Speaking of useless and redundant key commands, how do the folks who
say that JAWS alone has redundant key commands explain the two menu
commands on the mac. vo m, and ctrl f2. What is the point of the vo
commands here? Or vo m twice for the status bar. Why not just use
ctrl f8?
A good example of how OS X allows us to utilize its key functionality
without vo, is on the internet. There is no vo command to find form
fields because it is not needed when you can press tab or option tab
depending on how you have it set. As I recall, you can toggle the
tab functionality by using ctrl f7.
I used to have winblos on my computer to use ms word, powerpoint, and
excel when I was in statistics. Now, I don't necessaroly need excel
anymore, and latex has pretty much taken the place of ms word and
powerpoint. So, I don't have it on my machine anymore.
I changed over to the mac from windows with jaws about a year ago
after using jaws for 6 years. That was my first computing
arrangement. When I first tried the mac, I had a lot of trouble
because I was trying to use it in the same way as I would with jaws.
So, I got a list of short cut keys on my braillenote, and started
spending a couple hours each week at the apple store trying out
different key commands and I kept up my reading of the discuss digest
to listen for more key commands to try. Within about a month, I
would say that I had a relatively good idea of what I could do with a
mac and was ready to rough it for the increased relyability. I was
surprised at the extra functionality that I got out of it as the
months went on and I found new programs that work with vo. I don't
think I could have ever guessed that I would get so much use out of
OS X and vo without any more substantial upgrades to the screen reader.
When I got over trying to use my mac like my PC, I have to say that I
did find vo more simple to use than jaws. It is more simple because
you scarcely need to know but 5 or so key commands to get started
with your computer. After that, you tend to just pick up more as you
go.. It is a good idea to read the short cut keys in the menus of
applications.
Also, alt f4 is not a jaws command. It, and ctrl f4 to close windows
within apps like ms word, will work whether jaws is turned on or not.
Regards
Justin Harford
