Hi Chris,
You wrote:
>One of these days, I hope to get myself a Mac Book. That said, two questions:
>
>1. When do you use the VO keys plus one of the arrow keys?
>2. When don't you use the VO keys with one of the arrow keys?
>Christopher Wright - freelance musician and freelance web designer
In general, the VO-keys with arrow keys are used for detailed navigation,
but there are often multiple ways to navigate that involve using tabbing,
other keyboard shortcuts, and typing (parts) of the name of entries.
Here's an example: in iTunes, for most operations I use the tab key and
quickly navigate between three main areas: 1) the Source list that allows
me to select a library (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks,
Radio), iTunes Store, Devices (iPods when attached), and Playlists; 2) the
Search Text field that allows typing in terms that will "winnow down" the
list of items ("Songs") that match any of the search terms for any entries
that appear in the Songs list (including terms in any data field that is
displayed there -- Artist, Song, Composer, Album, Genre -- this can be
customized); 3) the Songs list that shows the tracks of items in your
Source selection (one of your own libraries, the iTunes Store, or playlist)
modulated by your search text (or by the use of another option called the
browser).
In any particular list, say, the Songs Outline list, I can use VO keys plus
arrow keys to navigate up and down the list, but I can also type the first
few letters of an item to jump to that track (VoiceOver will tell you the
row number, so you can tell that you've jumped down the list -- you get
used to pressing the control key to stop VO telling you all this) and then
return to start playing.
If I start iTunes and use VO-keys plus the arrow keys to navigate, I'll
hear each control button and area in the iTunes player as well as the
sections I navigate to by tabbing. Most of these buttons are for operations
that you will control with keyboard shortcuts: previous (right arrow),
play/pause (space bar), next (left arrow), volume control (command up
arrow or down arrow; or option-command down arrow to mute). Some of these
give slightly different modes of operation, so if I interact with the
volume slider on the iTunes player I can hear exactly what fraction of the
maximum iTunes volume I'm set at, while the command up and down arrows
only turn the volume up or down. Some buttons, such as the one for burning
or importing a CD, represent operations that can be commanded from a menu bar
menu option, or that can be issued as a command from the contextual menu in
either the Sources Outline or the Songs Outline. Otherwise, there will be
shortcut keys as well as menu bar items that can be used (to create a new
playlist, eject a CD/DVD, etc.). About the only button I think I have to
get to via VO and the arrow keys on the iTunes player is the one for
streaming your music to another location if you have an AirPort Express
wireless base station with speakers connected in. I don't think the
streaming location can be selected anywhere else in a menu.
On menus and setup windows you'll generally use VO plus the arrow keys
to navigate when you want to read things in detail the first time you
are looking through.
It may help to understand usage of tabbing, typing the first few letters
to navigate to the next matching item, and use of shortcut combinations
if you are aware that these operations are built into the Mac OS X system
and are regularly employed by sighted Mac users to operate efficiently.
That's why, when a window comes up where you need to specify a file name
or location, your focus will automatically be in the field for the entry
and you can tab to the next field that requires input. And although there
are buttons for "Accept" or "Cancel", for most frequently used menus you
can just type the entry that's needed and return (instead of navigating
to the "Accept" button and pressing it) or press the escape button to
cancel.
This also means that when looking for new shortcuts you can use Google to
search for this information in general Mac sites on the web.
There are also other features that can improve your efficiency even when
you use VO with arrow keys on lists and menus: for example, in list view
of files or under the Songs outline of iTunes, you can sort on any of the
column headings, so when you do VO-keys + down arrow through the
list, you might have your entries by date order, or album order, etc. or their
reverse-sorted equivalents.
Hope this helps to explain things. YMMV.
Cheers,
Esther
