Hi all,
I recently posted about how you could set up a keyboard shortcut to
send selections to TextEdit by using the Services Menu option of "New
window from selection", and I've been surprised to find there are web
pages that I could not read at all with either VoiceOver or with text-
to-speech options like "Start speaking text" that are accessible by
selecting all (Command-A) and sending the selection to TextEdit (with
my assigned shortcut or via "New window from selection" in the Service
Menu). There have been earlier discussions on list about using "Start
speaking text" under the Speech submenu of the Services Menu (with a
keyboard shortcut assignment) or using "Speak selected text when the
key is pressed" checked under the Text-to-Speech tab of "Speech" in
System Preferences as supplements/alternatives to using VoiceOver,
especially in the case of web pages where one wants to "Read all".
For background, these are text-to-speech options, and work whether or
not VoiceOver is enabled. They also differ in that the voice and
rate, volume, etc. assignments are made under "Speech", and that
they're not meant to be paused (as VoiceOver can be with the Control
key) once the selection starts speaking.
One of the reasons that VoiceOver may not read continuously on web
pages, is that sections with problematic HTML coding will stop it.
Also, VoiceOver organizes web elements for use with item chooser,
links chooser, etc. (so if I go to somewhere like the Blind Cool Tech
podcasts page, there's a pause before item chooser announces the 3,740
items). So, for many purposes, a number of us may choose to assign a
keyboard shortcut to "Start speaking text" so we can go to a web page,
select all (Command-A) or select some section, use the shortcut, and
then start reading the selected text with this text-to-speech option.
People who are interested in reading/re-visiting the discussion about
this in the archives for this list can go to Yvonne Thomson's post
from February and (in Safari) use the Control-N access key sequence to
read through the rest of the thread:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg29106.html
(interesting discovery about reading highlighted text)
I'm also appending Scott Bresnahan's useful tip about getting around
VoiceOver's interrupts when using this (by basically toggling
VoiceOver off and then on again just before/after using the shortcuts):
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg30770.html
(tip: speaking selected text: service menu v. speech pref)
Now, the references to using the services menu option for "TextEdit >
New window containing selection" are not new; I think Cheryl posted
about this on list over two and a half years ago as a way of saving
content in TextEdit from other applications. And there have been
other posts about using this option to read web pages with a lot of
graphics content and links. What is new is the realization that
selecting the content of the web page (Command-A) and sending it to
TextEdit this way lets you read web pages that you can't even access
with "Start speaking text" (also from the Services Menu). I suspect
we never checked up much on these, because without a shortcut key
assignment it's far less obvious what's happening and harder to run
experiments. However, over the last year or so there's been much more
activity on list about assigning shortcuts to AppleScripts, using them
to change keyboard input languages, and setting them up to read
selections via text-to-speech.
As an example of a web page that I easily read with "New window
containing selection", but couldn't read with VoiceOver or "Start
speaking text" or "Speak selected text when the key is pressed" try:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/295305.Wolf_Brother
The sequence to send this to TextEdit without the keyboard shortcut
definition set up is:
1. Select all (Command-A)
2. Navigate to Services Menu (VO-M, right-arrow to application, down-
arrow to menu, press "S" for "Services")
3. Navigate to TextEdit submenu (right-arrow to services submenu,
press "T" for "TextEdit")
4. Navigate to "New window containing selection" and select this
(right-arrow to "New window containing selection", press return)
5. Switch application from Safari to TextEdit (Hold down Command key
and tap Tab key until you reach TextEdit)
If I use my shortcut key assignment, (Command-A on the web page and
the shortcut I've chosen), TextEdit pops up and immediately starts
reading the page.
The embarassing thing about this is that I included the above link to
an inaccessible page of reviews about the Wolf Brother podcast that I
suggested as a way to teach an 11 year old VoiceOver and keep it fun.
When I went back to the post, I was wondering how I had included that
link, and realized that I'd posted immediately after posting my
keyboard shortcut instructions to Simon for sending selected content
to TextEdit. Although he was interested in making the selection in
PDFs in Preview, the shortcut works for all apps, and I'd still been
testing this for web pages.
The original post about setting a shortcut to send selected content to
TextEdit is here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg47094.html
Another few comments: using the Services Menu is NOT the same as
copying and pasting. For one thing, it doesn't use the clip board, so
it doesn't have the same space/memory limitation about what can be
sent, and is also faster. It also discriminates non-text information
(in this case) in a way that copy and paste cannot. The Services menu
is a left-over from Steve Jobs' development of NextSTEP computers when
he stepped down from Apple in 1985 and started that effort. It got
incorporated into Mac OS X, and has some slick features, although it
gets very little press.
HTH. I'd be interested in hearing how other people find this. Also,
I'm not really expert in what problems render web pages inaccessible
to VoiceOver, so it would be neat to know what kinds of problems this
method could get around.
Cheers,
Esther
