Right, having botched the explanation the first time, let me try again
from the top.
In Safari's Preferences, under the Advanced tab, there is a checkbox
labeled:
"Press tab to highlight each item on a webpage."
When this checkbox is checked, an explanation appears underneath this:
"Option-Tab highlights only text fields, buttons, and lists"
When the checkbox is unchecked, the explanation changes to:
"Option-Tab highlights each item."
Now, "item" is a poorly chosen word in this context. There are all sorts
of items to be found on a web page (such as quotations, paragraphs,
table cells, buttons, links, etc.). But in this case, Safari is talking
only about elements of a webpage that may receive receive keyboard focus
even when VoiceOver is not in use, such as links, buttons, and form fields.
It's important to understand that the web standards are somewhat unclear
about issues of keyboard focus and that all web browsers behave somewhat
differently.
When this checkbox is unchecked, Tab moves between all of these
keyboard-focusable elements except links and Option Tab moves between
all of them including links. So if you're at the top of a webpage and
press Tab, you should be taken to the first form control.
But when the checkbox is checked, Tab moves between all of these
keyboard-focusable elements including links and Option Tab moves between
all of them except links. So now you would press Option Tab to go to the
first form control.
In other words, what this checkbox does is to swap the functionality of
Tab and Option Tab in a webpage context. I assume the reason why this
can be customized is that most people are more likely to interact with
the first form control on a page than the first link, so being able to
press a single key to jump to the first control is more useful to most
people than being able to jump to the first keyboard-focusable item.
Now normally these keyboard shortcuts cycle you forwards in a loop
through the defined order of keyboard-focusable items. But if you press
Shift Tab or Shift Option Tab the normal order is reversed so that you
move backwards in a loop.
A further important subtlety is that while the order of the
keyboard-focusable items often matches the visual order in which items
occur on the page, this is only a default that web authors may try to
override. They can do this either by providing an explicitly different
order in their markup, or by using script to force the focus to move in
response to various events (such as the page loading or a button being
clicked).
It's confusing, but hopefully that makes it a bit clearer.
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
VaShaun Jones wrote:
And one more time can you explain the difference in navigation between
one and the other. I generally just tab or arrow down on a site that I
am not familiar with. On others I just pull up the list of links. I
don't like the group thing, however when I first seen them I knew
nothing about nothing. This brings me to another question. If I have
group links enabled will I just have to interact with the group to get
its contents? Thanks
----- Original Message ----- From: "Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X
by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:58 AM
Subject: Re: links list
Sorry, thinking about it, I should really have said "form controls"
(buttons, inputs, select boxes, checkboxes) to be clear. Widgets is a
more general term that could potentially include hyperlinks. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget_(computing)
Safari Preferences calls widgets (including links) "items", which
isn't a particular helpful word to use. There are lots of "items" on a
web page that you can't tab to, such as headings, paragraphs, phrase
elements etc.
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
VaShaun Jones wrote:
What is a widget ?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 2:52 AM
Subject: Re: links list
If you've configured Safari to move between both links and widgets
with the Tab key in Preferences, then pressing Option Tab will move
you to the first form widget on the page. (If you haven't configured
Safari that way, then the function of the keys is reversed I think.)
In most cases the first form widget on a page will be an input
field, though in a few cases it might be a button.
--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
Jed Barton wrote:
Hey guys,
Is there a links list where you can bring up the listing of links
in a web page?
This would be really helpful to be able to get to links quickly.
Also, is there any way to get to the firstinput form? In other
words, say you need to enter something in a form, any way to get to
that quickly?
Thanks,
Jed
