotor 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 rotor to word, using > the up and right or up and left arrows together, now down press until you are > one word ahead of the word you wish to have spelt, now change the rotor to > character, press down arrow and the cursor will move character by character. > > once done simply change the rotor bak to heading or whatever you wish. > > this is just one example of how the rotor 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 component 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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