Hi Anne Thanks for your response. I knew a lot of my concerns were based on my initial impressions which were likely to be incomplete.
I have heard a lot of people on this list say that it is not fair to compareVO on the Mac with Windows and one of its screen readers as they are so different and it is just what you get use to. I can agree with this to a point. I do though think it is fair to be able to compare the workflows involved in achieving a given outcome. I mean how many and how complex a set of steps are required to get the result you want. This sort of comparison is obviously going to show one option to be better with one task in mind and the other to be better with another task. The issues you pointed out with tables in Pages might be show stoppers for some but would rarely be an issue for me. A typical task for me would be a fairly simple document where I have a number of headings at various levels, ie 1, 2 and 3 with bodies of plain text in between. Starting from the desktop could you let me know how I would most quickly achieve the following. Bring up a new blank document, put in a heading at level one, another at level two, then another at level three. There would then be some body text and I would be putting in further headings at levels two and three with passages of text. I would then want to check i had the formatting correct and that there were no spelling errors.. To make it quicker to describe, what keystrokes are involved in going into a blank document and then putting in a heading and then some normal text? I am sorry if I seem a bit pushy or annoyed about this topic. I don't mean to, it is not always easy to capture feelings in written text, at least not for me. I really do value the input. On a more positive note, I simply love using the track pad commander. There are obviously lots of things to enjoy about using the Mac but my questions are clearly going to be about the things that are a problem for me. Garth On 31/08/2011, at 5:28 PM, Anne Robertson <a...@anarchie.org.uk> wrote: > Hello Garth, > > When you're used to Windows, everything on the Mac seems awkward. I've never > used Windows, so everything on the Mac seems normal to me. > > I use iWork all the time in my job as a translator. In general, it's simple > enough to use once you understand it. There are some problems, however. The > main one is tables in Pages. You have to create tables in Numbers then paste > them into Pages. There's a command to make them visible in Pages, but editing > them destroys their formatting, so all editing of tables has to be done in > Numbers. > > As for headings, styles, changing fonts, etc., all that's perfectly > straightforward. > > The other major problem with iWork, which I hope will be fixed in the next > release, is that VoiceOver does not have access to important formatting > information such as the colour of highlighting on specific pieces of text. I > have to use TextEdit to detect these passages when I'm told only to translate > the parts highlighted in yellow, for example. > > So, if you're creating your own documents, Pages works fine, but if you're > working with other people on a document, things aren't quite so simple, but > they are doable. > > Cheers, > > Anne > > > On 31 Aug 2011, at 05:22, Garth Humphreys wrote: > >> Hi All >> >> I have been looking at getting one of the new MBA for a couple of weeks now >> and a thanks to those who have chimed in with my previous questions. Mostly >> I will not be using the Air for much word processing and the simple text >> editor will suit most of my needs. Having said this when I have been >> playing with Pages and Numbers on the Airs in my local Apple store I am >> finding it not very intuitive and it seems like you need to do a lot of >> complicated key strokes to achieve anything more than simple editing. I >> know this is probably mostly due to the fact that I am not by any stretch of >> the imagination an expert on the Mac or Voice Over. >> >> But I also wonder if it is at least partly because iWork with VO is not >> really up to scratch. from a productivity perspective.If I am just writing a >> simple document it seems fine but once I try creating a document with some >> Headings at different levels and headers and footers etc, it starts to seem >> really complicated and just a lot of work arounds. >> >> As I said I haven't even bought my MBA yet and it is just lucky that my >> workplace is right near an Apple store so I have had a fair bit of time to >> go and play around. >> >> When I have seen other people on the list ask about doing complex document >> editing the main response seems to be that you can run Windows in boot camp >> or fusion. >> >> I guess I want to know whether iWork is not up to scratch or is it just >> that I don't know how to use it? >> >> Are there any people on the list who do use the Mac for complex document >> creation, and I use the word complex loosely? >> >> As I said at the beginning of this, I won't be using my Mac for much more >> than simple document creation, I will still be using Windows for real work, >> however I find the lack of VO support for the productivity applications a >> bit disturbing. >> >> Garth >> >> -- >> 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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