Hi,
Søren replied to Everett's question about ways of reading mail
messages and returning to the messages table in Leopard by outlining a
couple of different ways to read mail messages selected from the
message table, including using VO-J to jump between the table and the
selected message, then back to the message table. Scott, and others,
mentioned using tab and either tab or shift-tab to move between the
message table, selected message, and back to the message table.
Here's a brief explanation of the distinctions of how these options
work in mail, and when you can avoid interacting again with the
messages table:
• If you open a selected message from the message table by pressing
return, using the contextual menu (VO-Shift-M and open), using Command-
O, or double-clicking -- all of which are ways to open the message in
another window -- then you need to close the window with Command-W
when you are done as Søren describes below. In addition, if you
interacted in the message table so you could hear just the subject or
author field announced, you will need to interact again and VO-right
or left to the field of interest when you return to this table after
closing the previous message window. Opening the message in another
window to read it should always work, and can be used with VoiceOver
in Tiger as well as Leopard.
• You can use VO-J or tab to jump between your selection in the
messages table and the message area provided the message area is
visible in your mail window (which is the default setup). If you have
moved down the splitter that separates the messages table from the
message area by interacting with it and using your down arrow, or by
double-clicking while focused on the splitter, or if you have resized
your mail window by moving up its bottom edge, the message area may
not be visible. In this case neither VO-J nor tab will work because
there is no place to jump to, and you will have to move the splitter
up to use these commands.
• VO-J always moves you between entries in linked areas, such as your
selection in the messages table and the corresponding message in the
message area. This command was introduced for VoiceOver in Leopard.
Tabbing cycles between available fields, and is not a VoiceOver-
specific command. If the Mailboxes table is not hidden, pressing tab
will move you successively between the Mailboxes table, the Messages
table, and the Message area (assuming all three areas are visible).
Pressing Shift-Tab will move you through these fields in the reverse
order. So if more than two regions are displayed, you press Tab to
jump from your selection in the Messages table to read it in the
Message area and press Shift-Tab to jump back to the Message area (or
else press Tab twice). Tabbing also works in Tiger. If you use VO-J
in Leopard you issue the same command to move to and from linked
areas: VO-J jumps from your selection in the messages table to the
message area; a second VO-J jumps you back to the messages table. You
do not need to interact again after the second VO-J.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Esther
On Jan 13, 2009, at 8:41 PM, Søren Jensen wrote:
Hi.
Here is what I do:
1: Interact with the messages table, find the subject field by
pressing vo left and right so only the subject fields are read.
2: Find the mail I wanna read and press return on it.
3: When I've read the mail, I close it by pressing command w
4: Then I interact with the messages table again so VO only reads
the subject field instead: from: subject: date: etc.
Esther has just explained pretty good how the command VO j works in
Mail. This is an other alternative I'll use. It's much quicker. It
works as follows:
1: Interact with the messages table and find the mail you wanna read.
2: Press VO j to jump over to the message scrol area, and start
reading the mail.
3: When you have read the mail, press VO j again to jump back to the
messages table.
This is much quicker than the way I normally do it which I've
explained before.
I hope this makes things more clear, and I hope I've explained it
clear enough.
Best regards
Søren Jensen
Mail & MSN:
[email protected]
Website:
http://www.coolfortheblind.dk/
On 13/01/2009, at 23.08, Scott Howell wrote:
Evert, you can use the arrow keys actually instead of navigating
with VO-keys. What I do after reading a message is shift+tab to
backup into the message list. Wonder if that made any sense. :) Let
me know if that works.
Scott Howell
[email protected]
On Jan 13, 2009, at 4:58 PM, E.J. Zufelt wrote:
Good afternoon,
I find that everytime I open a message in mail and then return to
the messages table i have to interact with it again. Is there a
way to make Voiceover remember that I was already interacting with
that control?
Tanks,
Everett
