Hello David, Anne answered some of your iTunes questions, but did not address your specific request to use tabbing to move between your column browser lists. This is an easy way to navigate in iTunes, especially if you use the column browser, and this kind of tab key navigation is also possible on the Mac, but requires you to change the tab key behavior to move focus between text boxes and lists only, instead of between all controls. Using the shortcut combination of Control+F7 will let you toggle your tabbing behavior between these two different modes, but it changes the way that your tab key works in all applications — not just in iTunes. Furthermore, you may not be able to remember where this system preference is recorded. (It’s a check box under System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts (or just “Keyboard” for the tab name under Mavericks)). If you don’t remember where this preference is set, the only thing you will notice is that your tab key behavior has changed for unknown reasons. So if you use Control+F7 in iTunes to speed up your navigation by pressing Tab and Shift+Tab to move through just the sections you want (e.g., sources list, search text field, music library, column browser lists when this is turned on) instead of absolutely every control, you might want to turn it off again with another press of Control+F7 when you exit iTunes. Alternatively, by default in Mavericks, whenever you toggle VoiceOver on and off your tab key preference will automatically reset to moving between all controls.
If you don’t want to deal with remembering the tabbing setup, there’s another option for navigating these tables: VO-J. Using tabbing or VO-J to jump between linked items automatically interacts, unless you turn off this behavior for tabbing under Navigation in VoiceOver Utility (VO-F8 to VO Utility, Command-4 to Navigation, then uncheck the box for “Automatically interact when using tab key”). Using VO-Command-T to move to the next table does not automatically interact. The Shift key can be added to any of these shortcuts (Tab, VO-J, or VO-Command-T) to move to the previous list or form control, table, or linked element. Here’s the difference between navigation with these different options. In all cases I assume that you have configured iTunes to show the sidebar (Command-Option-S to toggle this, or use the “View” menu on the iTunes menu bar), and that you have the “Songs” radio button selected, and that you have pressed Command-Option-F to move to the search text field. 1) Tab (assuming that I press Control+F7 to change my Tab key navigation to move focus only between text boxes and lists before I start tabbing), moves from the search text field to my sources table (e.g. Music playlist), to my music library, and back to the search text field. If I have my column browser enabled (Command-B), then tabbing from the sources table moves to first of my column browser selection (e.g., “All genres” if you have the default selection), then through the remaining column browser selections (e.g. “All artists”, then “All albums” if you have the default selection), then to your music library, and back to the search text field. 2) VO-Command-T only moves between the sources table and the music table. If your column browser is toggled on, you will have to VO-Up arrow from your music table past the horizontal splitter to reach your music browser and interact, then you can navigate to the different column browser lists (e.g. VO-Right from “Genres”, to “Artists”, and then to “Albums”). Stop interacting when you want to navigate away from the browser. 3) VO-J if you start from your music library in the sources table moves you to your music table and then to the LCD section (where information about a track that is currently playing is displayed), then back to the music library in the sources table. If you have your column browser enabled, VO-J will move focus from the music library to the first of your column browser selections (e.g. “Genres” for the default setting), then to your music library, and then to the LCD section, and back to the music library in your sources table. There are some other old posts in the archives that cover your questions. for example: • Tabbing and automatically interacting in iTunes and other apps https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg20291.html • iTunes navigation http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg13935.html HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jan 25, 2014, at 4:08 AM, Anne Robertson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello David, > > You need to have the side bar visible. Cmd-Option-s is the toggle to show or > hide the side bar. > If you select Music in the side bar, then navigate right past the vertical > splitter and click the Songs button, VO-Cmd-t will take you to the Music > table. VO-Up Arrow twice will put you on the Music browser where you can > interact and select what you want to appear in the Music table. > > VO-Cmd-t is a very useful command in iTunes. It takes you to the next table, > and adding the Shift key takes you to the previous table. > > A quick way to find the side bar or Sources table is to press Cmd-Option-f > which puts you on the Search field, and VO-Right arrow puts you on the > Sources table. > > Cheers, > > Anne > > > On 25 Jan 2014, at 14:24, David Griffith <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I have got iTunes fairly usable on my PC using column browser but am >> struggling to replicate the experience on my Mac. I seem to find it >> impossible to replicate the experience of being able to tab and shift tab >> between columns of Genre, Artist, Album and song. >> >> I have column browser view enabled but it does not appear to work in the >> same way on the Mac. >> I can get to where I want in a long winded fashion , that is vo Cursoring >> pass loads of elements to check albums songs etc. but this is an extremely >> tiresome way of accessing music. >> >> Are there any tips to make using iTunes on the Mac friendlier. >> >> David Griffith >> Regards >> >> David Griffith >> >> >> >> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> >> >> To reply to this post, please address your message to >> [email protected] >> >> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at >> either the list's own dedicated web archive: >> <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> >> or at the public Mail Archive: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. >> Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> >> >> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that >> the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and >> worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security >> strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something >> unpredictable happen. >> >> Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by >> visiting the list website at: >> <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/> >> > > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> > > To reply to this post, please address your message to > [email protected] > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at > either the list's own dedicated web archive: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> > or at the public Mail Archive: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. > Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> > > As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that > the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and > worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security > strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something > unpredictable happen. > > Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by > visiting the list website at: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/> > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
