Hello all, I was on here a few months ago asking some basic questions about vo. Now, I am proud to say, I have a Mac Mini sitting on the desk all shiny and new from Best Buy as of two nights ago. I can get around the basics, like system or vo settings, and I can do things like checking for updates, but beyond that I am stuck. Here, in no particular order, is my list of questions. Rest assured, more will be coming!
1. It seems that dialogs have access keys (on Windows, one might press alt-a to activate the "add" button, for instance), since I found that pressing s within the shutdown dialog will make the computer sleep. However, vo will not read these keys, if they exist at all, so I never know what letter will activate a button. I have found the option to use cmd+letter to move to elements starting with that letter, but that is not the same thing since developers can assign any letter to be the access key. 2. I have trouble with html content (web pages, the App Store, and so on). I can get around by arrowing from one element to another or by using the rotor, but I cannot figure out the following: a. I have enabled single-key navigation on webpages, but nothing wraps. For instance, if I am below a search edit which is the page's only input field and I press f, I am told "text field not found" instead of being taken to the field above me (at the top of the page). b. How can I just read the page? With jaws on Windows, I can arrow up and down on the page to read it like a document, which is great if I don't know what the page looks like or do not have a destination in mind. Arrowing in vo, though, seems impossible. Am I to read pages element by element only? If I go to a heading which is, say, an article title, how can I just arrow down to see what the article is, instead of reading the page from my current position? This is useful if there is a by line, a social network sharing frame, or other content after the heading but before the article. 3. How do I use the Finder? I have no idea what it is doing, and only found a file I was looking for by accident. Should I use Spotlight instead? What is the difference? Is there a third-party file and folder manager that people recommend? 4. From what I can gather, the left-hand menu is kind of like the system tray in Windows, with network information, sound, bluetooth, and the like. How do I access it? 5. When the mac starts, vo does not. I have to hit cmd-f5 to run it each time, and I am not sure how long to wait (I think I could wait a lot less time than I am). How can I fix this? I am running a usb keyboard, no mouse, and no monitor at the moment. 6. Can vo announce the time and date like most other screen readers? This is not a big deal to me, but it would be nice sometimes. I have enabled the keyboard commander, but the speech used is not my vo speech, but rather the system speech, and there is quite a delay between the keypress and the speaking. 7. Why is it that, when I go into the launcher and try to open my downloads folder, nothing happens? It should have two files in it, so I know it is not empty. I am pressing enter, space, vo-space, the up and down arrows (quick nav is on), but nothing happens. 8. Nothing ever goes onto the desktop. I am not sure how to use it or what good it is, since everything goes to the dock/launcher. I was listening to a podcast last night, and the host had somehow set things up so that his desktop had his home folder opened on it. How do I manage my desktop, and how is it different from the dock? 9. Safari: aside from the html questions, how do I do things like view bookmarks, sort bookmarks into folders, view open tabs, switch between tabs, and so on? Will vo work with Firefox? Might I be better off using that over Safari? 10. How do I get to things I download so I can open them? I have so far downloaded two programs, but I am not sure how to run either one of them. I think I ran one, but I'm not sure, and now I can't get the other to work at all. 11. Is there a way to read daisy, for free, using Alex? I know Bookshare has a program, but I don't want the voices it comes with, I just want to use Alex to read bookshare and other content. 12. I see that there are some scripts in the keyboard commander. How do I view these scripts or assign my own? I am not asking for programming help, but rather for help on how to view the contents with a mac or tell vo where to find scripts I may make in the future. 13. I am thinking about a trackpad of some kind (this is, after all, a mini, not a laptop). Would there be any advantage to the Magic Mouse over the Magic Trackpad? As I understand it, they are the same except that the mouse lets you click. Is that of any help in vo, or should I just go for the trackpad? 14. Maybe macs don't work this way, but how do I bring up the context menu for an item? For instance, I was trying to figure out how to remove icons from the dock, and I thought that if I could just right-click the icon I could select the option to remove it. How does one right-click, or does that even do the same thing as it does in Windows? Do items have contextual menus at all? 15. How can I quickly access more menus? The tutorial talked about vo-m to get to the menu bar, but that only brings me to the Apple menu. Is there a way to jump directly to edit, view, and the others? 16. I installed Ventrillo, but it just kept saying "busy" when I tried to activate any of its buttons. I couldn't shut down because Ventrillo wouldn't quit, and the force quit keystroke the mac told me to use just resulted in vo saying "busy" over and over again. Finally, for the second time today (the first while installing) I had to do a hard shutdown. How often does something like this happen, and how do you resolve it? 17. How do I quickly switch tabs? In the vo utility, for example, is there a keystroke like Windows' ctrl-tab to move from category to category, or at least from tab to tab inside a category? It seems very slow to have to keep tabbing until I wrap back to the tab selection. Thanks in advance for any help, and sory there are so many questions! So far, this is quite a shock, having been a Windows man for all the years I have used a computer. I am hoping that, in the two weeks before I can no longer bring it back to Best Buy, I come to love the Mac... Time will tell, I suppose, but I am rather frustrated at the moment with my near inability to use the internet or app store, among other things. That said, I recently discovered the full customization and power available with commanders and activities, all much easier and (seemingly) more powerful than jaws or nvda. I also love the activity monitor - much easier to use than the resource monitor in Windows, especially the processes tab. -- Have a great day, Alex (msg sent from GMail website) mehg...@gmail.com; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap -- 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. 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