Hi Scott,
sorry for the length and the slow response time but here goes:
• Go to VO Utility and turn off cursor tracking for mouse and VO
cursor sutff, both of them.
• Go to your system Preferences.
• Activate the Accounts pane.
• Use VO keys+left arrow once to bring focus to the lock then unlock
the Preference.
• Press VO keys+i to bring up the Item chooser.
• Narrow the list so you can select the user you wish controlled then
press Return.
• Wait a second to make sure that focus comes to the proper user.
• Use the tab key here instead of VO keys as you've probably noticed
that VO keys causes the busy signal at nausium.
• If you reach the Password tab or any other one then you can use VO
keys to go "right arrow" to the Parental Controls.
• Again you should use the tab key to move to the next item which
should be a Table.
• Interact with the Table. The items within the Table are:
a. first row is for email access.
b. Second row is for finder restrictions.
c. third row is for ichat restrictions.
d. fourth row is for Safari restrictions.
e. fifth row is for dictionary stuff.
• In each case above there is a check box followed by either a
configure button or a Info button. You should first check the item
you wish to configure, i.e. the first row for eMail or fourth row for
Safari. Once the item is checked you can then press the configure
button to, you guessed it, configure the restrictions.
Below is the info I've gathered for each. Note that my kids are much
older and are angels so I've never put restrictions on them. I have
though used this sort of thing for application restricting use at
school and it works great.
a. eMail: When you press the configure button for email, you can
enter addresses of acceptable persons for this user to correspond
with. there is a Table followed by two unlabeled buttons, the first
unlabeled button is the Add and the second is the Remove. Once you
have entered the address of an acceptable person, simply press Return
as VO doesn't give you any "OK" button. there is also a field for
you to enter an email address where you can have unregistered eMails
sent to you instead of your child. I'm not sure at this point if you
can allow/disallow it once it's sent to you or if you have to go into
system Preferences each time.
b. finder: Once in this configuration dialog you can set dock
restrictions, access to system preferences, whether the user has some
Restrictions or a simple finder, application restrictions and a few
others you'll have to read yourself as I can't remember them all.
When restricting application use, I would click the "Allow all" then
go through the Outline to uncheck the ones you'd rather not give
access to. I also wouldn't bother using the Simple finder option as
it gives a false impression of the mac interphace. Also, I would
check the item that says something about "Allow supporting stuff".
some things don't seem to work as they should, like the "Modify Dock"
thing, some modifications still seem to be allowed but nothing
damaging I'm sure.
c. ichat: I haven't checked into this one as I'm not a chatter nor
is anyone in my family so your on your own here.
d. safari: for this one, enable the Parental control in system
Preferences then you'll need to log on as the other user to set the
restrictions. For example, turn it on then log off and log on as
your son. go into safari, then go to your Preferences and choose the
Security pane. down at the bottom of the pane is a check box where
you can turn off parental controls. do it. It will ask for an
Administrator username and password to work. remember to use your
shortname and password. then you can change the restrictions. How
it works is whatever is in the bookmarks bar is acceptable. so
anything you don't want the user to access should not be available to
the Bookmarks bar. therefore, remove unwanted stuff from it and add
anything acceptable to you to it. If you add www.apple.com to the
bookmarks bar, parental control will allow it and all sub-pages of
apple to be accessible. After you've set what you want, go back to
the Safari Preferences
and check the Parental controls check box once again. You can then
log off and things should work the way you want.
e. Dictionary: Supposedly this will stop the user from accessing
specific words such as profanity which also affects their web-page
content. It doesn't seem to give a lot for VO to read so I'm not
sure as to what exactly happens. I'll get my son to give me a
explanation of the visuals sometime and if you're interested, I'll
let you know the results.
I think that's it. The biggest things to remember is to use the tab
key instead of VO keys in the Accounts pane for less frustration from
busy signals. Other than that, explore, and I think you'll figure
most of it out.
Later...
Tim Kilburn
& Carter the Canine
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
