Hi David, David wrote: >Ah, so if I use move right a bit, I can check the mouse pointer position >before and after to gage the distance of movement. > >Nice! > Yes, it's really the VO-keys+F5 sequence (used twice) that you're using to check the position of your mouse cursor. And if you're not on a laptop you don't need to worry about the "Mickey Mouse" (sorry, grin) of having to turn on the F6 num lock key to try out the cursor motions.
For large mouse movements, you can check the layout of your screen and applications. Josh used this for doing "drag and drop" of tracks onto his iPod. If you have your Mouse cursor tracking your VoiceOver cursor, you can navigate to different parts of an application, and use VO-keys+F5 to check where you are on the screen. The first VO-keys+F5 will tell you where the VoiceOver cursor reports -- or it could be something like "scroll area" if you're not directly positioned on something the VoiceOver cursor moves to. The second VO-keys+F5 gives you the x and y screen cursor position. As I said, Mouse Keys movements are small, and so inefficient for many things. I think they are really meant to give fine motion control for people who have difficulty using the mouse to accurately position. If you want to check out large scale mouse motions with the trackpad or mouse, lock your VoiceOver cursor with VO-keys+semi-colon first. Then you only need one hand to type your VO-keys+F5 command to announce your mouse cursor position, and can move the cursor with the trackpad or mouse using your other hand. This is awkward, but you can do actual drag and drop this way, as long as you don't release the mouse button or the button of your trackpad while you move, until you get to your final desired position. HTH Cheers, Esther >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Esther" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by >theblind" <[email protected]> >Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 4:16 PM >Subject: Mouse Keys and Numpad Commander [was Re: anybody using >"interactright a bit" as a choice on the numpadcommander] > > >Hi Chuck, David, and Others, > >I don't know about using numpad commander, since I'm on a laptop >keyboard without a numpad and am still using Tiger. However, I can >add to David's comments. > >There is a Universal Access option called Mouse Keys that you can >activate under the Mouse & Trackpad tab of the Universal Access menu >under System Preferences. When this is activated, you use the numeric >keypad instead of the mouse to move your cursor. There is a checkbox >on the tab that allows you to turn Mouse Keys on and off by pressing >the option key five times quickly. > >On my laptop, if I activate Mouse Keys, I need to press the F6 key to >turn on Num Lock. This changes the right side of the keyboard so that >it behaves like the number pad. You can check this behavior by >putting VoiceOver into keyboard practice mode (VO-keys+k), pressing >the F6 key (this is on my laptop where the function keys have their >hardware behavior), then pressing the keys for "j", "k", "l" give "1", >"2", "3"; the row above: "u","i","o", give "4", "5", "6"; and the row >above that: "7", "8", "9" correspond to their numeric values. > >Using Mouse Keys on a full keyboard, these number keys should control >the direction of motion of the mouse cursor. In particular, it allows >you to move your mouse independently of links found by VoiceOver to >places where clicking a mouse produces a result. However, the mouse >motion using the numpad keys is very small. It seems to be one pixel >on the screen, and therefore as David says, the results depend on the >resolution of your screen and the placement and size of your >application window. > >Here's how I tested this on my laptop. Because of the fact that I >need to use the num lock (F6) key to control Mouse Keys motion with >"u" (4 on number pad) for "left", "o" (6 on number pad) for "right", >"8" for "up" and "k" (2 on number pad) for "down", the sequence is >important. > >I went to my Desktop and used VO-keys+F5 to check the position of the >mouse cursor. You need to press this sequence twice -- the first time >will tell you whether the cursor is under an icon, etc. and the second >gives you the cursor position in x and y pixel units. Now I pressed >the F6 num lock key, and pressed the option key 5 times quickly to >turn on Mouse Keys. (I set this up earlier in my System Preferences.) >Using 5 "u" key presses and then reading the mouse cursor position >with VO-keys+F5 (actually, VO-keys+FN+F5 on my laptop) twice, I found >that the x pixel position decreased by 5 pixels, Similar experiments >with the other keys showed that Mouse Keys moved my mouse cursor by >one pixel in each direction, based on the VO-keys+FN+F5 reports. I >pressed the F6 key to end numeric keypad mode and pressed the option >key quickly five times to leave Mouse Keys mode. > >I don't know how "interact right a bit" works, but maybe the Mouse Keys >behavior will help shed some light on this. Because positions depend >on your screen resolution, it's not possible to provide general solutions >for problems like clicking the agreement forms for iTunes even if you >manage this on your machine with Mouse Keys. > >HTH > >Cheers, > >Esther > >On Feb 24, 2008, at 07:09AM, David Poehlman wrote: >>I think I have found sort of an answer to this. as I recall, there is a >>keyboard mouse command set that has move a bit in all four directions. I'm >>not sure how to measure it but when it says a bit, I think it means >>something like a half a character if that means anything. It may be >>measured in terms of pixels, but even that may be deceiving since at >>different resolutions, pixels may be different sizes but perhaps not enough >>to matter and even then, it may be adjusted for by the incrament. This I >>would imagine would be something for those higher technically capable and >>possibly sighted to answer. >> >>Thanks! >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Chuck Reichel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>To: "discussion list" <[email protected]> >>Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:28 AM >>Subject: anybody using "interact right a bit" as a choice on the num >>padcommander >> >> >>Hi listers, >>I am looking for information on using "interact right a bit" as a >>choice on the num pad commander >>How much to the right does it move and how does it interact??? >> >>Thanks >>Chuck Reichel Phone "954"742-0019 or > > > > > >
