Hi Søren,
You asked about the VO-J command used in mail to jump between
selections in the message table to read message content and then jump
back to the message table.
SJ: I haven't seen this command efore. Or have I? When I open up the
VO command list by pressing vo h twice, VO j is known as: "Link
item." I thought this was used to explain a link item or something
like that. Does this command also work in other applications than
Mail?
Esther: VO-J can be used in a similar manner in iChat, to jump between
the table of incoming messages and the text field in which you type
your message. It also works in iTunes to jump between items in the
sources table and their corresponding songs table listings -- for
example, when you insert a CD, and want to view its contents. This
method of reading mail with the VO-J command is described in the
VoiceOver Getting Started Guide for Leopard in the section on "Using
Mac OS X Mail". The list of commands in the Appendix of the VoiceOver
Getting Started Guide describes VO-J as Jump to a linked item (for
example, from a Mail message in the Inbox to its message text).
Just after Leopard was released, there was an extensive discussion on
list about getting this navigation method working. One of the posters
reminded everyone that their success in using VO-J hinged on whether
they had hidden the message area, and the summary usage instructions
for mail (excerpted again below) and my response to the question about
how to get this working again is based on that discussion. This was
also how I learned about VO-J for mail, since it was quite a while
before I moved up to Leopard from Tiger.
Now you should be able to navigate as before:
1. interact with message table
2. use VO and the right or left arrows to find a message field.
I.E. author or subject
3. use the standard up or down arrows to locate a message
4. press VO J to read a message
5. press VO J again after you hear the message being read to you
You should now be back in the message table
6. press delete if you want to to delete the message you just read...
Cheers,
Esther
